IMAGINE you’ve come to accept you are dumb – and then one day you meet a wizard who gives you a magical ring to put on your finger and suddenly you’re smart.

In this story “dumb” can also be exhausted, confused and head-achy – and the wizard is Ōpōtiki’s Robyn Harawira, who provides you with some coloured glasses instead of a ring.

She says the people she has helped don’t have a problem with their eyes, nor are they stupid or suffer from some brain deficiency, but that there’s some interpretation module between the eyes and the rest of the brain that can get overloaded under certain circumstances.

Glasses of the right colour can solve the issue of Irlen Syndrome.

Mrs Harawira has been involved with the Irlen Method for 28 years and says 15 percent of the population could benefit from the coloured glasses or overlays.

When she screens a person for a potential problem, she asks them 34 questions about missing out on punctuation, headaches, light sensitivity and so forth.

“If five or more things are flagged then it’s worth looking deeper,” she said.

Ōpōtiki Primary School principal Tony Howe is a strong supporter of the Irlen Method, saying he’s seen amazing change in the students come from it.

With a cost of $588 for the dipping process for the glasses, not all families could afford them and the school has coloured overlays on hand for students.

Another person who is a strong supporter is 18-year-old nursing student Abby Ashford, who has had her glasses since February 2023.

“Mum found out from Robyn and said, oh – I might get my daughter tested.”

An inability to focus when reading, words being jumbled and even disappearing off the page and being sensitive to bright lights outside all went away thanks to the glasses.

“I used to get really funny and distracted because I couldn’t focus,” she said.

“It even changed my mood, the way I just am – it made me a happier person.”

Since getting his Irlen glasses at the start of the year, Khan Harawira has seen his headaches disappear.

“Robyn offered to do a test with me, and I ran through the test with her and as soon as I saw the difference with the coloured lenses, I was blown away,” he said. “The headaches have all gone away and I feel so much more energetic during the day.

“I used to come home and feel absolutely exhausted, but now I no longer get run down.”

Unable to concentrate for more than a minute-and-a-half before he got his Irlen glasses, 11-year-old Levi Levai is now an avid reader.

“I was desperate for him to learn how to read, I was really worried,” his mother Katie Levai said.

“He got frustrated, I was frustrated, everyone was frustrated. He said the lines were merging together,” she said.

“I had no idea coloured glasses were going to make such a difference.”

Ōhope’s Anna Robertson said she was confounded when her daughter Alicia asked “who got the girl into the painting” ,and “why is the dog locked into the page” of the book.

“It’s a photograph,” she had explained – but this was followed by protestations from her daughter.

“She was seeing in three dimensions and everything was moving.”

When Alicia got her Irlen glasses her vision became stationary and she was suddenly able to read fluently from her book.

Ms Robertson said she didn’t realiseshe was suffering from Irlen Syndrome when she was at high school studying music.

Hardly able to see the lines of the score she had squawked her way through on the clarinet.

“I couldn’t understand why it was so difficult,” she said.

“When you’re given your Irlen glasses it’s like you’re being handed a superpower.”

Mrs Harawira said the problems alleviated by the Irlen glasses were found in all types of people. “I have worked with about 500 people.”