Eye-Strengthening Exercises for Children

Our eyes are made up of hundreds of small muscles that can be strengthened and improved just like any other muscles in the body. Eye-strengthening exercises for children can correct common vision problems, preventing the need for corrective lenses later in life. The inability to focus vision and control eye movement can make it hard to learn to read and maintain attention in class.

Even children with 20/20 vision can suffer from undiagnosed vision problems that make learning more difficult. Performing a few simple eye-strengthening exercises each day can make a difference.

Palming

• Relax your eyes while sitting at the table. Stack pillows on front of you until they reach a height that allows you to comfortably hold your palms directly in front of your eyes. Close your eyes and lightly cover each eye with your palms so that you block any light. Breathe deeply and slowly while you hold your palms over your eyes, being careful not to apply pressure. Do this exercise for 10 minutes two to three times a day.

Swinging

• Start this exercise by closing your eyes and relaxing them. Next, stand up, open your eyes and find a distant object to focus on. Look from side to side in a gentle, swaying motion. Blink your eyes as you swing to keep them clean and well-lubricated. This is one of the best eye-strengthening exercises for children who use computers.

Color of the Day

• Choose one color and have your child look out for it throughout the day. The child will become more aware of an object's color than its shape. For instance, if the color of the day is yellow and the child sees a yellow school bus, she will pay more attention to the color than the fact that it is a bus.

See Clearly Method

• The See Clearly Method is a series of eye-strengthening exercises designed to help with vision correction. Ideally these exercises should be done for 30 minutes a day to strengthen and improve the eye's flexibility. One exercise encourages changing focus from near to faraway objects. This is done by holding an object in front of the child's face and slowly moving it further away and then slowly bringing it close again. This exercise trains the eye to follow and object and shift focus all at once.

  The See Clearly Method also has exercises that can produce noticeable results quickly. A technique known as "blur reading" is one. Start by having the child hold a magazine upside down, holding it at a distance where the words are not easy to recognize. The child will choose one word and focus on trying to recognize each letter.