Learning Difficulties Festival: "I Feel You", February 2019

Festival ” Learning Difficulties. I Feel You, February 2019

Delivered by the Egyptian Foundation for Development and Quality under the patronage of
the Academy of Scientific Research, to mark the Year of Education 2019

Building people first

We work to achieve Egypt Vision 2030

Irlen Syndrome

Characteristics of people with Irlen Syndrome 

• Reads in dim light and never feels that the light is sufficient
• – Is bothered by glare
• – Is sensitive to light
• – Red eyes and eyelids
• – Headache
• – Burning or itching in the eyes
• – Falls asleep while reading
• – Words appear double
• – or move, or are unclear; words may be blurred and sometimes disappear
• – Rubs the eyes
• – Moves closer to or further from the book
• – Blinks frequently
• – Squints frequently
• – Opens the eyes wide
• – Shades the page with a hand or with the body
• – Stops several times while reading
• – Holds the book away to reduce glare
• – Closes or covers one eye
• – Moves the head
• – Brings the page closer
• – Uses a finger or another marker
• – Appears hyperactive during school work
• – Rereads what has already been read
• – Skips words or lines
• – Cannot read for more than an hour
• – Reading is slow and hesitant
• – Omits short words
• – Weak reading skills
• – Writing drifts upwards and downwards
• – Leaves gaps between letters and words when writing
• – Cannot write on a line
• – Makes mistakes when copying from a book or the board
• – Blinks when copying from the board
• – Does not add numbers in the correct columns in mathematics
• – Has difficulty seeing which column a number belongs to
• – Makes careless mistakes
• – Has difficulty going up or down escalators
• – Is clumsy
• – Bumps into the edges of tables
• – Has difficulty judging distances
• – Drops or knocks things over
• – Lacks coordination when catching a ball

Signs relating to reading skills 

• Prefers to read in dim light
• Has difficulty following words and lines and skips some of them
• Reading is slow, interrupted and full of mistakes
• Has poor reading comprehension

Signs relating to writing

• Handwriting is unclear
• Writing is irregular, rising above the line at one point and falling below it at another
• Makes frequent spelling mistakes when copying
• Spacing between words is inconsistent
• Signs relating to arithmetic
• Is unable to write numbers in neat columns, writing them on top of one another, and may skip numbers when writing from 1 to 10

Signs relating to play 

• In play, shows poor coordination of movement and difficulty judging distances, which makes it hard for the child to catch a ball, for example

How do we protect our children from Irlen Syndrome? 

• By choosing the background colour the child finds comfortable and suited to reading. These are filtered overlays from the Irlen Institute, which specialises in the syndrome; they are ordered from the United States after being tested and studied in scientific laboratories, and a report is then written specifying the colour suited to the child and sent to the school so that it can be used with him. Lenses can also be made in the colour that suits him as one solution. Abdel Wahab added that the colours may change as the child moves through different age stages, and that the syndrome may disappear at puberty or continue for life. From the book The Irlen Revolution
  Dr Mervat Mohamed Fayed – certified Irlen screener, Irlen Institute, United States – governorates: Gharbia – Sharqia – Fayoum