What is Dyslexia?
Many children and adults suffer from visual discomfort when reading, which can affect reading fluency and concentration.
Coloured lenses have been shown to hugely benefit those with dyslexia, headaches, migraine, and photosensitive epilepsy.
Pages of print can resemble a visually stressful pattern. Print can be very 'stripy' and for a lot of people can be uncomfortable to look at. This can be similar to looking at a very stripy shirt for a prolonged time.
It is thought that this discomfort when looking at the print and hence the symptoms of Visual Stress in reading difficulties are also due to a hyper excitability of neurones in the Visual Cortex. This means that some of the cells in the part of the brain, which deals with processing of visual information work too fast and do not respond in the way they should.
We know that certain cells in the Visual Cortex are colour sensitive and therefore by placing a colour in front of the eye the pattern of excitation can be changed. In other words the colour will help to slow and calm these cells therefore quietening the pattern and reducing the Visual Stress.
The colour needed to reduce the hyper excitability is very precise and individual to each person.
Kara Tointon's Story
Last year former Eastender's actress and 2010 Strictly Come Dancing Winner, Kara Tointon attended the practice for a full Examination. Miss Tointon was diagnosed with dyslexia as a child and has struggled throughout her life with reading and memory tasks.
Firstly, Mr Burnett Hodd examined Miss Tointon' s eyes to check her ocular health and for any specific prescriptions which may benefit her visually. The next stage was to place Miss Tointon on our Intuitive Colourimeter.
Miss Tointon found a specific green tint enabled her to feel much more relaxed whilst reading and found the 'dancing effect' of the words reduced with this tint. We were able to make up a special pair of Cerium tinted spectacles, which Miss Tointon was thoroughly chuffed with!