People with Irlen Syndrome often have highly developed auditory skills and can answer questions orally but do poorly on weekly written tests and run out of time. They spend an extraordinary amount of time on homework and can often appear fidgety or distracted. This is not a visual problem as most of these individuals have 20/20 vision or can be corrected to 20/20 vision with glasses, but still do not perform up to expectations.
They may report that words move or disappear on the page, they may have difficulty copying text from the board to paper. It may also affect math, lining up numbers, miss-reading signs and symbols, making careless mistakes and reading music. Many are misdiagnosed as having dyslexia or ADHD. They can also be very light sensitive, bothered by glare, patterns, stripes, or polka dots. They have difficulty with sustained attention to tasks.
We initially start with a screening to see if overlays and accommodations will help. If you use overlays or workplace accommodations consistently for a few weeks and they really help, then we move on to specially tinted lenses. These can be prescription, or non-prescription. The reason people move on to lenses is because the overlays are cumbersome, and they cannot be written on.
In this presentation, we will cover basic assessment tools that may help you identify students with Irlen Syndrome. This presenetation is 1/3 video, 1/3 PPT, 1/3 pratical application.
