Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Twice Exceptional Irlen Syndrome

My 7 yo son was just tested and determined to have Irlen. He was somewhat uncooperative in the testing so the tester couldn't narrow down his perfect lens color, but she did recommend going with the basic color that seemed to help him and tweak the color later. DS is still saying he doesn't need them and he can read find without them :| What do i do if he wont wear them? do i even pay $5oo for glasses he may not wear? He has ADD like symptoms in school, and low(ish) academic performance despite being obviously wicked smart and having very high CoGat scores. I was so hopeful that this was going to be an easy fix and we would have a much better 2nd grade year than we had last year! I think we will just hope that bribery works for wearing the glasses and then he will see that it really does help! anyone else have this experience? or have a child with ADD like symptoms that were helped with the lenses? I need some success stories!

I've seen quite a few articles saying that at best colored lens might offer a novelty or placebo effect. Basically there isn't valid research supporting use of them to address reading difficulties.

I definitely wouldn't be paying a lot of money given the current research state, even if my child were on board:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/scotopic_sensitivity_syndrome

Does your son think there is a problem? What does he think is going on? (How) have you ruled out ADD, since you say he has ADD-like symptoms, and under-challenge, given the high scores?

If you really want to try the colour thing, I'd buy cheap coloured overlays and let him experiment with them.

One of the kids I tutored for reading really seemed to benefit from colored overlays. I was timing him (words read aloud per minute), and had been timing him everyday all along. When I put on the overlay, his reading speed went up pretty dramatically. I don't know if he had "Irlen Syndrome" but he said that without the overlay,the words looked like they were superimposed on each other and the overlay made them clearer. I think he had some strabismus/double vision. Probably what he really needed was an eye exam and maybe there would have been something else that could have helped, like surgery or prism glasses. He refused to use the overlays in class, I don't think he wanted to stand out and look "different" (he also had some major behavioral issues). I tried the overlays on many of the other kids I worked with (most had tracking issues or reading problems suggestive of mild dyslexia),and most said the overlays made the print easier to see, but their reading speed didn't actually improve. Hope this helps.

Our psych. tested him for ADD with a variety of methods one being a computer test. He determined that DS does not have an attention deficit. Which I was pretty sure he didn't. The dr. Then sent us for the irlen evaluation. My intuition tells me that he just isn't interested in what's going on in the classroom, he's a kinesthetic learner. He hates to read and hates to write even more! A 10 minute homework assignment takes about 45 minutes. I am dreading school starting again!