We suspected Eleni had difficulties at around year 3 at school, she would talk about words and letters jumping or moving on the page. The symptoms seemed to improve, but in hindsight, I think she just got better at managing them, and it became so normal she just didn’t mention it. However, it has meant that reading has been a slow and frustrating activity for her, always being worse at times of stress.

It was noticed that Eleni would struggle to read for long periods of time, would read quite slowly and guess words or phrases to mask the difficulties she was having. At school, this would mean that she sometimes completely misinterpreted a question, which would pose problems with exams and tests. Reading from the whiteboard in the classroom could be tricky, particularly photocopied sheets and exam papers, meaning it would take her longer than others to take in the information, causing her stress.

As Eleni found it tricky to copy things from the board, she would find that her understanding of the information was lacking because of the trouble reading and processing it. Her difficulties also significantly impacted her enjoyment of reading, particularly books for fun, as they could be a struggle for her.

After having our Irlen assessment, Eleni says she felt relieved and grateful learning about Irlen syndrome at bibic and that the overlays have made a huge difference to her reading, both for pleasure and in school. She has been enjoying reading books over the summer and finds processing written and printed information in class so much easier now with the overlays.

Eleni is now more relaxed about her reading and doesn’t stress so much about having to read information in class, particularly under exam conditions. It has certainly removed one of the weights that was pressing on her young shoulders.

Eleni used to struggle a lot with headaches, and these have decreased. When she forgets her overlays, you can really see a difference, both with headaches and tiredness. She reads quicker, more fluently and makes far fewer mistakes. They really helped her during her recent mock GCSEs at school, where she found it easier to understand and process the questions.

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