Anaglyphic Tasks

{THIS THERAPY TECHNIQUE IS BEST FOR TREATING SUPPRESSION WHEN MINIMAL INEXPENSIVE EQUIPMENT IS DESIRED. ALTHOUGH IT WILL WORK WHEN PATIENTS ARE ABOVE AGE FOUR IT IS BEST IF THE PATIENT IS OVER AGE SEVEN.}


                       PATIENT INSTRUCTIONS 
                         Anaglyphic Tasks 

The purpose of this therapy is to increase the ability to maintain single, clear, comfortable binocular vision through elimination of suppression. An additional goal is to train convergence and divergence. You will know you are doing the techniques correctly when you can do the procedures smoothly and accurately without suppression.

Perform therapy _________ minutes daily and increase the number of procedures in each session as you do them. In the beginning you may experience discomfort such as headaches, eye strain, etc., and have to limit the therapy to a few minutes. As your ability improves, your discomfort will disappear and the therapy time can be increased. Remember that therapy fifteen minutes daily is better than therapy two hours once a week. It would be best if you do this therapy at __________ each day. Try to establish a routine so that you always do the techniques at the same time each day.

Set Up:

Put the red-green glasses on (over your glasses if you wear them) with the red lens over the _________ eye. Place a page from the coloring book onto the sheet of white paper.

Correct Response:

The task in this therapy is to use a red marker (a crayon, colored pencil/pen, or felt tipped marker) to trace or write on a white piece or paper. In order for you to do this correctly you must be able to see both the red marks that you make and the black marks at the same time. Note that only the green-filtered (suppressing eye) can see the red marks. If the red marks disappear you are suppressing that eye. You must try to break suppression by blinking your eyes, jiggling the tip of the marker or by using a marker with a wider tip.

Procedure 1:

Using the red-green glasses with the red lens over the _________ eye, take the red marker and trace over the outline of one of the pictures in a coloring book. Make sure that you can see the tip of the marker, the lines that you are making and the outline of the picture all at the same time. Do not trace unless you can see your lines, the tip of the marker and the outline of the picture at the same time. Each time that you notice suppression, make a slash through the outline and then try to break suppression by blinking or moving the marker.

Procedure 2:

Using the red-green glasses with the red lens over the _________ eye, take the red marker and do a dot-to-dot game. Make sure that you can see the tip of the marker, the lines that you are making and the dots all at the same time. Do not connect any dots less you can see your lines, the tip of the marker and the outline of the picture at the same time. Each time that you notice suppression, make a slash through the outline and then try to break suppression by blinking or moving the marker.

Procedure 3:

Using the red-green glasses with the red lens over the _________ eye, take the red marker and play tic-tac-toe using black lines for the game grid. Make sure that you can see the tip of the marker, the X's and O's that you are making and the game grid all at the same time. Do not make a mark unless you can see your marks, the tip of the marker and the game grid at the same time. Each time that you notice suppression, make a slash through the outline and then try to break suppression by blinking or moving the marker.

Procedure 4:

Repeat the above task using other "games" for anti- suppression tasks. Some possibilities are Hang-man, cross word puzzles, Battleship, and Pyramid. Checkers can also be played using a red and black board and red- green glasses.

Do this for _______ minutes every day. As you improve you can make the task more difficult by using a thinner crayon or a red pencil with a thin lead. Write down any observations or questions that you have. Save your completed tracings and show them to your clinician.

Rapid Research-1986 (BW)