Finger Dancing
Purpose: To improve eye-hand movement skills by means of tactual reinforcement
Apparatus: Occluder, metronome
Method:
Unilateral Finger Dancing Monocular
1. The patient should stand facing the home assistant about his arm’s length away.
2. With left eye covered, the patient and home assistant are to place right hand (patient) and opposing left hand (assistant) lightly together, fingertip to fingertip.
3. Patient is instructed to look at his right hand and try to follow the assistant’s hand, maintaining visual and tactual contact with his hand.
4. The home assistant is to move his own hand first in circles in various planes, and eventually in random movements as performance warrants it.
5. Repeat for left eye and left hand.
Bilateral Finger Dancing–Binocular
1. With both eyes open and with both hands in contact, fingertip to fingertip, instruct the patient to look directly at you.
2. The home assistant is to move his own hands slowly and symmetrically while the patient attempts to maintain fingertip contact with both hands and steady visual fixation at the bridge of your nose.
3. As performance warrants it, move hands in random, unrelated patterns.
4. As an alternate method, instruct the patient to look from one hand to the other at command while they are in motion. This may be done monocularly as well. Attempt to do this in time with an auditory beat.
Aspects to be Emphasized:
1. Ability to maintain hand and eye contact unilaterally and bilaterally.
2. Ability to look from one hand to the other accurately at command, with each eye and with both eyes.
