(A shorter version of this article appeared in the 11/21/02 Waunakee Tribune, Waunakee, Wis.)
Student's tinted glasses help reading, headaches
By Julie McMaine Evans
Special to the Waunakee Tribune
Ryan Pomeranke, 11, remembers the frustration of fourth grade well.
When he read, print soon became “fuzzy” and he got eyestrain and
headaches. And although he could recite math facts, he simply could not
finish many problems on a written timed math test.
Vision testing showed Ryan’s vision was 20-20. But his frustration with schoolwork persisted.
Fortunately a relative suggested that Ryan, son of Waunakee residents
Kathy Waters and John Pomeranke, be tested for Irlen Syndrome. The
syndrome, also sometimes called scotopic sensitivity syndrome, is a
visual perceptual problem caused by sensitivity to light.
On
June 29, 2001 , Ryan and his mother sat side by side while certified
Irlen screener Alma Gasser, who's located near Prairie du Sac, tested
Ryan for Irlen Syndrome. It was a day that would change the lives of
both mother and son, who both have the syndrome.
During the
screening, Gasser, a former teacher, asked Ryan to read some words
letter by letter. Ryan consistently said an “e” was an “o” and an “i”
was a “t” because the letters were distorted to him. “As he read off
the letters, my heart sank to the floor,” his mother recalls. “I was
sick to my stomach to hear what he was seeing. I couldn’t believe it.
I’d thought he just wasn’t applying himself.”
However, when
Gasser placed certain colored plastic see-through overlays over the
print, Ryan could see clearly, correctly identify the letters and read
fluently. “It was really shocking,” his mother says. “As she placed
different colors over the print, he would get the letters right. I was
a little apprehensive, but I definitely saw the difference.” Ryan went
home that day with a blue overlay and could read easily without
headaches or strain when he used the overlay.
“Some 10 to 12
percent of the general population have Irlen Syndrome and half of
problem readers have it,” Gasser says. Fortunately, Irlen Syndrome is
easy to diagnose with the Irlen Institute’s systematic test that Ryan
took… and the syndrome is relatively inexpensive to treat using special
Irlen colored overlays or special tinted Irlen lenses or contacts.
“Colors are individually tailored to each person,” Gasser says.
Irlen Syndrome doesn’t affect everyone the same way. Some sufferers are
“poor readers”--they don’t like reading, read slowly, make mistakes and
don’t understand what they’ve just read because they were too busy just
trying to see the words. Some are labeled “dyslexic.”
For
others, light sensitivity is the key symptom--they need sunglasses,
dislike bright computer screens, dislike bright or fluorescent lights
and can’t stand lights when driving at night. Some sufferers have depth
perception problems and are clumsy at sports.
Some with Irlen
Syndrome, like Ryan, appear to be “good readers” but put so much effort
into their reading that they get frequent eyestrain,
headaches/migraines or fatigue. Some “good readers” compensate by
taking frequent breaks and reading in dim light, as Ryan did. Most
people with the syndrome don’t realize they see differently than other
people. Some parents, like Waters, weep when they realize how much
their child has struggled with reading and other schoolwork.
Symptoms become worse with small print and the longer one reads. Thus
problems may appear in third or fourth grade when print is smaller and
assignments are longer. This is exactly what happened with Ryan, who
liked to read and could comprehend material far above grade level. “The
summer after fourth grade, Ryan was reading a lot of books on the
second and third grade level,” his mother says. “I thought, ‘You lazy
little stinker, you’re capable of so much more.’”
Using
overlays is inexpensive and helps with reading. But the best treatment
is wearing tinted Irlen lenses or contacts to filter light for all
visual tasks, including reading the board, writing, doing math, driving
and playing sports. Individuals like Ryan who could benefit from lenses
are referred by the Irlen screener to an Irlen diagnostician.
In July 2001, Waters again sat by her son while he had a more intensive
assessment, this time with Irlen diagnostician Adel Francis, a former
special education teacher who heads an Irlen center in Canada. Francis
became an Irlen screener in 1989 and a diagnostician in 1993 and has
helped thousands of children and adults find just the right color
overlays, lenses or contacts to treat their problems.
Waters
was impressed with Francis’ knowledge about Irlen Syndrome and her
immediate rapport with Ryan. “The first thing she asked was why certain
books were easier to read. He said when the print was bigger, it was
easier to read. I had never asked why he wanted lower level books,”
Waters says. “I started feeling guilty because I had been scolding him
because I thought he wasn’t working hard enough.”
Then Ryan wrote the word “morning” the way he saw it, with some letters doubled on top of each other.
“I started crying because I knew that was what he was really seeing,”
says Waters. “How could he possibly do vertical math if the figures
doubled?”
Such guilt feelings are common, Francis says.
However, because Irlen Syndrome has nothing to do with “20-20” vision
and is not detected by standard visual, educational and medical tests,
it is understandable that parents would not know about it. While the
syndrome is well known in other parts of the country and world, the
syndrome is not well known in Wisconsin . The state has only about 30
screeners; some are school system employees.
From a briefcase
filled with tinted lenses, Francis spent hours systematically finding
just the right combination of tint colors that best made print and
distant objects clear for Ryan. Irlen tints are very individualized,
and Ryan needed a combination of six tints that created a grayish pink
color. “That color was quite a concern for me with a boy going into
fifth grade,” Waters says. “We talked about that for several weeks
before school. I asked: What are you going to do if the boys tease you?
Ryan said: If they tease me about my glasses, I can handle that. It’s
when they get personal that it hurts.”
The first day of fifth
grade in Fall 2001, Ryan and his mother made a presentation to his
class about Irlen Syndrome and why Ryan wore tinted lenses. Therefore
his classmates, like his sisters, six-year-old twins Courtney and
Alyssa, became supportive ambassadors for Irlen Syndrome and its
treatment, explaining it to anyone who questions the colored glasses.
Ryan's teacher was also supportive.
In January of this year,
Waters got her own tinted Irlen lenses. In the process of getting help
for Ryan, she soon realized why she had constant eyestrain, squinted,
frowned and avoided reading… and why the longer she read, the more
distorted print became. She’d compensated in school and her work life
by listening well, memorizing information and choosing hands-on work.
She works in the mail center at Madison Area Technical College .
With
Irlen lenses, “it’s definitely easier to read now. My comprehension has
improved greatly,” Waters says. “Now I don’t squint and dig secretions
out of my eyes all day.” Without the visual stress, she also feels less
fatigue overall.
Waters is so grateful for the help she and
Ryan have received that she has shared her success story widely. As a
result, some other family members and friends also have been helped by
Irlen overlays or lenses. One friend had never seen true depth in his
environment until he tried on Waters’ glasses, which happened to be
near the tint color he needed.
Gasser can tell success story
after success story about children and adults whom she has screened and
given overlays or referred to the diagnostician for lenses. “It’s one
of the most exciting, rewarding things I’ve ever been involved with.
We’re not just helping people with reading, we’re opening up a whole
new world of possibilities to them in school, on the job or in daily
life.” In addition to help with reading, for example, some people have
gotten rid of headache/migraine problems, can drive more safely with
better depth perception and can handle lights at night for night
driving. Self esteem rises with these improvements.
Gasser
and her husband, William Gasser, a dairy farmer in Prairie du Sac,
first looked into Irlen Syndrome treatment in the fall of 2000 to help
an employee who could barely read. Tinted Irlen lenses helped their
employee with reading and depth perception so dramatically that Gasser
took the training to become an Irlen screener herself in the spring of
2001. As a result, one of her four sons and some other relatives were
diagnosed with Irlen Syndrome and have received help. “Our son used to
come home from school just exhausted. When he wore his lenses to school
the first day, he came home just beaming. ‘These are just wonderful,’”
he said.
Irlen Syndrome is found equally in boys and girls.
Some people seem to inherit it. Others develop it after a whiplash or
brain injury or health change. It gets worse during adolescence and
menopause. Some persons with autism, Aspergers’s Syndrome and
light-induced seizures have it.
Irlen Syndrome appears to be
a defect in one of the pathways that carry messages from the eye to the
brain. Filtering out specific wavelengths of light--with individually
prescribed overlays or tinted Irlen lenses--helps the pathway function
normally. Fluorescent lights in schools and workplaces create a glare
on white paper, making it especially hard for sufferers to read,
comprehend and sit still. The Irlen Institute believes a third of the
children labeled with “attention” problems may have Irlen Syndrome.
If a person has Irlen Syndrome, it is usually obvious during screening,
as it was with Ryan. When the right color filters (overlays) are used,
the improvement in a person’s reading speed and accuracy can be
immediate and dramatic.
In a pilot project funded in recent
years by the Massachusetts legislature and Department of Education,
children diagnosed with Irlen Syndrome saw average gains of 2.6 years
in accuracy and 2.3 years in comprehension in just three months while
using Irlen colored overlays.
For some, as with Ryan, Irlen
Syndrome is THE cause of their reading and learning problems. These
students may need no further special academic help. “Not everyone is
helped as much as Ryan,” says Gasser. “For some people, Irlen Syndrome
is just a part of the puzzle. They may have layers of problems
affecting reading. But Irlen treatment removes one layer.”
“I
question pouring money into reading programs if a child has Irlen
Syndrome and sees print in a blurred or distorted manner,” says
Francis. The Irlen Syndrome needs to be dealt with first, she says.
More than 50 articles related to Irlen Syndrome have been published in
professional journals. The syndrome and its treatment have been
featured on TV shows including “60 Minutes,” and “Good Morning, America
,” and in print media including National Geographic.
Many
school systems in the U.S. and other countries have Irlen screeners. In
some school systems, all students referred for special education must
be screened for this syndrome. There are more than 80 Irlen diagnostic
centers around the world. Irlen Syndrome is recognized by Recordings
for the Blind, college testing organizations (ACT, SAT) and other
organizations.
“We’d like to see more educators, parents and
legislators become more aware of this syndrome,” says Gasser. Treatment
can help affected students be more successful in school and affected
employees be more successful at work, she says. Treatment also can cut
special education costs, increase graduation rates, cut down on
unemployment, improve the quality and productivity of the workforce and
cut down on sick time from headaches and other Irlen-related symptoms.
Without Irlen treatment for Ryan, his mother says, school likely would
have become increasingly difficult and his higher education future and
career possibilities would have been limited by his reading and math
problems, and the headaches and strain. As it is, his future looks
bright. His grades rose in fifth grade, thanks to his Irlen lenses.
Ryan
enters sixth grade at Waunakee Intermediate School this fall. He’s the
kid proudly wearing the tinted glasses and toting books above his grade
level—books with small print and lots of pages. Fuzzy pages and
headaches are a thing of the past when he’s wearing his Irlen lenses.
A vision test by an optometrist or ophthalmologist is recommended before Irlen screening.
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