Migraine and Dyslexia may respond to prescription tinted glasses

Abstract

Increasing reading speed by using colours: issues concerning reliability and specificity, and their theoretical and practical implications.

The colour (chromaticity) at which reading was fastest was consistent from one test session to the next. It was different from one individual to another, but highly specific for each individual: departures of colour from optimum by about 6 JNDs eliminated most of the speed advantage conferred by the optimal colour.

Coloured overlays in schools: orthoptic and optometric findings.

Children with visually precipitated symptoms and/or reading difficulties need both a careful evaluation of their accommodative and binocular status, and an investigation of the effect of coloured filters.

The effect of coloured filters on the rate of reading in an adult student population.

Of the subjects who chose an overlay, 38% read more than 5% faster with the overlay and 2% read more than 25% faster. These results are comparable with those obtained for children. We conclude that Meares-Irlen Syndrome is likely to be as common in adults as it is in children.

Headache diaries showed that the frequency of headaches was marginally lower when the 'optimal' tint was worn, compared with the 'control'. The trial extends to adults with migraine, the results of a previous double-masked study demonstrating, in children with reading difficulty, beneficial effects of precision tints in reducing symptom frequency.

Randomised controlled trial of the effect of coloured overlays on the rate of reading of people with specific learning difficulties.

Further analyses support the conclusion that individually prescribed coloured filters can improve reading performance for reasons that cannot be solely attributed to conventional optometric factors or to placebo effects.

A review of the management of 323 consecutive patients seen in a specific learning difficulties clinic.

More than 70% of those who were prescribed Precision Tints were still wearing them daily, and results for this intervention compared favourably with data for non-tinted spectacles. The data suggest that many people with SpLD need optometric care and that the optometrist needs to be skilled in orthoptic techniques and cognisant of recent research on coloured filters.

Both coloured overlays and coloured lenses can improve reading fluency, but their optimal chromaticities differ.

The colour of a lens will improve reading only if it is selected under conditions that mimic a change in the colour of a light source: coloured overlays give no clinically reliable guide to optimal lens colour.

Prolonged use of coloured overlays for classroom reading.

The increase in reading speed with the chosen overlay predicted the children who continued to use their overlay during the ensuing eight weeks.

Double-masked placebo-controlled trial of precision spectral filters in children who use coloured overlays.

Symptoms were less frequent on days when the 'experimental' lenses were worn (P < 0.003).

Irlen filters and reading strategies: effect of coloured filters on reading achievement, specific reading strategies, and perception of ability.

Assessment of reading four months after the initial screening showed a significant improvement in reading rate and comprehension but not in accuracy. A significant decrease in the number of pauses while reading was also noted for the lens users as well as increases in correlation between word repetition and reading rate and accuracy. The lens users also showed significantly improved scores on a scale of attitude towards school tasks.

The effects of Irlen colored lenses on students' specific reading skills and their perception of ability: a 12-month validity study.

Assessment of subjects' perception of their own ability (Student's Perception of Ability Scale) 6 and 12 months after the fitting of Irlen lenses indicated a significant improvement in attitude to school and to basic academic skills. Subjects also demonstrated significant improvements in reading comprehension and reading accuracy, but not in rate of reading, when assessed using the Neale Analysis of Reading Ability at 3-, 6-, and 12-month intervals after lens fitting.

Reading disabilities and the effects of colored filters.

Reading performance (rate, accuracy, and comprehension) as measured by the Neale Analysis of Reading Ability (Neale, 1987) and the Formal Reading Inventory (Wiederholt, 1986) improved significantly when the scotopic children read with the preferred colored overlay filter compared to clear or different-colored overlay filters.