Brain Injuries & Visual Problems

Whether a head injury is caused by a motor vehicle accident or a traumatic brain injury, during combat, or simply slipping on ice hitting your head on the front steps, these injuries can result in neurological changes in memory, ability to focus attention, ability to coordinate movement, ability to perform mental calculations and other cognitive tasks. These injuries can also result in change in personality and changes in the ability to see clearly.

Thanks to the efforts of an educational psychologist, Helen Irlen, the inventor of Irlen filters, individuals, including veterans returning from the Middle East, are being helped with visual distortions resulting from traumatic brain injuries. In the early 1980s, Helen Irlen identified and began to help individuals with a visual processing disorder which is called scotopic sensitivity or Irlen Syndrome. These individuals struggle through their school years attempting to read, can be very sensitive to light and have impaired depth perception. Below are examples of some of the types of distortions which can occur. These difficulties in visual processing sometimes to run in families but can also be acquired as a result of a head injury, brain surgery, whiplash and head trauma.