Last week there was a person on the local New York City news talking about vision exercises and ADHD. They stated that most children are misdiagnosed and can be cured with vision exercises. Now, I do think there is a place for vision therapy with children with ADHD but, I don't think that this is a cure all. Many children and adults, are misdiagnosed with ADHD or ADD because the binocular system was never tested. However, there are equally as many people that truly have ADHD/ADD plus binocular dysfunction (BVD). This is an important distinction. One group is misdiagnosed and one group is properly diagnosed. Both patients in these groups can have BVD. A full comprehensive binocular vision examination is so important for both of these groups and it is often overlooked.
We also know the medications that are used to treat these conditions also affects the visual system. People have difficulty maintaining focus, tracking from one line to another, or keeping both eyes pointing to the same place in space. Appropriate prismatic correction can help all of these difficulties. While vision therapy can take months and be very expensive, we can see results very quickly with Dr. Feinberg's technique of prismatic correction.
It is troubling that so many of these children fall through the cracks in the system because they are not evaluated properly. In our ever increasing visual and stressful world, this has become a huge problem. These children are working so hard to learn and not having a stable visual system makes it so much harder.
Please spread the word, binocular vision dysfunction is not found on a routine eye exam. You must go to a doctor, ( usually an OD, Optometrist) who is specially trained in binocular vision.
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