Behaviors Associated with Irlen Syndrome

Individuals with Irlen Syndrome may:

1.             Lose their place on the page easily;

2.            Have trouble tracking from line to line or word to word, etc.;

3.            Skip words, lines, or reread words or lines;

4.            Misreads words or substitutes words;

5.            Skips or misses small words such as:  “a, an, and, the”;

6.            Misses plurals, some word endings and certain compound words;

7.             Reads through punctuation marks;

8.             Squint, open their eyes wide, rub their eyes, or have red and watery eyes;

9.             Be able to see only a small portion of page in focus – the rest may be blurry;

10.           Move around or move the book in order to get it in focus;

11.            Display a short attention span because of eye strain or sleepiness or fatigue while reading;

12.            Experience nausea because of movement seen on the page;

13.            Get a headache (or begins to feel the onset of a headache) after reading for awhile;

14.            Shade the page or move it to avoid glare;

15.            Be fidgety or restless while reading;

16.            Prefer to read in a dim light;

17.            Make errors when copying from the board;

18.            Misalign numbers in math problems;  misreads numbers;

19.            Have slow and choppy reading;

20.            Find it hard to see ahead to musical notes, sharps and flats;

21.            Be unable to stay on task without putting extra energy or effort into the process ;

22.            Be an underachiever.

23.            Difficulty sustaining reading for 15, 20 or 30 minutes without a lot of strain or effort.