When Christine Phillips was a teacher’s aide, she hated seeing young children struggling to keep up academically.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
So she went back to university and became a teacher, specialising in reading recovery.
“But I still didn’t find all the answers,” Ms Phillips said.
Then last year she trained to become an Irlen Syndrome screener, with research showing the disorder is predicted to affect 15 per cent of the general population and 45 per cent of people with learning difficulties.
Irlen Syndrome is a genetic visual processing disorder where the brain is unable to process specific light wavelengths.
Ms Phillips said there were still sceptics that the disorder exists but said 2004 brain mapping research showed brain activity was decreased in people diagnosed with Irlen Syndrome which then increased with treatment.
Symptoms include reading difficulties, poor handwriting, poor depth perception, light sensitivity, headaches and migraines.
They can also suffer discomfort in bright conditions, eye stress or strain with visually intensive activities and difficulty looking at stripes, patterns or certain colours.
Ms Phillips said most sufferers saw words on a page in a range of different ways, including blurry, with a halo around them, seesawing from side to side, shaking or swirling.
“But no-one ever asks them what they can see.”
She said the solution was using tinted overlays over a page or tinted lenses.
Each sufferer is tested for the precise light wave lengths to block out the light frequency they are sensitive to, and their overlays or lenses coloured to suit.
“It just calms things down for them.”
Ms Phillips said she now tests three to four Ballarat residents a week for Irlen Syndrome, with many of them children experiencing learning difficulties.
Once they test positive, she refers them to a diagnostician in Melbourne who custom prescribes their overlay or lens colours.
“Their oral communication can be really good but their written communication is poor.
“However, they are often not sufficiently below the grade level to get help.”
She said dyslexia, which Irlen Syndrome is a form of, was the leading cause of reading failure and school dropouts.