Yellow acetate sheets for reading?

[TheBitterBoy]

DS came home from school today with a yellow acetate sheet which he said his teacher gave him to try and see if it helps his reading. He says it does help keep the letters still. I have heard of these sheets being used for dyslexia, but his teachers have not mentioned a concern to me. Should I be worried? DS is 6 and in year 1.

I wouldn't be worried, but do feel free to ask his teacher. However if he is seeing words jump around then he could have Irlen's sensitivity or be dyslexic. Sometimes the brightness of very white pages an dazzle, have you ever tried to read outside on a very sunny day?

Be pleased the school is noticing and helping.

These coloured overlays are used to reduce visual stress which can exist as a separate condition or alongside dyslexia. Myself and my daughter prefer to use an overlay or print things on coloured paper but neither of us is dyslexic. Its just that the combination of very white paper, small black print and bright artificial light can cause the text to merge or move and for the gaps between the words to flare. Some people find coloured overlays help, different colours can be used depending on personal preference.
Do go and speak to the teacher but don't assume they suspect dyslexia. If your DS finds that the overlay helps then go with it.

Persuaded to get the school to test dd2 for this too. I think she has some visual stress/Irlens due to a few other symptoms. Dd1 used them for a while too although her symptoms are not as noticeable as dd2's. Once she could read more confidently she ditched the overlays.

Thanks all, I will have a chat with his teacher.

I have blue ones, they just stop the glare on the page and make the letters easier to see, which makes reading easier and stops me getting so many head aches and achey eyes when reading.

The overlays are actually for visual stress, which although quite common with dyslexic people is not necessarily connected, so unless the teacher has any other concerns when you talk to them I wouldn't worry.

Be glad they're trying this early, I was year 7 before anyone would believe me that it was the letters moving not my reading abilities that were the problem.

Oh if you want to get some yourself, Amazon is quite a good source.
My DD has A4 size ones for singing, and they really help.

Hi TheBitterboy

I've posted about dyslexia here before because DH is severely dyslexic. First of all dyslexia encompasses a number of speech/ visual/ processing disorders (e.g. www.bdadyslexia.org.uk/about-dyslexia/further-information/dyslexia-research-information-.html)

DH has just volunteered to be a guinea pig into research differentiating dysphasia (processing issues - i.e. slow to speak as a child - maybe as an adult not being able to remember a simple list of instructions 5 minutes later issue/ not always understanding/ remembering verbal instructions/ not picking up on nuance in conversation) from visual issues. These researchers believe that there is 'damage' in two different areas of the brain with these issues.

If your DC suffers from the visual form of dyslexia then in fact corrective lenses very effectively deal with dancing letters and enable them to process written words as efficiently as other students.

What this may mean going forward is that you might need to get a Statement of Learning Needs which sets out that your child is allowed to use colour acetates on written exams and ensure any shading in exams will work with the acetate colour(s) used (very important for things like GCSEs/ A-Levels/ University exams). Alternatively, prescription glasses with colour lenses are now quite frequently used.

HTH

Thank you, I appreciate all the information. I won't get a chance to speak to his reading teacher until later in the week, but I feel reassured that if there is a problem they seem to be picking up on stuff early at his school.

one of my daughters has coloured glasses for eye stress/irlen syndrome/scotopic sensitivity whatever you want to call it. The problems she gets are an oversensitivity to contrast and brightness - so the white board/interactive white board, white paper with black text etc. she sees some text very bold and thick and other text is so feint she can barely see it (often can't see full stops for example). She reads way beyond her age and is very confident with reading but it is very hard work and this is eased with the glasses. We do know that there are some other things going on with her eyes too, they don't work well together and they take a long time to adjust from near to far and back to near again so she will probably be given some exercises to do in a few months time when they follow up on it and see what is happening but in the meantime the glasses make things much more comfortable for her.

Personally I would say it is worth finding a specialist optician in your area that has a vision therapy department. You need to get eye convergence checked out properly, quite a lot of these problems can correct as children's eye muscles grow and strengthen, some can be cleared up with exercises. Some people will always have a problem to some degree (they don't really understand what causes the problem and it could be a combination of things).

It does sometimes occur with dyslexia but it isn't actually linked to it.