Sandra Steele, Educational Consultant

When Reading Hurts: Scotopic Sensitivity

Gail Martin, author
Excerpted from www.charlotteparent.com

January 2005 - Imagine trying to read as the letters in the page burn, blink or bleed. Picture a printed page where "rivers of white" flow down the sheet, making the text appear to move. Now imagine blinding headaches and sore red eyes that tear uncontrollably within a few minutes of reading.

For many children — often diagnosed by schools as reading-impaired or as having behavior problems — scotopic sensitivity (also called peripheral/central processing deficit) is the brain's inability to keep a focus on foreground vs. background. Because the brain constantly switches between foreground and background like a flickering light, letters seem to move and spaces between words flow like water. There are effective interventions — and both parents and educators are starting to realize there is hope.

These children usually test normally for visual acuity — they do not "need glasses" in the conventional sense to correct blurred vision. Parents may attribute a dislike for reading to laziness, and teachers often may conclude that a child is not trying hard enough. But according to research, 10 to 20 percent of the population suffers from some form of scotopic sensitivity, which makes reading difficult, frustrating and painful.

LouAnne Johnson, the maverick teacher who wrote "Dangerous Minds," discusses scotopic sensitivity in her new book, "The Queen of Education." Johnson, who worked with children considered behavior problems and slow learners, found that a high percentage of her students would do anything — including get into severe trouble — just to avoid the physical pain of reading.

Helen Irlen identified scotopic sensitivity in the 1980s. Irlen found that children who did not respond to other teaching interventions sometimes showed dramatic improvement when colored transparencies were placed over their reading materials. These transparencies — at first just colored acetate sheets — not only reduced glare but also helped the students focus on the words and not the "twinkling dots," "stripy patterns" and "fuzz" that results from the brain struggling to hold its focus on the words rather than the background. Irlen went on to patent specially formulated transparencies that reduced the problems even further, and created them in a variety of colors. Different people respond better to some colors than others. In the years since then, specially tinted lenses for eyeglasses have also become available (this is different from simple tinted glass). Both methods report positive results in helping the user retain focus, reduce frustration and cut down or eliminate eyestrain and headaches.

In North Carolina, children can use filters on reading materials, even standardized tests, says Johnson. Irlen filters are now available online, and eye doctors are becoming more aware of the condition. Having a child diagnosed with scotopic sensitivity can be a long process, since it usually begins with screening out regular vision problems. Scotopic sensitivity is a neurological, not an optical problem. That means it has to do with how the nerves and brain interpret information, not how the eye processes light. Scotopic sensitivity may coexist with other problems as well.

Filters work for scotopic sensitivity because they block light waves from the fluorescent lighting which is often used in schools and which already has a noticeable flicker. For those with peripheral processing problems, that flicker is magnified, as is the difficulty distinguishing between dark print and white paper. Beasley recommends specially tinted lenses, because she says that colored overlays are only effective for 20 percent of people with scotopic sensitivity. Lenses are more efficient because they are close to the eye and block the flicker.

In addition to filtered lenses, [some doctors] recommend vision therapy to teach an individual with scotopic sensitivity how to consciously pay attention. This includes working with a specialist to learn how to fix attention on one element and ignore distraction. "Vision is learned," says Beasley. "Most visual skills are learned through development."

For parents who believe their child has scotopic sensitivity, Johnson urges persistence. "Parents can be extremely instrumental in creating change in the school," she says. "Most people in academics are much more willing to give it a shot if you can show them statistical research." Johnson recommends starting out with simple colored transparencies to see if a difference is noted. Even those with normal vision may find a transparency more restful to the eyes because it reduces glare. Parents who want to help, says Johnson, should let their child know that they believe him or her and have a discussion about why the child hates to read. For the 10 to 20 percent of people who suffer from scotopic sensitivity, the best news is that while the problem may be in their brain, it is not "all in their head."