yes / Around 3-6% of children in the United Kingdom have
substantial difficulties learning to read, a condition often referred
to as dyslexia. They are at high risk of educational
underachievement. In a 1996 editorial in The BMJ, Margaret
Snowling argued that dyslexia is a verbal (not a visual) disorder.1
An accumulation of evidence supports this position and shows
that reading difficulties are best dealt with by interventions that
target underlying weaknesses in phonological language skills
and letter knowledge.2 The 2009 Rose report, which provides
guidance for professionals in schools on identifying and teaching
young people with dyslexia and reading difficulties, stresses
the importance of early, phonological interventions.3
Despite this evidence, dyslexia is often associated with
subjective experiences of visual distortions that lead to
discomfort during reading (sometimes termed visual stress). It
has been argued that these symptoms can be alleviated by using
coloured overlays and lenses.4 Symptoms of visual stress are
not unique to dyslexia, and proponents do not claim that the use
of colour directly addresses the underlying cause of the reading
difficulty. However, they argue that the reduction in visual
distortion brought about by a change in colour can improve
reading accuracy and fluency.4
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:BRADFORD/oai:bradscholars.brad.ac.uk:10454/10146 |
| Date | 08 1900 |
| Creators | Henderson, L.M., Taylor, R.H., Barrett, Brendan T., Griffiths, P.G. |
| Source Sets | Bradford Scholars |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Editorial, Published version |
| Rights | © 2014 The Authors. Published by BMJ. Reproduced in accordance with the publisher's self-archiving policy. |
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