GENERAL EXERCISE FOR THE EYES OF BABIES AND SMALL CHILDREN

So many requests come to us for help with children the little folk of early school or pre-school age that a few suggestions to parents may be in order. In the studio we get wonderful results through play, strictly kindergarten methods which the parents can carry on at home. Work with the tots of four years or, under brings prompt results because their young eyes are still in the formative period; doctors agree that fusion is not constant or complete until the age of two or three.

Since eyestrain is caused by a strong mental effort to decipher what meets the eye, the first school year makes the initial demand on a child's eyes for clear and accurate vision. In the result of his visual effort lies a penalty or a reward, humiliation or praise: Before school competition, tiny children playing together either see a thing or they do, not, and it is of no consequence. One will say, "See the aeroplane!" and point high into the sky. A short-sighted playmate may glance up and answer, "Nope!" and go right on playing with what he can see; no compulsion, no penalty. But the next year, when the teacher points out something on the blackboard and he cannot see it, chagrin is the reaction and a fear complex is established. This results in a persistent effort-habit and eyestrain, with increasing refractive error as the months go by.

It is not difficult for parents to discover that a child is near-sighted or that one eye is weaker than the other by questioning him, at different distances, about pictures and toys, or, by checking his vision while motoring. Often a more accurate analysis of baby eyes is possible in the home than with a stranger under formal surroundings.

Many tiny tots are so terrified by being taken to an unfamiliar office and by meeting strange people that the doctor can get no co-operation at all, but at home where they are at ease, the parents can draw them out in the course of conversation or play.

HELPS PARENTS TOO
Parents would be able to normalise their young children's eyes by working at it earnestly and conscientiously. Teaching the children drills in relaxation, body swings, palming, etc. would be good for parental as well. It does, however, require work, time, attention to improve the child's vision. It requires daily periods devoted to the implanting and of habits of relaxation, then the utilization relaxation for good habits of seeing. Children activity and adult companionship in their activity. grown-up would play their relaxation games with the curse of daily drill routines would disappear noticeable progress in vision would be the reward. 3 year-old Joey had one undeveloped eye that, this was being trained to see with centralised . He would eagerly remind his mother on mornings, "We didn't do our eye games yet, Mummy.

Swinging babies will stop crying spells. Swings have know to stop tantrums in children with frantic. It is regrettable that mothers no longer practice custom of rocking a baby to sleep. This was, for ages, the natural procedure. It had great value as a relaxation for the mother as well as for the child on is tremendously communicable. So is relaxation a frantic mother can tense a child. Time out to rock the baby soothes and relaxes them both a benefit a baby girl was having her first lesson for her eyes. She had been taught her swings and was on a tiny, footstool, little hands over her eyes, on her knees, palming. The rhythm of the head swing was still in her baby mind as she swayed while she palmed. The mother's attention was called to the swing and the child looked up and volunteered, "It feels so good on the neck!" Even young children suffer from neck tensions and taut nerves. They enjoy relaxing.

Infants in arms should be swung in the sunshine, faces tipped so that the rays fall on the eyelids. The will eyes close automatically. At first the babies may brace against the brightness but soon the warmth soothes them and they settle back with a sigh and relax. Two or three year olds can be taught to cover one eye and blink "sparkles" with the other. It can be made a real game lots of fun!

A little, but often, is the rule in this is in all our drills. Sun on crooked eyes relaxes the cramped muscles almost as much as anaesthesia, under which crossed eyes temporarily straighten. Turned eyes are in better alignment after a sunning.

Any toddler can be coaxed to palm if someone will tell a happy story to keep the young mind interested. Even a nervous -child will sit and palm five or ten minutes under these conditions, especially if the sunning and the swings have been given first.

Babies with eyestrain suffer from excruciating nervous tension which is often mistaken for violent temper. Once, a golden-haired baby, almost blind, was brought to me. Just toddling age, she was put on the floor by her parents and made her way over to me. I reached down and took the little hand. The mother scream "Look out! She will bite you!" She did an violently! This was not naughtiness: it was frantic vent-up nerves demanding an outlet. I seated the child out on the lawn, back to the sunshine, and she began rocking backwards and forwards, droning little buzzing sound. "She is putting herself to sleep, the mother explained. It was a natural swing in the, soothing warmth of the sun. In two minutes, she roll ever, sound asleep. When one eye is turned off focus or is weaker, it should be given extra work to do. The brain is lazy an, Wes the clearer channel) ignoring the other. With child, a domed patch should be coaxed over the strop eye for very short periods, at first. To remove the feeling of an ordeal and make it a pleasurable interlude, so many particularly appealing game or busy work should be furnished during the patch period. Palming should precede and follow the patch work. As the weak eye strengthens and the child is able to forget the pater while he plays, patch periods of increasing length car be accomplished. Patch work should never be don't when the child is tired or hungry. After breakfast when the child is fresh and happy, or after the nap o rest in the afternoon, are the most advantageous time; Extra sleep and rest area vital necessity for nervous children. All those with eye defects are nervous. Elephant Swing before the nap will make the rest more welcome.

THE BAG-OF-GOLD SWING
An adult, preferably with a strong back, stands behind the child and encircles him with his arms, bending forward so that the child may hang limp from the waist across the adult's clasped hands like a rag doll. The child's feet swing free on one side while head and arms dangle 'on the other. Then he is swayed gently from side to side in an arc, letting the floor smooth past Watch that he does not try to hold his head up rigidly but lets it hang limp with arms and shoulders. The babies love the swing, tense children in the studio often begging, "Please let's play Bag-of-Gold!" Hum a "rock-a-bye" as you swing. Unconsciously, as the neck and spine loosen, the eye muscles relax too and start their normal shifts which make better alignment possible.

THE MIRROR SWING
This is for-children who "crooked their eyes", as one baby expressed it. For a left eye that turns in, patch the right eye or cover it with a palm. Turn the child's back to a mirror and start an elephant swing, having him glance over the left shoulder each time he swings toward the left. To make it a game, each time the child glances the mother should smile or wave into the mirror. If the left eye pulls out, the mirror glance should being the right shoulder so that the vision of the left will be across the nose. If the right eye is the rider, it can be treated accordingly and swung in direction it needs to go.