Coloured overlays have been advocated to enhance reading speed and ability in children with reading difficulty or dyslexia. Assessing the efficacy of overlays has to date been largely subjective. Objective assessment is presently carried out with the Rate of Reading test (RRT), where an increase in reading speed of more than 5% is considered to indicate a positive prognosis for continued use of the overlay. The Developmental Eye Movement (DEM) test is used to assess horizontal scanning behaviour in a number naming task. In this study both tests were utilised to determine whether coloured overlays could enhance reading performance or scanning. This article shows that for some children rate of reading is not improved with coloured overlays although performance on the DEM test does improve. Improvements to the DEM scores occurred in 88% of children who continued to use overlays for more than 3 months. This compared with 60% sensitivity in the RRT. The possible reasons for this phenomenon and the clinical implications are discussed.

Previous studies of visually symptomatic dyslexics have found that their contrast thresholds for pattern discrimination are the same as non‐dyslexics. However, when noise is added to the stimuli, contrast thresholds rise markedly in dyslexics compared with non‐dyslexics. This result could be due to impaired noise exclusion in dyslexics. Some dyslexics report a reduction in discomfort experienced while reading and show increased reading speed when using coloured lenses. We hypothesised that coloured lenses work by aiding noise exclusion. Thus the coloured lenses should help performance best under conditions of high visual noise. We measured contrast thresholds for discriminating symbols in the absence and presence of visual noise. The results showed that visually symptomatic dyslexics, who otherwise had elevated contrast thresholds for discriminating symbols in visual noise, had thresholds similar to non‐dyslexics when wearing coloured filters. These findings provide evidence that in visually symptomatic dyslexics coloured filters can improve noise exclusion to normal levels.

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BACKGROUND: Reading can be described as a complex cognitive process of decrypting signs to create meaning. Eventually, it is a way of language achievement, communication, and sharing information and ideas. Changing lighting and color are known to improve visual comfort and the perceptual difficulties that affect reading for those with poor vision. AIM: This study aims to investigate the effect of changing the wavelengths and different levels of positional noise on reading performance for participants with best-corrected distant visual acuity (BCVA) of 6/6 or better. METHODOLOGY: Twenty English speakers with BCVA 6/6 or better were asked to read words presented in a printed format. The stimuli were black print words in a horizontal arrangement on matte white card. They were degraded using positional noise produced by random vertical displacements of the letter position below or above the horizontal line on three levels. RESULTS: Introducing positional noise affected word recognition differently with different wavelengths. The role of short wavelength in enhancing orthographic reading and word recognition is clear – they reduce the effects of positional noise. The error rate and duration time have different effects with different wavelengths, even when positional noise is introduced. CONCLUSION: The reading rate is not affected by changing the wavelength of the light. However, the mean differences in wpm were affected by changing the wavelengths. Also, introducing positional noise affects word recognition differently with different wavelengths.