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Primary education

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Irlen Syndrome - any experiences

30 replies

FridayiminlovewithRobertSmith · 05/01/2022 11:48

DD has just been assessed for this (she had suspected dyslexia). Does anybody have any experiences of what worked well for their child or any support required from school? Many thanks

OP posts:
drspouse · 10/01/2022 12:16

@CoffeeWithCheese that sounds like you are improving your attention on the text i.e. something along the lines of ADHD or ADD.

The other accounts all sound like the placebo effect.
This is why you need a control condition that isn't just "your child before anyone did anything" and where as many people as possible (preferably parent, child, teacher and anyone assessing them) need to be blind to which treatment is given to work out if it actually affects the child.

underneaththeash · 11/01/2022 15:52

I'm an optometrist who does lots of different bits of children's vision, I also have a higher qualification in children's vision.

Coloured tints can help, sometimes with some children. Whether the thing called Irlen's syndrome exists?? It may just be that some children do suffer a sort of over-excitation of the brain under certain visual conditions and reducing the contrast helps.

Many people do get pattern glare, which is the sort of shimmery thing you notice with stripes - such as when you go down an escalator. If you put a coloured filter in front of your eyes, the visual sensation reduces.

When you do see an improvement with the filters, it can be quite dramatic. But it's pretty uncommon, I reckon around 1 in 25 children with dyslexia get an improvement.

Similarly behavioural optometry, also encompasses a lot of orthoptic techinques which are regularly done in a hospital environment such as convergence eye exercises, patching or exercises to strengthen extra-ocular muscles or reduce supression. Some of it though is utter guff!

Anyway, stay a little bit sceptical, especially if someone is over-promising. You want to try the overlays for at least a couple of months before forking out for expensive glasses. But, they do sometimes make a significant improvement.

Mrsjayy · 11/01/2022 15:59

Hi my Dd has irlens not properly diagnosed till she was 15 she isn't dyslexic though has Dcd. She was already getting learning support at school so the school did provide overlays after her dx, we went private to buy her lenses they changed her life. She is mid 20s now and just bought a new pair. Some optitions do them.

Calennig · 11/01/2022 16:14

DD1 school assesed her as needing coloured overlays - blue apparently.

Then promptly gave her a red one as that was what they had in stock Hmm.

It did help - mainly as overlays they had had a black line that could be put under the line being read. Her reading similarly impoved with a ruler under the line - which she had been okay with till someone is school said to stop.

There seemed to be issue often worse when she was tired - scanning along same line. We did do some eye excerise for that - I don't think they did much - though I think it did improve with age.

I do think dancing bear books then later apple and pears helped - school did bit with her but we did much more of them at home.

Didn't find their schools particularly helpful TBH.

Jarmummy · 12/03/2022 17:32

FridayiminlovewithRobertSmith

Just to say that my DS has benefited in terms of reduced headaches, text no longer bouncing around, improved depth perception and more fluid reading from Irlen lenses BUT they are not for his dyslexia. He is very light sensitive.

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