Tinted Lenses

There is a widespread belief that tinted lenses are the only intervention possible for children with reading problems. This is particularly the case when the print moves on the page.

However research has shown that tinted lenses only help 5% of children with reading problems.

Research has also shown that most of these children have underlying focussing and eye coordination problems. It has been found that when these underlying focussing and eye coordination problems are resolved by use of ordinary glasses and eye exercises that reading performance improves and tinted lenses are no longer needed.

It may seem magical when a child suddenly reads faster and more easily with tinted lenses or with a coloured overlay in place. However, such children have often not been assessed for focussing and eye coordination issues. This is something the tinted lens researchers admit.

Rather than have a child wear tinted glasses and look different from everybody else we would prefer to treat the underlying focussing and eye coordination problems.

This type of approach is recommended by the British College of Optometrists in their professional clinical guidelines.

Another treatment option is prism glasses, which can also stop the print from moving on the page, a technique pioneered by an American optometrist, Merrill Bowan.

Tinted lenses do have their place though. Not every child will want to do the exercises so in these cases the tinted lenses will help them.