11. Lexicon Card Drill

In earlier chapters we have described the techniques for inducing relaxation that is both physical and men­tal, and encouraging natural shifting of the eyes. Here you will learn something about lexicon car drill.

Once relaxation has been achieved, we must start to build vision by helping to restore the function of accommodation—that is, the ability to focus at vari­ous distances—and to rebuild central fixation.

The following drill has proven to be most effective. It embodies, in a single procedure, most of the prin­ciples of visual re-education. It is useful in rebuilding vision in eyes that have lost most of their ability to see through muscular imbalance, injury, or cataract. It has stretched vision in near-sighted eyes and helped to restore close vision to far-sighted ones. It is par­ticularly valuable, moreover, in cases where one eye sees better than the other and vision in the weaker eye must be equalized with that of the stronger.

Daily use of this drill over a consecutive period of time—whether days, weeks, or months, according to the seriousness of the individual eye defects—will do much to induce clearer vision at either fhe near or the far point.

Before you attempt to do the drill, read the instruc­tions again and again until they are absolutely clear. There is a reason for each step in the procedure and you cheat only yourself by omitting them or by doing them half-heartedly. Be sure that you understand exactly what you are supposed to do as you go along.

The equipment which you will need for the drill is:

1. An eye patch which you can get at your drug­ store.1
   
   
2. A set of clear, black, inch-high alphabet letters, each mounted or printed on a separate white card. The Lexicon Crossword Card game is recommended. It can be purchased at the game counter in any department store.2
   
   
3. A plain black background, which may be either a blackboard, or a screen on which black material such as paper, cloth, or cardboard is pasted.

    ¹    Always do this drill with one eye at a time, keeping the other one covered by the patch. Then do it with both together. If one eye is weaker than the other, you will need to practice longer with the poor one in order to equalize them.

    ²    In the case of near-sighted eyes, white letters on a black background will be more easily seen at first. White gummed letters are easily obtain­ able and black cardboard for mounting can be purchased by the sheet and cut to the desired size. After a little practice with white letters on black cards, even myopic eyes will be able to use the black-on-white Lexicon cards.

4. A few thumbtacks.
5. A straight chair.
6. A strong light both for the blackboard and your self.

Before beginning the drill, do your relaxing exer­cises: sunning, palming, the Long Swing and the Short Swing. Then tack your black background against a screen, door or wall. Arrange a strong light—without glare—to shine directly upon it. Whenever possible, make use of strong sunshine instead of artificial light.

Fasten three or four Lexicon cards to the center of the background by means of thumbtacks, placing them about three inches apart, and slightly below eye level. For simplicity's sake, let's say that you take A, B and C.

Seat yourself as far away as possible. You must be able to distinguish the letters, though they will not he clear. This distance will vary for each person. The far-sighted person will start far away, the near-sighted person fairly close. The essential thing is to be at a distance in which you can distinguish the letter but not see it clearly.

Now take in your hand duplicates of the three letters that you have tacked up on your background. Put a patch over one eye, seat yourself so that you are erect, but comfortable and relaxed, and begin the drill.

1. Take your first card—let us suppose it is the letter A—and hold it slightly below eye level. Now, while you continue to look at the card—easily, with­ out staring, and with normal blinking—move the card away to arm's length in front of you, bringing it back close to the face—and repeat ten or twelve times. This should be done with a rapid motion, which will stim­ulate rapid change of accommodation in your uncov­ered eye.
   
   
2. Now hold the card steady in your hand, at com­fortable reading distance, and swing the head slowly andeasily up and down, while the eye travels from the bottom to the top of the left edge of the card. As you swing your head up, imagine that the card is moving down and vice versa. Repeat three times. Still swinging the head, go up and down the left edge of the corresponding letter A on the distant board, and repeat three times.

As your eye travels up and down the edge of thewhite card in your hand, you will get the illusion of a thin white line at the edge of the card. Always keep this imaginary line in mind.

Now close your eye and go through the same oper­ation while you visualize with closed eyes the white line at the edge of the card and the movement of the card in the opposite direction to that of the head.

3. Open the eyes and swing the head gently from side to side while your eyes travel three times across the top edge of the card, and then across the top of the distant card, and then repeat with the eyes closed. Then move down the right edge of the card in the same way and finally across the bottom from right to left. Do not forget the white line at each edge of the card.
   
4. Next, go around the four edges of the card: up the left side, across the top edge, down the right edge and across the base. Repeat three times, then do the same with the distant card. Repeat this operation with eyes closed, taking great care to keep the white line and the movement of the card in your imagination. There are four distinct movements of the head so you must visualize four distinct movements of the card.

It is probable that while your... [Chapter Incomplete]

Click Here to download the complete PDF ebook (including the rest of this chapter).

Or are you ready to move onto the next lesson? Click Here