Dyslexia Testing

@Pigglies (9329)
United States
June 23, 2007 10:33am CST
I was finally able to get formal testing recently, as I have scotopic sensitivity syndrome and the school thought my problem was dyslexia more than the SSS. I have been suspected of having dyslexia since elementary school. And dyslexic students would tell me about how the words swapped and moved, and I would know that was what I had. But then I got tested for SSS, and it turned out that was from the SSS that made the page flicker and the words blur together, move off the page, etc. I started reading more about dyslexia and found out that dyslexics actually see the page fine in any size font, but can't process the page (provided, they don't have both dyslexia and SSS). So the results of the tests are in. I'm not dyslexic. :) I wonder how many people with SSS, the school labels with dyslexia though? Or how many people with dyslexia have both? That would be hard. It's been hard enough for me with just the severe SSS alone. To learn more about SSS, see www.irlen.com
2 people like this
4 responses
• United States
25 Jun 07
Well I guess this is a good thing though that you don't have both. I feel for you sweetie. I suppose if I ever have children and they think that they have dyslexia then I'll make sure it's not SSS before they're labeled.
1 person likes this
@Pigglies (9329)
• United States
26 Jun 07
Yeah, definitely a good thing that I don't have both. It's just so weird though how one thing can often appear to be an entirely different thing.
2 people like this
• United States
26 Jun 07
Yes it is. They often misdiagnose health things thinking it's one thing when it's another. I hope in the future we'll have something at least in the health care industry that can accurately diagnosis diseases, ect.
1 person likes this
@GardenGerty (157049)
• United States
27 Jun 07
Pigglies, I am so glad you finally got the testing, and I really like what I saw of the website. I have bookmarked it. I have never heard that label, SSS, or the term for the treatment. I have however seen the lead teacher I have experiment with giving some of our poor readers colored filters to use when reading. For some it was helpful, for others it was just something to play with instead of participate. My teacher has moved on to another school, and I will probably transfer to a different school closer to my home. I will still keep this in mind because it explained to me what she was doing. I know that on some of our standardized test they either have a colored screen or access to a computerized highlighter bar for when they are reading. So, with your SSS, what are your options?
@GardenGerty (157049)
• United States
27 Jun 07
Thanks for the extra information. I am impressed with what we can learn on here when we share.
@Pigglies (9329)
• United States
27 Jun 07
With SSS, you have to find the right color overlay for you. I was shocked when I started reading with an overlay, it's an unbelievable difference. Then, I proceeded to find the right color of filters for glasses, which was a lot harder (and still, I read better with the overlay). But the amazing thing is with the glasses, is that now I can see in 3D, which is really weird. And I don't see as many sparkles all the time. And I can tolerate fluorescent lighting without fainting in stores. For school, since it takes me longer to read I get extra time on my test (now that I'm in my 5th year of college). I'm trying to get blue paper as well, since I read faster on blue paper.
1 person likes this
• United States
5 Jan 08
Hey there, thanks for the link. I have dyslexia and was diagnosed as a child. My sister and dad have it also. My sister went through most of school not knowing what was wrong with her reading. She had to take special education classes in reading. I got lucky though, I never had to take special education classes because mine was caught early and therefore i was able to get help by different methods and was able to read using special lens or with a cap on my head.
@jolmartyn (129)
7 Jul 07
Its very difficult to accuratly diagnose some dyslexias with any degree of certainty. The scoptopic syndrome is far more rare than dyslexia that causes the words and letters to move independently. That is without other issues coexisting. The important thing is to seek professional advice and then take it with a pinch of salt. You are fortunate, if that is the right word that the SS is existing on its own. Literacy wise you will have catching up to do. A fundamental part of dyslexia is an issue with the short term memory not working OK, Sense of direction and time, difficulties writing and reading, disorganisation, left handedness. We all have these things of course. It need not be all of them all the time. It is dangerous to diagnose these problems without proper assessment (looking at the whole person!). How do feel if a label has been hung around your neck. A major feature of dyslexia is discrepency - appearing to be grat at some stuff, verbally but being awful at say writing it down. I have done a lot of research on coloured overlays and am sometimes amazed at the help they can give. Of course not just dyslexics but other issues too like epilepsy.
@Pigglies (9329)
• United States
8 Jul 07
I used to think it was dyslexia that made the words and letters move, but now that I've been able to read and learn more about dyslexia, I've never found that to be a symptom. It seems like dyslexics have something more like where they look at the page and everything is fine, but they just can't make sense of the words as easily due to the route in the brain where language is processed. My short term memory is great, and while I can't do phonics, it's probably not because I'm incapable, but just because that's not the way that we learned while I was a kid. I can read pretty much anything so long as I can see it, as I've found out now with the blue overlay. I'm ambidextrous, so the school always took that into consideration. Can't people just be ambidextrous and not dyslexic? I'm good in any subject that doesn't have reading involved, but the SSS is where I get my reading problems. The thing with dyslexia is too, large print isn't supposed to help. For me, I can read through distortions so long as the print is larger. Which means I'm processing things fine once I can actually process what I'm seeing on the page.