If you live near Gloucester Road, Bishopston, you will be familiar with Lynne Fernandes Optometrists, a helpful, friendly practice which has been serving the local community for many years.

But what you might not be aware of is that for around 15 years, Lynne Fernandes Optometrists has also been helping local children and adults with vision problems caused by dyslexia and other specific learning difficulties.

Often a child with dyslexia or a SpLD has vision problems which won’t be able to be picked up by a standard eye test and which have nothing to do with whether the child is long or short-sighted; this can cause problems with reading, writing, spelling or maths.

Conditions such as dyslexia and visual stress, along with difficulty reading or migraines, can be helped by having a more in-depth eye examination using specific equipment.  The optometrist can then prescribe eye exercises, overlays, or glasses with specific lenses or a specific tint to alleviate or stop such visual symptoms.

Such treatment makes a huge difference to children’s lives, learning and education.

Lynne Fernandes explains:

“Our clinic has been life transforming for some – people who have struggled to read for years – finding it hard work, or tiring, are able to read with ease. We had a mother and son recently, both struggling with headaches, both alleviated with tinted glasses – both absolutely over the moon! For others it makes clear that glasses, eye exercises and tints or overlays will not help. It is something ruled out.”

The process of diagnosing and treating reading difficulties and dyslexia at Lynne Fernandes Optometrists is straightforward. The specific reading difficulties eye examination will be carried out by a specialist optometrist who will take an in-depth look at the eye health, how the eyes work together as a pair and how well they focus.

Often a prescription pair of specific reading glasses and / or exercises are what is needed, due to the child’s eyes often not working together properly or are working too hard when reading.  There is no additional cost to this.

The optometrist will also test to see if an overlay helps.  If an overlay makes a big difference to the child’s reading ability, the child will be prescribed tinted spectacle lenses; this happens around 1 in 10 times and often involves an additional appointment to ascertain the colour needed for the glasses (tinted glasses are often a different colour to the overlay needed).

There are other options: a clip on filter for over current glasses can be a more flexible option. Lynne Fernandes also offers a program specific to computers which creates a screen overlay.

I, myself, can testify to the success of such tools personally. I have a dyslexic child who also has visual stress (which we were unaware of for many years and which hadn’t been picked up at standard eye tests). Unbeknownst to me, the visual stress had been causing words to look like they were moving on a page, which meant that they had to focus much harder, making reading uncomfortable and more difficult.

Now, my child has a particular colour overlay to use when reading and makes a huge difference: reading is easier and far more enjoyable, just as it should be.

Whether your child is prescribed coloured overlays or glasses with tinted lenses, your child’s reading ability, confidence and comfort will be improved.

If you would like to find out more or book an appointment at Lynne Fernandes Optometrists on Gloucester Road, please phone 0117 942 6843 or email bristolgr@lynnefernandes.co.uk.  Or, if you prefer, you can fill out the Contact Form here.