Eye Exercises for Children

Whether your child has vision problems or simply needs to work on his or her attentiveness, spending time on eye exercises can be extremely beneficial. Through simple eye movement exercises, your child can improve the strength of his eyes. Using visual games and focusing activities, you can help your child not only control the movement of her eyes, but also improve her visual acuity.

Basic Eye Exercises

• Before asking a child to do more advanced eye exercises, you may want to warm his eyes up with some basic stretches. These exercises will strengthen the eye muscles and help the child focus. First, have the child move his eyes upwards as far as he can, and then downwards as far as he can. Repeat this three or four times, then have him blink quickly several times to relax the eyes.

  Next, do the same thing but to the right and left. Hold one pencil to your left, and one to your right, at eye level. Adjust the distance so that the child can see the pencils clearly without straining when looking to the right or left. Have the child focus on the left pencil for one to two seconds, and then the right pencil for one to two seconds. Repeat a few times, then have him blink quickly and close the eyes to relax.

  Finish by relaxing the eyes. Have the child sit at a table and rest his elbows on the table. Have the child rub the palms of his hands together, and then place his cupped palms over his eyes. Let the child rest in this position for about 30 seconds.

Visual Exercises

• Visual exercises often require the use of specialized pictures. Your local library or bookstore should have books aimed towards this topic. Or you can find a myriad of pictures online to help with visual exercises. For example, the website EyeCanLearn.com has various visual games your child can play. These specialized picture games often feature hidden objects, picture puzzles, 3-D photographs and stereograms.

Exercises for Inattentiveness

• Some children have problems with inattentiveness and impulsivity, meaning that the child has a difficult time paying attention to a specific thing for very long. Certain eye exercises will help the child learn to not only focus her attention on one object, but also resist the impulse to look elsewhere.

  Hold two different colored objects in front of the child, about one to two feet apart. For example, use a red pencil and a blue pencil. Ask the child to look at the red pencil. After two seconds, ask the child to look at the blue pencil. After about four seconds, ask the child to look back at the red pencil. Repeat this process several times, using various timing patterns. If the child impulsively looks at the other pencil before she is instructed to, have her close her eyes for a few seconds and start over again.

  Next, do a visual tracking exercise with the child. Hold an object, such as a pencil or ruler, about 16 inches in front of the child. Move the object horizontally at a speed that is comfortable for the child. Ask the child to track the object with her eyes, without moving her head. If she is having difficulties, stop moving the object and let her refocus on it. Once the child is comfortable with this movement, move on to a different activity. Hold the object in front of the child, and move it in an arc (like a windshield wiper). Again, ask her to follow the object with her eyes.