Irlen Method

“My Mother Was Right”

Ten years ago, my mother walked into my house, handed me $150 and said, “I want you to take Yehudah to see this lady about reading.”  (Yehudah was almost eight years old and still couldn’t read.) She gave me a scratch paper with a name on it. (no real information) I took the money.  Days later I thought to myself, if this woman is the greatest tutor, or  a learning disability specialist, or vision therapist, it would require many visits, and many checks for $150 each. In hind sight I should have inquired. In my wildest dreams I couldn’t have imagined a tool that worked like this. I gave the money back and told my mother my thoughts. She said, "You only go once." "That's impossible," I said. There is nothing in reading that can make a difference with one visit. Reading is a practice kind of thing.

Yehudah is my third child.  After Yehudah came several others with the same problem.  Jumping ahead nine years, I now have six children with reading issues.

My youngest, Meir (then eight years old) was asked to leave his regular school because he was two years behind.  It was now June, 2002.

That summer we hired Mrs. Rochel Klein to tutor Meir.  After one visit with him she insisted we call the Irlen Institute. She is a graduate of the university of Chicago, and knew of the symptoms.

I argued with her for two weeks that nothing works.  Everything is very expensive and time consuming.  She wouldn’t leave me alone until I called them.

I called them with a chip on my shoulder.  “So how much are you?  How many visits will this take?

The diagnostician said most people only came once, some twice and it’s $150 for the first visit. 

I had already spent thousands of dollars on tutoring of all kinds.  I was granted special education from Chicago public schools for them.  I tried various therapies over the years.  So $150 was low compared to what I had already spent.

Our appointment was for August 1, 2002.  I turned to my husband and said, “I’ve taken all the children to thousands of appointments by myself.  I’m not going alone anymore.   Your are coming with me.” He agreed.

We took our son to the local office of the institute.  For 15 minutes the diagnostician asked him many questions.  Does he skip words?  Skip lines?  Lose his place?  Take a lot of breaks?  Get headaches?  Do his eyes water?  Do his eyes get red or tired?  Does he like to read in dim light or squint?  Does he like to read close to the page or keep his finger on the place?  These questions seemed reasonable to ask.  But the next few were nothing I had ever heard before.

Do the words move or vibrate on the Page?  Do you see rivers between the words?  Do you see color?

Meir said, “I see red.” He was looking at a black and white page.

Suddenly my husband was telling her that he sees red also.  He told her he reads by the outline of the word.  He also said the words are moving.  I’m sitting there listening, thinking movement on a page? 

Words don’t move!  What are they talking about?

It was absolutely amazing!  What parent would ask her child these questions?  Which child would be able to describe this to their parents.  After all, this is the only way they can see the word.  This is normal to them!

She went on to affirm everything he was saying.  She not only understood my husband, she was asking him more details about each description.  “Some colors of light” she explained, “distort what people see.  The person doesn’t know that others don’t see what they see.  A child might be struggling with reading in the classroom.  The child may look over at the next child’s book, and it looks just the same to him.” I remember my husband describing something to his eye doctor years ago. The doctors always shrugged their shoulders.

Now she returned to testing Meir after this interruption about my husband.

She put colored sheets of acetate over a page in a book.  She then put down two colors and asked him which page looked sharper, clearer and more comfortable to him.  She continued changing the colors asking the same questions.

After a half hour, she found the color combination that was the best one for him.  Meir picked two goldenrod acetate sheets.  Next, she administered the visual perceptual test to my husband.  He selected three colors, then got very quiet.  He was examining the page.  He had never really seen a page of words that didn’t move! The colored overlays had stopped the distortion. 

Two weeks later we came back for the second optional test with color discs. This test determines what color their glasses would be tinted. The tint eliminates the distortion. It is used in place of the overlay (color acetate sheets). In severe cases it’s a more comprehensive correction. She asked him to pick up and put to his eyes 50 pairs of colored discs (one pair at a time). Through process of elimination they determined which color disc or combinations of many colored discs was best to eliminate his distortion.  He had the disc up to his eyes.  He was looking down at this book.  He kept moving them on and off his eyes as he stared at the book.

He looked up at us and said, “The words aren’t broken apart anymore.”

The Irlen Institute tints their glasses with their specific custom color on it.  The rest of the day following our appointment we were very quiet.  Several times I was in tears realizing what an ordeal my husband must have gone through.  Now reading so much of the material that the institute sent us home with, I realized how much of an affect this reading had on our lives.  From the material I learned that headaches are commonly found with distorted reading. My husband had many headaches. We thought they were from something else. They call this a reading discomfort or a visual perceptual issue. The resolution of this issue is called the Irlen Method. It affects more than ten percent of the population and over 46 percent of the learning disabled population.

Now it is the end of August 2002.  My husband and son Meir are waiting for their tinted glasses.  (Their glasses were made by our optometrist, working together with this Irlen diagnostician.)

Yehudah, was now almost 17 years old, still struggling with reading.  With his high I.Q. and keen memory he has managed to stay in school.  Yehudah walked in the house from the airport (he had been at camp all summer).  I started asking him questions about his reading and how the written pages of textbooks looked to him. 

He had little comment.  I told him about our wonderful discovery of the Irlen Method and asked him to take the test. He agreed.

The test revealed that he could see only three words at a time--the rest was swirled.  (It was his “span of focus.”)  We ordered the tint to be put on his glasses as well. This was something an optometrist could resolve only with help of Irlen.  

Ultimately, we had three of our other children tested.  Each one needed the “Irlen Method.”  Some of them were mild, some medium, and some severe.

Now, one year later (August 2003), academically this has been a fantastic year for my entire family.  The plastic overlays and the tint on the glasses don’t teach reading.  Teachers teach reading.  The test determines if there is something (on the white page with black letters) that shouldn’t be there.  Then it clears the page so teachers can do their job.

Meir (my then-eight-year-old) returned to his regular school.  By December he was caught up, so naturally the school wanted to know about this.  This test is widely used in our school now.  The test is now being done in the school itself, by certified Irlen professionals. 6,000 school districts use this method. 

Yehudah’s grades hovered around 60-70. Now his average grade is beyond 100.

Rochel did most of her learning auditorily and she took tests by creating pictures to depict the answers.  This year she progressed about three years in reading and writing.  She takes regular tests now and writes the answers.

The test examines five areas that the eye doctor doesn’t examine for.  They are:

• Visual resolution (seeing print without distortion)

• Span of focus (perceiving groups of words)

• Sustained focus (performing extended visual tasks)

• Photo phobia (light sensitivity)

• Background accommodation (ability to see black print on white)

Irlen Institute has clinics all over the world. They have a web page, www.Irlen.com. Their phone number is (562) 496-2550.

My husband and I visit and speak at as many schools as we can.  We show a video, give a demonstration on what people who have this see.  We talk about the “A” student profile and all the other symptoms of this.  We discuss extensively the cause and how the color works.  We show our children’s report cards and pictures.  We speak to parents, doctors, schools, teachers and anyone who calls us at (773)764-6416. Our dream is that no other child goes without this fast and simple help.

In our world of reading, if my child can’t read well, it affects whether or not he can stay in school.  A slow, labored reader has a difficult time keeping up with his classmates.  It influences his self-esteem.  He could tell himself that he’s not a learner. Many children with this issue find themselves in special Ed. This lack of success can be very far-reaching.  It doesn’t go away.  You don’t grow out of it.  It will impact his entire life.

If you know someone who has a child struggling, you can download a self-test from the web page to see if this is affecting the child or adult.  The research on this is available on the web.

My mother was right. There is something out there
that works for reading with just one visit.

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