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EdPlace offers thousands of interactive learning resources from year 1 to GCSE, made accessible for children with SEND. We’re here to help support your child through their learning journey. We understand that finding the type of support your child may need can be daunting.

Mandy, our Head of SEND provides a generalised overview on some of the most common questions when it comes to supporting your child’s education.

Please note: It’s important to remember that each diagnosis is unique to the individual. There are personal, LA and regional differences in diagnostic routes and available interventions.

Irlen’s Syndrome is a perceptual processing disorder. It’s not an optical problem, It’s a problem with the brain’s ability to process visual information.

Sometimes Irlens is confused with Dyslexia as some of the symptoms are similar.

A Colourmetrist at specialist optician’s can diagnose Irlens if you feel that your child has the symptoms of visual stress. Assessments for Irlens aren’t available on the NHS.

Some behaviours and symptoms that you may see in a child with Irlen’s

Childhood headaches are a common symptom of Irlens and often the most apparent, which encourages parents to seek medical advice or an eye test for their child. Headaches are associated with tiredness, so you may notice that your child with SSS, looking fatigued.

Children with Irlen’s may have an intolerance to bright lights and computer screens.

They may describe seeing revines in chunks of text or the letters and words moving around on the page. The glare of the bright white page and the contrast of the black font creates visual stress and therefore may become unreadable for some. You may see your child with Irlens squinting, looking away or rubbing their eyes when reading.

Poor spatial awareness and clumsiness is also common with visual stress. If you are concerned about your child, you must seek advice from your GP.

Visual Stress Superpowers

People with visual stress all have their own personal attributes and skills on top of VS superpowers, such as listening and creativity! Gathering most of your information from auditory instruction takes lots of practice. Heightening your hearing sense is a super-skill which will give you an advantage is lots of situations.

Additional support

  • If a Colourometrist has diagnosed Meares-Irlens, then they would be able to offer you advice about coloured overlays and possible tinted lensed glasses.
  • In school there are several things that you can do to reduce visual stress symptoms for your child. Using their preferred coloured overlay for reading texts for example is simple but hugely practical.
  • Ensuring that there aren’t any shadows on your child’s desk and dimming the classroom lights will both be very helpful.
  • Make sure that you keep an open communication with your child’s teacher so that you can keep up-to-date with how they are doing at school.
  • Making sure that there’s a suitable limit for the amount of time exposed to raw text.
Download our SEND teaching pack

EdPlace educational resources supports students with Irlen’s

  • There are an array of different coloured overlays and font styles available to suit your child’s preferred colour palette.
  • The resources and activities are interactive, engaging and visual.
  • All of the tasks can be differentiated to suit your child’s ability
  • Progress and attainment are both visually represented and easily monitored by both you and your child.
  • A read aloud tool which dictates all text to reduce the need for reading text.
  • All of the features can be personalised in several different ways to ensure that the curriculum aligned content is accessible.

 

All of these features can help your child with Irlen’s Syndrome to engage in learning, discreetly using their personalised preference to help them reach their full potential.

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Download a free Irlen’s Syndrome diagnosis resource

Our blog posts give practical advice, offer simple strategies to help guide activities, and provide information on different talking points relating to Special Educational Needs and Disabilities.

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EdPlace resources help students with Irlen’s Syndrome

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