To see, To read, To know

A true story and one of many.

The name of the person in this story is fictitious for privacy reasons.

Richard is in his 3rd year at college and is struggling to concentrate in class and finds the work hard. One of his teachers suggested that maybe I spend some time with him and see what is happening in his classroom world. We chatted and I decided to do an Irlen's test with him. I'm not fully trained in this area yet, but I knew enough to find out if this young man has Irlen Syndrome. All indications were pointing to yes, he does. As part of the basic testing was seeing what colour plastic overlays would make a difference to what he sees when reading and what he is able to recall. In short his preferred colour is yellow.

He was calm during this process and his first words were," I CAN SEE THE WORDS, THEY ARE CLEAR" and they stopped moving around on the page.

After this basic testing, in all his classes he used the yellow overlay for all his work and was keeping up and was successful going forward with his education.

Californian educational psychologist Helen Irlen first identified a pattern of symptoms in the early 1980's while researching adults with reading difficulties. Her work led to the recognition of what is now known as Irlen Syndrome.

I am a primary school teacher of 35 years of educational experience, and with all the cuts in education I want to make a difference, please help me help our young people.