A PIECE OF THE PUZZLE FOR ADD & ADHD
By J. Kay Shevling, MA, LCPC, Certified Irlen Screener
ccccKay@aol.com
If you heard that there is a little known syndrome that affects 10% to 15% of the world’s population, and that it makes life more difficult for people in many different ways, would you want to know more? If you learned further that there is a simple, non-medical, noninvasive intervention that can help people who have this syndrome, would you wonder why few people seem to be aware of it?
Scotopic Sensitivity or Irlen Syndrome (SSS or SSIS) is such a disorder. It is a “perceptual disorder,” that is, the brain is more sensitive to certain wavelengths of light than it is to other wavelengths. It is not an eye disorder, so your ophthalmologist will probably not know about it. You may recognize it if I call it light sensitivity. You probably know people who are uncomfortable or get headaches when forced to work under fluorescent lights or who must wear sunglasses whenever they go outside. But you may not be aware of the extent of the stress this sensitivity can cause a person, or that this stress can be alleviated.
This syndrome was first discovered in the 1980s by Helen Irlen, a school psychologist. She was doing federally funded research on adult learning disabilities at California State University – Long Beach. Her book, Reading by the Colors, details the discovery of how colored overlays could reduce the intensity of certain wavelengths of light to which some people were sensitive, making reading easier or even possible for them.
At first, the work focused on people who had been diagnosed with dyslexia. Nearly half of these people were helped to read with the use of colored overlays. As with most mental health diagnoses, the cause of the problem varies. There are usually multiple causes that may include hereditary factors, prior experiences, environmental conditions, various stressors, and medical problems, all of which may interact to produce the behavior that leads to the diagnosis.
Further research has found a relationship between SSIS and many stress related problems including ADD and ADHD. For the purposes of this article, I will focus on ADD and ADHD. However, I want to point out that stress affects the whole person. The physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual self can be affected by stress, and SSIS does cause stress to the system. Evidence indicates that SSIS is a factor in about one-third of the cases of ADD and ADHD.
For a moment, please put yourself in the place of a child who is sitting in class under a fluorescent light facing a page of black letters on shiny white paper. The letters are moving around or perhaps falling off the edges of the page, the white page seems to be coming toward your eyes, there are halos around the words, or everything is blurry. You squint, shade your eyes, blink away tears, but you just can’t make the words clear up. Then the teacher calls on you to read aloud. How do you feel? Scared and frustrated? What do you do?
The answer, of course, depends on your basic temperament. If you are a shy child, you may fall silent, withdraw, vow from now on to try to hide or maybe go into a world of your own. The other children may snicker. If you are a bolder child, you may take a stab at it, stumble, hesitate, skip words, and misread letters. The other children laugh. The teacher may say, “You’re just not trying,” when you know you are trying as hard as you can. The frustration increases. What happens next? What are your reactions to frustration?
As this happens over and over, you as the timid child withdraw further, begin to look out the window, daydream, and go into a world of your own. If you are a bolder child, you may decide to laugh first to deflect the pain of having the other children laugh at you. Or you may clown around, make fun of yourself or someone else, and disrupt the class. Or you may just squirm around in discomfort and be accused of not being able to sit still. Now, what will you, the child who sees the words swimming around, be diagnosed as? Will you be given a drug, or will an intervention be found to help you?
SSIS is a disorder that doesn’t go away, at least as far as we know today. It can affect many areas of one’s life, not just reading. It can be related to fatigue, headaches, handwriting, reading music, depth perception and coordination, listening, driving, and other behavior disorders. It is not curable, but there is an intervention involving the application of color, either as plastic overlays or as colored filters worn as glasses or contact lenses. There is evidence that it is hereditary as usually more than one member of a family has it.
Adults who have SSIS often develop coping skills and are able to function well in society. They may read in dim light, read only short articles, look away or take breaks when reading, squint or shade their eyes, wear sunglasses, or use very dim lighting in their homes. Those who use these coping strategies may find their quality of life enhanced if they choose to wear the Irlen filters. Those who are unable or unwilling to develop these coping strategies may often be found in the unemployed or underemployed populations or even in the criminal justice system.
Some symptoms of SSIS include:
- Squinting, opening eyes wide or partially closing them
- Rubbing eyes or around eyes, red, watery, itchy eyes
- Skipping words or lines or re-reading words or lines
- Distractibility, a need to look away often and take breaks
- Difficulty reading out loud or refusal to do so
- Losing your place easily or using a finger as a marker
- Reading in dim light or in unusual positions
- Headaches, nausea, muscle tension while reading
- Daydreaming or a short attention span
If you think you or your child may have SSIS, a Certified Irlen Screener can easily determine whether an intervention would help you. Obtaining the tinted filters as glasses or contact lenses requires examination by an Irlen Diagnostician. You can find more information and a practitioner in your area by checking the Irlen website listed below.
For further information regarding services, training, ordering overlays and the 84 Irlen Clinics worldwide, check out www.irlen.com or contact: Irlen Institute, 5380 Village Road, Long Beach, CA 90808, USA; Phone: 562-496-255; Fax: 562-429-8699; email: IrlenInstitute@Irlen.com
