Meares-Irlen syndrome is also known as visual stress or scotopic sensitivity. It is treated by using coloured overlays and lenses. Each person needs their own specific colour to minimise their reading discomfort.
Use our checklist to see if you have visual stress
Helen Irlen noted in the early eighties that coloured filters could enhance reading ability in children with reading problems. Olive Meares had observed that some people with dyslexia complained of distortion of print when reading. In recognition of their findings we now call these visual distortions Meares-Irlen Syndrome (MIS). MIS is an exaggeration of something which most of us can experience in the right conditions. If you look at the stripy pattern below you may notice that the lines seem distorted or bent. There may be the appearance of colours and other phenomenon. These effects may occur for people with MIS when reading. Their symptoms will increase the smaller print becomes or the more densely packed it is. These distortions can be alleviated by using colour. Without colour they may experience slow reading which is uncomfortable and for some even painful.
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MIS is an exaggeration of something which most of us can experience in the right conditions. If you look at the pattern below you may notice that the lines seem distorted or bent or the appearance of diamondS. There may be the appearance of colours and other phenomena such as a twinkling effect. These effects may occur for people with MIS when reading. Their symptoms will increase the smaller print becomes or the more densely packed it is. These distortions can be alleviated by using colour. Without colour they may experience slow reading which is uncomfortable and for some even painful.
WARNING :DO NOT STARE AT THIS PATTERN FOR LONG, OR IF YOU HAVE MIGRAINE OR EPILEPSY
GENERAL GUIDELINES
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Coloured overlay assessment should be carried out once it has been established that there are no other visual problems. In children under sixteen I would recommend at least 3 months trial with an overlay before carrying out colorimetry to prescribe glasses. The child should voluntarily use the overlay and ideally there should be an obvious improvement in reading, accuracy, speed and comfort.
NB Glasses are not necessarily the same colour as the overlay and a special examination should be carried out to determine the ultimate colour of glasses. Research has shown that a precise colour is required to maximise reading comfort. Intuitive colorimetry is required to achieve this. Please visit Cerium Visual Technologies to find a list of practitioners who carry out colorimetry. www.ceriumvisualtechnologies.co.uk
I would recommend that an increase of reading speed when using colour should be apparent before going ahead with spectacles.
SUMMARY OF RESEARCH IN UK REGARDING MIS.
Reduced reading ability is widely associated with dyslexia but there remain a percentage of people who experience difficulty in reading but do not suffer from dyslexia. Visual stress can be described as the inability to read without discomfort or distortion, which affects both dyslexic and non-dyslexic readers (AJ Wilkins 1995).
The term Meares-Irlen syndrome is often used synonymously with visual stress as the symptoms are similar, but this term is more specifically related to the benefit of using coloured filters when reading. Visual stress has been strongly linked with pattern glare (BJW Evans 1996). Pattern glare is a sensitivity to patterns consisting of stripes which induce perceptual distortions of colour, bending of lines, 3-dimensionsal effects, shapes and blurring. In his early research into visual discomfort Wilkins describes that the perceptual distortions can be very specific, the most specific being that of the rhomboid lattice, a diamond shape made up from many lines and colours (AJ Wilkins and MI Nimmo-Smith 1984).
People most susceptible to perceptual distortions are those who suffer from migraine, frequent headaches or have a history of migraine in the family. If the stripes are within a critical range of parameters they may even provoke seizure in photosensitive epileptics. The presence of sensitivity to pattern glare in epileptics and those suffering from migraine may explain the cause of pattern glare and is based on a theory of cortical hyperexcitability (AJ Wilkins et al 2004) which will be described in more detail later. The type of pattern that is most likely to induce perceptual distortions and provoke seizures has been shown to be very specific.
Coloured filters where pioneered by Olive Meares and Helen Irlen in the early 1980’s. Coloured overlays and coloured spectacle lenses are now used widely, reducing symptoms of eyestrain and improving the reading ability of many (AJ Wilkins 2003). The precise colour required by each patient can be detected using the Intuitive Colorimeter, a device created by Wilkins, where the hue, saturation and brightness of a colour can be altered individually to produce the precise colour required. The process of how coloured filters reduce symptoms is not fully understood but may linked with the hyperexcitability of the visual cortex (AJ Wilkins 2003). Rainbow readers have invested in the equipment to be able to carry out highly sophisticated assessments.