Funding for glasses for dyslexic?

[silversea]

Anyone know of anywhere where I might be able to get financial help towards the cost of tinted glasses for my dyslexic ds? He has been assessed by an optician and the school has confirmed overlays have helped him. The next step is the lenses which would obviously be more helpful with writing and reading from the whiteboard etc.
But they cost £240 just for the lenses and there is no NHS help as with "normal" glasses. We had to pay privately for the test.
As a student, who has taken time out from my course, I'm hardly rolling in cash and I s'pose we'd be penalised by most sources as my husband has two jobs.
I know many higher ed institutions help dyslexic students with learning resources but my ds' SENCO said we'd get no help at primary school level.
Looks like I may be flogging whatever I can on Ebay!

[DrumMum]

My dd is dyspraxic and one of her difficulties is copying from the board... we had her eyes tested to make sure there was nothing wrong with her eyesight.. there wasn't, and the optition (sp) put coloured lenses in some glasses frames and DD did read more fluently from a book... she tried lots of different colours and blue seemed to work better. DD now has some blue lenses I don't think they cost anything!
are you getting these glasses from an optition silversea.......

[silversea]

Hi DrumMum. Yes, from the optician the school recommended because they apparently have to have additional training to do the relevant tests. They are offering chromagen lenses, for which I have all the marketing bumpf. All sounds very impressive but I can't help feeling we are being exploited...
How did you get yours for free? We need pink lenses, if that makes any difference!
My ds keeps asking when I will be buying them and I keep fobbing him off, which I feel awful about. He will get them, eventually! I'm gonna ask around some of the other opticians to see if they can supply them.

[DrumMum]

Hi silversea... we just went to our local optitians, I mentioned the problem with copying from the board and she seemed all clued on on dyspraxia and dyslexia. She also gave my daughter some eye exercised to do, as she did have strong eye muscles. she showed me how my dd followed a slow moving pencil and dd's eyes didn't follow it smoothly.

[swedishmum]

I went to www.crossbow education.com
and bought a mixed pack of tinted reading rulers (mainly for work - am now a qualified dyslexia "specialist"). I doubt you'll get funding unless your child has been diagnosed with Irlen's. If you don't mind saying, how did you find out that the pink tint worked best for you? Overlays? I'm interested professionally. If only some of it would help ds.....

[swedishmum]

Did you know that the teacher can set white on interactive whiteboard to any pastel colour? This actually benefits lots of children as it prevents eyestrain. Schools should also offer to p/c worksheets on to non glare paper (I always use cream paper and dark blue or brown print instead of black - less glaring and harsh). If your ds has a problem reading from whiteboard the school should be printing out work on paper for him anyway so he can follow it more clearly. That's an advantage of interactive boards. Barrington Stoke print their books on cream paper - check them out if you haven't already because they have some fantastic authors working for them. The school should have copies.

[silversea]

Thanks for replies. Will keep plugging away at it.Got parents' evening on Friday with class and special need teachers so have kind of been waiting to hear what else they have to say before going further. But I will most definitely ask about the settings for the whiteboard. And they have printed out work for him on pink paper - but only once!
We found out about the pink preference during the tests. The optician got him to try a variety of differently coloured overlays and worked by what seemed to be process of elimination based on his preference when reading. She also did a timed reading test over a minute and then compared it and gave us an overlay to try out.
We went back for a second assessment and progress report on how he'd got on with the overlay and she went through it all again and then held discs (they did not look like lenses to me!) up and asked him to hold them infront of his eyes. He also tried a combination of different coloured "lenses".
I was surprised she didn't have lenses to fit in the frames they usually use for eye tests. I did remark that he seemed to be getting closer and closer to the paper but she said it didn't matter!
Will keep you posted....