An eye test that has improved the performance of British Olympic stars and elite rugby players is helping transform children 's reading skills , experts claim . The £189 test – a more advanced form of a high street eye exam – has already boosted the concentration of champion skier Chemmy Alcott by recommending she wear pink-tinted goggles to reduce glare while hurtling 80mph down the slopes . Experts also say they have improved reaction times of members of the English women 's lacrosse team . Now parents claim that children taking the test are improving their reading speeds – and performing better at school . An eye test that has improved the performance of British skier Chemmy Alcott ( pictured ) is helping transform children 's reading skills . Those behind the test say it identifies people suffering from 'visual stress ' , which means their eyes are over-sensitive to black and white and words appear to swim on the page . It is thought this happens because cells in the area of the brain responsible for vision get over-excited by the pattern and work too fast , causing text to become distorted . Studies suggest as many as one in four has this problem . However , most are unaware they are affected and the condition is not picked up during a routine visit to an optician . Children with the sensitivity are said to lose concentration easily because they struggle to focus on text , and can fail to perform well at school despite being bright . Experts at Vision in Learning , the company behind the test , say many can be helped by using colour-tinted glasses or a transparent sheet of coloured plastic which can be laid on top of textbooks . Colour is thought to 'calm ' the cells so that the image becomes stabilised . But the colour each person needs to correct the problem is different – and scientists are unable to explain why . Charlie Raynes , 14 , was lagging behind his twin sister at school but after taking the test passed his 11-plus . Charlie Raynes , 14 , from Colchester , was lagging behind his twin sister Annabel at school and was regularly placed bottom of the class . After taking the test , he passed his 11-plus . His mother Paula said : 'Charlie would say text would move around and he could n't focus . He lost confidence and was very unhappy at school . When we took him to do this test , an orange colour was placed over the text and it was a eureka moment . Suddenly he could read . ' The test takes place in the company 's offices in Braintree , Essex , but other opticians offering it can be found via the Society for Coloured Lens prescribers . Chemmy Alcott , 32 , who competed as part of Team GB in four Winter Olympics , did the test after suffering from snow-blindness . She said : ' I was skiing with a yellow-tinted lens , but the test found that my eyes had to work less hard with a pink lens . 'You put your lens down just before you start to race , and it had been taking my eyes a few minutes to adjust . With the pink , it was immediate . ' Harlequins rugby team and Ipswich Town Football Club have also used the test . Members of England 's women 's lacrosse team improved reaction times by up to two seconds on a test that involved hitting a number of random flashing lights . Vision in Learning founder Gavin Rebello said : 'The transformation with the coloured filters is often incredible . It can be the first time a parent has heard their child read properly . There can be tears in the room . '
Advanced literacy testing has increased the concentration of skier Chemmy Alcott . Experts taking the same test is also helping improve students ' reading skills . Parents claim their parents are benefiting from improving reading speeds .