Clearer with Colour - Irlen Screening

03/09/2026

Hiding in plain sight ?

What if the child who seems to dislike books doesn't actually have a reading 📖 or an eye 👀 problem ?

When you know what to look for, you can spot some subtle clues in the classroom and at home.

That child who is bright, articulate and full of ideas, but struggles to get those ideas down on paper, and rarely does their reading homework...

Do they ...

📖 avoid reading aloud, despite understanding far more than they demonstrate?

🤕 get headaches, rub their eyes or seem exhausted by home time?

🔄 read well below the level of their peers and friends at school?

😫 fidget, seem frustrated or switch off when there's lots of reading, copying or close-up work to do?

If the answer is yes, there could be more going on than meets the eye as visual stress (aka Irlen Syndrome) often hides in plain sight and regularly goes undetected.

So please remember, when the ability you see doesn't seem to match what's appearing on the page, it's worth asking them what they see and how they feel when they look at a page of text. The response may surprise you.

(Has this made you think of someone?
Drop me a message to book a f.ree clarity call)

02/09/2026

🥁🥁🥁Drumroll please!

I’ve been bursting to tell you this one !

WE NOW HAVE A UK LAB FOR IRLEN LENS TINTING! 🇬🇧👓🎉

Honestly, I can’t tell you how excited I am about this.😁

For as long as I can remember, one of the biggest frustrations for Irlen clients has been the time it can take to get their lenses tinted, because historically, glasses have had to make the journey all the way to California and back. ✈️🌎

Well, no more! 🙌

Having a UK lab means your Irlen lenses will be tinted much closer to home, which we’re hoping will make a huge difference to turnaround times.

And that’s exciting for:

😎 People getting their first pair of Irlen lenses

😎 Existing Irlen lens wearers who need a new prescription or tint update

😎 Anyone who has been putting off getting their lenses updated because of the long turnaround

😎 And, of course, all of us who have been patiently waiting for this to happen!

This isn’t just exciting because it makes my life easier, but it means less waiting, fewer weeks without your lenses and a much more streamlined service for you here in the UK.

I genuinely feel like shouting this one from the rooftops.

So if you’ve been waiting for your first Irlen lenses, or you’re due an update to your existing lenses, watch this space. Things just got a whole lot easier.

Thankyou Irlen International 🙏

01/09/2026

Good luck to all the teachers and students returning to schools and study today!

31/08/2026

Yep.

I looked in the wrong places for answers for my son too.

Discovering Irlen Syndrome didn't just change my son's life, it helped his brother and me too, and meeting Helen Irlen in 2019 led to my new career ! (Some things are meant to be.🙏)

If you've tried other places for answers and are still struggling with headaches, migraines, screen fatigue, depth perception, reading that feels harder than it should, drop "Test" in the comments and let's chat.

At some point, “try harder” has to stop being the answer.

Because maybe the problem isn’t that you haven’t tried enough.
Perhaps you should stop asking, “What else can we try?”
..and start asking, “What are we missing?” Maaaaybe it’s time to test for Irlen.

Comment ‘TEST’ and we will send over a link.

28/08/2026

This week we look at E on our A-Z.

And E is for Eye Test 👀

A regular eye test at an optician’s checks your visual acuity and eye health.

It isn’t designed to detect Visual Stress and both can genuinely coexist.

A clear eye test result doesn’t rule out Visual Stress, because it simply isn’t what a routine eye test is checking for.

You can have 20/20 vision, or wear prescription lenses to correct your vision, and still experience visual discomfort, distortions and fatigue when reading or looking at certain visual environments.

An Irlen screening looks at a different set of visual experiences.

One appointment doesn’t substitute for the other, which is why Irlen practitioners will usually ask you to confirm that you’ve had an eye test within the last 12 months before screening you.

They work alongside each other not instead of each other. 👍

Check back next week when we look at the letter F 😉

27/08/2026

Visual stress in children doesn't always look like “I can't read.”

Sometimes the clues are much smaller...

👀 Constantly rubbing their eyes
🤕 Headaches after school
📖 Losing their place while reading
📚 Holding books really close
👁️ Saying the words move, blur or disappear
😴 Coming home exhausted after reading or schoolwork

Individually, you might think nothing of them.

Put them together, and like clues, they start to tell a story.

Small signs can have a big impact. 💜

If any of this sounds familiar, an Irlen Screening could help you understand what's going on.

📩 Message me and let's have a chat about your child.

26/08/2026

You know you might have visual stress when you dont automatically reach for the light switch as dusk falls.

I often sit reading by just by the light coming through the window in the evening, even as night draws in.

This confused my children who seemed to think that the lack of electric lights meant no one was in the room and it took me a VERY long time to train them not to switch the overhead light on as soon as they'd walk in!

You see, for people with light sensitivity more light doesn't necessarily mean better vision. That bright overhead lighting, glare and high contrast can make everything more uncomfortable and harder to process, never mind reading 📚

Please know though, you are not alone if you prefer to read with the lights dimmed, and nor are you being awkward. If you're one of the people affected by visual stress, there may be a very good reason your brain would rather shut out some of that light.

Same page. Different light. Better experience.

(Drop me a comment if this is you!)

24/08/2026

✨ The best kind of collaboration day 👓

My lovely client, Jillian, came to me for her Irlen screening, and when it was time for her Diagnostician appointment, I booked her onto one of our studio collaboration days with Diagnostician Dave Barrett and Hayley Smith from MODS Eyewear Studio.

Why a Collaboration Day? To give you the opportunity to find frames that complement your Irlen filter colour! 👓🎨

And when it comes to eyewear, Hayley's mantra is:

"Don't just See... Be Seen!" 🤩

What better way to embrace the world of colour before your eyes than with frames that suit your personality and help you feel great?

The result? Two of the three finalists looked gorgeous with Jillian's filters, so in the end, it came down to Jillian's favourite. 💜

Now tell me... which pair gets YOUR vote – 1, 2 or 3? 👀👇

(I'm genuinely curious to see if you'll pick the one she did!)

21/08/2026

FUN FACT FRIDAY and D is for DYSLEXIA! 📚

This means it’s time to clear up one of the biggest confusions I hear about Irlen/Visual Stress.

👉 Irlen Syndrome and Dyslexia are NOT the same thing.

✅ ️They can occur together.
✅️ They can also exist completely separately.
✅️ One does not automatically mean the other.

So please remember 👇

❌ Not every struggling reader is Dyslexic.
❌ Not every Dyslexic person experiences Visual Stress.
✅ And yes, the two can overlap.

This is why I think it's so important to look at the whole picture.

In my own family,I have two sons and whilst both have Irlen Syndrome, only one of them is Dyslexic as well.

Having Irlen Syndrome identified and the right colour in place helped my son's brain settle before he went through his Dyslexia assessment. His experience was that his reading improved massively as letters stayed still in the page and he could see them clearly, but he still struggled with phonics.

And this is the what you need to understand. Improving his visual processing didn't remove his dyslexia, it made it easier for us to support each issue for what it is.

And here's one for the workplace :

💼 If a member of your team tells you they're dyslexic but still finds reading, bright lights, screens or visually demanding work particularly difficult, visual stress could be another piece of the puzzle.

Curious yet?

💜 If reading takes more effort than it seems it should, let's talk about why.

Drop me a message or comment D and I'll tell you more about Irlen Screening.

20/08/2026

GCSE RESULTS DAY! ✨🎓

Today my feed has been full of proud parents sharing their teenagers' results and honestly, it’s lovely to see.

So many young people opening that next door and heading off to college, starting new courses, discovering what they're good at and finding out where they want to go next.

And I think that's what I love most about results day. It's not just about grades. It's about seeing a young person take another step towards becoming the person they're going to be.

For most children school is a fairly straight forward journey. Yet there's also those for whom getting to this point may have taken considerably more determination, resilience and support.

And if visual stress made learning, reading, concentration or comprehension harder than it needed to be, that achievement deserves an extra little celebration. 🥳

So here's to every teenager getting their results today! 🎉

Whether you're absolutely delighted, quietly relieved, slightly disappointed or still figuring out what happens next, it's going to be okay. Your GCSEs are a chapter and never the whole story.

Now… go and celebrate! 🎉

And to all those incredibly proud, supportive families, enjoy this moment. You've earned it too. 👏