Wow Vision Therapy Blog
Convergence Insufficiency a Vision Problem that can Look Like ADHD
Convergence Insufficiency (CI) is a vision problem that affects many children in the classroom. Instead of an eyesight problem, CI is called a binocular vision problem because it affects a child’s ability to coordinate their eyes together while attempting to do near oriented vision activities…such as reading! Typically children with CI will see 20/20 and therefore glasses alone will not correct the problem.
While CI has been successfully treated by developmental optometrists for decades with office-based vision therapy, this eye coordination problem that affects as many as 1 in 7 children in the classroom,åÊ has recently been gaining a lot of national media attention. On February 27, 2009 the CBS Baltimore WJZ-TV News reported the story of 9 year old Jana Jones, a bright little girl, yet struggling with CI.
Another common behavior exhibited by children like Jana with CI is difficulty with attention and concentration in the classroom. These children often appear as though they have attention deficit syndrome (ADHD). With appropriate office-based vision therapy, children with CI will gain the proper eye-coordination skills needed for sustained near oriented visual tasks such as reading, computers and homework. This typically results in better attention and concentration as well as reading performance can dramatically improve.
Office-based vision therapy has been proven with scientific studies to be the only effective treatment for CI when compared to all other treatment modalities.
Click here to go to Jana’s WJZ-TV story and video segment.
Click here to read the most current research.
Dan L. Fortenbacher, O.D.,FCOVD