Lately, two companies have been really pushing their own “cures” for dyslexia: Dyslexie Font and ChromoGen Lenses. Local and national news outlets have picked up marketing press releases and have touted their products, but these news outlets did not write these stories, nor did they do any research. In fact, Fox 4 news links right to the marketing pages directly instead of writing original content. NEITHER company is offering a “cure” for dyslexia and neither company has a product that has even remotely demonstrated help for dyslexia specifically. Dyslexia is not about vision.

A word about Dyslexie Font: This font is wonderfully legible; however, even their own limited (and non-biased) study that was done on the font did not support that it helped those with dyslexia. A legible font can help someone with dyslexia compensate more effectively, but it does not improve the capability for language processing. It makes it easier to visually memorize words (which is how many compensated dyslexics read) but it will do nothing to help develop phonemic awareness and language processing which is the crux of dyslexia.

ChromoGen is unethically claiming that their lenses have been approved for dyslexia by the FDA. This is not true. Although they have received clearance to market their product, they did not receive clearance to do so for dyslexia and they are not cleared to market themselves as a treatment for dyslexia or other learning disabilities.

Vision Therapy: We recently spoke with a very honest, compassionate, tremendous mother who had her son treated for dyslexia using vision therapy. She said (and we absolutely believe her) that her son was able to read significantly better after his vision was corrected. The treatment received helped with vision – which is not related to dyslexia. However, those who have dyslexia often learn to read using visual memory. Improved memory does translate into improved compensatory reading. However, improved vision, as a result of vision therapy, a well-designed font, or colored lenses, will do NOTHING to help with the phonemic awareness and language processing issues that are the hallmark of dyslexia.

PLEASE read this important statement put out by the International Dyslexia Association which explains that dyslexia is NOT a vision problem:  http://www.interdys.org/ResponseToColoredLensClaim.htm

PLEASE read a joint statement by the American Academy of Pediatrics, Section on Ophthalmology and Council on Children with Disabilities, American Academy of Ophthalmology, American Association for Pediatric Ophthalmology and Strabismus, and American Association of Certified Orthoptists that says that vision therapy is not helpful for dyslexia! http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/content/127/3/e818.full?sid=dd7076c6-0fb6-4adb-a500-4d64a0caaa83