Does word flickering improve reading?
Despite marketing claims, recent experiments have shown flickering glasses have no significant effect on dyslexic children.
Despite a lack of scientific evidence, flickering glasses and lamps for dyslexia are being marketed in various countries. Four experiments led by Dr. Marie Lubineau were conducted to assess their efficacy. Two experiments involved a computerized lexical decision task with constant display or low-frequency flickering (10 or 15 Hz). Among 375 regular adult readers, flicker noticeably slowed down word recognition, while slightly biasing the decision towards pseudowords. No significant effect was observed in 20 dyslexic children. In 22 dyslexic children, the impact of the Lexilight lamp and Lexilens glasses, which operate at higher frequencies, on reading fluency, letter identification, and mirror letter processing was evaluated. No detectable impact was observed. These findings starkly contrast with marketing claims that these tools can help 90% of dyslexics and emphasize the role of rigorous scientific research in empowering dyslexic individuals to make informed decisions.
