Peter Tosh Opticians becomes one of the few in Devon to offer pioneering visual stress assessment for children

An independent optician in Exeter has become one of only a handful of practices in Devon to offer specialist visual stress assessments, providing a service that transforms a child’s reading ability, and life.

Peter Tosh Opticians in Topsham, run by Suzie Tosh and her husband Peter, has invested in the Intuitive Colorimeter - the Wave - developed by Cerium Visual Technologies and widely regarded as the gold standard in visual stress assessment.

The machine tests up to 10,000 colour combinations to identify the precise colour tint that calms the visual processing difficulties that cause words to blur, move or jump on the page for those affected.

Visual stress can affect a significant number of people, many of whom have not been diagnosed. Symptoms, including words that blur, move or jump on the page and headaches from reading black text on white backgrounds, are frequently dismissed as laziness or confused with dyslexia. A standard eye test will not detect it.

“For children who are struggling at school, this condition can have a terrible impact on the day-today wellbeing,” said Suzie Tosh. “Finding an appropriately equipped practice has been difficult for many Devon families. We now fill that gap, and have made the entire process as easy as possible. We’ve developed a specialist approach for our colorimetry clinic, with flexible scheduling, quieter environments and a locked-door policy available for children with hypersensitivity or additional needs.”

A vast majority of the practice's colorimetry patients are children, many referred through the Exeter Dyslexia Society or via word of mouth from local schools and families. Suzie works closely with schools' SENCO teams and reports that, across the board, the results have been striking.

“I hear nothing but good things, such as a child has moved up several reading levels, or their ability to focus for longer has grown," she said. "These are children at a difficult time in their lives. We want to be able to fix it for them and such the services need to be more readily available and more widely acknowledged,"

Susie is now planning to take the conversation directly into local schools - speaking at SENCO meetings and staff briefings to raise awareness of visual stress among the educators who are often first to notice a child struggling.

To find out more or to book an assessment, contact Peter Tosh Opticians onenquiries@petertoshopticians.co.uk or 01392 873612.