Diane Serex-Dougan, OD, FCOVD | Behavioral Optometry | Optometric Vision Therapy | Maryland - Testing for eye-convergence insufficiency

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Testing for eye-convergence insufficiency

November 19, 2008

Scripps Howard News Reports

Sometimes stumbling blocks to reading development can't be attributed to a learning disability or concentration issues. A recent government report found that one in 20 students may suffer from a childhood eye-muscle coordination problem called convergence insufficiency, or CI.

This disorder may be the reason reading activities are problematic for some children. Children with CI find it difficult to make their eyes focus inward or converge -- which is necessary for reading and other close-up activities.

The results of a 12-week study released last month by the National Eye Institute concluded that a combination of office-based vision-therapy treatment coupled with at-home reinforcement is more effective than home-based methods most commonly used.

"CI is what we call a reading-related vision disorder," said Dr. Benjamin Kohn, of Vision Enhancement Center in Riverside, Calif. "One of the things we think causes it is visual stress such as reading, writing and working on computers.

"Because most vision-screening tests done by schools or pediatricians test distance acuity, disorders such as CI often aren't noticed."

The key to 3-D vision

A visual impairment that condemns children to see in only two dimensions can go unrecognized for years and be mistaken for stigmatized disorders.

LA Times
By Susan R. Barry
June 22, 2009

I was 20 years old and a college student before I learned that I did not see the world like everyone else. I had been cross-eyed as a baby, but three childhood surgeries made my eyes look straight. Because my eyes looked normal, I assumed I saw normally too. But, in fact, I was stereoblind -- unable to see in three dimensions.,

That means I could not see the volumes of space between objects. Instead, things in depth appeared piled one on top of another, making me feel nervous and confused in cluttered environments. As a child, I didn't understand why my friends were so entertained when they looked through a View-Master. I didn't see Disney characters or Superman popping out at me. All I saw was a flat image.

When I got older, my gaze -- particularly at a distance -- was jittery, making it difficult to read signs while driving. I was always disoriented and easily lost.

The biggest effect of my vision was on my performance in school. I had trouble learning to read and did poorly on standardized tests. These problems were blamed not on my vision but on a lack of intelligence, and I was put in a class with other problem children.