If you've ever heard a child say the words on the page "jiggle" or "swim," you've met visual stress (sometimes called Meares-Irlen Syndrome). It's not the same thing as dyslexia, but the two often show up together, and untangling them is one of the most useful things a parent or teacher can do.
the honest evidence
Coloured overlays as a universal dyslexia cure: the research doesn't support that. Coloured overlays for the subset of readers who experience visual stress: the research is much friendlier. Reviews (Wilkins and colleagues, repeated since the 1990s) consistently find that around 20–30% of struggling readers report substantially less discomfort with a personalised tint, and reading speed goes up measurably.
The catch: the right colour is personal. There is no "dyslexia colour." One reader needs warm yellow, another needs a cool blue, a third sees no difference at all. The only way to know is to try.
how to test at home in five minutes
- Open Wobble's tint settings (or print a page in black on white and lay coloured cellophane over it).
- Cycle through the tint options, yellow, peach, blue, green, lavender, grey.
- Read the same paragraph under each. Ask: does the text sit still? Do my eyes feel less tired?
- If one tint clearly wins, use it. If none of them help, that's also a useful answer, it means tint isn't the lever for this reader.
where wobble fits
Wobble lets you apply a tint to the live camera view, so you don't need to buy overlays or get a clinical assessment to find out whether it helps. If a tint makes a real difference, that's worth knowing, and worth raising with a school SENCO or an Irlen-trained optometrist for a proper assessment.