We’ve been talking a lot lately about all the work Irlen is doing with US military and veteran TBI victims, and you might wonder why. Well, a US Marine who suffers a combat-related brain injury is no different than a 5th grader who gets a concussion on the soccer field, or a father of 5 whose head hits the dashboard during a car accident. Traumatic brain injury, concussion and whiplash affect thousands and thousands of people, and the lingering effects can be devastating. Some people recover without any lingering effects, but many more suffer months or years of symptoms such as light sensitivity, headaches, migraines, reading problems, and issues with general perception that just won’t go away no matter how many different treatments or medications they try.
Not everyone who suffers a head injury will end up acquiring symptoms of Irlen Syndrome, but preliminary research on TBI victims suggests that 30% are good candidates for Irlen Spectral Filters. Key criteria for being an Irlen candidate after brain injury, concussion or whiplash include: light sensitivity, regular headaches and/or migraines, and reading and other perceptual issues.
Education has recognized the difficulties returning to the classroom that many children experience after suffering a head injury or concussion. They have implemented a Return to Learn protocol to try and help teachers and parents understand the need for a slow and step-wise re-integration into classroom environments and academic workloads. But they have yet to understand how colored lenses can reduce stress on the brain for some of these victims, eliminate their difficulties with light sensitivity and headaches or migraines, improve their reading and academic abilities, and allow them to return to much of the life they had before their injury. Irlen Spectral Filters are doing that for our head injury clients, whether they are military, professional athlete, student, or adult accident victim.
Helen Irlen recently came out with a new book on Irlen and Sports Concussion called, Sports Concussion and Getting Back in the Game of Life, which details how The Irlen Method can help with symptoms of Irlen Syndrome acquired after head injury. It’s a playbook for parents, coaches, and anyone else interacting with children and adults who have lingering symptoms after a concussion.
So why all this talk about the military? Because TBI is the most prolific injury of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and it has left hundreds-of-thousands of service men and women struggling. This allowed us to gather data on hundreds of TBI sufferers that we could analyze, and it allowed us to translate those research results to the rest of the TBI population. We found a great partner in this mission with Semper Fi Fund, who has been instrumental in providing Irlen Spectral Filters for all qualifying members of the armed forces. And because of this joint effort, we have been able to solidify Irlen Spectal Filters a viable tool to address some of the lingering effects of TBI, concussion and whiplash.
You can help our war heroes who have come home with beaten and battered brains too by supporting the Semper Fi Fund and specifying that your donation be used specifically for “Assistance – Irlen Spectral Filters.”
For more information about Irlen Spectral Filters and head injury, click HERE.