Zach gets Irlen lenses too...

Yup. Zach's definitely got it. (And actually, so do I... but I'm only gonna get myself tested some time later... too many big purchases this month already).

We will be going back on Monday to get his specific colour, and hopefully we will receive it within a month. Then we gotta take the lenses to a regular spectacles shop and get the specs made. So in a month's time, we will have two coloured lensed children in our house.

Today, Doris Ang of Irlen Dyslexia Singapore took a detailed look at him, and I was pleased with the process and the outcome. I think Zach also was more convinced that the overlays would be of greater help. Today he received two overlays (and no, we didn't pay extra for them, it was probably already worked into the $380 I forked over for the initial assessment) - one pink one for computer work, and a lavender one for reading. Hopefully he keeps them in better condition for the next month, until he receives his Irlen lenses.

I'm thinking of getting Stacey to get hers done soon too. Especially since she cannot wear hers out into the sun. That's quite annoying... but we'll see. Like I said, we need to space out the expenditure.

Update on the Irlen Syndrome

So Stacey received her Irlen lenses late Jan... there was a huge delay but she finally got them. I think the glasses do help her because in the last two weeks or so she was starting to get lazy about wearing them... I often caught her without and had to remind her to do so... and correspondingly, she was also getting more tired and grumpier... even her ballet teacher commented that she was not "getting it" as she normally did. So I reminded her to put on her glasses as often as she could, and things have improved tremendously since...

On the same topic, Zach is going for his first appointment with Irlen Dyslexia Singapore. I decided that I would give Irlen Centre a go, and see how things are different. With Zach, the results of the testing with the overlays are not as obvious, but I think there are other benefits besides reading, just as Stacey gets other good "side effects" out of them too. Hopefully, I will remember to come in here and update on his findings and what we do in the end. I am also thinking of getting myself tested as well, because my eyesight is really getting "wonky" especially when I have been looking at the computer screen for far too long.

2nd Optometrist Appointment

Tomorrow Stacey goes for her 2nd appointment with the Optometrist, to use the Intuitive Colorimeter to determine the exact shade she needs for her Irlen glasses. She's excited and so am I... more because I'm hoping that this will make a difference to her reading speed and her comfort with reading books.

We are going with the lenses simply because since it was obvious the overlays helped, this will hopefully help her in reading things off the board, off the computer screen as well as when she is doing her exams and having to write on white paper as well. If her brain doesn't have to work so hard compensating for the perceptual "interference", then it can apply itself to the task of comprehension and expression better, I suppose. In other countries, you can request that the schools support you by printing on coloured paper (notes, test papers and so on), but I think for that to happen in Singapore, you'd need to find yourself a teacher who is willing to go that far out for you... and while there are many many lovely teachers in her school, I wouldn't dream of asking them to go to that extent just for one child, when I can simply help her by giving her the filters right there in front of her eyes.

So far, she's preferred books where the print are nice and big and the line spacing is also far apart. This means that she normally ends up with books for younger readers. I've tried buying her books meant for kids her age, but she dislikes certain kinds of print... font that are too small, or the words look too "crowded"... she has steadfastly avoided all such print. So I'm hoping that with the Irlen glasses, we can "graduate" to books meant for bigger girls, and she can then be exposed to more ideas and sentence structures and hopefully that will help her more in her writing and expression as well.

Ah well. We'll see. I better not count my chickens before they hatch. :p

Visual Stress or Meares-Irlen Syndrome

Brought Stacey to see a pediatric optometrist because despite having generally very good eyesight, she would consistently complain that her eyes hurt after reading for a short while - usually around 10 minutes, and never longer than 15mins at a stretch.

I had read about how some eye problems can translate into a child being diagnosed as dyslexic and heard also from the Educational Psychologist that there was an optometrist here who could look into such things, and so, after hearing her complain again, for the umpteenth time, I decided to sign her up for a full eye examination.

Since the time she was little and was starting to read a little after starting OG lessons, she would complain of being tired after reading or doing work. So this has been a consistent complain for the last 4 years or so. One day, her cousins and my kids were having a read-a-thon, and they were competing to see who could stay reading the longest... and oddly enough, after reading for about 10 mins or so, she stopped, saying that her eyes were too tired to go on. She was also reading one of her favourite books - from the Magic Puppy series, so I knew that it was not the book or the story that was boring and causing her to stop. Her competitive spirit would also usually push her to go on no matter what, so for her to have stopped was a big deal. This was when I knew that the discomfort was real and not just an excuse.

At the optometrist's, she went through a whole battery of tests and was given a completely clean bill of health as far as her eyesight and condition of her eyes were concerned. However, the optometrist was concerned that she was complaining of discomfort after only such a short period of reading... so he decided to try out another test. This one involved the use of coloured overlays on a page - designed to ease the strain of reading. The explanation is a rather technical one, but I immediately knew what he was talking about because I find certain colours more soothing compared to the glaring white of a page on a book. This is especially so when the fonts are messy and complex. I don't like reading off a computer because of the illuminated screen, which is why I prefer the Kindle to the ipad for reading and so on.

So it was no surprise when she readily responded to the overlays and when she finally settled on a colour that she preferred (that caused her eyes to be more comfortable) the optometrist conducted the test, but getting her to read a paragraph that was really a string of about 6-8 easy words that were put together (seemingly) randomly.

With the overlay, she read more quickly, more fluently and covered more words in a minute, compared to without the overlay (same words, different order, different card) where there was obvious hesitance and more faltering with the reading. She also covered fewer words in the one minute. I think she also made more mistakes. So it was quite obvious that the coloured overlay helps. This is called the Meares-Irlen syndrome.

While this syndrome is not widely recognised as yet, more and more research and studies have shown that children are helped by the use of overlays and coloured tinted lenses during reading and work and so on... and it was obvious in the simple test conducted that day.

So we go back again for yet another test - this time to use a machine that will help pinpoint the exact shade that works for her... and we will be making her a pair of glasses that are tinted to help with her reading and work.

She's excited about the prospect of getting glasses, but also somewhat worried because she knows that she will look different from others and that her glasses will be different from that of all the other bespectacled children in her school. I pray that she will have supportive and understanding teachers who will help her cope with this change when she begins school next year. Since we will only be testing on Tuesday the 28th, I am not sure we will get the glasses in time for school when it reopens exactly one week later, especially over the New Year holiday... but we'll see.