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The following is an article that was printed in the Evening Star October 31, 1994

Invisible Handicap

 If your child has trouble reading, complains of tiredness, and is being told to try harder at school, DON’T jump to conclusions-the youngster may be scotopic.  One Ipswich teenager, who had a miserable school-life, has been successfully diagnosed and treated, has spoken to reporter HELEN ROBERTSON and is now preparing for a brighter future at university.  A bright Ipswich student, who tricked teachers into believing he could read, for more than 10 years, has discovered that he suffers from a serious reading problem.  Marcus Brown has severe Scotopic Sensitivity Syndrome.  The condition affects the light signals sent from his eyes to his brain, distorting shapes-especially the written word which pulsates from the page while the letters, words and lines run together into a jumbled mass.

Now that his condition has been diagnosed he wears light filtering lenses to alleviate the problem, but prior to this Marcus devised many ways of hiding his inability to read well.  “If we were taking it in turns to read aloud in class I would work out which paragraph would be mine, read it over about 30 times one letter at a time, building up each word, and then recite it when it was my turn,” said Marcus, of Bridport Avenue.

Marcus is also a talented musician and has learnt to play most instruments by ear, so when his teacher put sheet music in front of him and said “play Greensleeves”, he would, but not from the sheet.

The condition which is believed to affect about 15 per cent of the population, can stay undetected because a Scotopic person often appears to be someone who is lazy and lacking in concentration.  Their sensitivity to light makes reading very tiring because of the glare from white paper.  Colours are dimmed, they can only concentrate for short periods of time, and as with Marcus, it can lead to dyslexia and dysgraphia.  “My school reports all said I should work harder, but I just couldn’t concentrate for long.  I just thought I couldn’t read well,” he said.  “I was keeping up all right at school and getting good marks for everything so I thought nothing was wrong-although I was getting very tired”.  “I can concentrate hard for short lengths of time-like for maths, but not for essays.

“It’s an invisible handicap,” said his Mother Patricia.  “Nobody knows how he has done so well.  Experts say it’s amazing.  I’m just glad he had the sound personality and the brains to cope with it”.  Now, Mrs Brown’s main concern is to make other people aware of the condition, so children who appear lazy or slow are not just ignored or told to do better.  “I don’t want children to be missed again”, said Mrs. Brown.  “I would like parents to be aware of the condition and for opticians to screen for Scotopic Sensitivity Syndrome when they do eye tests on children.  You can’t put the clocks back but it would be nice if other children could benefit from what Marcus has been through.  I wish I had picked up on it quicker.  I wish we had realised how hard he was trying”.

Marcus said when he first wore his new lenses “everything was just so relaxing.  It was raining and everything looked so nice.  I didn’t have to strain to see anything”.  “If I had worn them when I was six or seven it may have cured itself.  Now I will have to have lenses for life”. Marcus is now a successful sixth form student at Westbourne High School.