Blue Overlay For Dyslexia A4 Pack | Dyslexia Overlays For Visual Stress Relief | Dyslexia Coloured Overlays For Reading Aids | Coloured Overlays For Dyslexia Aids For Children | Dyslexia Reading Aids

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Lightstone, A., Lightstone, T. and Wilkins, A.J. (1999). Both coloured overlays and coloured lenses can improve reading fluency, but their optimal chromaticities differ.

Wilkins, A.J. (1994) Overlays for classroom and optometric use. Ophthalmic and Physiological Optics, 14, 97-99. 7 Wilkins, A., Jeanes, R., Pumfrey, P.D., Laskier, M. (1996). Rate of reading test: its reliability, and its validity in the assessment of the effects of coloured overlays. Ophthalmic and Physiological Optics, 16, 491-497.There are many factors involved. First, are the overlays obviously beneficial? If so, only a short trial period, say six weeks, is necessary, particularly if headaches have been reduced but not eliminated, and if untidy writing continues to be a problem. Under these circumstances glasses may further reduce the headaches and may well improve the handwriting. Some orthoptic departments may also undertake coloured overlay testing. A few have an Intuitive Colorimeter. The effectiveness of dyslexia glasses and lenses can vary from person to person, as dyslexia is a complex condition with individual differences. Blue filters can be even more effective. Joe Taylor showed that they probably work in a different way; because blue can affect the brain unconsciously. From the grainy two-dimensional images that are projected onto our retinae, and projected to the visual cortex via the retino-geniculate pathway, the brain creates a conscious vivid and detailed three-dimensional visual experience. But blue projects to other important pathways running from the eyes deep into a primitive part of the brain called the hypothalamus; this controls powerful physiological systems that regulate our diurnal rhythms: when we wake up, the daily rise and fall of our blood pressure, energy and hormone levels, that we are hardly aware of. Melanopsin retinal ganglion cells and their projections (melanopsin RGCs)

The following book provides a review of research in this area and a theoretical explanation for the effects of colour : Wilkins, A.J. Visual Stress, University Press, 1995. Oxford ISBN 0 19 8521 74 X Not all optometrists who have specialised in this subject have an Intuitive Colorimeter, but all should know of a colleague who they can refer you to if this further testing is needed. A standard orthoptic examination will include tests of: Beneficial colours should be compared side by side. If the choice remains unreliable, then one of the chosen colours should be given a trial for a period of a week, followed by one of the other colours. Alternatively, the Wilkins Rate of Reading Test can be used.The children who benefit may be good readers, but more often they have difficulty reading. They usually suffer visual discomfort when reading and, when questioned, will often report perceptual distortions of the text. These distortions usually include apparent movement or blurring of the letters and words. Often there is a family history of migraine. In cerebellar patients he had shown that their unstable vision was due to damage to large nerve cells in the brain, known as visual magnocells, that are specialised for detecting movement. When these magnocells are not working properly the servo system that keeps your eyes fixed on a letter fails, and so the letters appear to move around. So with Sue he set up a clinic to investigate whether children's visual reading problems were due to the same cause.