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Definition
By Mayo Clinic staffConvergence insufficiency occurs when your eyes don't turn inward properly while you're focusing on a nearby object. When you read or look at a close object, your eyes should converge — turn inward together to focus — so that they provide binocular vision and you see a single image. But if you have convergence insufficiency, you won't be able to move your eyes inward to focus normally.
Convergence insufficiency is most often diagnosed in older children and adolescents. Some parents of children with convergence insufficiency may think their child has a learning disability because the condition can cause difficulty with reading. But learning disabilities aren't usually caused by convergence insufficiency.
- Convergence insufficiency. American Association for Pediatric Ophthalmology and Strabismus. http://www.aapos.org/displaycommon.cfm?an=1&subarticlenbr=76. Accessed June 12, 2009.
- Wallace DK. Treatment options for symptomatic convergence insufficiency. Archives of Ophthalmology. 2008;126:1455.
- Convergence Insufficiency Treatment Trial Study Group. Randomized clinical trial of treatments for symptomatic convergence insufficiency in children. Archives of Ophthalmology. 2008;126:1336.
- More effective treatment identified for common childhood vision disorder. National Eye Institute. http://www.nei.nih.gov/news/pressreleases/101308.asp.
- Scheiman M, et al. Treatment of convergence insufficiency in childhood: A current perspective. Optometry and Vision Science. 2009;86:420.
- Maples WS, et al. Near point of convergence norms measured in elementary school children. Optometry and Vision Science. 2007;84:224.
- Robertson DM (expert opinion). Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minn. July 9, 2009.
