SAN DIEGO -- Michael Anderson, 13, has always been a bright student, but his grades began to slip a few years ago.

"When he hit about third grade, I noticed that this child that was so bright was having a difficult time," Michael's mother, Laurie Anderson, said.

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Eye Exam May Find Real Culprit In ADHD-Diagnosed Children

Michael (pictured, right) seemed to have all the hallmarks of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.

"We would sit down with homework and try to do homework that should have only taken a half hour to do and it would take him three hours," Anderson said.

She was worried.

"You could see it in the teacher's comments starting at the end of third grade. And by fifth grade and sixth grade that organization skills are well below where they should be," Anderson said.

Michael became frustrated and disconnected.

"I was worried that I would not be able to pass the sixth grade or seventh grade," he said.

By all accounts, Michael's symptoms appeared to be ADHD, but an eye exam found the real culprit.

"We identified several issues that were causing Michael to not be able to connect with a book," optometrist Dr. Carl Hillier said.

Michael was diagnosed with a common vision problem called convergence insufficiency. Children with this eye disorder are three times as likely to be diagnosed with ADHD than children who don't have this eye problem, according to Hillier.

"We didn't even know this existed," Anderson said.

When a child has convergence insufficiency, the eyes are not capable of getting a clear, single image. So, instead of seeing words or numbers, a child sees two separate images that appear near one another, making words swim on the page.

"If you can't pull your eyes in and continue looking at a book, what you want to do is look away from that book -- at the teacher or another student or out the window -- when in fact, you should be looking at the book," Hillier said.

Michael started to retrain his brain and eyes to work together.

"Vision training teaches the child's brain to coordinate the visual system to acquire information from the book more easily and when that happens there is energy left over to think about what they are reading," Hillier said.

After vision retraining, children can again excel in school, according to Hillier.

"He got A's and B's on every one of his final tests. So, it was amazing, absolutely amazing," Anderson said.

"Now, school is a lot easier and I am more organized and getting a lot better grades than before," Michael said.

Vision Resources Parent Active For Vision Education-- provides detailed information on vision problems and referrals to local doctors.
Catalyst Solutions -- product that teachers and parents can use to learn about vision-brain skills, screen children, and retrain vision skills with simple activities.