Thumb Rotations
Purpose: To improve eye movement control and the ability to expand and organize the visual space solid
Apparatus: None
Method:
Patient is instructed to:
1. Stand erect in a relaxed posture.
2. One eye is covered with the hand on the same side.
3. The other hand is thrust out to a point directly in front of the nose, elbow straight, fingers gently clenched, and thumb erect. This point we call the starting point.
4. Look at thumbnail.
5. The arm is moved first up, then outward and downward to a point that is level with the nose. Then move it to the starting point again. In this manner, the thumb should have covered the locus of a quarter circle.
6. Follow your thumbnail with your eye while your arm transverses the route smoothly and easily.
7. Repeat six times in each direction.
8. Move only your arm and your eyeball.
9. Do not pause at any of the reference points mentioned.
10. Repeat for other eye.
11. As this activity is continued, increase your awareness of the solidity of space in the room around you.
Aspects to be Emphasized:
1. Ability to follow thumb easily, smoothly with no strain, while the rest of the body remains in an erect, relaxed posture.
2. Thumbnail should remain clear.
3. Ability to see the moving target against a background of a solid room.
