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Reading by the Colors
This new edition of Reading by the Colors includes significant breakthroughs and new applications for use with the Irlen Method to aid in the treatment of reading disabilities.
- GenresNonfictionEducation
195 pages, Paperback
First published April 1, 1991
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Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews
December 22, 2021
3.5/5
I think this is a book that every parent, educator, and physician should read. Although the focus is on Irlen Syndrome/Scotopic Sensitivity Syndrome (SSS), I think it does an excellent job in articulating compassion for children who are struggling with learning and offers simple and viable solutions. It also offers good summaries for other learning disabilities and how SSS treatment could be beneficial in learning environments for all kinds of people.
I myself have been diagnosed with SSS as well as another neurological condition called Visual Snow Syndrome, so I did find the book to be both validating and redundant. Most of the information was not new because I’ve known about these illnesses for a few years now, and have been dealing with them for my entire life. So for those with the conditions unless you are newly diagnosed this book may be a bit boring/repetitive.
If you have recently been diagnosed with a learning disability and/or SSS, and do not know much about it yet, I highly recommend this book. It has excellent resources for finding treatment, explains the process, and also offers resources for better explaining what you experience. There are many visuals that represent what reading may look like and I personally have those pages tabbed in order to show others.
Definitely worth the read for most people. The language used is easy to understand, and I wish more people had a greater understanding for SSS and other related conditions discussed in this book.
On a somewhat unrelated note, the excerpt from 'Love Tactics: How to Win the One You Want' by Robert H. Phillips and Thomas W. McKnight, was absolutely terrible. I wish they had included a less manipulation based excerpt instead…
I think this is a book that every parent, educator, and physician should read. Although the focus is on Irlen Syndrome/Scotopic Sensitivity Syndrome (SSS), I think it does an excellent job in articulating compassion for children who are struggling with learning and offers simple and viable solutions. It also offers good summaries for other learning disabilities and how SSS treatment could be beneficial in learning environments for all kinds of people.
I myself have been diagnosed with SSS as well as another neurological condition called Visual Snow Syndrome, so I did find the book to be both validating and redundant. Most of the information was not new because I’ve known about these illnesses for a few years now, and have been dealing with them for my entire life. So for those with the conditions unless you are newly diagnosed this book may be a bit boring/repetitive.
If you have recently been diagnosed with a learning disability and/or SSS, and do not know much about it yet, I highly recommend this book. It has excellent resources for finding treatment, explains the process, and also offers resources for better explaining what you experience. There are many visuals that represent what reading may look like and I personally have those pages tabbed in order to show others.
Definitely worth the read for most people. The language used is easy to understand, and I wish more people had a greater understanding for SSS and other related conditions discussed in this book.
On a somewhat unrelated note, the excerpt from 'Love Tactics: How to Win the One You Want' by Robert H. Phillips and Thomas W. McKnight, was absolutely terrible. I wish they had included a less manipulation based excerpt instead…
December 3, 2017
About 15 years ago I was having dinner with some new friends and it somehow came up that I get headaches from reading because the white spaces on the page bother my eyes. The wife of the family was a screener for the Irlen Syndrome, and she offered me a free screening. Learning about the "rivers effect" (as shown on page 40 of this book) absolutely struck me--that is exactly what the printed page looks like when I read, and I had no idea it was not a normal effect. Reading with the turquoise overlays changed my life for the better. I went from being a good student but reluctant reader to being an avid lover of books. I recommend the Irlen Syndrome testers to anyone that mentions reading problems. This book is a fantastic explanation of visual perception disorders, dyslexia, and how to help them. I love that it mentions trouble with depth perception because I definitely struggle with that as well. I have thought of becoming a screener and may look into that more in the near future.
October 24, 2018
This was a loan from my Physical Therapist, when talking about our mutual love of reading she said she preferred audio books because of her reading disability. In addition to slight dyslexia, she has SSS, a condition I wasn't familiar with even though I'd heard about the use of colored filters.
That helped her and she loaned me this book about the Irlen Method for treating Scotopic Sensitivity Syndrome and other reading disabilities. I now wonder how many people in my life who've struggled with reading including long ago in my grade school classrooms had undiagnosed issues.
One of the most effective examples came in a section where the pages are set up in what looks like misprints and shows the jumble normal pages appear to a person with SSS.
Both frustrating and fascinating.
That helped her and she loaned me this book about the Irlen Method for treating Scotopic Sensitivity Syndrome and other reading disabilities. I now wonder how many people in my life who've struggled with reading including long ago in my grade school classrooms had undiagnosed issues.
One of the most effective examples came in a section where the pages are set up in what looks like misprints and shows the jumble normal pages appear to a person with SSS.
Both frustrating and fascinating.
December 23, 2022
This will go down as the most influential book I've read this year in regard to helping my daughter with scotopic sensitivity syndrome and irlen syndrome . I cannot say enough good things about how this has helped us in communication, in my advocacy for her, my understanding of her struggle...all the things. If you read or know someone who does, you should read this. If you struggle. Absolutely phenomenal, fascinating, eye opening, and a MUST READ for anyone involved with education.
April 8, 2022
A life-changing book for me. I finished it in one reading session. It's an eye opener on a challenge that hinders kids and adults' abilities to read and learn.
It's a must to read book for educators and parents to understand how some persons may suffer, and how they could be helped to unleash their potential to succeed in study and in life.
It's a must to read book for educators and parents to understand how some persons may suffer, and how they could be helped to unleash their potential to succeed in study and in life.
June 4, 2022
A great resource for anyone who teaches reading to struggling readers.
December 5, 2023
A very good, thorough look, at the idea behind Irlen syndrome, screening, and how it affects visual learning and reading. As a screener, it was very informative.
June 3, 2024
Interesting information. Seems like it is written to be an advertisement for the Irlen reading system and SSS.
February 25, 2023
Fascinating topic. Book is light on details of the training/screening, but a great starting point.
April 13, 2015
Pretty disappointed by this. Currently dealing with a child who *might* have a problem with reading. This book was recommended by a doctor that we trust.
However, this book is primarily a marketing vehicle for the Irlen Institute. Alternative medicines always discuss how the mainstream medicine ignores them, or puts them down. Irlen claims that the "media" has focused on the negative, without stating clearly what negative they focus on, nor why that is inappropriate. However surely most of us would clearly recognize the conflict of interest of promoting a procedure that you are in business to provide. One needs then to be doubly careful.
Irlen has that standard anecdotal stories about the people who are "helped". OK, where is the science? Irlen says that studies have confirmed her conclusions, but she does not mention what those studies are, and who did them. The complete absence of scientific assessment is disturbing. I don't suspect Irlen of being underhanded, instead just being scientifically incompetent. PLEASE: do the study properly so we all can benefit from it.
A short study of the internet show that the American Academy of Pediatrics disputes her claims, and the University of Edinburgh did a controlled study that showed no effect. Should I believe them? I honestly don't know, but they are the only scientific studies found in a quick search. If there IS scientific study that demonstrates evidence, why is it not cited specifically?
Much of the book is spent on how schools never obey the whims of parents. It does not, however, spend time demonstrating that parents -- who often are overly concerned about their own children and have no professional training in child illnesses -- know better than the schools. I have no doubt that special care exists to help students that is not regularly provided for free. The fact that schools don't know about SSS nor offer treatment for it neither supports nor detracts from the veracity of SSS. It struck me as fear-mongering and ... I don't know, maybe anti-establishment mongering. "Alternative Medicine" typically uses this as a promotional technique, and I don't want to see it in a book I am prepared to take seriously.
All in all, I was disappointed. I was HOPING for a treatment that might help my child. however, after reading this book, I feel I will have to go read another. One that treats the reader with respect, one that is impartial to the result, and one that relies on scientific evidence to make claims.
However, this book is primarily a marketing vehicle for the Irlen Institute. Alternative medicines always discuss how the mainstream medicine ignores them, or puts them down. Irlen claims that the "media" has focused on the negative, without stating clearly what negative they focus on, nor why that is inappropriate. However surely most of us would clearly recognize the conflict of interest of promoting a procedure that you are in business to provide. One needs then to be doubly careful.
Irlen has that standard anecdotal stories about the people who are "helped". OK, where is the science? Irlen says that studies have confirmed her conclusions, but she does not mention what those studies are, and who did them. The complete absence of scientific assessment is disturbing. I don't suspect Irlen of being underhanded, instead just being scientifically incompetent. PLEASE: do the study properly so we all can benefit from it.
A short study of the internet show that the American Academy of Pediatrics disputes her claims, and the University of Edinburgh did a controlled study that showed no effect. Should I believe them? I honestly don't know, but they are the only scientific studies found in a quick search. If there IS scientific study that demonstrates evidence, why is it not cited specifically?
Much of the book is spent on how schools never obey the whims of parents. It does not, however, spend time demonstrating that parents -- who often are overly concerned about their own children and have no professional training in child illnesses -- know better than the schools. I have no doubt that special care exists to help students that is not regularly provided for free. The fact that schools don't know about SSS nor offer treatment for it neither supports nor detracts from the veracity of SSS. It struck me as fear-mongering and ... I don't know, maybe anti-establishment mongering. "Alternative Medicine" typically uses this as a promotional technique, and I don't want to see it in a book I am prepared to take seriously.
All in all, I was disappointed. I was HOPING for a treatment that might help my child. however, after reading this book, I feel I will have to go read another. One that treats the reader with respect, one that is impartial to the result, and one that relies on scientific evidence to make claims.
September 22, 2012
This is the first book written by Helen Irlen about the Irlen method. It provides some fantastic examples of the distortions caused by visual stress. In conjunction with this book I also recommend Helen's "The Irlen Revolution". For information about empirical scientific studies I highly recommend Professor Arnold Wilkin's book "Reading through colour" (2003) - his book provides a review of research undertaken in the field of visual stress up to 2003. A list of reference of scholarly literature is provided at the back of the book. A lot of studies have been carried out since 2003 by a variety of scholars and these studies have provided further evidence to support the benefits of the use of tinted lenses to relieve symptoms and distortions caused by visual stress. These studies can be accessed by searching databases such as Scopus and Sciverse using the key words "Irlen" & "Visual stress".
March 31, 2015
The author makes it very clear that the Irlen method is not an alternative approach to learning to read. It offers this method as a treatment for people with Scotopic Sensitivity Syndrome, which is a visual processing disorder of due to sensitivity to certain wavelengths of light. This book provided hope--but that is perhaps because we have already had the screening done and seen firsthand that a simple tool of the right colored overlays can improve the symptoms. Well-organized and realistic that this is not a solution that will fix all reading problems, but a step towards helping the subset of the population that has this perceptual problem (although 6% within the identified Irlen syndrome population are still not going to be able to be effectively treated and helped).
July 9, 2010
This book did nothing but let the author pompously state in various ways what problems there are (Could 've taken 1 chapter for that) and then how their system will fit in but never offers any real suggestions or help. The only thing this book does is try to convince you that you need to go and spend a lot of money at one of her clinics. Seriously, this was a big waste of my time!
October 13, 2015
As a teacher, I need to know about diagnosing and helping children with this condition. This gave me a bit of good information, but it was mainly about the Ireln method and that only Ireln-certified people can diagnose. I live nowhere near any of their institutes, so clearly, I see have research to do.
October 17, 2007
A very interesting theory which may help some children dramatically. But still considered controversial.
Read
November 21, 2012I think I will have to re-read it to get its full impact but it was very informative.
May 22, 2014
good information to use
December 17, 2012
some good ideas and such, worth reading
Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews