Scrapbook Layout WANETD

My brother sends me the BEST photos sometimes, usually around Halloween. 

This was one of those quick layouts I started in December last year, 

 

Edit: Some of you by now would have noticed the spelling error, I or my housemate did not notice this until I have originally posted this. This is what dyslexia looks like. The funny thing was my brother was the one who pointed it out and took it as an intentional joke. He too is dyslexic and more so than me. 

My New Coloured Filters

Colorimeter vs Irlen Method. 

New Colorimeter Filters 

When looking into Irlen Syndrome I did a bit of research on it all before I went for my screening last year. I came across Irlen filters offered through a Irlen Diagnostician and also Intuitive Colorimeter which seemed to be done through an optometrist. It was hard to find testimonials but I did find one pages saying Intuitive Colorimeter was a much more inferior process to the Irlen Method and at the time I didn't pay much attention to the site I was reading this information from. It wasn't until I had issues with my last pair of Irlen Spectral Filters that stopped working after a month and then proceeded to give me an excruciating headache through the left side of my head as a result I stopped wearing my Irlen Spectral Filters all together. 

My First pair of Irlen Spectral Filters the morning I got them before an Exam

The pair of Irlen Spectral Filters that should never have been

The last Irlen Spectral Filters that stopped working after 4 weeks

 I then went and did the Cellfield remediation and for a few months after that I had no need for any filters at all. I noticed though that I was experiencing the same symptoms and sensitivity to lighting like I used to before my Irlen Spectral Filters. I then looked in to Intuitive Colorimeter again as I had been referred to a Behavioural Optometrist here in Adelaide. It was then that I realised that the original sight I read saying that Intuitive Colorimeter was an inferior process to the Irlen Method was actually an Irlen site and the content has since been taken down. I dug further and found some wonderful testimonies about the outcomes of using colourimeter filters. I also read much of the research and studies done into Meares-Irlen Syndrome and the development of Intuitive Colorimeter. 

I took the plunge and am very happy with the outcome. 


I've had my new Colorimeter filters for 6 weeks and they are good! Glad I didn't throw in the towel entirely after my experience with the Irlen Method. The best part for me is knowing I have a 3 month warranty with these filters, meaning that if for ANY reason I feel they are not working quite right, I can go back and have the color changed at no charge. And not be told it was because of my chiropractic adjustment that the filters stopped working after a month, because one other client had that happen, and be charged $400. 

Another great thing with Colorimeter was the selection process was much more efficient and no where as fatiguing as the Irlen Method. Also I got my filters in a week rather than waiting 4 weeks. 

What did shock me is the closed mindedness of the Irlen "industry" out there, who feel that the ONLY way to successfully treat visual stress is exclusively with Irlen filters, cost to the families be damned. And who ignored and disregarded the science and success of Colourimeter to those who went in that direction. It just sickens me. What I did notice on many of those support groups though, many parents writing in saying their child won't wear their Irlen Spectral Filters because they can't see right, or they make them sick, or they get headaches. These parents are then told their child didn't listen when making their selection or that their child has had a colour shift and needs new glasses. I was so hounded about my suggestion to some of these parents to look into Colourimeter that I left the facebook groups that I decided to leave this support groups on Facebook. Then we have other groups that hound and berate those that even suggest the idea of coloured filters to help children and people with reading issues and dyslexia because of the "official" classification of dyslexia and there being no official research or classification for visual stress. It is just so sad that this happens, when something like this may actually help a child or even adult cope better in life and help them function better.

My advise is do you research go and see various practitioners and ask questions. What works for me, may very well not work for you, but you won't know if you don't research it. 

The Dyslexia Journey: Cellfield

Hello everyone. As I have posted on my blog about my experience with Irlens I thought I would talk about my experience with Cellfield, which is a remediation for Dyslexia.

At the beginning of July I went for a Cellfield assessment, the results of which showed I have certain issues with reading and comprehension. This is nothing out of the ordinary as I was diagnosed with Dyslexia in 2012, which was also not a surprise. 

After having little long term benefits from Irlens I looked at what else I could do in terms of neuroplasticity. Cellfield was recommended and I did some research in to the program. Like Irlen there were many who reported great improvement in their childs processing but there were the occasional case of there being no change to a child reading and comprehension. Finding information on adults who had done the program was not very fruitful, but I figured if it was being recommended to me then it is worth a try. I saw more benefit in try than just struggling and carrying on the way I have for 35 years. 

I really did not know what I was in for really, but my mind was put at ease and I dove right in. I did the program over five days with two, one hour session each day. The program is a visual and auditory base program with forces your brain to see passed the distraction or obstacles. In simple terms, I was looking at a screen that had dots appearing and disappearing and then either straight or waved bars tracking from one side of the screen to the other. Amongst all of this, I was directed to find words through the headphones I was wearing.
Added to all this I had to wear special glasses, some sessions one eye was patched others one eye has a red lens.

The first session was the hardest, mostly because there is no preparing yourself for the experience. I was really really tired and also famished (this is because I had burnt up a lot of brain fuel which is glucose). The rest of the sessions followed suit in terms of my coping, although by the 7th session I wasn't getting as exhausted after the sessions. What I did notice was about the 4th session I had noticed I wasn't using a process of elimination to find the words, but was actually looking for the word needed. Also I have used a decoding method for my B's and D's especially in lower case, which I noticed I wasn't having to use after the 4th or 5th session. There was an automation to my brain looking for a word I was directed to find.

Then we come to pigeon english. The most intensive section of the program for me was the pigeon english. At first I did ok as I was able to decode the pigeon sentence with little difficulty. By the 6th or 7th sessions I was reading the pigeon sentence like it was normal text, was freaked me out a little. Mostly because I was, at that point, very aware of the neuroplasticity that had taken effect.

The best part was the final session where I didn't get anything wrong.

Overall a grueling experience but well worth it. A nice little side effect is that since 2012 I have been wearing prescription specs, which I don't feel the need to wear any more. Also any visual symptoms I had with irlen Syndrome are not apparent any more. I go in for my post Cellfield assessment next week with the hope that there has been measurable improvement, but I feel there has been I just cannot articulate it apart from language connection being easier.

My Puzzle pieces progress

So it has been some time since I have done an update regarding my learning differences. Many things have happened and I thought it was time to bring every one up to date. Last year in May I was screened for Irlens Syndrome other wise known as Scotopic Sensitivity Syndrome. I got my first set of filters the day of an exam which was totally awesome, as I had little visual stress during the exam.

Around February of this year I noticed thing were getting difficult. I was walking in to furniture and door frames which hadn't happened since I had had the filters and reading became a lot more difficult than it needed to be. I found reading caused fatigue and vision stress that was not fun in the least. I consulted a diagnostician via Facebook about my problems, the recommendation made was to get a recheck.

This is where things got difficult and very problematic for the next 2 months. I made a selection of seven colour layers which from my perspective seemed to be perfect.  I then waited 4 weeks for my filters to arrive, when they did things were not good. The new filters were VERY different from the first set and I could not get use to them. They were dark and they were purple and they made my head hurt, so I went for another recheck.


This recheck was painful and uncomfortable and there was concern that I had an eye wobble issue, which requires other interventions and remediation. After an optical test it was discovered I didn't have this eye wobble but by this time my head and eye hurt A LOT. A third recheck was scheduled for the following days, which I was NOT looking forward to.


The following day was unpleasant (this is an understatement, attempting to keep things G rated).  The appointment took an hour and a half after which I like death warmed up. Everything hurt, my head, my eyes, my body and all I wanted to do was sleep and never wake up. Of course there was the 4 week wait for my new filters, which at this point I was very worried that they would not work and I would have spent A LOT of money I didn't have to throw away.

Those four weeks sucked, and towards to end of those 4 weeks things got so sore and uncomfortable that I was unable to walk due to my body hurting so much.  I tried everything to relieve my pain and discomfort and nothing worked, as a last resort I went and saw my chiropractor in total desperation.
Who was very worried when he saw me, as my spine and neck were in a bad way and indicated massive tension throughout all systems.  I was adjusted as best as one could under the circumstances and I went back for another adjustment the following week.


The day after my last adjustment my new filters arrived, and OMG!!

So the new filters were great, I stopped hurting and I was able to read without the visual stress and fatigue. Bliss.

4 weeks later I had my usual monthly chiropractic adjustment and the change in the tension in my spine and system was so altered (just not there) my chiropractor was blown away. He has been treating me for 4 years and is very familiar with the spinal patterns as I have scoliosis.

The last few days have been a little tough with the filters because of the weather and lighting change. These have become a bit dark and at times I have a lot of difficult to see clearly with the filters on. Other than that I just continue on as best I can. Over all I must admit to being a little less confidence in the Irlen method and the filters due to these events.



 

More Puzzle Pieces

About two months ago I went for an Irlen screening after a number of months researching this condition. During the screening it was made quite clear that I was suffering from scientifically what is known as Scotopic sensitivity syndrome, better known as Irlen syndrome. I was given two plastic overlays sheets of turquoise and grey to help me in the interim until I could get my filters.  

I began using these overlays immediately and found an improvement in quiet reading and had less discomfort reading off a white page.  A week after my screening I went for a second consultation to establish what my filters would be for my glasses which I received four weeks later.  

The filters arrived in the morning of my one and only exam which I was quite delighted with. I was able to comfortably sit the exam and answered as many questions as I possibly could. I notice during the course of that very first day that my head wasn't hurting and I felt a lot more relaxed and lights didn't affect me as they once did.

I have now been wearing the Irlen filters for a full month and have noticed further improvements in reading comprehension retaining of information, I much calmer in shopping centres and brightly lit areas and notice a massive difference if I'm not wearing my glasses at all. During this last for weeks I have also completed an essay assignment for one of my online units which was proofread and found to have a lot less mistakes in it as well as the proof reader mentioning that the writing flowed a lot better. Unfortunately I am still waiting for my results from that essay, hopefully I don't have to wait too much longer.  To date I am very pleased with the outcome I have achieved and experienced with having the Irlen Syndrome filters, as it has made a vast improvement to my functioning capabilities.

I unfortunately have still been plagued with an auditory sensitivity when it comes to loud noises and crowds and busy shopping centres. I began investigating sensory processing disorders and found that I fitted into the auditory processing disorders.  After attending a screening yesterday V consultant informed me that she believed I definitely do have auditory hypersensitivity and that there was remediation for this condition to allow me to function better in situations that I currently am uncomfortable and tend to have an extreme emotional reaction to.

It appears I have been on this journey for the last two and half years of discovering things about how my brain works and finding out that I don't just have to put up with how I process my environment around me and that I do have the opportunity to improve my functioning in our society. The reality that something can be done about many of these neurological dysfunctions of mine is very satisfied.  Hopefully with all this work I am doing on myself I will come out of this a lot happier, a lot healthier and with a clearer understanding of the difficulties many other people in our society face.  So, bring on the neuroplasticity and let get things changing!!!

Another Piece of the Puzzle

Today has been a bit of an eye opener and somewhat overwhelming, but to clearly express why this is so, I need to start at the beginning  The beginning is the acceptance after 2 years of struggling with distance education starting in 2011, when I finally got assessed for dyslexia and was found that this diagnosis was positive. Granted this is not a life threatening condition and really only affects my ability to retain information in written form. So, from this diagnosis I was able to get a certain level of help and assistance from my college and other area , which has been very wonderful. At the end of last year, when enrolling in a new college, I was informed of the "colored glasses" thing that could help me even more with my learning experience  Through further research though I came to realize I could not afford to even consider to get the screening done. Further research since then has lead me to understand the importance of going and getting the screening done as soon as possible.

This bring us to today. The "colored glasses" thing is called Scotopic Syndrome or is better known as Irlen Syndrome. It turns out I don't just have a Irlen Syndrome I have a severe case of it, as well as general light sensitivity and most likely an auditory processing issue. There is also remediation I can do in order to help retrain my dyslexic brain to process and function more efficiently.

My reason behind blogging my experience here is is to help bring awareness to others who may be having problems.If only person reads this and believes that they feel they are struggling or they see their child is struggling with learning, do them or your self the service of getting them checked out for dyslexia and Irlen Syndrome.  It may stop a lot of frustration and unnecessary struggling, when there are options and support out there.

The Global Education System

The concept of learning or a purpose

 

A few weeks ago I came across this TED talk clip which was posted on a friends Facebook profile. After watching it I realized everything that Seth Godin has talked about in this presentation is all very accurate from my point of view. Our education system, globally, has been modeled on the really old backward principle of do as you are told and learn what we teach you. 

As a dyslexic and growing up in a society that was opposed and utterly fearful of what they didn't know or understand, South Africa, I endured many school days of getting belittled by school teachers for just not getting the work that was being presented by them. I remember my poor brother, Danial, struggling week after week with maths problems and home work, with further yelling and berating by our father who just has no idea how to actually present the information in a way that Danial would get. There are more people with "learning disabilities" in this world than most would like to admit, and still there is this conformist attitude by training institutes and schools out there that those with "learning disabilities" just have to learn how the subject is taught. 

A little bit of background here, I have only be diagnosed since early 2012 with dyslexia, but have had suspicions for many many years. I also do not see my dyslexia as a "learning disability", as I have a rather dynamic method of learning. I see the term "learning disability" as the inability to learn some thing which in my case is totally incorrect. I do learn, almost every waking, and some time attempting to sleep, moment of the day. If I don't know some thing I look it up, because this is a technological age with the interwebs.  Because as Seth puts it, "anything worth memorizing, is worth looking up".

So, back to the topic of the education system....

In early 2011 I set out to study again, only this time it wasn't in the creative side of this, instead it was an academic course, the Advanced Diploma of Naturopathy. I chose to do this course as a external student, no contact with any lecturer and only books to read from. Now, I was under the deluded notion that the institute I am studying through knew what they were actually teaching in this course. It turns out I was so very wrong.

In the 2 years I have been studying through this institution I have found glaring errors in course work books the most recent of which was an appalling mistake about the global symbol for health and medicine which was put in my course work book as The Caduceus, which has nothing to do with health and medicine as all. This perpetuated mistake by a medical division in the USA has made its way into my course work, which I reported to the head of the institute mentioning that hopefully it won't be on the assessment.  I eventually put this information on a discussion forum where I am advised by another student that if it is in the exam just to give the answer that was in the course work book. Has our eduction really boiled down to compliance?It has dawned on me that the institute I am studying through most likely hasn't actually written the course work book but has rather copied and pasted information from another institutes course work book. Which only makes the education system all about profit and not actually about teaching anything.

In short, we need to find better ways to teach people that the sub standard methods we are too scared to evolved out of. I will leave you with this very apt meme....