2003 IMTA Proceedings - International Military Testing Association

Psychologically, the victim of perceptual dyslexia is prone to exhibit problems with
behavior, motivation, and self-esteem. Those with SSS frequently exhibit symptoms of
attention deficit disorder, acting out, and behavior problems (Irlen, 1991). They are often
poorly motivated to succeed. Almost invariably they tried early on, when they were young.
But with few successes and many “failures,” their attitude became “why bother?” Their selfesteem
is low because, while everyone around them is reading and learning, they cannot—no
matter what they do or how hard they work, they just can’t seem to “get it.”
Identification of SSS
Helen Irlen, a literacy instructor in California, first identified this perceptual dyslexia
in the early 1980s and labeled it “scotopic sensitivity syndrome.” Irlen had received a grant
from California State University, Long Beach, in 1980, to set up a literacy program for
adults. She chose to work with adults because adults can communicate better than children
and are more accurate “reporters” of what they experience; they are less intimidated by
authority than children and are less likely to he swayed without some evidence; and adults
are more motivated to succeed. They have reached a point in their lives where they
recognize the importance of learning in general and reading in particular.
After three years of in-depth research, Irlen discovered that many problems appeared
after readers had been actively reading for a relatively short period of time (usually about 10
minutes or more). Those who had trouble reported that distortions began to appear on the
page, and those distortions prevented them from comprehending the words. All of their
energy was going into perceiving the words, holding them on the page, or even just finding
them! As a result, many stopped reading. It was just too difficult for them. As Irlen
explained in her speech at the dyslexia Higher Education Conference, October 31-November
2, 1994, at Plymouth University, England, once she began asking the more definitive
question, “WHAT do you see?” instead of “DO you see?” the answers made it apparent to
her that these poor readers were victims of a unique syndrome that was not being adequately
addressed by the professional educational community. (Dyslexia in higher education:
strategies and the value of asking).
Serendipitous Discovery
One day, one of Irlen’s students discovered that when she placed a red overlay—left
over from previous eye-dominance exercises—on the page she was reading, the sensation of
movement that she had always experienced stopped! For the first time, she could actually
read without having the words constantly sway back and forth! (Irlen, 1991) The red didn’t
work for everybody, however. It made no difference to the rest of the students.
So, Irlen tried other colors and found that the vast majority of those who tried the
colored overlays were helped. Each person who was helped responded to one specific color.
Once that particular color was determined and used, the individual was able to read better
and longer and reported that the distortions previously experienced disappeared immediately.
Irlen didn’t know at that time why the overlays worked, just that they did.
45 th Annual Conference of the International Military Testing Association
Pensacola, Florida, 3-6 November 2003
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