A Mother's Experience with Scotopic Sensitivity Dyslexia: Ilen Syndrome or Visual Stress

After a five-year struggle to help her son overcome a debilitating reading difficulty, a Chester mum has set her sights on giving hope to hundreds of other children in the area who are affected by a specific form of dyslexia.

Special needs teacher Eileen Morgan from Hoole dedicated hundreds of hours of research in the hope of alleviating her son Edward’s reading problems.

“Edward suffers from Scotopic Sensitivity, also known as 'Irlen Syndrome or Visual Stress – a form of dyslexia where text appears to move on the page, and letters and words appear to reverse These are symptoms that will be all too familiar to hundreds of young people,” she said.

Sufferers also often display poor hand-eye coordination and can be particularly sensitive to fluorescent light. The condition makes people lose their place when reading and it can also cause itchy eyes.

Colour overlays and tinted glasses, which can help some people with similar dyslexia-related difficulties, proved to be no help.

“I lost count of the number of specialists and consultants we visited over all those years,” said Eileen. “Day after day I was searching the internet and talking to experts. There were lots of theories but no one seemed to be able to offer any answers.

“It was all so frustrating, especially for Edward who was rapidly losing ground at school and naturally feeling insecure, upset and different.

“We were getting really concerned how badly this would affect his future prospects, and gradually coming to realise how many other families were facing the same frustration.”

The solution, Eileen revealed, came in the form of specialist filtered lenses which help synchronise the message transmitted from the eyes to the brain.

To read more about Eileen's story click here