Eye Exercises for Kids: Easy How-To Guide for Parents

Eye Exercises for Kids: Easy How-To Guide for Parents

Introduction

Eyes enable us with the ability to look at various things in the environment and send cues to the brain to comprehend the visual information that has been accumulated. A good vision allows a child to stay academically updated and carry on with their everyday learning without any obstructions. It's not just crucial to read books but also to grasp information from one's immediate surroundings and develop critical cognitive skills. Not being able to see properly may impact a child's self-perception and lead to behavioral issues.

This is the reason why parents need to ensure that their child's eye health is maintained and optimal. As precaution is better than cure, parents may adopt some important precautionary measures for their child to minimize the risk of problems, such as clarity of vision, vision loss, cataracts, and much more. One effective measure is to introduce eye exercises and make it a habit for your child to practice them regularly.

Some Effective Eye Exercises for Kids to Practice Regularly

Here is a list of some highly effective exercises for your child that you may make them do every day.

Eye Blinking Exercise

If your child suffers from the problem of eye dryness, then you may make them try this exercise to see significant changes. This involves fluttering the eyes rapidly by blinking them in a span of 30 to 40 seconds. The next step will be to make them close their eyes for at least 5 to 7 minutes for relaxation. This exercise can be done twice a day for at least a couple of months to see changes.

Swinging Exercise

A swinging exercise involves the movement of the eyeball in different directions as per the continuous moment of an object from the left to the right direction. Parents may simply take a shoelace or a string and move it from left to right or right to left in front of a child's eyes. Ask the child to focus on the moment of that particular string or shoelace and make them do this for at least five minutes. The continuous moment of eyeballs may help with a child's ability to concentrate on a particular object even when it's in motion.

Bouncing Ball Exercise

To do the exercise at home, you may give your child a bouncing tennis ball. Now ask the child to make the ball hit the ground with one hand and then catch it with the other hand as soon as it bounces back. This should be done in a V motion continuously. While doing this, you may tell your child to focus on the moment of the ball from ‘one hand -to the ground -to the other hand’. It's a great way to enhance your child's ability to concentrate and may also improve their eye health.

Eye Exercise with a Clock

For this exercise, you have to make your child. Imagine a large clock. Now keeping that hypothetical clock in consideration, they will have to move their eyeballs into a clockwise motion. You may also make this activity more interesting by making your child move their eyeballs in the direction of a particular time. For example, you can tell them to make 3 o'clock with their eyes and check how they move their eyeballs, and whether that moment is correct or not. The exercise can be done at least 10 times a day to keep the eyes active.

Pencil Exercise

To do the pencil exercise at home, you will have to take a pencil and make your kid keep it at arm's length. Now ask your child to take the pencil in different directions while keeping their eyes fixed on that particular pencil, no matter which direction it goes. You may also ask your child to bring the pencil closer while keeping their focus on the pencil itself. Doing this activity at least 6 to 7 times a day can prove to be beneficial in the long run.

Eye Rolling

Eye rolling is a simple and extremely easy-to-do activity at home that requires your child to sit comfortably and rotate their eyeballs in different directions. This can be done in clockwise motion and anticlockwise motion as well. Doing this exercise a few minutes a day can help in improving eye flexibility and also help strengthening the eye muscles.

Visual Scanning

Visual scanning, as the name suggests, is an exercise that involves scanning a piece of paper in which letters or numbers are arranged incoherently. The child actively gets involved in finding out the missing number from the series or the wrong arrangement of letters in between. This exercise is also beneficial for day-to-day reading and writing practice of the child as it may equip them with the ability to read between words and lines and pick out mistakes easily. While writing also, the child may become more careful and detail oriented.

Conclusion

Vision therapy in the form of simple eye exercises that can be done at home with minimal to no resources may enable a stronger vision among kids. Such exercises may not show immediate results but can be extremely rewarding in the long run. Along with other physical exercises and activities, eye exercises must also become an important part of a child's regime to ensure the overall well-being of a child.