Irlen Syndrome - Contrast Sensitivity
Introduction
To read well your eyes must be working optimally. That is why I am peering at the screen through my new glasses now!
So the first step (which should be routine anyhow with any child) is to get a complete checkup with a good optician.
But beyond this, there is a syndrome that some opticians may not check for, where the eye is sensitive to the contrast of a pure black on a white background. It is a bit like blue on red for the rest of us. Here is an example of that:
For me that is very hard to read. Some people find the same effect with black text on a white background.
If your child complains of "the text moving around", that will be the reason.
The eye actually begins processing the visual image that is projected onto the retina while it is still in the eye. In fact the eye is effectively a part of your brain that has extruded itself out of the skull (freaky eh?!).
One of the most important elements of processing that happens in the eye is to look for shapes and the edges of shapes. There are around 100 million rods and cones in each retina and only 1 million neurons in each optic nerve. So the eye is aggrating the individual rods and cones and it is in the aggratating process that they eye is very sensitive to changes in intensity.
If it is too sensitive to a black/white change, you will get this effect, known as Irlen Syndrome after Helen Irlen who first researched it.
The Solution To Irlen Syndrome
What you need to do is get some coloured cellophane and lay that over the page. It may help.
You can try a variety of colours. And if you really want to get fancy, go to an optician who specialises in Irlen Syndrome and get different colours tested to find the optimum.
You can even get tinted glasses made with that colour.
This is evidently a workaround, rather than a cure. But for most people it seems to be a solution.
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