For decades the story about dyslexia has pointed straight at the eyes. Letters swim on the page, words flip, and a child seems like they would read fine if the print would hold still. That story is comforting, because eyes feel fixable, and it is also wrong. Four of the largest bodies in children’s medicine and eye care agree that vision problems do not cause dyslexia. A struggling reader is not broken, and the trouble is not in seeing the letters; it is in linking the sounds of language to them.
FROM THE VIDEO
Key moments from Overcoming Tourette’s and Dyslexia to Inspire Millions Online with Josh Hughes:
- 17:52Josh is honest about how dyslexia shaped whether he saw himself as a bright person.
- 18:14He describes the tinted glasses and coloured overlays he was given as a boy, because letters seemed to move on the page.
- 19:03He credits being identified young and supported by his parents for how he coped with everything that came later.
Common questions from parents
Do coloured overlays or tinted glasses help a child with dyslexia read?
My child reverses letters. Does that mean dyslexia, or a vision problem?
What actually helps a child with a reading difference?
My child is clever. Could they still have dyslexia?
Tinted glasses and coloured overlays don't fix reading. Four pediatric and eye-care bodies agree vision problems don't cause dyslexia. The difficulty lives in sound, and early parent support is what actually moves it.
The eyes were never where the trouble lived
Josh Hughes grew up sure his reading problem was a seeing problem. He was handed tinted glasses and coloured overlays. As he tells it, letters used to move on the page, and a white background made reading harder. It is the same visual-stress approach many parents are offered today, and the instinct behind it is loving. The trouble is that the tools were aimed at the wrong target.
Four professional bodies say so plainly. They are the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Academy of Ophthalmology, the American Association for Pediatric Ophthalmology and Strabismus, and the American Association of Certified Orthoptists. Together they state that vision problems do not cause dyslexia. Children who read differently have no more eye trouble than anyone else. And reversing letters is not part of what dyslexia even is. The American Academy of Family Physicians goes further and advises against vision therapy for reading difficulty.
So where does the trouble actually live? In sound. Dyslexia is trouble linking the sounds of language to the letters that stand for them. It is not trouble seeing those letters. Children of every age produce reversals as they learn, and reversals on their own are not the cause of anything. None of this is against eye care. If a child needs glasses, they need glasses. The narrow point is that coloured overlays and vision therapy are not a treatment for a reading difference.
A struggling reader is not broken, and the difficulty is not in seeing the symbols. It is in connecting the sounds of language to them.
Laura Lurns · Learning Success expert
What carried him was smaller and bigger than a pair of glasses
Here is the part of Josh’s story worth holding onto. His mother spotted the reading trouble early, around age seven. His parents stayed in it with him for years. He says that without being identified young and supported that way, he would have struggled far more with everything that came after. Strip away the overlays and the balance drills, and one ingredient did the real work: early action, and a parent who did not look away.
The science lines up with him on timing. In 2025 the International Dyslexia Association updated its definition of dyslexia. It stated that language and literacy support in the early years is particularly effective. Acting early works with the grain of how reading develops, not against it. The same reading profile, met at seven instead of twelve, travels a far different road.
What did not carry him were the specific exercises. Coordination differences do sometimes travel alongside a reading difference. But practising balance does not teach reading. Across 22 randomized dyslexia trials, structured phonics was the only approach that reached significance; motor exercises did not (Galuschka et al., 2014). His parents did not get it wrong. They did the proactive, loving thing with the tools they were handed. The lever was them, not the lenses.
Key takeaways
- Dyslexia lives in sound: Four pediatric and eye-care bodies agree vision problems do not cause reading difficulty.
- Overlays miss the target: Coloured lenses and vision therapy are not a treatment for a reading difference.
- Early support is the lever: The IDA's 2025 definition calls early language and literacy support particularly effective.
The deepest wound lands on how a child sees themselves
The line in Josh’s story that is hardest to hear is not about reading at all. He says he has never seen himself as a bright person, because he is dyslexic. He made adults laugh and leaned on being grown-up for his age. He did that, he explains, because he could not show he was clever the way school kept measuring it. That is the real cost, and it almost never shows up on a reading test.
Struggling to read says nothing about how clever a child is. The two were never the same wiring. In 2025 the IDA removed the old wording that treated a smart child’s reading struggle as a surprise. What the struggle quietly harms instead is the child’s picture of themselves as a learner. That picture is exactly the thing a parent reaches. “I’m bad at reading” is less a description than a prediction. It is a child guessing at where they are heading, and every moment that ends in “I did it” rewrites a little of it.
If reading has been a battle in your house, a free parent screener is a low-stakes way to turn worry into a first step. A screener is a starting point, not a diagnosis. Your child might need formal accommodations, an IEP or a 504 plan. You might suspect a vision, hearing or medical cause. For those, a professional evaluation is the route to that support.
Strip away the overlays and the balance drills, and the ingredient doing the real work was early action and a parent who did not look away.
Laura Lurns · Learning Success expert
What you want is not complicated: a child who grows up believing they are capable, because they are. What gets in the way is rarely your child and rarely you. It is a story that keeps pointing a reading struggle at the wrong place, at the eyes, at a lens, at a label, at anything except the sound-to-symbol work that is genuinely hard and the warm, early support that genuinely helps. You are the one who gets to point it back in the right direction. Nobody will ever advocate for your child the way you do, and that is not a flaw in the system; it is true of every system, everywhere, which is exactly why your involvement is the thing that moves the needle.
A reading difficulty rarely travels alone. A child who finds reading hard is often also wrestling with attention, or with a confidence that took the earliest hits, and working one thread while the others stay tangled is why progress stalls. Learning Success All Access gives you the full set of tools for the whole child, so you build the skill and the self-belief together, at home, in the moments that matter.
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Your school district must evaluate your child free of charge if you ask in writing, whatever your income and whatever the outcome (US, 34 CFR 300.111 and 300.301(b)). That route takes time and answers a different question than you do. This one starts today, from what you already know.
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A screener is a starting point, not a diagnosis. If your child might need formal accommodations (an IEP or 504 plan), or you suspect a vision, hearing or medical cause, pursue a professional evaluation too. That is the only route to those supports.
