If you heard the diagnosis “amblyopia” (or a lazy eye) at a reception by an ophthalmologist and your child was advised to stick one eye, then this section may be useful for you.

First, a few words to explain the term “amblyopia” and talk about some ways to treat this disease.

AMBLYOPIA (LAZY EYE): DEFINITION AND TREATMENT

The quality of vision associated with the ability to distinguish small details, characterized by visual acuity. Sometimes this characteristic is different for the right and left eyes. The difference may be congenital or occur later due to adverse circumstances. Over time, the vision is aligned, but sometimes this does not happen. A lazy eye develops – a decrease in vision, which is caused by functional disorders and is not compensated by glasses for optical correction. Amblyopia can manifest itself in combination with strabismus, and sometimes be the primary impetus for the emergence of this unpleasant disease.

Treatment of a lazy eye is more effective at preschool age, when it is possible to use the resources of a rapidly growing organism. An effective method of treating a lazy eye is occlusion, in which, to stimulate the work of a “weak” eye, artificially block the field of vision of another, more “strong” eye. Perform occlusion, gluing one of the glasses or using a spectacle frame without glasses with a blocked field of one eye. Achieving the effect requires a systematic and sufficiently prolonged use of occlusion.

Since children often feel shy to walk with a sealed eye, they want to carry out this treatment as quickly as possible. To increase the effect of occlusion, it is necessary to create conditions for the active work of a lazy eye. You can, for example, sort out rice, mixed with buckwheat, draw or perform other “minor” work, in which the visual load is combined with handwork. As you know, it is useful in the formation of the child’s speech, but also contributes to the development of visual functions. Devices that provide visual load, called ambliotrenerov.

Another type of exercise is associated with viewing special high-contrast images such as black and white chessboard. Such images are called patterns, and the peculiarity of their action is manifested in stimulating the work of the retina of the eye and the organ of vision as a whole (pattern-stimulation).

The expediency of using special means (as compared with improvised, “folk” methods) is connected with the fact that these devices are optimized to achieve a therapeutic effect and, on the other hand, should take into account that classes are conducted by children. To keep the patient’s attention, it is desirable to conduct training in the form of a game, evaluate the achieved result, take into account individual characteristics (age and visual acuity) and ensure the dosing of the load. A series of hardware and software has been developed that meets these requirements. These are the “Light Pen” apparatus, the “Mosaic” and “Rainbow” kits, the “Relief” computer program. They are used in the treatment of amblyopia, in diseases associated with impaired refraction (hyperopia, astigmatism, moderate and high myopia), as well as for postoperative rehabilitation.