This article from Dr. Press’s blog, The Vision Help Blog, is written by Dr. Dan Fortenbacher. Dr. Fortenbacher shares the importance of having a child’s vision evaluated by a developmental optomtometrist after an ADHD diagnosis. Read more about ADHD and Medications or the connection between Vision Problems and ADHD.

You have a child with poor attention and concentration?

By Dan L. Fortenbacher, O.D., FCOVD

So, if you have a child with poor attention and concentration what do you do? When a child has trouble with “paying attention” in the classroom, concentrating on reading, difficulty staying focused on homework, and other examples including fidgeting or sitting still, a common concern would be that this child has ADHD.

As a matter of fact, in the April 12, 2024 issue of the Journal of American Medical Association (JAMA) News Brief, the headline reads: More Than 1 in 10 US Children are Diagnosed With ADHD. Included is the data from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention as shown in this graph.

With this high prevalence, one might wonder, what causes ADHD? First of all, ADHD is a diagnosis that begins with a collective list of behaviors that typically indicates that the child is having trouble with some or all of the following:

  1. Attention and concentration
  2. Distractibility
  3. Hyperactivity, fidgety, trouble sitting still
  4. Impulsivity

But, these signs and symptoms are caused by what? After all, in order to effectively treat a disorder, you must know what is causing the problem. To this point, as recommended by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) quoted on their website, “When a child is diagnosed with ADHD, parents often have concerns about which treatment is right for their child. ADHD can be managed with the right treatment.”

The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends on their website one important guideline for primary care providers regarding the diagnosis and evaluation of ADHD and that is to “rule out any other possible conditions that can cause similar symptoms”.

Therefore, another important fact is that visionproblems affecting eye coordination and visual processing typically cause ADHD behaviors.

One example is a condition known as Convergence Insufficiency (CI). As stated in Scientific Reports (2021)11:6545), Underlying Neurological Mechanisms Associated with Symptomatic Convergence Insufficiency“is the most common binocular vision disorder across the age spectrum, with an estimated prevalence of 4.2% to 17.6% in children and 3.4% to 7.7% in adults. This condition responds well to therapeutic intervention; hence it presents a unique opportunity to better understand the neuroscience of neuroplasticity. This common condition hurts a person’s quality of life because its associated symptoms include sore eyes, headaches, blurred vision, double vision, and loss of concentration.”

Another interesting fact is Convergence Insufficiency rarely exists alone. It is typically found with other eye coordination problems involving eye focusing (accommodation dysfunction) eye tracking problems (oculomotor dysfunction) and visual processing difficulties. When it all adds up, these conditions cause a serious impact on a child’s ability to maintain concentration especially when it applies to reading and classroom activities and therefore commonly result in ADHD behaviors.

Therefore, if your child has ADHD behaviors it’s important they are tested by a Developmental/Rehabilitation Optometrist for eye coordination and visual processing deficits because if these conditions exist, they can be remediated with a targeted goal-oriented developmental vision rehabilitation leading to success in reading, learning, and overall academic performance.

At Brighter Outlook Vision, we help improve people’s vision so they can more fully engage in their life. If you have a child struggling to read, it could be a vision problem that could be corrected with vision therapy. We can also help young athlete’s improve their vision and speed up their reaction times. Learn more about who we can help or give us a call at 843-203-0200 and we can hear what you are dealing with to see if vision could be at the root of the problem.