Attention disorder…or vision problem?

Attention disorder…or vision problem?

What a fantastic article that really helps drive home the idea that many attention disorders are actually Convergence Insufficiency in disguise. It links to several other articles, that I have not read yet, but sound like they might have lots of good information, as well.

Several of Dr. Martin's comments in this article hit home with our situation. For example, "...a child may not realize his vision isn't normal. All he knows is that reading and writing are difficult, and he will do just about anything to get out of it". Oh if I had a dime for every time we just thought Will was being lazy. That he just wanted to avoid doing the work because he didn't feel like putting the effort into it. Well, of course he didn't want to put the effort into it... because it was soooo much effort. And he didn't know that this wasn't normal. Actually, that is not true. He was starting to realize it and thought it was because he was "dumb". Which is even sadder, really. I think a lot of kids, who do not get the help they need, end up feeling this way. They can't help it. They know how difficult some tasks are for them, but they see many other friends who can accomplish these tasks easily. So, of course, they come to the conclusion that something is wrong with them (which it is), but it isn't that they are "dumb" or "stupid" or "they just don't get it". It is a tangible problem that can be corrected! That is the good news in all of this. Convergence Insufficiency can be fixed!