Why Does My Child Struggle With Reading?
Why Does My Child Struggle With Reading? Understanding Visual Stress in Children and Adults
If your child is struggling with reading at school, frequently losing their place, complaining that words move on the page or becoming tired and frustrated with reading, it can be difficult to know where to start.
And it isn't only children.
Some adults experience headaches, eye strain or visual discomfort when reading, working at a computer or spending long periods under bright or fluorescent lighting.
There can be many reasons for these symptoms, and they shouldn't automatically be attributed to eyesight or dyslexia. However, for some people, visual stress may be one part of the picture.
At Andrew & Rogers Optometrists in Beverley, we offer specialist visual stress and colourimetry assessments for children and adults experiencing these kinds of difficulties.
Why is my child struggling to read at school?
Reading difficulties can have many different causes.
Some children may have dyslexia or another specific learning difficulty. Others may have an uncorrected vision problem, while some children simply develop their reading skills at a different pace.
But occasionally a child who is struggling with reading will describe something more specifically visual.
They might say:
The words move when they read
Letters seem to blur or change
The page looks too bright
Words appear crowded together
They struggle to keep their place
Their eyes become tired when reading
They develop headaches during schoolwork
Reading becomes more difficult the longer they continue
They find certain backgrounds or colours easier to read from
You might also notice your child avoiding reading, rubbing their eyes, repeatedly losing their place or becoming unusually tired or frustrated during homework.
These symptoms deserve investigation rather than simply assuming that your child doesn't enjoy reading.
My child can see clearly — so why is reading difficult?
Being able to read the letters on an eye chart doesn't necessarily answer every question about visual comfort.
A child may have good distance vision and still describe discomfort when looking at a page of closely spaced text for a sustained period.
This is one reason why it is useful to listen carefully to how a child describes the page, rather than only asking whether they can see it.
If they consistently describe words moving, excessive brightness, distortion or discomfort, further investigation may be appropriate.
Could it be dyslexia?
Possibly — but dyslexia and visual stress are not the same thing.
Dyslexia is not caused by an eyesight problem, and an eye examination or colourimetry assessment cannot diagnose dyslexia.
A child can have dyslexia without experiencing visual stress, visual stress without having dyslexia, or potentially experience both.
This distinction is important.
If dyslexia is suspected, appropriate educational or specialist assessment should be considered.
However, if a child also describes the physical appearance of text as uncomfortable — such as movement, glare, distortion or crowding — it may be worth investigating whether there is a visual component to their difficulties too.
What is visual stress?
Visual stress is a term used to describe visual discomfort or disturbances that can occur when looking at repetitive patterns, including lines of text.
Different people describe the experience differently.
For some, words may appear to move or shimmer. Others experience excessive brightness or glare from a white page. Some simply find sustained reading uncomfortable and tiring.
Visual stress isn't exclusively associated with reading and it isn't something that only affects children.
Adults can experience similar symptoms in everyday life and at work.
Can adults experience visual stress?
Yes.
Some adults have experienced visual discomfort for years without realising that it may be worth investigating.
You might find that you can see perfectly well, yet certain environments are particularly uncomfortable.
For example, you may experience:
Headaches after working at a computer
Eye strain during prolonged reading
Difficulty concentrating on dense text
Words appearing uncomfortable or unstable
Sensitivity to bright indoor lighting
Discomfort under fluorescent lighting
Problems in brightly lit offices, shops or supermarkets
Visual fatigue that becomes worse throughout the working day
These symptoms can have many possible causes, so visual stress should never simply be assumed.
However, if the pattern sounds familiar, it may be worth discussing your symptoms with an optometrist.
Why do fluorescent lights make my eyes uncomfortable?
If you find fluorescent lighting uncomfortable, you certainly aren't alone in noticing that some artificial lighting environments feel harsher than others.
People may describe headaches, eye strain, glare, difficulty concentrating or simply feeling visually overwhelmed under certain lighting.
There are several possible explanations for these symptoms, and an appropriate eye examination is important — particularly if headaches or visual symptoms are new, persistent or worsening.
For some people with visual sensitivity, however, certain patterns, contrasts and lighting conditions can contribute to visual discomfort.
That can make environments such as offices, classrooms, supermarkets and other brightly illuminated spaces particularly challenging.
Why do I get headaches at work under bright lights?
Headaches at work can have many causes and shouldn't automatically be blamed on your eyes.
Screen use, focusing demands, lighting, glare, posture, stress and other factors may all contribute.
However, if you notice a consistent relationship between your symptoms and particular visual environments — perhaps your symptoms improve when you leave the office or worsen under fluorescent lighting — it is worth mentioning this when you have your eyes examined.
Understanding when your symptoms occur can be just as useful as describing the symptoms themselves.
Can coloured overlays help children with reading?
Some children and adults find that changing the background colour behind text makes it more comfortable to view.
A simple coloured overlay placed over a page can therefore be useful during an initial assessment.
However, there isn't a single 'dyslexia colour'.
Blue doesn't universally help people with dyslexia. Neither does yellow, green, pink or any other particular colour.
Where colour does improve visual comfort, the preferred colour can be highly individual.
This is where more precise colourimetry testing can be useful.
What is a colourimetry test?
Colourimetry testing allows us to systematically investigate whether viewing text through a particular colour makes it more visually comfortable.
At Andrew & Rogers, we use the Cerium colourimetry system.
Rather than simply choosing a favourite colour or trying a handful of standard overlays, colourimetry allows different elements of colour to be adjusted and compared much more precisely.
The objective isn't to find a colour that simply looks nice.
We are looking for a meaningful and repeatable improvement in visual comfort.
If an individual colour is found to provide a benefit, this can help inform recommendations for coloured overlays or, where appropriate, precision-tinted spectacle lenses.
Do coloured lenses help dyslexia?
It is important to be clear about this.
Coloured lenses do not treat or cure dyslexia.
Dyslexia is a learning difference, not an eyesight problem.
Where coloured overlays or precision-tinted lenses are helpful, their purpose is to reduce visual discomfort — not to change the underlying characteristics of dyslexia.
For a child who already finds reading demanding, however, identifying and reducing an additional source of visual discomfort may make reading feel more manageable.
That is why we prefer to talk about visual comfort, rather than suggesting that colour is a treatment for dyslexia.
What happens during a visual stress assessment?
We begin by listening.
For a child, that means understanding what happens when they read, what they see on the page and whether particular situations make reading more difficult.
For an adult, we may discuss work, screen use, lighting and the environments in which symptoms occur.
Where appropriate, different coloured overlays can be compared before more detailed colourimetry testing is considered.
The process is relaxed and individual.
There is no assumption that someone will need coloured lenses.
If colour doesn't produce a meaningful improvement, we won't recommend it simply for the sake of prescribing something.
When should I consider a visual stress assessment for my child?
If your child is struggling at school, the first question shouldn't necessarily be “Do they need coloured glasses?”
A better question is:
“What exactly are they finding difficult?”
If they struggle primarily with understanding words, spelling or decoding language, this may point towards educational difficulties that require appropriate assessment.
But if your child says things such as:
“The words move.”
“The page is too bright.”
“The letters go blurry.”
“I keep losing where I am.”
“My eyes hurt when I read.”
Those are useful observations to bring to your optometrist.
Similarly, if teachers have noticed that your child struggles to sustain reading despite otherwise engaging well at school, it may be worth investigating whether vision or visual comfort is contributing.
What if I'm an adult struggling with screens or office lighting?
You don't need to have dyslexia or a diagnosed reading difficulty to discuss visual discomfort with us.
If you experience headaches, eye strain or discomfort associated with reading, computer work, fluorescent lighting or particular environments, we can discuss the pattern of your symptoms and determine what assessment may be appropriate.
There are many possible causes, and colourimetry won't be the answer for everyone.
The important thing is not to simply accept persistent visual discomfort as something you have to put up with.
Visual stress and colourimetry testing in Beverley, East Yorkshire
At Andrew & Rogers Optometrists in Beverley, we offer visual stress and specialist colourimetry assessments for both children and adults.
If your child is struggling with reading at school, describes words moving or becoming blurry, experiences headaches when reading or finds white pages uncomfortable, we can help you investigate whether there may be a visual component.
And if you're an adult experiencing eye strain, headaches, difficulty reading, discomfort from screens or problems under bright or fluorescent lighting, we can discuss your symptoms and whether further assessment would be appropriate.
Sometimes the most useful starting point is simply understanding what you're seeing and when it happens.
Could visual stress be making reading or work more difficult?
Speak to the team at Andrew & Rogers Optometrists in Beverley about visual stress and colourimetry testing.
Andrew & Rogers Optometrists
15 North Bar Within
Beverley
East Yorkshire
HU17 8AP
Call 01482 860362 or book an assessment online.