Professor Bruce Evans critiques paper questioning link between dyslexia and vision

Recent research which suggested there was no link between dyslexia and eyesight has been rejected by Professor Bruce Evans writing on the College of Optometrists’ website.

In the post, ‘Critique of Creavin et al (2015) pediatrics paper’, Professor Evans said the tests carried out were not the ones recommended to detect the visual correlates of dyslexia while the study also failed to cover some other common co-occurances. These included the effects of coloured filters. This had led to press reports claiming coloured filters were not helpful, he wrote.

One of the most disappointing aspects of the paper, said Professor Evans, was its use of a binary, normal/abnormal classification. He concluded that having found some visual correlates with reading difficulties (RD) the authors hypothesised that some binocular difficulties may be as a result of dyslexia without presenting any data to back it up.