Near stereograms - Orthoptic exercises for Convergence Insufficiency

Who is the leaflet for? What is its aim?

This leaflet is for patients with a condition called convergence insufficiency (CI), this can be treated by eye exercises. The exercise in this leaflet can be practised at home, and when performed regularly, most patients start to see improvement in symptoms quite rapidly. Your orthoptist will advise you on the types of exercises to do, the way to do them, and how frequently exercises should be practised.

Near stereograms - cats, buckets, rings

Cats

The aim of this exercise is to improve your ability to bring your eyes in towards your nose, and maintain focussed stable single vision to further enhance your ability to read comfortably.

Wear glasses for exercises? Yes / No

Length of time doing exercises:

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Number of exercise periods per day:

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How to do near stereogram exercises (cat card):

• If your orthoptist has asked you to wear glasses for your exercises, put these on.
• Hold the stereogram card (eg cats) at arm’s length, at the same level as your eyes.
• Hold a pen halfway between your eyes and the card.
• Look at the tip of the pen and concentrate on it. Ensure the pen is a single image.
• Whilst still looking at the pen, you will notice the two cats starting to move apart from one another. Initially, four cats may appear like these below:

• The middle two cats then fuse into a single cat in the middle with two ears, two whiskers and a tail:

Initially the middle cat may look blurry, or features may keep disappearing, but with practice you should be able to see three clear cats with the required features. Persevere with the exercise – it does get easier.

As you improve, you may be given more difficult stereograms to practise such as the buckets or the rings.

Buckets and Rings

(This exercise comes with an extra exercise card)

The process for the buckets or rings is the same as the cats. With the buckets, you should aim to see three buckets, and the middle one will look 3D (it should look as if you are looking into the bucket).

With the rings, you need to produce three sets of the rings, with the central one (number 3) appearing behind the upper (number 1) and lower (number 2) rings. It is important with the rings to make the numbers in the centre of each ring very clear.

After doing your exercises, it is important that you relax your eyes by looking into the distance (for instance out of the window) or closing your eyes for a couple of minutes.

When you start doing this exercise, you may find it very difficult, and you may feel increased eyestrain, and headaches. Try not to let this put you off your exercises – they get much easier with practice.

Notes from your orthoptist

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Contact and further information

If you have any difficulties with your exercises, please contact the orthoptic department on 01223 216528.

Ophthalmology department
Box: 41
Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
Cambridge Biomedical Campus
Hills Road,
Cambridge,
CB2 0QQ