MY CHILD CAN’T CONCENTRATE — WHY?

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Phillip was only in first grade when school problems surfaced. By second grade he was falling further behind in reading and no one could figure out why. His I.Q. scores were in the 98th percentile. A standard eye examination had revealed a mild case of farsightedness and he wore glasses to “correct“ the condition. Still he reversed letters and numbers, skipped and/or reread words, couldn’t concentrate, his mind wandered and he became frustrated and angry during reading group. He made no improvement even working with a reading tutor. The school psychologist determined that he was suffering from an “incipient learning disability.” Phillip’s case is not unique. This happens frequently. While traditional eye care has advanced significantly in the areas of pathology and surgery, the regular eye exam is, in many ways, stuck in the early 1900s. In fact the Snellen chart, used to measure 20/20 eyesight was invented during the Civil War. Many people have the idea that certain learning disabilities will be outgrown. The research tells us that 73 percent of all children with reading/learning disorders have binocular and/or perceptual dysfunctions. Most parents believe if their child has 20/20 eyesight — perfect. Not true. The difference between sight and vision are crucial to the understanding of ADD/ADH, reading and learning disabilities, Autism, etc.Sight occurs in the eyes: and, vision occurs in the brain. Since vision is our dominant sense (80 percent of learning occurs thru the visual sense), the importance of that interplay between eyes and brain is critical. If children begin to fall behind, it can affect their self confidence and affect the rest of their lives. Many will develop the “I can’t do it” syndrome. This is a sort of “learned helpfulness” where the child becomes accustomed to failure, and thinks of himself as unable to achieve and learn. The symptoms of binocular dysfunctions include: can’t concentrate, mind wanders, short attention span, easily distractible, etc. Sounds like ADD/ADHD, doesn’t it? This is why so many kids are Misdiagnosed with ADD/ADHD and placed on drugs. Many parents are frustrated because no one can tell them why. So it is easy to accept medication as the answer. In Phillip’s case, like many other children, he was unable to make his eyes work together as a team (convergence insufficiency). Phillip was unable to get the two images from his two eyes to fuse into one. He reported seeing double at a distance of 10 inches from his nose. Imagine trying to concentrate on reading or homework while seeing double. Phillip began a non-invasive program of vision therapy. After about 20 sessions, Phillip was reading at grade level and his school work improved dramatically, allowing him to fulfill his intellectual potential. We see a significant improvement with about 90 percent of these patients. Parents report not only seeing vast improvement in concentration, reading, and learning but also vast changes in self confidence. When I last spoke to Phillip, he related to me that he had gone on to attend and graduate from an Ivy league college. Today he is successful, confident, and above all else, happy and a very well adjusted adult. For questions or more information, call (717) 656-0534 (ask for Missy). Dr. Arthur Seiderman (Leola, PA) an optometrist and psychologist, who is a graduate of The Gesell Institute’s program of Child Development at Yale University, has written several books, lectured throughout the USA, Canada, and Europe. His work has been translated into six languages. He taught graduate level courses at Penn State University for many years, is a past president of The Disabled Reader Group of The International Reading Association (IRA), and maintains his private practice in Leola. A very helpful web site is: www.helpaddvisiontherapy.com.

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