My Son 9years Old Recently Diagnosed As Myopic Astigmatism .he Was Advised Glasses.any Eye Exercises Required?
September 15, 2009 by admin
Filed under FAQ on advance for astigmatism
Eye exercises are generally useless. In your son’s case specifically, no exercise will fix either his nearsightedness or his astigmatism.
Efficacy in treating Myopic Astigmatism with visual exercises.
1.Understanding Myopic Astigmatism:
Myopia is a refractive error of the eye in which the length of the eye is such that a refractive device (glasses or contacts) is necessary to bring the focal point of light entering in the eye on the macula ( the area of the retina responsible for central vision).
Astigmatism is a spherical aberration in which the shape of the cornea or lens is not entirely spherical (”round”) at a certain net axis. Conceptually compared to the shape of a baseball (sphere) versus a (football) ovaloid.
This also corrected by glasses or contacts at his age.
Understanding Vision therapy:
1. The visual system is developing from birth to the age of about 6 years (currently in debate by Clinical studies and medical authorities as to exactly when). Durring this time the visual system has to be constantly stimulated with equal vision in the right and left eye so that the nervous connection from the optic nerve ( at the back of the eye) to the occipital lobe (area of the brain responsible for vision) can develop. There is vision therapy that can help strengthen that nervous connection during this window of development only.
2. There exists another type of therapy that is used to treat muscular weaknesses of convergence. When we read the muscles in the eyes converge to the closer focal point. If there is a weakness in the muscles responsible for this convergence, a repetitive motion focusing on alternating distant and near focal points as an “exercise” has been shown to help this condition.
ANSWER: Your son’s age of 9 is out side of the window of the development of the NERVOUS connection of the visual system, therefore he is not at risk for Amblyopia (”lazy eye”) the vision therapy is targated to treat. He simply has eyes that aren’t perfect in their shape resulting in the need for corrective lenses. This is assuming he does not have a problem with convergence of his muscles when he reads ( the second above mentioned vision therapy); this can be diagnosed by an Optometrist through examination.
no……. astigmatism is fairly common so you should be a good parent and buy him some glasses.