It's not too late to register for this workshop. Email nola@irlenalberta.ca with any questions.
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Membership fees have been reduced. If you joined in 2014 your membership is now valid to the end of 2015. Check out the updates fees under memberships. If you are uncertified or not active as a screener you can join as an associate or affiliate. Email with any questions!
Irlen Screener Certification Workshop
August 19 – 21, 2014 Screener Certification is an intensive training session for qualified persons who wish to be licensed to test for Irlen Syndrome. Licensed screeners are able to recognize and test for Irlen Syndrome, determine which coloured overlays reduce symptoms, recommend classroom and home adaptations and give presentations about Irlen Syndrome. Certified Irlen Screeners are part of an International Network of professionals who help maximize educational, work, and daily activity performance for children and adults with reading problems, ADD/ADHD, chronic migraines/headaches, light sensitivity, anxieties, autism and sensory processing disorders. This Workshop is offered to: Teachers, Psychologists, Counselors, Adult Literacy Teachers, Health Professionals, Speech-Language Pathologists, Occupational Therapists, Learning Specialists and Educational Therapists. An undergraduate degree, teaching credential, graduate degree or appropriate license is required. Recommendation: read both Helen Irlen’s Reading by the Colors and The Irlen Revolution prior to training. (Available from Reading & Writing Consultants, Inc at cost.) Trainees must complete 3 practice screenings to complete certification requirements. Dates: August 19 – 21st, 2014 Time: Aug. 19th-7:00 pm to 9:00 pm Aug. 20th, 21st-9:00 am to 4:30 pm Location: Malcolm Tweddle School, 2340 Millbourne Rd W NW, Edmonton, AB T6K 1Y9 Cost: (includes GST):$800 (includes training & testing materials) For a registration form please call 780-439-8120 or e-mail reading@telus.net A brief resume and a cover letter explaining your interest in Irlen Syndrome will be required along with your registration form.  CAIP is pleased to offer our first webinar on May 12, 2014 at noon Alberta time.
The webinar is available to members only. Those members unable to attend can view the webinar when they want through the Members only section of the CAIP website. As well, people who join CAIP later will have access to the webinar when their membership is active. We hope you enjoy this webinar and look forward to your feedback! Nola Stigings, CAIP President 
I had this student read with and without his color filter and I did not observe any significant difference... I frequently overhear comments made by professionals which suggest on their part an incomprehension about Irlen Syndrome. Yet these well-meaning individuals work in fields that are very close to mine: learning, perceptual difficulties and optimising brain functioning. Some of these issues I wish to address in this instalment. This simple statement suggests a basic misunderstanding of Irlen’s Syndrome that I wish to discuss. This well-meaning professional had the best intentions, but did not take into account the fact that distortions may not always manifest themselves after only a few sentences. A study by Tyrrell, R., Holland, K., Dennis, D. and Wilkins A. (1995) (i) suggests, in fact, that on the average there needs to be about 10 minutes of demanding visual activity such as reading before the typical symptoms of Irlen syndrome occur: moving letters, narrowing of the visual span [ii], waving of the lines of text, distortion of the background such as the apparition of colors, gray or bright zones, auras, etc. These distortions alone will make reading less efficient, will hamper comprehension and lead to visual fatigue, which in turn will have an effect on attention. The rate of reading is not the only aspect that a rigorous professional should consider when assessing the value of color filters. There are other elements such as fatigue, distractibility, discomfort, and the numbers of errors and self-corrections. For the sake of objectivity, one should consider the degree of fatigue and discomfort after a visually demanding task of at least 15 minutes, then only then question the student about his experiences comparing a white page and a “protected” page using a Irlen® color filter. Consideration should be given to the subtle facial signs of visual stress (squinting, etc.) Another expression of scientific rigor would be to observe and compare the length of time the student will remain attentive, during a reading period, with and without filters. Will he require more rest periods, in one situation compared to the other? Can he or she remain on task longer? Is he or she better at picking up information from the page? Will he or she show more or less fatigue at the end of the school day? Finally, is he or she better at self-correcting small mistakes? Any improvements in these areas suggests that the brain has more resources available to deal with tasks that are metacognitive in nature. Jacques Guimond, Irlen Diagnostician [i] Tyrrell, R., Holland, K., Dennis, D. et Wilkins, A. (1995) - Coloured Overlays, Visual Discomfort, Visual Search and Classroom Reading. Journal of Research in Reading, 18(1), pp 10-23 [ii] Do not confuse with peripheral vision. Visual span is the area of the field of vision where the text is sharp enough to be read without the need for the eye to move on the page. [iii] Lewine, J.D. (1999). - Changes in visual evoked magnetic field for people with SS/S. Fourth Biannual Australasian Irlen Conference. Newcastle, Australia, May 20-22 [iv] Wilkins, Huang et Cao, (2007) Prevention of Visual Stress and Migraine With Precision Spectral Filters – Research Overview, Drug Development and Research 68:469–475 (2007) . 
Jacques Guimond, Irlen diagnostician
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