ADD/ADHD Suspected? First, Rule Out a Common Vision Problem

1 in 10 children are prescribed powerful medications for attention disorders in America, which is disproportionate to other countries. This is alarming to many doctors, educators, and parents, especially considering law enforcement officials report high levels of abuse of ADD/ADHD-prescribed drugs.

Some children truly benefit from these medications. However, many parents look for a natural alternative to medicine. Many of the vague symptoms identified in ADD/ADHD are also found in visual conditions that interfere with a child’s ability to read, learn, comprehend, and pay attention.

These visual conditions often go undetected because that child may see things far away just fine and pass a vision screening. Our eyes were designed perfectly for seeing far away comfortably and spending brief periods of time focusing up close. However, children are now spending more time than ever doing intense near work with books, homework, and screens. This has created a fundamental mismatch of forcing our eyes to work hard to focus up close for many hours a day, creating visual stress. Some handle this just fine, but as many as one in four children suffer from learning-related vision problems.

Some signs that a vision problem is mimicking, or complicating attention disorders include:

·      attention span is shorter with near work

·      poor concentration with reading

·      disturbs others in class during intense near focus like reading

·      can concentrate longer during video games or playing

·      bumps into things, doesn’t seem aware of surroundings

·      hates to read but likes being read to

·      continues having problems doing near vision work despite an increase in the ability to concentrate after taking medication.

So is it ADD/ADHD or is it a vision problem? The only way to know for sure is to rule out vision as a contributing factor. The good news is that a particular type of optometrist can perform objective tests which will make it clear. However, most standard eye-exams do not include the in-depth testing needed to fully evaluate how vision is affecting a child's learning and attention.    A comprehensive visual evaluation from a Developmental Optometrist goes far beyond 20/20 distance clarity, and evaluates the skills needed to thrive in the classroom such as eye teaming, focusing, tracking, depth perception, and visual information processing.

The most rewarding part of my job is when we treat these vision problems and a parent tells me their child has been taken off their medication or the dosage has been reduced. Or sometimes, a child truly needs it but is now more functional with their medication. I encourage you to tackle the root of the problem, rather than treat the symptoms. You can find a Developmental Optometrist near you at covd.org. We also have periodic free and interactive parent workshops in our office to learn more about these issues. To find more information on our workshops, check out our website or Facebook for more information.