Attention Deficit
ADD and ADHD are psychiatric disorders characterized by inattentiveness or hyperactivity and compulsiveness which hinder a child's academic or social performance. Because there is not yet an objective clinical test to confirm ADD or ADHD, the diagnosis is based on a set of subjective signs and symptoms. If children exhibit any six of nine characteristics in either category, they are labeled ADD or ADHD.
Children who have been diagnosed with these conditions and were helped by vision therapy, have remedied a visual disorder which was incorrectly diagnosed as ADD/ADHD . Children who do not have efficient visual systems tend to show little interest in reading age appropriate books, tend to take a long time to finish homework and would rather be actively doing anything else. It takes so much mental energy for children with learning related vision problems to actually see and translate each word, that comprehension and meaning fails. Five symptoms of the nine listed for inattention overlap with an easily curable, binocular vision disorder known as convergence insufficiency. Treatment of convergence insufficiency includes an in-office vision therapy program with no medications. Complete listings of symptoms for both ADHD and Convergence Insufficiency can be found in the full text articles listed below.
ADD/ADHD: A Developmental Approach