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Seeing the world through rose-colored glasses: Scotopic Sensitivity/Irlen Syndrome: Helen Irlen and her followers claim that dyslexia, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, and autism are all associated with "Scotopic Sensitivity Syndrome," and each can be effectively treated using colored lenses and overlays. The scientific evidence suggests otherwise
Skeptical Inquirer, July-August, 2004 by Alan D. Bowd, Julia O'Sullivan
More than four thousand American schools have implemented a controversial approach claimed to assist children with reading difficulties sometimes known as dyslexia (Robinson 2003) and other disabilities, including autism. The Irlen method, named for its founder Helen Irlen, involves the use of colored lenses or overlays, which she argues improve reading skills, memory, and depth perception, as well as helping persons with learning disabilities and autism learn better. More than eighty thousand Americans, most of them children, have bought Irlen "filters" (Robinson 2003) despite a complete absence of scientific evidence for the existence of "Scotopic Sensitivity Syndrome," which the filters supposedly treat. The story of Helen Irlen and her "Irlen Institute" seems like a case study in educational flimflam.
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A school psychologist, Helen Irlen unveiled her theory of Scotopic Sensitivity Syndrome (also styled "Irlen Syndrome") at the 1983 annual convention of the American Psychological Association. Her short paper, based on a sample of thirty-seven learning-disabled adults, claimed that most had reading difficulties because of visual perception problems. After a month of wearing "photopic transmittance lenses," later known as "Irlen filters," most subjects reported improved depth perception, reading speed, and reading comprehension. There was no control group, and the self-report technique used maximized a likely placebo effect. Nevertheless, Irlen claimed to have discovered the existence of "a previously unrecognized perceptual dysfunction" that her filters were able to treat effectively (Irlen 1983). She later claimed that Scotopic Sensitivity Syndrome (SSS) affects "up to 12%" of the general population and "a much higher percentage" of individuals with dyslexia, learning disabilities, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), and autism (Irlen 2000), although no evidence for these claims was offered.
Scotopic Sensitivity Syndrome
Just what is SSS? Writing in Latitudes magazine, Irlen (2000) claimed SSS is a visual-perceptual processing deficit, and that since there are no educational or medical tests to identify it, SSS is often mislabeled as learning disability or ADHD. However, she has never offered a formal definition of SSS.
In 1991 Irlen published Reading By the Colors: Overcoming Dyslexia and Other Reading Disabilities Through the Irlen Method. This self-help book was directed at the public to sell her products. Irlen's lenses and overlays, her "standardized" tests, self-report inventories, and checklists are all available at a price, and it is repeatedly implied that most children with reading difficulties can benefit from Irlen's screening and diagnostic procedures, available from trained "screeners." An appendix lists addresses and telephone numbers for Irlen Clinics in the U.S. and five other countries.
The closest that Irlen has come to defining SSS is the following simplistic speculation in Reading By the Colors: "Scotopic Sensitivity Syndrome--and the sensitivity to full-spectrum light that forms the basis of the syndrome--possibly involves a structural brain deficit involving the central nervous system. If so, then signals sent to the brain would be inappropriately processed, resulting in perceptual problems. For those with SSS, full-spectrum light would distort what is perceived and processed by the brain" (57).
She went on to suggest that if certain wavelengths were reduced by colored filters, the brain would be able to "more effectively analyze and process information without interference" (57).
The book begins with a "self-rest" in which the reader, or "someone you know" (your child, perhaps?) is presented with fourteen questions about reading difficulties. Those who respond positively to three or more may very well have SSS. The "symptoms" presented are so general mad common it is likely that very many people would qualify. They include skipping words, rereading lines, losing place, taking breaks often, and reading close to the page. The test, for which no evidence of validity or reliability is presented, represents a clever hook to get the reader involved. The book has become a best seller.
Getting the Message Out
Reading By the Colors is a classic self-help book. It offers good news: the promise of an effective treatment for children with learning disabilities, particularly dyslexia. Irlen invents a syndrome, provides a simple, noninvasive way of ameliorating its effects, and holds out hope to the parents of children with learning disabilities. She also claims that her approach will help a wide range of exceptional youngsters who have visual and auditory perceptual disabilities, memory and motor problems, and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. A brochure from the Irlen Institute titled "Understanding Scotopic Sensitivity Syndrome" (Irlen Institute 1990) also lists general characteristics of children's writing, mathematics performance, musical ability, depth perception, and gross motor skills that supposedly may be symptoms of SSS. These include mistakes in writing when copying, in mathematics ("sloppy, careless errors"), playing music better by ear than from sheet music, and difficulty catching balls. (Autism was added to this list later.) With no indication of the age-appropriateness of these criteria, these characteristics fit nearly every youngster at one time or another. In case the reader may consider seeking advice elsewhere, the brochure points out that SSS cannot be detected by regular optometric, medical, psychological, or educational testing.
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