HealthFirst-Convergence Insufficiency

FLINT (WJRT) -- (11/19/08)-- If your child is having trouble in school, it may not be due to a learning disability. The problem could be with their eyes, and your kids may not even be aware of it.

HealthFirst reporter Leslie Toldo tells us how easy it can be to fix without drugs.

The condition is called convergence insufficiency, or CI,  and it's not something that will be picked up on a standard eye exam, but it is still easy to treat.

Jim Mather's children have CI. "It was a real source of frustration to him for in his learning. Because hearing things he could understand them, but to read them he was having trouble processing information."

Josh Mather's problems started in third grade.

"We were concerned because we were trying to encourage him. We were saying 'you need to do some more, do some more reading,'" Jim Mather said. "But it was just causing him headaches and frustration."

They held Josh back in third grade, but his new teacher picked up on the root of the problem right away.

"And said, 'I think you should take him to Dr. Habermehl,'" Jim recalled.

Once the Mathers got Josh to the Vision Therapy Group in Flint, the changes started.

"When I started doing it, I felt better about myself because I was learning more and fixing my eyes. And now I am feeling really good because I am doing good in school and I am on the A-B honor roll," Josh said.

Josh is now able to support his sister Grace, a third grader who also has Convergence Insufficiency. "When I read a word, it doubled the word two times," she explained.

"Nine out of ten kids that come to us have been misdiagnosed with ADD and learning disabilities, and it's just a visual problem," said Dr. Bradley Habermehl with the Vision Therapy Group.

CI is basically an inability to point the eyes at something and focus them in the same spot. It's a developmental delay that happens when kids are infants, so they may not realize there is anything wrong with the way they see.

The goal of vision therapy is to get kids, through various exercises, to "train" their eyes to focus.

"We can show them what does it feel like, what does it look like when my eyes are pointed and focusing on the same point in space? And it's a coordination issue that when they develop that coordination, they have it for a lifetime," Habermehl explained.

For more information:

Bradley E. Habermehl
Developmental Optometrist
Vision Therapy Group
810-736-6673

VisionTherapyGroup@gmail.com
www.visiontherapygroup.com

www.visionforlearning.org

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healthfirst, leslie toldo

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