Convergence insufficiency exercises
Before digging to convergence insufficiency exercises, it is important to know that convergence is one of the type of vergence movements of eyes. Vergence is the opposite movement of the eye. Convergence is the disjugate movement of the eye to produce binocular single vision. We need convergence when we look at the near target. At near target, our two eyes accommodate with the help of lens as the focal length of the object changes. At this moment, our eyes converge to that we may not get diplopia.
Convergence insufficiency
Convergence insufficiency is the difficulty in aligning the eyes for a specific target, particularly a near target. It can be difficulty in changing distance from far to near or it can be difficulty in maintaining the alignments of the eyes. Convergence insufficiency can be the result of any concussion, or any systemic disease of the body e.g. myocardial infarction.
Convergence insufficiency exercises for adults
Following are the convergence insufficiency exercises for adults:
Pencil pushup-most common yet neglected
- Take a pencil. Take a tape of letters and roll it over the pencil.
- Hold this pencil vertically at arm’s length.
- Move it towards your nose slowly while you are focusing on the letters.
- If you see double vision or split letters then one eye has not converged properly.
- Move the pencil far again until the vision becomes single again.
- Move it towards your nose again. When you see double visioln try to focus on it to make it single and clear.
- Move the pencil far again. This is ONE complete push-up and the goal of this exercise is to see letters clearly all the way up to nose. Perform this exercise as per the advice of your ocular physician.
- Generally a person is asked to do 10 to 15 push-ups at a time.
Brock string test
It is also one of the vision therapy exercises for the patients having convergence insufficiency.
Number dot card
It also works on the same principle as of pencil pushup. One has to focus on the numbers written inside a large dot and to focus on them while placing the number dot card end very close to his nose.
Convergence insufficiency exercises for children
Finger tracking
Finger tracking is done on the children with convergence plan=insufficiency. They are asked to track the movement of finger (which also includes making shapes like triangle and circle etc.)
Finger convergence
It is the moving of finger close to the nose of the patient. Generally a smiley sticker is put on the fingertip and children are gently asked to see where it is going and the practitioner moves the finger closer to the nose of the child.
Finger touch tracking
In this activity or vision therapy, you ask the child to touch the tip of your finger (remember drawing of smile on your finger) while your finger is coming from all the directions.
Stick in straw tracking
In this activity a child is asked to insert the pencil inside the straw in a playful manner.
Mistakes with convergence insufficiency exercises
If a person is having convergence insufficiency, then his eye muscles are already in a state of strain and contraction. The muscles are too tight or stiff. At this point if a person performs convergence insufficiency exercises then they will not help. So a person needs to relax his eyes muscles first by gently massaging eyes properly. By relaxing the muscle tone and then performing exercises to improve convergence will help the vision system. The goal is to not let our eye muscles to stay hyper contracted for a longer period of time.
Do not push the limit
We should not push any muscle system beyond its limit. This is the reason one does not get the desired results in convergence insufficiency cases. one should definitely perform the eye exercises but should also consider his screen time.
How to boost the results of ocular exercises
If you are already working a computer related job, then you use your cell phone or television and at night you tend to do some eye exercises to increase muscle strength and vision. Do you think it’s a good idea? Certainly not. It is because your eye muscle system is already fatigued. Try decreasing your screen time and start doing some distance looking related activities. These measures overall decrease the stress from the muscles of eyes and help you boost the results of ocular exercises.
Founder of EyesMatterMost- an optometry student who loves talking about eyes. I tend to cover topics related to optometry, ophthalmology, eye health, eyecare, eye cosmetics and everything in between. This website is a medium to educate my readers everything related to eyes.