How to Improve Your Child's Eyesight Naturally

From Chapter 8:  Eyes Must Move to See

Eyes Grasp the World with Saccadic Motion

The essential rapid flickering of eyes is called saccadic motion. In 1964 Russian biophysicist Alfred Yarbus demonstrated that if this motion stops, an "empty field" is created within one to three seconds. "Empty field" means no shapes, no colors; nothing is seen.

You can observe saccadic eye movements yourself. Find someone to get close to. Watch their eyeball from the side. As your specimen looks straight ahead you will see her eye making small jerky hops. This happens even when the person thinks she is "fixing" her gaze on something.

To imagine how far your eyeball travels during an average saccadic hop, cut a pie into 10 000 pieces. Eyeballs travel across one of these pieces in one fiftieth of a second. Then they change direction.

I call this gyrating movement of the eyeballs the saccadic dance. If the saccadic dance is slowed down visual clarity is inhibited. Research saccadic eye movements of people who wear thick glasses (ask them to remove their specs); then observe people with normal vision. Long, languid saccades accompany refractive error, compared to the sparkling agile motion of normal sight.

By using the swinging and movement games in this chapter, we invite the saccadic dance to return or to remain in everyone's eyes. The dance takes place in the context of total body aliveness. Head moves, eyelids blink, lungs inflate and deflate. The whole dance hall is pulsing to the beat, even with tranquil music.

Everyone benefits from swinging and swaying. It is relaxing to body and mind.

The Near-Far Swing
The Near-Far Swing is good for both myopes and hyperopes. It helps myopes bring their clear close vision outward into the distance, just like unrolling a royal carpet. Hyperopes can bring their relaxed distance vision in close with this swing.

Sit comfortably indoors or outside and find an object to hold in your hand. This could be a toy, a blade of grass, your watch. Choose an object in the distance anywhere from one meter (three ft) away to the horizon. A tree will do or a license plate on a car or a picture on the wall.

Connect your close object and your far object with an invisible rope Circle the close object a few times with your nose, then slide and glide, on the rope out to your distant object. Don't slide near and far with your eyeballs. Move your head, letting your nose guide your eyes.

Circle your distant object a few times, then slide back on the rope to the object in your hand. This is a Near-Far Swing. Your rope could turn into a string of pearls, a spider's thread, a gold chain. Repeat the Near-Far Swing at least ten times on the same object; then choose another two shapes: one up close, the other in the distance.

The Near-For Swing is fun in the house, in the kitchen, at the table. It's intriguing on a mountain top. You could create invisible lines of force making a network across the countryside.

Ball Games Galore
Balls are attractive to eyes. Their roundness, unpredictability and free-flowing movement irresistibly beckons interest and induces saccadic motion. Nothing moves as superbly as a ball--except perhaps the human eyeball itself. Cultivate all ball games to call forth flickery, faster-than-you-can-think-about-it saccadic eye movements. Buy your family a collection of balls big and little, spongy ones and bouncy ones. Have a special box or basket to keep them in.

• Roll the ball. Follow the ball with your nose.
• Bounce the ball. Follow the ball with your nose
• Play catch. Follow the ball with your nose.

Acknowledgments

Why I Wrote This Book
     Social and Optical Pressures
     A New Attitude

How to Use This Book
     Who Can Benefit from Using This Book?
     Guidelines to Keep in Mind
     How This Book Is Organized
     No More Glasses

PART 1: A Fresh View of Children's Vision

1    People and Glasses
         A Brief History of Glasses
         Children in Glasses
         The Beginning of the Janet Goodrich Method
         Those Who Wanted Children Out of Glasses
         Honored Voices Ignored
         A Natural Way to Healing

2    Causes of Imperfect Eyesight
         What Is Eyesight?
         Who Says It's Faulty?
         Testing Vision Creates Blur
         Vision Fluctuates
         Theories Proposed and Rejected
         Don't Discuss Feelings
         The World at Large
         The Real Cause of Faulty Vision

3    The Optical Industry and Natural Vision Improvement
         Professional Offerings
         Ophthalmologists Are Medical Doctors
         Optometrists Are Everywhere
         Natural Vision Improvement Method Teachers
         How to Help Your Eye Doctor Give You What You Want
         The Office Visit
         Researching Surgery
         Obtaining and Using Transition Glasses
         Prescription Guidelines

4    Parent Power and Home Science
         Two Views of Parents
         Healing the Parent
         Home Science As the New Authority
         Keeping a Vision Journal
         Your Own History
         This Wonderful Child
         Doctors' Reports and Prescriptions

5    A Child Grows Vision
         What Is a Child?
         Is Childhood Special?
         The Self-Regulated Child
         Babies Are the Real Experts
         Stages of Growth

PART 2: Keen Eyesight for Every Child

6    Your Child's Electric Body
         Use Reflex Points to Help Vision
         Preverbal Language
         What About "Born with It"?
         Point Holding
         The Peace Point
         Loving Support Points
         Angel Wing Points
         Ouch Points
         Blindness Points
         The Ugly Duckling Point
         Tickle Zones
         Massage Muscles Related to Eyesight
         A Whole Baby/Child Massage
         Massage for the Trapezius
         Massage for Neck Flexors
         Timetable for Massage and Point Holding

7    Vision is Alive and Well in the Brain
         Eyes Are Ruled by the Brain
         Dueling Hemispheres
         More Compassion Please
         Playing in the Hemispheres
         Short- and Long-Term Memory Games
         Put Your Brains Together
         Cross-Crawl Dancing
         Timetable for Cross-Crawl
         The Question of Dominance

8    Eyes Must Move to See
         Eyes Grasp the World with Saccadic Motion
         Babies Don't Stare
         Rock-a-Bye My Baby
         Rocking, Rolling, Bouncing
         Dance of the Eaglet Swing
         Faces
         Make a Mobile
         Muscles behind the Movement
         How We Create Blurred Vision
         The Magic Nose Pencil
         The Magic Nose Paintbrush
         Painting Pictures Game
         Bird Swing
         The Near-Far Swing
         Ball Games Galore
         The Rainbow Ribbon Wand
         Blinking
         Breathing and Yawning
         Swing It, Sing It, Dance It
         Timetable for Movement
         Nuclear Vision
         A Trip to Fovea Centralis
         Intensify the Blur
         The Nuclear Junk Box
         Counting Games
         Hidden Pictures
         Nuclear Vision on Eye Charts
         Timetable for Nuclear Vision Games

9    Mad about Sunlight
         Are Eyeglasses Good for Kids?
         Light Food for Thought
         Why Eyes Need Sunlight
         Sunning Games
         Color Therapy
         Blue Lagoon
         Prebirth Sunning
         Timetable for Sunning
         Scared of the Dark

10    Children Relax with Imagination and Color
         Are Children Relaxed?
         Home Again in the Self
         Imagining with Palming
         Autosuggestion Training
         Bedtime Story
         The Ugly Duckling Story
         Color All Your Life
         Emotional Healing for Imagining
         Scary Stories
         What Happens Next?
         Sculpting Monsters
         Timetable for Colors and Imagining

11   Feelings and Eyesight
         What Do You Feel?
         Seven Emotions
         Eyes Talk
         Playacting
         Melting Beach Balls
         Take a Deep Breath
         Yawning with the Lions
         Huff-Puff
         Joyful Seeing and Singing
         Timetable for Emotional Expression

12   Winning Eye Tests without Glasses
         The Unspoken Obligation in Eye Tests
         Make Your Own Eye Charts
         The Great White Glow
         A White Thing
         The Magic Nose Paintbrush Paints White
         Fishing and Finding
         What Is Reading?
         Paint White
         Emotions and Reading

PART 3: Specific Programs for Specific Problems

13   Myopia
         What Is Myopia?
         When Does Myopia Start?
         Transition Glasses for Young Myopes
         Think Twice about Surgery
         What Myopia Feels Like Inside
         Emotional Healing for Myopia
         The Myopia/Hyperopia Connection
         Reversing Myopia with NVI
         The Fishing Rod Story
         Timetable for Myopia Games

14   Hyperopia
         What Is Hyperopia?
         Many Children Outgrow Hyperopia
         What Hyperopia Feels Like Inside
         Emotional Healing for Hyperopia
         Reversing Hyperopia with NVI
         Shifting Images
         The Ant Queen
         The Swinging Ball
         Timetable for Hyperopia Games

15   Astigmatism
         What Is Astigmatism?
         The Cause of Astigmatism
         How Correction Is Determined
         It Appears and Disappears
         An Astigmatism Prescription
         Erase Astigmatism with NVI
         Zoo Train
         Birds on a Wire
         What Astigmatism Feels Like Inside
         Emotional Healing for Astigmatism
         Other Therapies

16   Strabismus and Lazy Eyes
         What Is Strabismus?
         Why Eyes Turn
         The Medical Response
         Behavioral Optometrists Train Turned Eyes
         Cranial Adjustment
         Your Options
         Straighten Turned Eyes with NVI
         Games for Babies with Turned Eyes
         Directional Tromboning
         "Photographing" the Light
         Phoria Ball Games
         Timetable for Phoria Ball Games
         Who's That in the Mirror?
         The Windmill Swing
         Pirate Patching
         Emotional Healing for Strabismus
         Timetable for Strabismus
         Heading for Fusion

17   Fusion
         What Is Fusion?
         The Physical Side of Fusion
         Reasons for Not Fusing
         Why Is Fusion Important?
         When to Do Fusion Games
         Fusion Level One: The Gate
         Fusion Level Two: The Bug and Bead Game
         Fusion Level Three: Fish in a Bowl
         Fusion Level Four: Magic Eyes
         Angel Halos
         Alternating Vision
         The Butterfly Mask
         Candles in the Dark
         Feeling Fusion
         Emotional Healing for Fusion
         Timetable for Fusion

PART 4: Home and School Environments

18   Sugar and Sore Eyes
         Bodies Are Made of Food
         Sugar Blues
         Sugar Hit Parade
         Why People Want Sugar
         What You Can Do
         A Good Start
         Emotional Healing for Sugar Freaks

19   Your Child's Room
         Lighting, Computers, Homework
         Design a Vision Nest for Eaglets
         Outdoor Play Areas

20   The Hazardous Classroom
         History of Western Schooling
         New Hazards for Old
         Posture and Seeing
         Emotional Healing for Going to School
         A Great Day for Eyes at School
         Children in the Fast Lane
         Parents Make It Happen
         Assets and Support

Glossary
References
Recommended Reading
Resources
Index

Janet Goodrich, Ph.D., (1942-1999) was also the author of Natural Vision Improvement and taught seminars worldwide on improving vision. Vision therapists in at least nine countries use her techniques. Her work continues in practice at the Janet Goodrich Centre in Queensland, Australia.

“This book offers valuable ways vision patients can be helped, rather than prescribing another pair of glasses.”
Patricia Joy Wermann, M.D.

“Janet Goodrich has raised people’s consciousness about vision improvement all over the world. I highly recommend her innovative work.”
Deborah E. Banker, M.D., holistic ophthalmologist

HEALTH / PARENTING

“Janet Goodrich has raised people’s consciousness about vision improvement all over the world. I highly recommend her innovative work.”
Deborah E. Banker, M.D., holistic ophthalmologist

“This book offers valuable ways vision patients can be helped, rather than prescribing another pair of glasses.”
Patricia Joy Wermann, M.D.

How to Improve Your Child’s Eyesight Naturally should be a staple reference book for every household with children. This comprehensive resource teaches parents how to develop personalized programs for addressing their child’s specific vision needs--whether it be preserving the current good vision, erasing astigmatism and blurry vision, or removing the need for glasses at all!

Filled with practical and imaginative exercises as well as ideas on how to keep these tasks fun for children, this book offers everything parents need to improve a child’s vision:

• detailed instructions for reversing eyesight blur,
• creative activities appropriate for each age group,
• tips for adjusting living environments to support healthy vision,
• easy-to-understand explanations of common diagnoses, and
• hints for dealing with doctors.

The seventy-five scientifically based vision games, such as “Zoo Train” and “Birds on a Wire,” are fun, age-appropriate, and include corresponding songs to reinforce good visual habits.

JANET GOODRICH, PH.D., (1942-1999) was also the author of Natural Vision Improvement and taught seminars worldwide on improving vision. Vision therapists in at least nine countries use her techniques. Her work continues in practice at the Natural Vision Improvement Center in Queensland, Australia.