10-15% of children today are diagnosed with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder. In the past, these children were labeled as minimally brain damaged. Symptoms of this disorder usually include:

>>Making careless mistakes in school

>>Difficulty sustaining attention in tasks or play

>>Difficulty organizing tasks and activities

>>Losing and misplacing belongings

>>Fidgeting and squirming in seat

>>Avoids, dislikes or is reluctant to engage in tasks requiring sustained mental effort

>>Interrupting or intruding on others

These are also symptoms that children with Learning Related Visual Problems exhibit.

Vistion therapy improves many skills that allow children to pay attention. Before medicating a child for ADD/ADHD, parents should arrange for their child to be evaluated by a behavioral optometrist.

Dr. Carl O. Myers of the Fort Wayne Vision Development Center tests at distance and nearpoint to assure that both eyes are working together as a team. Vision is more than clarity. It's a complex combination of learned skills, including tracking, fixation, focus change, binocular vision and visualization.

When all these things are well developed, children and adults can sustain attention, read and write without careless errors, give meaning to what they hear and see, and rely less on movement to stay alert.

For a symptoms checklist, click here.

For more information contact the Indiana Vision Development Center at 260-497-7973. Or by e-mail at indianavdc@frontier.com.