A QEEG Study on the Usage of Yellow Overlays for Reading among Autism Spectrum Disorder Children with Irlen Syndrome Symptoms

Abstract

This research was carried out in order to compare the difference of brainwaves with and without using yellow overlays when reading among ASD children with the symptoms of Irlen Syndrome. The population from this research consists of sixteen children with chronological ages between six to fourteen years old from Kota Samarahan and Kuching, Sarawak. Quasi-experiments one group pre-test and post-test design was applied in this research. The participants completed the reading task using yellow and without yellow overlays. Subsequently, the QEEG was used to record and analyses the electrical activity in the Region of Interest (frontal and temporal). The analysis results on the paired sample t-test indicated the significant differences for beta brainwaves at frontal t (15) = -2.791, p = 0.014, and temporal area t (15) = -2.218, p = 0.042 while using yellow overlays.  However, only the frontal area found significant differences for the alpha brainwaves when using yellow overlays t (15) = -2.428, p = 0.028. Apparently, the results of this research show that yellow overlays can help improve reading achievements and produce extra attention when reading more than without using yellow overlays among ASD children with the Irlen Syndrome symptoms.