Purpose: To improve fixation and smooth, steady eye movements, even when the targets are randomly arranged and require a variety of eye movements.

Materials: Eye patch (if directed by your therapist) Hart chart, cut into vertical strips

Procedure:

1. If your therapist has told you to wear an eye patch for this activity, cover one eye. Take your Hart chart and cut it into vertical strips.

2. Arrange the strips spaced out at eye level, some slightly higher and some slightly lower so that your eyes will have to adjust to track with the letters. Read the top letter of each column, as if you were reading straight across the hart chart. Be sure to stay on beat and keep smooth consistent movements.

3. Continue reading across the columns (all the second letters, all the third letters, etc.) until you have completed the chart.

4. Once you have mastered the previous level, try moving the columns further apart, higher/lower, etc. to make it more challenging.

5. If you have mastered the saccadic strips at a variety of distances and difficulty levels, start challenging your brain by picking a letter and choosing a word to substitute for it. For example, you could say “dog” every time you come to a “d,” “sit” every time you come to an “s,” and “book” every time you come to a “b.”