WHAT IS VISION THERAPY and TOUCH AND TONGUE ACTIVITIES?

WHAT IS VISION THERAPY?

The child is helped by visual skill activities that reinforce and through repetition integrating with the motor and cognitive abilities.

 Vision Therapy is designed to enhance the brain’s ability to control:

• eye alignment,
• eye tracking and eye teaming,
• eye focusing abilities,
• eye movements, and/or
• visual

           Who Benefits from Vision Therapy?

• Vision Therapy helps those children who lack the necessary visual skills for effective reading, writing, and learning (i.e., eye movement and focusing skills, convergence, eye-hand activity, visual memory skills, etc.). 

• Vision Training Activities experiences are ideas based on understanding the front side from the backside of our bodies and from crossing the midline of our bodies. NOTE: Many children have a poor coordination problem. 

1.)  Activity #1-BODY TOUCH – Have the child lay down on a mat with hands at sides.  Teacher taps an area like the right arm and asks the child to lift that arm that was touched.  Tap a leg or neck next. Then try two touches at the same time like left arm and right leg and ask the child to lift the parts touched. When you cross the mid-line, things happen. Try 3 touches at the same time. 

2.)  Activity #2-MUFFLE WORDS – Cover your mouth tightly and say something like: How are you? or what is your name?  By muffling the sound, the child tries hard to hear what you said.  Have children practice on each other with simple words! 

3.)  Activity #3-TONGUE THINKING – Teacher asks children to do tongue exercises like make the tongue go up and down and side to side or have the tongue make a clicking sound or popping sound. 

4.)  Activity #4-EYE SWINGS – Same as with tongue ideas by making the eyes go up, down, left, right, blinking, wink with one eye and then the other.