Peripheral Vision Exercise - Outside Observations

Recently, someone in a homeschooling group I belong to, asked about vision issues she has with her child. Specifically, her child needs work to use their peripheral vision more. So I thought I would do a mini series of things I have done to help me use my peripheral vision more. 

By the way, over the course of learning about vision therapy, I learned that when I tunnel, it wears out my eyes more i.e.: makes them feel more tired more rapidly. I keep forgetting this, so this needs to be a reminder to me to focus on peripheral vision more today!

The first time I remember working on my peripheral vision, it was a beautiful day outside! I commented this to my vision therapist who was setting me up for my next task. She stopped whatever she was about to do, and we went outside to do the therapy. It's been a year or more, and I can't remember if she patched my eye, but I feel like she did. 

The way she patches my eye is she makes an eye patch for my glasses out of Scotch tape. She covers it in several directions to form one oval-shaped sticker that can be peeled off one side of my glasses and put onto the other side easily. 

Well, I feel like she patched my right eye, and we walked down the sidewalk. There were "parking" signs depicting the businesses to my left, and parked cars or empty parking spaces to my right. There were trees scattered to my left and far to my right. 

So, we walked down the sidewalk and she wanted me to tell her when I could see things to my left - when did I stop seeing them to my left? It got me to pay attention to what was next to me even if I was looking straight ahead. I enjoyed that exercise very much and wanted to do it more another day. We did other peripheral work on other days. I will talk about them in further blog posts. 

We did, by the way, come the other way down the sidewalk (walking back towards the vision therapy office), and I did the identical activity back, from my right eye. 

My vision therapist, by the way, has told me that looking outside and walking outside (like with my dog) is great for my vision - it gets me to widen my vision instead of my normal narrow, tunneling vision habits.

Peripheral Vision

So, if you take your hands and pretend to use them as a pair of binoculars, you greatly limit your peripheral vision. It's as if you're looking through a cardboard tube, or you've got a pair of 360 degree horse blinders on.

Public domain image from https://thumbs.dreamstime.com

That's how I see. It's also called "Tunneling." Interestingly enough, my older son told me recently that "Tunneling" is also now a video game terminology. Who knew?

I have walked around my entire life, seeing only what I could see through my glasses. I couldn't see anything around them. To see somewhere else, I have had to always turn my head and look directly at whatever it is. Like a bird does, come to think of it. Have you seen how birds constantly tilt their head to look at something specific? It's entertaining. It's probably not as entertaining when I do it.

Well, one thing my vision therapist has had me do, is try to widen my peripheral view. In an early blog post, I shared a game that was very colorful, with blocks. I had to stack the blocks in a certain way.

Another day, my vision therapist had me walk on a sidewalk next to street signs like " no parking" signs. I was to look straight ahead, but be aware of coming up to, passing, and moving beyond the street signs to my side. That was interesting!

Well, I have mentioned also in this blog that I walk dogs. In my area of the planet, it's been winter. Not a completely freezing and snowy winter, but definitely cold enough to wear a sweatshirt and keep the hood up.

In the past, for the rest of my life in fact, I have worn sweatshirts with the hood up to keep my head and ears warm. I never thought about it.

Last week, I kept having to shove the sweatshirt hood back off my forehead, because it was blocking my peripheral vision!!! This is MAJOR!

I am becoming more aware of things in my periphery! It's a wonder that I never saw these things before. And now, when my vision is blocked, I miss it.

As I am sitting here typing this blog post, I see the sliding doors to my left and outside, my deck. I am staring at the MacBook screen and typing, but I see to my right, the living room and chairs and couch and TV. Wow. My peripheral vision has definitely opened up these last few months, thanks to vision therapy. WOW.

I am so grateful to have the team I do, helping me with my vision. It's amazing how much more my world is opening up thanks to several months of therapy. I still have several more months to go.

It's so nice being able to see more than only what I see through my eyeglasses!

Public domain photo. A pair of backlit glasses frame a sunset.