Convergence Insufficiency | ADHD Information

I don't know where to post this - sorry if I'm in the wrong place.  Does anyone know anything about convergence insufficiency? DS has been on meds since he started kindergarten and has always done well in school so I never paid attention to the "eye probelms may be causing ADHD" theories.  He has good handwriting (although he hates to write sometimes) and is a great reader.  Anyway, someone recently mentioned convergence insufficiency to me and told me this "test" you could do to check for it.  Based on that "test" DS could have an issue.  I don't know if I should search for a doctor to have him checked or if the "test" is meaningless.  I have found stuff on line about the problem but nothing I read makes me think it is an issue for him.  It is just the fact that my ADHD son had difficulty with the "test" and my non-ADHD son did not.

THanks!

My son was tested at the urging of the school and came up fine.  One thing his doctor told me was that if a child can do word search puzzles with no difficulties that suggests that the eyes are working together properly.

Obviously eye muscle issues don't cause ADHD.  But if there is an extra stumbling block it could exacerbate inattentiveness.  Formal tests and therapy can be expensive, but if there is a problem that can be corrected it's worth pursuing.

My daughter had convergence insufficiency. She had all the typical symptoms - skipped lines while reading, missed small words like "a' "the" etc, hated to read or could read about a page or so before giving up, couldn't copy things from the board. She complained about the words on the page "jumping around like popcorn." This was at least two years *before* her diagnosis of ADHD.

My daughter was struggling in school despite being clearly articulate and bright. On the advice of a friend (whose son had CI) we had her tested. We were skeptical but eventually began vision therapy. We did therapy for about 6 months. It was time consuming and expensive (only part of it was covered by insurance) but the results were nothing short of fabulous. Her eyes learned to work together and her reading improved significantly. She hasn't had any problems with reading (other than just get distracted!) in years.

I am a freelance writer and have written several articles on CI so I've done my research. Vision therapy will NOT improve/cure ADHD, only the reading/school issues directly related to the vision problem. Anyone telling you otherwise is only trying to take your money.

If you are not noticing any CI symptoms in your son then I wouldn't be overly concerned. You could always have him professionally evaluated, though, to put your mind at ease. (From the sound of it, you did a home "test.") The evaluation is not stressful; my daughter thought it was kind of fun.

Hope this helps!