Recently, at a California Department of Education convention, I saw a vendor selling nothing but a few deceptively simple items: a narrow magnifying bar for reading, and what looked like overhead transparencies in various colors. It seemed a little gimmicky to me at first but I was tired of looking at curriculum bundles and at least this was something novel to check out so I struck up a conversation with the very nice lady behind the Irlen Method table.
Just a few moments into her explanation, I realized that what I first considered gimmicky was actually brilliant in its simplicity. I could think of students right away who would benefit from the system. You know--those students who, when asked to read something on a computer screen, highlight the selection so the text is reversed to white on black. They've instinctively developed that compensation strategy for a particular reading challenge, probably without even knowing it. And here was a simple, compact, inexpensive method to help them and the millions of other people who haven't figured out their own strategies yet.
I was an easy sale. I eagerly bought a magnifying bar and two different colors of overlays to use as samples with an intention to buy more after trying them out. But when I showed them to my husband--a special ed teacher--that night, he grabbed them and said, "Oh, that's so cool. I'm going to try them with Cheri tomorrow because she always needs to put a second sheet of paper behind her worksheets if they're printed on both sides or she can't read it." Consequently, I haven't actually tried these out with any of my students yet, but my husband and Cheri seem to be happy.
According to the Irlen Institute's self-reported research, their products have made a significant difference for children and adults with reading problems related to ADD/ADHD, dyslexia, learning differences, traumatic brain injury, Autism Spectrum Disorders and light sensitivity, as well as people who get headaches from reading for undetermined reasons. Personally, I found that my eyes felt less strained immediately when I put the yellow overlay over the page of sample text, but anything with blue or red made me want to look away, so I feel confident that the overlays really do make a difference at least to some degree.
If you're interested in finding out if Irlen Overlays will help your child or someone else you know, the Institute offers various online self-tests.
