Through rose coloured glasses

A Swindon boy who could barely read has seen his life transformed by a pair of 'magic glasses'.

Josh Ward, 10, found reading and writing difficult because the words looked distorted and jumped about on the page.

But all that changed when he was diagnosed with dyslexia and given specially designed glasses with purple lenses.

"The result was amazing," said Josh's mum Mel, who lives in White Edge Moor Road, Liden. "His school can't believe the change in him he's a different boy."

Before he got the glasses Josh could only read 12 words a minute. With the glasses he sped up to 80 words a minute.

Josh, who attends Liden Primary School, has since discovered a taste for reading. He has spent the past few weeks with his head stuck in JK Rowling's Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix.

Louise Everden, a member of the school's special needs team who has helped Josh with his reading, said: "The first thing we noticed was a big change in his confidence. With his glasses his reading really improved."

Two other children at the school use coloured sheets of plastic, or overlays, to help them read, but Josh is the only one sporting tinted glasses.

Josh was diagnosed with dyslexia three years ago.

An eye specialist at Ridgeway Hospital sent him to Specsavers in Havelock Street which has pioneered the treatment in Wiltshire.

Jackie Molesworth, who works in the store, said that Specsavers have sold hundreds of tinted lenses at about £35 a pair since they were introduced.

The optician on Havelock Street is the only one in Wiltshire with the equipment to carry out tests to fit coloured tints. Parents have travelled from as far away as Devon and Oxfordshire to get their children assessed.

Demand has grown from a few inquiries a month to four or five every week.

Marilyn Lingham, who has been carrying out tests using a device called a colorimeter for seven years, has been stunned by the results.

"I have seen things which are quite unbelievable," she said. "They pick up a piece of paper and suddenly they can read it."

The lenses can be one of many shades, including blue, aqua, orange or even grey. In Joshua's case it was purple.

For three months he used plastic overlays to help him read, before being fitted with coloured spectacles.

Now his mum wants to raise awareness about the coloured lenses to help other children with reading difficulties.

"I just hope more children can find out about this treatment," said Mel.

Coloured lenses are designed for people whose reading and writing problems stem from visual stress, caused by over-excited neurons in the brain.

Reading with the lenses shifts images to a different part of the brain, where neurons are less excited.

In studies carried out by Prof Arnold Wilkins of Essex University, coloured overlays have been shown to reduce visual stress and increase reading fluency in about 20 per cent of school children.

For five per cent of children the speed increase was more than 25 per cent.

"In every class of 30 children there will be about seven who can't read well," said Christine Fitzmaurice of the Colour and Visual Sensitivity Forum. "More than half of these could be helped by coloured lenses."

But experts point out that dyslexia is an umbrella term covering a range of difficulties, and only some people have visual problems.

Kerena Angell, of the Wiltshire Dyslexic Association, cautioned that the glasses were not a cure for all dyslexics.

"They are not the be-all and end-all," she said. "The more severely dyslexic people are, the less likely the lenses are going to have a profound effect on them.

"But I would certainly recommend parents look into it."

To date more than 25,000 people across the country have benefited from coloured lenses, which are manufactured by Cerium Visual Technologies.

The Colour and Visual Sensitivity Forum is calling on Wiltshire eye specialists and opticians to make them more widely available.

Dyslexia checklist

If the answer to most of the following questions is yes it would be wise to seek advice:

Is your child bright in some ways but has a block in others?

Is there anyone else in the family with similar difficulties?

Does he/she have difficulty carrying out three instructions in sequence?

Was he/she late in learning to talk, or speaking clearly?

(Source: The Dyslexia Institute)

"I put the sheet over the page and the words stayed still"

Josh loves his purple glasses so much he wears them all the time.

Before I got them it was a struggle to read, said Josh. The words on the page moved about everywhere.

As a result he rarely read books. But then he went to Specsavers and came away with a blue sheet of translucent plastic.

I put the sheet over the page and the words stayed still, he said. The plastic overlay was so successful that he went back to have spectacles fitted with lenses.

After a testing session he decided purple was the colour that made things easiest to read.

Now Joshs classmates keep asking him if they can try on his cool specs.

Im happy wearing them, and I like the way they look, he said. Theyre like magic.

And seeing everything through purple-tinted glassed has become natural for the 10-year-old.

The glasses are just part of me, he said. Im used to wearing them.

It doesnt feel like everythings purple when I wear them. It just feels normal.

Josh has some simple advice for any other children who are having trouble reading.

Go to Specsavers and try wearing the glasses, he said.