Patient Resources
Vision training

Vision Training with Focusing Flippers

Focusing flippers help to train the accommodative system in our eyes, which is responsible for changing focus from distance to near. Specifically, flippers help to improve accommodative facility - the ability to increase and decrease focus on demand. A variety of binocular vision problems can cause a decrease in our ability to accurately focus; some people focus too much and cannot relax, others focus too little and experience blurry vision for close tasks.

The flippers you are given have magnifying lenses on one side that require you to relax your focus and minifying lenses on the other side that require you to focus more.

What you will need:

  • Focusing flippers (powers range from +/-2.00D down to +/-1.00D) from Innovative Eye Care
  • Innovative Eye Care near vision chart appropriate for your reading level
  • Reading material of your choice with normal sized print for reading (eg magazine, novel, school reading homework)

Instructions:

  1. While looking through one side of your flippers, read one line of the Innovative Eye Care reading chart. Try to keep each word clear as you read it aloud.
  2. Turn the flippers over so you are looking through the other side of the lenses. Read the next line aloud.
  3. Flip back to the first set of lenses and read the next line.
  4. Repeat this process until you reach the bottom or cannot focus well enough to read the words.
  5. Try to do 1 minute of flipper reading, then give yourself 30 seconds rest. Repeat this cycle 5 times. Find time to do this 3 times a day.

If the bold side of the near vision chart becomes easy to read, try the low-contrast chart on the reverse side. If you learn all the words on your Innovative Eye Care chart ask your optometrist if you can use normal reading material on a book/magazine or computer in the same way - flipping the lenses over at the end of each line. Make sure the print is small enough to challenge you to focus on it clearly.

Remember: For these exercises to be effective, the words you are looking at need to be clear and single. If you have any questions, please contact us.

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