mearers irlen/dyslexia using coloured paper in school

CharlieRabbit01

iammumtoone wrote: »

The advise I was given by the expert who tested him was not to get coloured glasses at this stage but to use the coloured overlay and paper.

Not sure but I think this is due to his age apparently he is very young to be given a diagnosis of this. I think the plan is not to get him to rely on the glasses just yet. I am not sure when the time would be to look into glasses, I was very surprised that there is no follow up appointment :eek: Thats its, it seems he has it and no further help to deal with it! I do wish I had asked more questions but I was a bit shocked at the time thinking about how this will now effect him for life and wasn't really thinking straight.

Hiya

Another person who has this, I suspect the reason you were advised not to purchase the glasses at a young age is because as a persons eyes develop the colour needed can change.

Personally as someone who has the glasses I'd say if you can afford to replace them with a new colour in a couple of years time go for it, they have made a huge difference to my life.

I was diagnosed at 17, where I got pink tinted glasses, about 2 years ago (I'm now 29) I began to notice the headaches etc were coming back so I spoke to my optician who asked me to go back for a re-assessment, we did the whole colour spectrum thing again and found that I now required green lens, it took a little while to get the correct shade of green, in fact I returned the glasses once to get the colour adjusted at no extra charge as they weren't working.

I was told that when you are tested you tend to lean towards 2 colours from opposite sides of the spectrum in my case green and pink, occasionally as your eyes develop to adulthood you can flip over to the other colour, once you reach your mid/late 20's you should reach your final colour.

It can also completely disappear, my best friend wore blue glasses all her child and teenage years and now at 28 doesnt need them.

SingleSue

Both my youngest son and I have it. Youngest was diagnosed around 4 years ago, I was diagnosed just over a year ago!

It never held me back, I just thought it was normal that words swirled about and jumped, I thought everyone was like it! However, I did have a reputation for being accident prone...and the headaches, gah, horrible. I now wear glasses with a special coating on them and although I still get some headaches, it is a vast improvement on before and I have finally, for the first time in my life, stopped tripping up and down stairs.

I was a very early reader, did well at school and as I said, only got diagnosed after youngest got his diagnosis and changed my optician.

Youngest was given coloured overlays but has refused to use them due to them marking him out as different, he also refuses to wear glasses (because it makes him different - do you sense a common theme here), or accept any kind of help for it because, well you've guessed it, it marks him out as different. Doesn't matter to him that his headaches could improve, or that he wouldn't be quite so tired and the work would be easier to concentrate on, nope, it makes him different and he doesn't like it or want it!

We won't go into using his inhalers at school........

iammumtoone

sooty&sweep wrote: »

Hi

We paid roughly £200 for the test & the glasses.

CharlieRabbit01 wrote: »

Hiya
I suspect the reason you were advised not to purchase the glasses at a young age is because as a persons eyes develop the colour needed can change.

I think I understand now why I was told not to get glasses yet and I agree. £200 is alot of money I will buy him a pair in a few years as it will help him, but at this stage I think he is too young to understand the implications of getting the colour right. When he was doing the test it was obvious that the overlays helped, he could not fake the results that showed a clear improvement when using them. However I am not convinced when it came to picking the best colour for him, he actually choose which helped the most but rather the colour he prefer the look of! He original picked pink but then changed his mind, I suspect this may have been once he realised that he didn't want to use a girly pink one

We will work with the colour he has chosen for now (I think most of the colours made it better for him). However before I spend £200 I do want to make sure he has a better understanding of the importance of getting the colour that will help him the most.

CharlieRabbit01

SingleSue wrote: »

It never held me back, I just thought it was normal that words swirled about and jumped, I thought everyone was like it! However, I did have a reputation for being accident prone...and the headaches, gah, horrible. I now wear glasses with a special coating on them and although I still get some headaches, it is a vast improvement on before and I have finally, for the first time in my life, stopped tripping up and down stairs.

I was a very early reader, did well at school and as I said,

this was a very similar expereince for me, I think though that my primary school knew there was a problem as we used to have reading time and each pupil would sit with the teacher for 10 minutes and read a book out loud to them however I always had to read in my head and then give a breif description of what i had read.

It was my ex who noticed there was a problem when he asked me to read out a passage for him to write in his college book and i was reading complete gobbledygook as i was skipping up and down lines, he suggested I got tested.

The whole thing revealed scotopic sensitivity (irlen), dyslexia and dyscalculia.

Ccarter

My six year old is about to be tested for this..

iammumtoone

Still having problems with the school

He does not have coloured exercise books yet, but I am giving them time to look into this, I realise they can't just google and buy something, I am sure they will have to go to certain suppliers and through the proper channels which will take time.

However he is still bringing homework home which has been photocopied on A4 white paper. I feel sure they must have some A4 coloured paper to hand? Does this sound reasonable? Should I complain about this as they don't seem to be following the suggests the expert recommended. Who would be the best person to speak to, if any?

Cuilean

iammumtoone wrote: »

He does not have coloured exercise books yet, but I am giving them time to look into this, I realise they can't just google and buy something, I am sure they will have to go to certain suppliers and through the proper channels which will take time.

You're right, they'll have certain suppliers they use. Our school has to start will the county council supplies department, which really only stocks the basics - however we have to show that we've at least tried to consult them. Feel free to "help" by finding websites where they could buy from though

iammumtoone wrote: »

However he is still bringing homework home which has been photocopied on A4 white paper. I feel sure they must have some A4 coloured paper to hand? Does this sound reasonable? Should I complain about this as they don't seem to be following the suggests the expert recommended. Who would be the best person to speak to, if any?

IMO as a teacher, going straight in with a complaint is not the best way to do it. Have you spoken to the class teacher as a gentle reminder? If your child was in my class, I'd be asking my TA to nip to the photocopier and just pop your child's work onto coloured paper. A two minute job. If you have tried that already, and given a polite reminder to the teacher, a written/typed letter, to both the SENCO and the Headteacher reminding them of your child's diagnosed needs, and how all you want is the homework on coloured paper should do it. Don't come across as angry or demanding, because you'll get the school onto the defensive, which will definitely not help you or your child. You've got to get them on your side because if you need any extra help in the future, they can be instrumental in helping you obtain it.

iammumtoone

Cuilean wrote: »

IMO as a teacher, going straight in with a complaint is not the best way to do it. Have you spoken to the class teacher as a gentle reminder? If your child was in my class, I'd be asking my TA to nip to the photocopier and just pop your child's work onto coloured paper. A two minute job. If you have tried that already, and given a polite reminder to the teacher, a written/typed letter, to both the SENCO and the Headteacher reminding them of your child's diagnosed needs, and how all you want is the homework on coloured paper should do it. Don't come across as angry or demanding, because you'll get the school onto the defensive, which will definitely not help you or your child. You've got to get them on your side because if you need any extra help in the future, they can be instrumental in helping you obtain it.

Thank you you are right I don't want to complain, like you say I want them to help him and need them on side.

The issue is I don't see the teacher, I work so my son is taken and collected from school by his childminders. I will have to pluck up the courage to phone her, I have done this before but always feel like I am putting her out as she has to call me back when she is not teaching. Plus depending on when she phones back I am not always able to take the call (I am suppose to be working!), meaning I have to phone back again and leave another message for her to call again, the receptionist does not like me very much

Do you think it is acceptable to ring the SENCO she is more likely to be available to speak to me when I call as she doesn't teach. Or do you think this would annoy the teacher, I don't want her to think I have gone 'over her head' but like I said it is not easy for me to just have a quiet word with her.

sooty&sweep

Hi
Does everything need to be on coloured paper or could he use a plastic overlay sometimes ?

I fully understand you wanting to get as much support as he can but he won't be able to get everything onto the right coloured paper everywhere & so he needs to find ways to cope. Or thats how I feel for my son.

Jen

iammumtoone

sooty&sweep wrote: »

Hi
Does everything need to be on coloured paper or could he use a plastic overlay sometimes ?

I fully understand you wanting to get as much support as he can but he won't be able to get everything onto the right coloured paper everywhere & so he needs to find ways to cope. Or thats how I feel for my son.

Jen

For work that is just reading an overlay is fine, he has been given one of these.

The homework I am talking about is on A4 paper where the answers have to be written on the paper iyswim. It is his writing he struggles with more than reading, his letters and numbers are all the wrong way round, this I am told it due to mearers irlen and writing on the coloured paper will help.

I have tried copying the sheets onto yellow paper myself for him but he wont have this he is a very particular child and won't have it that he can give back the homework on a different piece of paper than what was issued.

You are also right about him having to find ways to cope and when he gets older I will have to try to get him off using coloured paper back to white, however at this stage he really needs it as he has in effect to learn to write all over again (correctly this time).