If you or your child has trouble reading, take the following questionnaire to see if there might be a relatively easy and inexpensive solution for you:

• Answer the following yes or no questions:
• Do you skip words or lines when reading?
• Do you reread lines?
• Do you lose your place?
• Are you easily distracted when reading?
• Do you need to take breaks often?
• Do you find it harder to read the longer you read?
• Do you get headaches when you read?
• Do your eyes get red and watery?
• Does reading make you tired?
• Do you blink often or squint when reading?
• Do you prefer to read in dim light?
• Do you read close to the page?
• Do you use your finger or other markers?
• Do you get restless, active, or fidgety when reading?

If you answered “yes” to three or more questions, then you may have SSS. Many children and adults who have reading problems are extra-sensitive to one or more colors in the light spectrum. This affects the visual processing in their brains and can cause a variety of symptoms when reading—headaches, losing their place frequently, or even seeing text as moving waves or dancing dots.

Many clients can be helped by simply overlaying the text with one or more transparent colored plastic sheets selected through the Irlen screening process. (For very severe cases of SSS that create problems with general depth perception, special colored glasses may be the best solution.)

We at Up With Learning in Titusville, Florida, can do Irlen Method screening for SSS and provide overlays. For other areas of the country, or for more detailed information on the Irlen Method, go to www.Irlen.org.

To arrange for a screening, please fill out our diagnostic testing form. You will be contacted as soon as possible.

For students who are having reading problems not related to SSS, Up With Learning can give diagnostic testing and suggest possible next steps for the parent to pursue. Up With Learning is not certified to officially diagnose reading or LD problems for school or insurance purposes, but we can suggest resources and programs to supplement or replace the child’s current instructional methods.

To arrange for testing, please fill out our diagnostic testing form. You will be contacted as soon as possible.