VISUAL STRESS TEST

What is visual stress? Lines of text are rather like a striped pattern. When some people look at black and white stripes of specific width and spacing it causes visual distortions and illusions. These distortions are due to hyper-excitability in the part of the brain known as the visual cortex. It is thought that when some people try to read the ‘stripy’ effect of the lines of print, it causes similar symptoms affecting their ability to read the text. This is known as Visual Stress or Meares-Irlen Syndrome. Visual Stress is NOT Dyslexia but is more common amongst dyslexic individuals. What are the symptoms of Visual Stress?

• Headaches, eyestrain

• Blurring of print

 • Words moving & appearing to jump out of page

 • Colours in the text

 • Glare, page too bright

 • Losing place, skipping words or lines

• Poor understanding of text being read

How do we know when Visual Stress is present? The Optometrist will assess your symptoms by asking some specific questions whilst you look at a piece of text. If there are positive indications for Visual Stress, an assessment using coloured overlays will be carried out. This involves comparing the appearance of a piece of text through different colours. The aim is to see if a particular colour or shade of colour relieves the symptoms of Visual Stress. The Optometrist will then assess whether reading through the chosen colour improves the speed and accuracy of reading. Tips: Change the background colour of computer screens to a similar colour. Use coloured paper for writing tasks and print work onto coloured paper. How can we relieve the symptoms of Visual Stress when reading? An increase in reading speed of at least 5% indicates that using a coloured overlay is likely to have a beneficial effect on reading. It is believed to work by reducing the hyper-excitability in the brain thereby eliminating the illusions and distortions. The optometrist will provide you with an overlay in the chosen colour. How to use your overlay? When you read, place the overlay over the page. Choose the matt or shiny side, whichever you prefer. However you may need to position the text or lighting to avoid reflections from the surface especially if using it with the shiny side facing upwards. You can use the overlay as much as you like. The purpose of the overlay is to find out if it helps to reduce your symptoms and enable you read more easily. We recommend a 3 month trial period