Category Archives: Vision

Learning Styles Problems can cause Bad Grades in ADHD Children

February 28, 2012   admin

Many children with ADHD have learning style problems that once corrected may lead to improved grades and academic performance.
Quite often, children with ADHD have problems learning and remembering what they have learned, because of the principal traits of their ADHD behavior disorder; poor concentration and short attention span.
Even when properly treated with ADHD medications, many of these kids and teens will continue to suffer bad grades and academic failure because ADHD drugs do not treat or cure learning problems. ADHD drugs are used to decrease impulsivity and improve concentration in hopes that by doing so, the ADHD child will be able to better learn.
Many ADHD children will improve grades once treated with one of the medications for ADHD. However, if the child’s learning style does not match his or her learning experience, no amount of any drug will help improve those grades.
What do I mean by “Learning Styles?”
I’m sure you know friends and family who were “touchers”-they had to touch everything in order to understand what was going on or to learn a new skill. We call those persons “Kinesthetic learners” or “hands-on learners.” Kinesthetic learning… Read the rest is just one of several learning

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Reading Problems-Getting inattentive ADHD Children to Read

August 02, 2011   admin

Reading problems plague every parent sooner or later-How do you get an ADHD child with inattentiveness to read?
What is the key to getting an ADHD child with mostly inattentive type to read during the summer or even during the rest of the year? Understanding what goes on inside of the ADHDer’s brain and a lot of patience is the quick answer.
Read on, and you’ll discover more why children with ADHD primarily inattentive type don’t like to read and suggestions to help prevent learning problems due to poor reading habits.
Why children and teens with ADHD-inattentive type don’t like to read
It’s important to realize that reading is often a difficult for the ADHD child, whether inattentive or not. ADHD kids think of reading as a chore, when it doesn’t fulfill one of their basic needs:
• The need for immediate gratification and satisfaction
• The need for excitement and hyper-stimulation
• The need to meet or exceed a set or desired goal
• The need for recognition and a measure of self-esteem.
These are often the reasons ADHD and sometimes non-ADHD kids … Read the restand teens give for playing video games and participating in on-line competitive activities. Every child

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ADHD Focus Strategies-Learning Styles Testing

July 25, 2011   admin

Testing for learning styles is an essential part of ADHD diagnosis and is absolutely necessary before trying to plan for ways to improve one’s focus and attention span.
Dr. Stephen Guffanti and I have been added to the Howtolearn.com expert panel for ADHD-behavior problems and recently answered a subscriber’s questions about strategic planning for learning to focus as an ADHD adult. The same principles in evaluating an adult for ADHD apply to both children and teens suspected of being ADHD.
Once a proper and accurate ADHD diagnosis has been made, a parent, educator or healthcare professional must decide what type of learning style the adult, teen or child possesses in order to put together a realistic ADHD treatment plan for learning attention-holding-focus-hyper focusing skills.
I explain to parents, teachers and other doctors that failing to evaluate what type of learner a person is before outlining and prescribing behavioral training is like getting in a car to go on vacation without a roadmap-not knowing how to get there-much less not knowing where you’re headed.
If you’re considering ADHD behavioral therapy or ADHD focus training … Read the restfor your child, teen or spouse, you might want to take a look at this answer and

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Preventing Classroom-Teacher Bias-ADHD Misdiagnosis

April 26, 2011   admin

Once a child has been labeled as ADHD, whether he or she is actually ADHD or not, it’s virtually impossible to remove that label.
The best way to unstick the almost super-glued ADHD label in a child or teen “suspected” of ADHD is to prevent it from being applied in the first place. The old saying: “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure” is very true in this case.
One child misdiagnosed as ADHD is one too many!
So how can you prevent a teacher or fellow classmates from mislabeling your child with ADHD?… Read the rest

Anticipate problems by talking to your child’s next teacher in advance. Do not wait for the teacher to phone you-take the first step in explaining your child’s behavior traits to his new teacher. He or she will be less likely to feel bias even if they have been “warned” by previous teachers.
Explain how your son’s or daughter’s doctor has evaluated your child’s behavior, what the diagnosis is-if any- and whether or not he or she has undergone some type of therapy.
Ask him or her not to label your child by warning the next teacher or biasing them with an unconfirmed diagnosis

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Vision, Hearing, and, Speech Disorders Cause ADHD Misdiagnosis

February 22, 2011   admin

Vision, Hearing, Speech, and Sensory Processing Disorders Cause ADHD Misdiagnosis
It’s no surprise that speech, hearing and vision problems can cause a child to suffer bad grades, be unable to make and keep friends, and fail in attempts to control impulsivity and hyperactivity. Likewise, as I noted in previous posts (see below), all sensory integration-processing disorders may mimic ADHD and cause the misdiagnosis of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.
Why? Because the parts of a child’s brain or neurologic system that allow him or her to have normal vision, normal hearing and normal speech; are also the ones that help control thought processing… Read the rest, memory, control of impulsivity and hyperactivity and allow him or her to interact with his or her surroundings and other people in a meaningful way.
An article on the Springfield, MA abc40 and Fox6 News website serves to remind us once again that many children with neurosensory disorders are ultimately misdiagnosed as ADHD or mislabeled with other behavior disorders. In this news story, a survey from “Pathways Awareness of more than 500 pediatric occupational therapists, physical therapists and speech-language pathologists” reported that more than two-thirds of kids between 3 and 8 years old previously diagnosed as having

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ADHD Misdiagnosis: Visual Convergence Insufficiency

February 03, 2011   admin

ADHD Misdiagnosis: Visual Convergence Insufficiency
In an earlier post, I gave you an idea of how visual integration disorder can mimic or act just like attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, causing ADHD misdiagnosis. I found an excellent video by a developmental vision specialist who describes brain development vision convergence disorders very well.
Currently in my practice, we have four kids under age 12 years who were misdiagnosed as ADHD, only later discovered to have visual convergence disorder. Realistically, it’s very hard for a child to read and retain what they read when their vision is so messed up that the words are jumbled and reading causes eyestrain and headaches.
These kids often make poor grades and have multiple problems with word and symbol recognition. This causes problems in both reading and comprehension which leads to poor grades. And of course we all know what that means: when a child makes bad grades, ADHD is often the first suspect!
Dr. Frank
Here’s a link to the video… I think it’s worth your time regardless of what type of behavior problem they have.
Convergence Insufficiency – Often Misdiagnosed as ADD/ADHD
http://eyeproblemssymptomscauses.familyhealthtipsonline.com/2011/02/02/watch-video-convergence-insufficiency-often-misdiagnosed-as-addadhd/… Read the rest
Here are previous posts on this important topic!
Vision Problems are just

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Vision Problems are just one cause of ADHD misdiagnosis

December 30, 2010   admin

It seems that since I wrote Mistaken for ADHD, more and more research has been published supporting my contention that many medical-social-emotional problems can and do cause ADHD misdiagnosis!
I hope this means that my book opened the eyes of some who were focused only on making a diagnosis of ADHD and “saw” ADHD symptoms in every child that had a behavior problem. Likewise, it’s just possible that because of Mistaken for ADHD, more doctors and therapists are truly doing a complete evaluation on behavior disordered children before labeling and treating them as ADHD. Whatever the reason, I think it’s great that we are seeing increased awareness of the ADHD-misdiagnosis-over-diagnosis-epidemic!
As noted in one of my previous posts, Vision Problems May Cause ADHD Misdiagnosis (http://www.mistakenforadhd.com/190/vision-problems-may-cause-adhd-misdiagnosis/), any sensory integrative disorder such as a vision or hearing problem can cause a child to display a behavior problem and be misdiagnosed as ADHD.
You should take a look at this great article that discusses how ADHD diagnosed kids might just be suffering from a vision problem:
Children diagnosed with ADHD may be suffering from vision problem
http://www.wndu.com/mmm/headlines/Children_diagnosed_with_ADHD_may_be_suffering_from_vision_problem_112568784.html
Dr. Frank
Reference: Chapter 9 in the ADHD book “Mistaken for ADHD”

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