Visual Problems & Dyslexia

What Is Dyslexia?

Dyslexia is a learning difficulty which primarily affects reading and writing skills. However, it does not only affect these skills. Dyslexia is actually about information processing. Dyslexic people may have difficulty processing and remembering information they see and hear, which can affect learning and the acquisition of literacy skills

Some children and adults struggle with reading and writing, causing them to find certain subjects more difficult. The condition can be frustrating and distressing as the person is otherwise intelligent and there appears to be no apparent reason for the difficulty.

These individuals can sometimes be regarded as having a specific reading difficulty, which is often called dyslexia. The condition is quite common but has often been missed due to a lack of awareness of the condition. Approximately 10% of the population is thought to have some degree of dyslexia, with boys being more affected than girls. Famous dyslexics include Einstein, Tom Cruise and Richard Branson.

What Are the Signs or Symptoms of Dyslexia?

The symptoms are many and varied and commonly include some or all of the following:

• Skipping words or lines

• Reading slowly or hesitantly

• Jumping around or blurring of words and letters

• Difficulty keeping track and frequently losing place

• Dark, light or coloured patches appear

• Letters changing shape or reversing eg ‘d’ appears as ‘b’

• Blurring and doubling of letters or words

• Sore eyes or head

• Difficulty remembering what has been just read.

• Sloping of the page or paragraph

What Causes Dyslexia?

It is not clear exactly what causes dyslexia and research is still ongoing. Recent studies indicate that there are a number of contributory reasons:

Inefficiencies in the wiring of the left hemisphere of the brain: this is thought to occur during the early childhood developmental period. It affects the processing of information received by the brain.

Genetics: Dyslexia tends to run in families. This has led researchers to conclude that some people inherit genes that make certain nerve cells more vulnerable to adverse factors that affect the development of the cells. Dyslexia is not linked to IQ or intelligence and it affects people of all racial and social backgrounds.

The Visual Stress & Reading Clinic

A specialist assessment will investigate:

• Uncorrected long-sightedness

• Tracking

• The benefits of colour therapy

• Eye Muscle co-ordination

• Reading speed

• Focusing problems when changing distances

• Headaches

• Sore, aching eyes

Vision Therapy

After the assessment, the optometrist will produce a report with their findings. If thought to be beneficial, the optometrist will devise a program of vision therapy. This may include all or a combination of:

• Eye exercises

• Glasses

• Coloured overlays

• Colorimetry

• Clinical Eye Tracker