Light sensetive

[viper]

Hi everyone.

My 12 year old daughter Jodie is sensetive to light. She gets migraines a lot and seems to suffer more at school. We had blue tinted glasses made for her which help a lot but one teacher always gives out work sheets on yellow paper, (she has a diferent colour paper for each year group). Jodie can't cope with the colour, she says all the words run together so she can't see them. She asked the teacher to photo copy it onto white paper and was told to take the sheet home and do it there (extra homework) I solved the problem by putting the sheet into a pink transparent folder.

 

Don't worry I am not rounding up a lynch mob for the teacher I am just interested to find out if anyone else has had this sort of problem with light and colour. Is it a common problem?

 

Wez

[tyraelie]

I've never noticed a problem with light or colour with my son, but I would like to comment on your daughter's teacher! I know you didn't post this to attach any blame, or as you said "rounding up a lynch mob", but does your daughter have a statement? I know she's diagnosed AS, but if she is statemented for it at school, the school is obliged to provide for her problems. I would be very tempted to have a quiet, polite word with this teacher and arrange for her to make copies onto white paper for your daughter. You don't have to be at all stroppy, just explain your daughter's problem, and stress that she shouldn't have to do extra work because of her disability. That's the teacher's job, in this case.

[viper]

Hi Tyraelie.

Jodie dosn't have a statement but the school is aware of her AS not that they help her much, they think she has " age appropriate behaviour" or as one teacher put it "no different from anyone else in her peer group.

I asked Jodie today how she was getting on with the work sheets and she said she just copies what her friend writes.

I think I will be seeing the school on monday.

Wez

[lisa]

My son has just been diagnosed with AS and we have a similar problem with his job-share teachers this year. They have said they don't see any difference between him and his peers and I get the impression they think I'm making something of nothing. I think particularly with very high functioning AS, it's hard for people to understand.

[tyraelie]

I agree totally that it's hard for other people to understand, because AS isn't a visible disability. However, that doesn't mean it doesn't exist, and it also isn't an excuse for the people responsible for educating our AS children to ignore their needs.

 

My own opinion is that it's very important for us to make sure these people are MADE to see that there are things they can, and must, do, in order for our children to get the best out of their educational opportunities. DO NOT let them blame you, or our AS children, for their condition. DO NOT let them neglect their obligation to treat our children as individuals, and cater to their specific needs. Many AS children may SEEM "normal" to those on the periphery of their social circle, but we know they have difficulties which, often, can be helped with very simple adjustments. It is our responsibility, as parents, to make sure these difficulties are pointed out to the relevant people, and that the adjustments are carried out.

 

My son went through his schooldays without the benefit of a diagnosis. I was made to feel like an inadequate parent throughout. My son was made to feel like a badly behaved, but normal, child. As a result, he got nothing from his education. Don't let this happen to your child, or perpetuate the situation for other AS children by keeping quiet about it.

[nellie]

I couldn't agree more tyraelie. Every child with a Special Educational Need has a legal right to have that need met, if it can't be met within the school budget then with a statement of educational needs. I would advise any parent who does not know their legal rights to special education to contact ACE, IPSEA or NAS Advocacy.

 

Details are on this site under ASD Resources.

A good tip is to make sure you have enough evidence to prove an assessment needs to be done before asking for one, if an assessment is refused I believe you have to wait six months before re-applying.

[Helen]

Hello everyone,

 

Daniel complains of headaches when he gets home after school, but this could be just because he's tired and had a hard day, who knows? When he does homework, he likes the lighting to be adjusted, so that it's easier for him to work.

 

At he moment, he wants to de-sensitise certain things around our house. He's already changed his bedroom furniture around and he's changed his bed linen, curtains and carpet for a calm blue colour, instead of his busy MAN U stuff. I've also added soft lighting and this truly does make a difference - the room is much more 'peaceful'. Daniel spends a lot of time in his room, so it's important that he has his own space to 'chill out', and this quiet, calm room is definitely helping him to do that.

 

I've also got rid of all the needless clutter around the house, but Daniel now wants a new living room carpet, because the pattern 'keeps jumping around'...

 

My 14 year old neuro-typical daughter who knows about his AS, thinks he's spoilt (which I hasten to add - he's most definitely not), but I've tried to explain that by helping him, I'm also helping us. She's since conceeded that he is a little more calmer these days.

 

Helen

[Jericho]

Hi!

 

My 3 year old is quite sensitive to light. He is particularly bothered by the fluorescent lights that seem to be in every doctor's surgery. When he was younger he would just sit in such a room looking out of the corners of his eyes. As his speech is now developing he will say "Light off. Light off." If it all gets too much for him he will hide under a chair where it is a bit darker.

 

My husband, who has a lot of AS traits says that yellow paper is definitely the hardest colour paper to read from. Blue-white is the easiest colour to read from. Even now if he is reading something he finds it easier to read if he puts a sheet of clear acrylic or clear plastic over the top of the page, as this takes the yellowness away from 'white' paper and makes it easier to read. In his eyes, cheap white paper looks yellow.

[dodobird]

hi to all

 

I was just wondering does anyone else suffer from flashes in your eyes and needs glasses like myself, I have to wear tinted glasses to prevent me from getting migranes if i forget to wear my glasses just one day like yesterday I hador i will get a headache but it wasn't a very strong one. Everyone at my school i go to questions me on why i wear dark glasses and i simply tell them that my eyes are sensative to light. It's part of my condition, i only have to wear them during school and when i am reading and watching tv.

Does anyone else suffor from this?

 

Dodobird

-x-x-x-x-

[Helen]

Hello dodobird, It's lovely to hear from you! Welcome to the forum

 

My son Daniel gets bad headaches when he comes home from school. He's had an eye test and his eyesight is great, but I think he gets headaches from the stress he gets in school...sometimes the lights in the classrooms get on his nerves...

 

When he does his homework, he asks for the lights to be dimmed, because the light hurts his eyes. He is more comfortable with the lights off - of course this annoys me sometimes, because when I walk around barefoot, I always stub my big toe on something

 

I think it's great that you get to wear these tinted glasses. How would I go about getting information for Daniel - perhaps he could do with a pair.

 

Look forward to hearing from you, kind wishes from Helen

Edited April 29, 2004 by Helen

[Helen]

Hi again dodobird,

 

I've read your introduction... clever choice of name, you really are unique

 

Can I ask you something? You mentioned in your introduction that at first you saw flashing lights, did you at any time see 'patterns'? Daniel often sees patterns. For example, he could just be looking at my bare arm and he would see 'squares' moving about.

 

Helen

[Elefan]

Hi Helen,

 

If it helps, I am a migraine sufferer and I see zig-zags,...in a horseshoe shape in the centre of my eye, which expand until my vision is trashed. <Where is the 'sick' smilie??!> The visual disturbance only lasts half an hour or so, before the killer of the actual headache begins!!

 

I wonder if ASD children are more likely to be migraine sufferers. Its my NT girl who suffers from them though!

 

Elefan

xx

[kaz]

HI dodobird

 

my son daniel has problems with the lights in school but like Helen i had his eyes tested not long ago and they where fine.

 

I know Luke Jackson ( the boy who wrote freeks geeks and asperger's) wears tinted glasses to school as well.

I bet all the other kids in school are just jealous that you get to wear glasses and they don't!!

 

On a totally differnt note welcome to the forum i hope you like it here, my 11 year old daughter posts in here sometimes as well i know she will love the fact that she is not the only younger one now!!

 

Love Karen x

[Helen]

Hello Elefan,

 

I too suffer with migraine, but I don't have the flashing lights nor do I feel sick, I just get the blinding headache for about two days!

 

My daughter also suffers from the same type of migraine as I, so did my mum and my grandmother.

 

I've asked Daniel if he sees 'two' of something (double vision), but he says he doesn't. I've been told his eye sight is great, and the optician said jokingly, that if he ever wanted to join the air force, he would pass on his eye sight alone.

 

Elefan, Daniel sees the patterns without the headaches...???

 

Helen

[Elefan]

Hi Helen,

 

I am no Doctor (obvious, eh?!! ), but I have heard that just getting the visual stuff is possible. Thats why they sell Migraleve 1 and Migraleve 2 packets,...different pills for different stages of migraine. Maybe worth further investigation,...perhaps a Doctor (rather than optician) could shed further light (pardon the pun!) on whether he is light sensitive of having a form of migraine. I got told that my NT little girl suffers 'Abdominal Migraines'!! I had never heard of them before!!!!

 

Elefan

xx

[nellie]

Hi folks,

 

I remember one doctor telling me during one of my son's 'strange' illnesses that he had a stomach migraine. We now believe that these were catatonic illnesses caused by stress.

 

Nellie.

[dodobird]

hi helen

 

I went to a childrens centre and they diagnosed me with ASD, they gave my parents the paper work and me and my dad went to the opticians to have my eyes tested and my dad asked if I could have tinted glasses so that the migranes would stop.

The migranes stopped but came back, then i went back to the doctors and he gave me some medicine, he said he headaches can come in groups and if I take the medicine for a while they should go but can come back so I take the medicine again.

I hope this helps Feel free to ask any more questions about this and i'll get back to you as soon as possible. (After school on weekday but all day weekends)

 

jodie

[kaz]

I hope this helps  Feel free to ask any more questions about this and i'll get back to you as soon as possible. (After school on weekday but all day weekends)

hey dodobird!!

 

i just loved your quote my kids think its unfair that i can use the computer when ever i want and they can only use it at the times you hvae said!

 

Karen x

 

P.s does you mum realise that by letting you on to this forum that she is never going to get on the compute at the weekend?

Edited April 30, 2004 by kaz

[Helen]

Hi dodobird and everyone else,

 

Thanks very much for your replies, you've been most helpful.

 

Helen

[viper]

Hi Kaz,

I do realise I have lost my computer, not only to Jodie but my 16 year old Jennifer and my 9 year old Abigail also want to join us, I think I've created a monster or three.

Thanks to everyone for welcoming her here.

Wendy.

[vastsarah]

hi all <'> i know that it is a bit off what dodobird started about the lights which i could understand being a problem.

But what about when in the bank and that mike they have on the counter to hear you ,that low hum is so or is it just me that cant stand it?

from vastsarah

[pookie170]

Hi Dodobird and all,

I know Luke Jackson ( the boy who wrote freeks geeks and asperger's) wears tinted glasses to school as well.

I watched the docu. on the Jackson family, and the kids were taken to see a specialist in London who tested their eyes, checking what colours their eyes absorbed the most efficiently, which colours on the spectrum were 'blocked' by their eyes and so on. He then prescribed special tinted glasses of various colours, according to the results of the colour spectrum test. They really seemed to help.

My son was envious as he's quite the fan of Ozzy Osbourne (no, he DOESN'T watch the show! )and blue glasses are the height of cool to him. The specialist's method of diagnosing which colour lenses the Jackson boys needed seemed very thorough and effective, but I have no idea how you could contact the guy. Maybe you could contact the Jacksons through their website and they could tell you.

Esther x

Edited May 1, 2004 by pookie170

[Gordie]

No problems here at all, regarding light, or anything to do with eyesight or headaches - I have very good eyes, and always have done, never having required glasses or contact lenses at all.

 

Looks like I'm fortunate, by the sounds of it.

 

James

[kirstie]

hi there everyone.my son does hate very bright light, sunshine mainly.i read the book mulicoloured mayhem by jacqui jackson and there are useful websites in the back.one being for Ian Jordan, the guy who prescribed the coloured lenses for her boys.well i was quite intrested in this as ihave a son at 11 who has dyslexic problems in maths and of coarse lewis with AS.i e-mailed him asking for info as to how i could go about getting this kind of help.He e-mailed me back to say that unfortunatley in Scotland theres no such help that he is aware of. (bummer) but he did say he was doing a lecture in Perth, scotland if that was of any interest to me.I'd love to go and learn more. this is the website, www.visualdyslexia.com.

(it's not just for Dyslexia but for kids with asd).Apparently my boy dosn't like to look me in the eye because he says " it hurts me".

anyway like i said to Ian Jordan i think it's time for Scotland to ' get with the programme' as it were. mmmm i feel a mission coming on........ bye for now, kirstie.

[Helen]

Evening all,

 

This afternoon I had a telephone call from Daniel's school - the school nurse wanted to speak with me. I wasn't aware that she was visiting the school today, she said the purpose of her visit was to conduct the usual health examination on Year 7 pupils.

 

She went on to say that Daniel had been given an eye test, his eyesight was good, but that the other tests she implemented showed that Daniel was colourblind, her actual words were "defective colour vision specifically with the colours red and green". She went on to explain that nothing could be done for this type of hindrance (she did use another word, but it could only annoy other people reading this - it annoyed me), but that Daniel would need to choose wisely his 'options' in year 9 for certain types of occuaptions from the information that she had made available to me. The information sheet provided a limited list of occupations that he would be able to apply for. In fact the limited list contains everything that he has an interest it, which is pretty spooky.

 

I was shocked by this, because last year when he had his eyes tested, the optician said everything was ok, even though Daniel did get three of the colour blind exercises incorrect.

 

As it happens, he has his yearly eye test next week with the optician - I'll keep you posted, perhaps the nurse was a little zealous - well that's what I'm hoping.

 

Helen

[dodobird]

hi all,

 

I was reading all of the things that you have written in replys (thanx) and i remember that when i was sitting in my technolgy and my teacher was standing in front of the blinds, i was lookin at her and i couldn't keep my eyes on her because she had patterns on her from the blinds and it gave me a headache, but when i looked away it was really weird.

Other times i have been out in the garden i have layed down and when i sit back up all i can see is lines going all around me in all dierections

 

jodie

[julieann]

I was interested to read your section on light sensitivity. My son will be 15yrs in November and has been out of the school system since last June (2003).

Whenever he does anything involving a tv monitor he is always in the dark. He shuts the blinds when using the computer and his bedroom curtains are always shut whilst on his play station. His bedroom walls are all deep blue and his bedding and curtains are Navy and deep blue ( his choice ). When he first came out of school he was so distressed and depressed that I thought this was why he was always in the dark. He is a lot happier person know and his " unaceptable behaviour" that he displayed at school has gone completely.

His biggest obstacle at school was reading. He told me only this week that when he reads, the bottom line jumps up to the top of the page and he cannot find his place. It therefore takes him such a long time to read that he would rather not bother at all. He has worn glasses since the age of 6yrs. I'm wandering if tinted glasses would help him.

Edited May 21, 2004 by julieann

[nellie]

Hi Julieann,

 

This quote is from on a previous posting by Kirstie.

 

 

hi there everyone.my son does hate very bright light, sunshine mainly.i read the book mulicoloured mayhem by jacqui jackson and there are useful websites in the back.one being for Ian Jordan, the guy who prescribed the coloured lenses for her boys.

 

This is Ian Jordan's website.

 

http://www.visualdyslexia.com/

 

Hope you find what you are looking for.

 

Nellie.

[aspieknee]

I know Luke Jackson ( the boy who wrote freeks geeks and asperger's) wears tinted glasses to school as well.

He did not write it, only bits. It was extensively ghost written. See the Times 16 Aug 02 and this bbc forum entry.

[Auriel]

I know Luke Jackson ( the boy who wrote freeks geeks and asperger's) wears tinted glasses to school as well.

He did not write it, only bits. It was extensively ghost written. See the Times 16 Aug 02 and this bbc forum entry.

we know this, seeing as you have written it SEVEN FLIPPING TIMES!!! aieee

[smallworld]

well said, auriel,

am even more impressed by the quotes within quotes!!

 

wac.

[smallworld]

hi auriel,

forgot to add,' flipping 'is my most favourite word, closely followed by 'blooming',

you obviously have had excellent training in choice words !!

I hope my children will copy this !

wac.(ky)

[aspieknee]

we know this, seeing as you have written it SEVEN FLIPPING TIMES!!! aieee

Great - that means I don't have to write it any more times. See!

[Ian Jordan]

For those people who want more info on the effects of light please email me and I will send an ebook that will explain subject in an understandable way (there are two that I can send - a simple version or a more complex version. Please state which you require) There is no charge but if you prefer to buy them bound they are available from Desktop Publications tel 01652 656552

IanJordan@visualdyslexia.com

Assessments are available in England and Ireland www.orthoscopics.com

[Viper]

Hi Ian,

My daughter has just had glasses made with purple lenses, she has problems reading from yellow paper and gets migrane from bright lights in school.

She has not been diagnosed with dyslexia but has a DX for AS.

She says when she reads from yellow paper the word she is trying to focus on jumps arround, she is not good at reading in general but her writen work is good.

Do you think she could be dyslexic?

 

Viper.

[Ian Jordan]

possibly. The symptoms should be TOTALLY stopped if specs are correct (purple is a VERY unusual colour for optimum results)

send me an e mail and will send you a lot of info

This also applies to anyone else that wants info

best wishes

Ian Jordan

 

email address

IanJordan@visualdyslexia.com

Edited December 28, 2004 by Ian Jordan

[hollymg]

It is so interesting to read all this and feel better prepared for what may come, instead of being clueless I hope to remember this and perhaps have an a-ha moment where I can understand and help!

 

At about age 3 (pre-diagnosis) I actually took Andy to the doctor about his eyes--and I'm not one to rush to the phone to make appts--because he always complained about the sun most of all and sometimes light inside. To this day we still call the walks from the car to the indoors "snuggle time" because I used to hold him and he would shield his eyes in my neck from "bright sun." We were referred to a specialist but of course before I could call he stopped complaining so I never took him in for the next step.

 

Now I read about sensitivities and it is one more piece in the early-hint puzzle, but I wonder why it seemed to have suddenly gotten better for him?

[Ian Jordan]

sorry,

At one level this area is easy, at another horribly complex - parents do not need to know the physiology etc, just how it affects their children.

I have a simple (parent friendly) set of books and am happy to send FOC.

Anyone who wants copies (e book) just e mail me on

IanJordan@visualdyslexia.com

 

books that can be sent

 

signs, symptoms and assessment (40 pages approx)

screening techniques 40 pages

a more general book 150 pages

 

hope this helps

[Elaine]

Hello

 

I have horrible problems with florescent lights, always have done - they make me feel dizzy and sick which makes shopping a nightmare. Anyway, I was advised (on another site) that coloured lenses might help.

 

I phoned up the local irlen lens place and was horrified by the costs involved, which would come to over ?400.00 just to get a pair of coloured glasses!

 

Does anyone know of an optician (in Cheshire) offering a similar service?

[Ian Jordan]

Might be an idea if you came to one of the lectures I am giving in September.

Every person with a child on the spectrum should be aware of the need for visual processing assessment.

 

"20th in Lincoln - Two lectures daytime professionals 5hrs, evening parents 2hrs for tickets tel 01526 378754

(Sponsored by "Blinded by the Light")

27th in Gloucester - shorter daytime 3hrs, evening 2hrs tel 0800 1697 3891" (sponsored by Norvilles opticians)

 

Not only will these presentations let you know a tremendous amount about the effects of colour in ASD / dyslexia / dyspraxia etc- they will save you money.

 

THere are much more advanced methods than Irlen - and the difference is significant!

 

PS Watch this space - a multisenory integration practice will be opening soon in October in Scotland.

Costs will be inexpensive!