Waikato mum, daughter's eyes opened to perceptual processing disorder

Irlen Syndrome causes the brain, not the eyes, to have difficulty processing certain wavelengths of light, resulting in not being able to process visual information. Photo / 123RF

Waikato woman Joanne Ingle recalled becoming exhausted, suffering migraines and being left with sore eyes after driving home each day into the bright, setting sun.

Her 15-year-old daughter, Kerrin Ingle-Cox, had similar problems - and just concentrating in the classroom could prove a challenge.

That was before both were diagnosed this year with a little-heard-of but debilitating perceptual processing disorder.

Irlen Syndrome causes the brain, not the eyes, to have difficulty processing certain wavelengths of light, resulting in not being able to process visual information and struggling to focus, read and write.

Symptoms vary from person to person, as was the case for Joanne and Kerrin, but those with the syndrome often see black and white print as unclear, fuzzy or words appear to move on the page.

For some, it was instead the brightness of the white on the page that caused problems, stopping them from focusing on the print.

"I had been noticing that I don't see white as white anymore," said Ingle, who was speaking out about the syndrome ahead of a national awareness week running from October 16-20.

Joanne Ingle and daughter Kerrin Ingle-Cox, 15, were both recently diagnosed with Irlen Syndrome, debilitating perceptual processing disorder. Photo / Supplied

"I see a white page with black print on it and there is grey area there too, almost like a grey smoke over the page, but around each letter it is so white as if a light is shining out."

But she didn't realise how bad it was until she went and got it checked.

After being diagnosed and receiving glasses with coloured lenses, she and her daughter had noticed the headaches had vanished.

Ingle now didn't feel drained after office meetings held under bright fluorescent lights.

"It has been a blessing finding out what was actually wrong and that there was something I could do about it."

Around 2,500 people are assessed for the condition in New Zealand each year.

"Irlen Syndrome has been around for years but still very little people know about it and it is only really by word of mouth that people find out about it," said Julie Gibson, a dispensing optician at Paterson Burn in Te Awamutu and one of 17 Irlen diagnosticians in the country.

"Sometimes it takes years of suffering before somebody will mention Irlen Syndrome to them and then suddenly everything makes sense and falls in to place."