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F.A.Q.s

Frequently Asked Questions

Who can be helped?

Frequently Asked Questions - Irlen Diagnostic Clinic

No. There are many reasons why a child may not be achieving academic success at school, but Irlen Syndrome could be part of the puzzle.

There are a number of symptoms that are indicators of Irlen Syndrome. It is useful to do the self-test that can be found on our website.

No. Irlen Syndrome is not dyslexia, but it can cause dyslexia. If Irlen Syndrome is the cause of the dyslexia, once it is identified and treated by the use of Irlen Spectral Filters, then the person should not be considered as dyslexia, particularly if they are able to read successfully.
No. A number of people with Irlen Syndrome still achieve academic success at school, but they often experience other symptoms. These include: not being able to read for long before experiencing tiredness; having to reread in order to remember what they have just read; getting headaches from intensive reading; feeling eyestrain when reading and writing; being sensitive to bright lights and glare.
Yes, but not all people with Irlen Syndrome have difficulties with depth perception. For those who do, it can be difficult to judge distances when driving, hard to judge timing for getting on and off escalators, walking up and down stairs and for some, they view the world in two dimensions, rather than three dimensions. Irlen Spectral filters result in the “world” looking three dimensional instead of two dimensional and for some people, this means that they can see the corners in a room, or see that a fence is not just a flat line. It really can be life changing!

What causes Irlen Syndrome?

Frequently Asked Questions - Irlen Diagnostic Clinic
Fluorescent lighting is much brighter than incandescent lighting and as Irlen sufferers are usually very sensitive to bright light, fluorescent lighting makes all white surfaces appear extremely bright.
No. Irlen Syndrome is a visual processing dysfunction. It is not a vision problem so cannot be detected by optometric assessment. It cannot be corrected by optometric prescription but it can co-exist with vision problems. So some people with Irlen Syndrome have optometric prescription glasses that are then tinted to the specific Irlen colour that they require to remove any distortions that they may be experiencing.
No. There is no relationship between Irlen Syndrome and intelligence. In fact, many sufferers are successful academics, teachers, lawyers, doctors and other professionals.

Vision problems and Irlen Syndrome

Frequently Asked Questions - Irlen Diagnostic Clinic
Yes. A person can have a vision problem that can be corrected by prescription lenses from the optometrist, but still experience problems like blurred vision, words moving, words fading, words doubling, words merging together or stretching apart. If these difficulties are the result of Irlen Syndrome, prescription lenses will not fix them. So if a person has prescription lenses, these can be tinted to the specific Irlen tint selected during the assessment.