Re: Visual stimming, Hyper-peripheral vission & Pleoptics

[Guest guest]

Janice,

My son likes to fixate on things that are straight. For example, he will look at

a crayon or pencil from all angles... even bringing it to his nose before he'll

use it in a functional way. Sometimes all he wants to do with the object is look

at it. To this point, we have just tried to redirect. I assume that this is

visual stimming. Is this something that Pleoptics can help with? If so, should

we consult an occupational therapist first before trying? Or do you need to be

under the supervision of an occupational therapist to get the full effect? I'm

worried that it could damage my son's eyesight if done improperly... a la

looking directly at the sun.

Thanks,

, 2.7

-------------- Original message --------------

From: " Janice " <jscott@...>

If any of you have problems with hyper-peripheral issues ie. child has poor

central detail vision or your child has a lot of visual stims, you might want to

try pleoptics. A child with hyper-peripheral vision can often read as fast as

'anything' but has a hard time locating a pencil on a messy desk! ie. Has a hard

time locating the objects when playing with the book, " Where's Waldo " . Which is

a very good book to 'work' this for our kids by the way!

For hyper-peripheral issues, we used pleoptics. Very simple to do. You take a

penny and crazy-glue it to the center of a flashlight. To the count of 3 you

shine the flashlight at the center of the child's eye (dominant side first if

child has one yet) so that the penny covers the macula (center of the eye) thus

it must be quite close. Cover the other eye with your hand at the same time.

Then you remove for a count of 8. Removing for a count of 8, gives time for the

eye to send the appropriate 'message' to the brain. Then you do the second eye,

holding for a count of 3, removing for a count of 8. Go back and forth between

the eyes for 2 minutes and perform at least 2 times per day.

Pleoptics is very good to work with visual stimming. When a child does visual

stims, they are using hyper-peripheral vision and pleoptics work central detail

vision. So, those of you out there with 'extreme' visual stimmers, get a

flashlight and whenever your child begins to stim, do pleoptics on them and

'work' that central vision. Carry that flashlight with you and do pleoptics

often.

Pleoptics are not uncomfortable, they are actually quite pleasent (tried them on

myself too) and Mark had absolutely no issues with this exercise for the 3

months we needed to do them.

Janice

[Guest guest]

Please read all you can about the causes of visual " issues " in kids on

the spectrum, particularly tose with perfect vision who do this.

kacraine@... wrote:

>Janice,

>

>My son likes to fixate on things that are straight. For example, he will look

at a crayon or pencil from all angles... even bringing it to his nose before

he'll use it in a functional way. Sometimes all he wants to do with the object

is look at it. To this point, we have just tried to redirect. I assume that this

is visual stimming. Is this something that Pleoptics can help with? If so,

should we consult an occupational therapist first before trying? Or do you need

to be under the supervision of an occupational therapist to get the full effect?

I'm worried that it could damage my son's eyesight if done improperly... a la

looking directly at the sun.

>

>Thanks,

>

>, 2.7

>

>-------------- Original message --------------

>From: " Janice " <jscott@...>

>If any of you have problems with hyper-peripheral issues ie. child has poor

central detail vision or your child has a lot of visual stims, you might want to

try pleoptics. A child with hyper-peripheral vision can often read as fast as

'anything' but has a hard time locating a pencil on a messy desk! ie. Has a hard

time locating the objects when playing with the book, " Where's Waldo " . Which is

a very good book to 'work' this for our kids by the way!

>

>For hyper-peripheral issues, we used pleoptics. Very simple to do. You take a

penny and crazy-glue it to the center of a flashlight. To the count of 3 you

shine the flashlight at the center of the child's eye (dominant side first if

child has one yet) so that the penny covers the macula (center of the eye) thus

it must be quite close. Cover the other eye with your hand at the same time.

Then you remove for a count of 8. Removing for a count of 8, gives time for the

eye to send the appropriate 'message' to the brain. Then you do the second eye,

holding for a count of 3, removing for a count of 8. Go back and forth between

the eyes for 2 minutes and perform at least 2 times per day.

>

>Pleoptics is very good to work with visual stimming. When a child does visual

stims, they are using hyper-peripheral vision and pleoptics work central detail

vision. So, those of you out there with 'extreme' visual stimmers, get a

flashlight and whenever your child begins to stim, do pleoptics on them and

'work' that central vision. Carry that flashlight with you and do pleoptics

often.

>

>Pleoptics are not uncomfortable, they are actually quite pleasent (tried them

on myself too) and Mark had absolutely no issues with this exercise for the 3

months we needed to do them.

>

>Janice

>

>

[Guest guest]

You won't damage your son's eyes. The penny covers the bulb in the flashlight

to prevent the light from being directed into the pupil. Try it on yourself or

your husband first. When you hold the flashlight, hold it close to the eye, you

will see the outline of the penny completely cover the macula. This prevents

the light from being directly shone into the childs eyes.

You could take your child to a developmental optomitrist but they will charge

you a bundle for essentially the same thing. But, home therapy results are

better because you have the ability to do the exercise 'often' which our

children desparately need in order to stimulate the neural pathways. Whenever

your child does visual stims, pull out that flashlight and stimulate!

Below is the same exercise done in a slightly different manner advocated by Svea

Gold taken from http://www.fernridgepress.com/autism.exercise.phases.html. She

explains it far better than I do! This entire article is worth looking at by

everyone and has some great sensory starter exercises...

Here is her version of pleoptics:

8. Visual Stimulation - Pleoptics

(Use a Boy Scout flashlight with a penny glued in the middle of the lens so it

won't be too bright.)

You may wish to demonstrate on yourself first so the child knows what you are

doing. For a few minutes turn off the lights - but leave the door open, so as

not to frighten the child. Explain that this gives the pupils a chance to open

wide, then cover one eye and flash the light into the eye which you want to be

dominant - count to six -, have the child close both eyes, and sweep the light

over both closed eyes - count to twelve. Have the child open the other eye - the

count of six - then sweep over both closed eyes to the count of twelve.. Do this

process twice. It is good to demonstrate on your own eyes first. This is

actually a pleasant feeling. You may have to cover the other eye if the child

can't close the eye himself. If bright light is too much for the child, place

blue filter over the lens until the child can tolerate this.

(This sends information directly to the visual cortex at the back of the head.)

Observe: the lens of the second eyes should close up along with the first. On

the second repetition of the stimulation, both lenses will be remain at about

the same opening. With autistic children it may take a few weeks until the

pupils close to light. Remember that this is not about training the pupils but

about making connections in the brainstem. You will find that after several

weeks the eyes will react far more rapidly.)

[sPAM] Re: [ ] Visual stimming, Hyper-peripheral

vission & Pleoptics

Janice,

My son likes to fixate on things that are straight. For example, he will look

at a crayon or pencil from all angles... even bringing it to his nose before

he'll use it in a functional way. Sometimes all he wants to do with the object

is look at it. To this point, we have just tried to redirect. I assume that this

is visual stimming. Is this something that Pleoptics can help with? If so,

should we consult an occupational therapist first before trying? Or do you need

to be under the supervision of an occupational therapist to get the full effect?

I'm worried that it could damage my son's eyesight if done improperly... a la

looking directly at the sun.

Thanks,

, 2.7

-------------- Original message --------------

From: " Janice " <jscott@...>

If any of you have problems with hyper-peripheral issues ie. child has poor

central detail vision or your child has a lot of visual stims, you might want to

try pleoptics. A child with hyper-peripheral vision can often read as fast as

'anything' but has a hard time locating a pencil on a messy desk! ie. Has a hard

time locating the objects when playing with the book, " Where's Waldo " . Which is

a very good book to 'work' this for our kids by the way!

For hyper-peripheral issues, we used pleoptics. Very simple to do. You take a

penny and crazy-glue it to the center of a flashlight. To the count of 3 you

shine the flashlight at the center of the child's eye (dominant side first if

child has one yet) so that the penny covers the macula (center of the eye) thus

it must be quite close. Cover the other eye with your hand at the same time.

Then you remove for a count of 8. Removing for a count of 8, gives time for the

eye to send the appropriate 'message' to the brain. Then you do the second eye,

holding for a count of 3, removing for a count of 8. Go back and forth between

the eyes for 2 minutes and perform at least 2 times per day.

Pleoptics is very good to work with visual stimming. When a child does visual

stims, they are using hyper-peripheral vision and pleoptics work central detail

vision. So, those of you out there with 'extreme' visual stimmers, get a

flashlight and whenever your child begins to stim, do pleoptics on them and

'work' that central vision. Carry that flashlight with you and do pleoptics

often.

Pleoptics are not uncomfortable, they are actually quite pleasent (tried them

on myself too) and Mark had absolutely no issues with this exercise for the 3

months we needed to do them.

Janice