Phone Apps – Strabismus Solutions

For decades, many have believed that after a certain age, strabismus or amblyopia (lazy eye) cannot be fixed. While it is challenging, new discoveries and advancements in technology are making it more and more possible to regain eyesight in a weak eye or straighten crossed eyes and it’s so exciting! Even in the last two years since I’ve begun my work to straighten my eyes and teach them to work together, new apps and games are coming out constantly. Technology is changing everything it an amazing way! The only trouble is that there are SO MANY different choices. By the time you go through all of the options, hours have gone by. Don't worry, I've combed through the app store and tried all the latest and greatest apps claiming to fix a lazy eye so you don't have to. Here is a list of the apps I tried, scroll down for in game screen shots and details about the visual skills that each app works to improve. I starred my favorites. Dichoptic Apps: Use with Red/Blue or Red/Green Anaglyph Glasses *Lazy Eye Training- $34.99 (app link)*Lazy Eye Galactic Bounty Hunter- $.99 (app link)*Eye Kare-Free (app link)Look- Eyes Gymnastics (Smotri) $1.99 (app link) VISION THERAPY or PATCHING Based Apps See Worthy $2.99 (app link)*Optics Trainer -Subscription $19.99 per year (app link) Daily Exercises for improving Overall Vision- *Eyes + Vision: Training and Care- Free (app link)Eye Fitness Workout Training (For Kids) $3.99 (app link)*Eye Exercises and Vision Therapy (app link)Eyehacks- Yoga for Eyes-Free (app link)*Eye Trainer App- $9.99/year (app link)EyeQuix $5.99 (app link)Eyes Workout- Free (app link)Amblyopia-Lazy Eye- $9.99 (app link)Eye Exerciser- Eye Training $3.99 (app link)Extreme Eye Exercise Free (app link)Eye Recovery Training Free (app link)Patching Pirate- Free (app link) Vision isn't just seeing clearly with depth perception, there are actually 17 different visual skills so each app has a different focus. Some apps hit 7-8 of the skills while others work only touch on 1 or 2. I don't think there is an app that hits all 17, that's where in-office vision therapy comes in. Every person has different weak points in their visual system that can be improved. Some people, like me, need work in most categories. It is important to consult with an eye doctor so you can identify where you need to put your focus. The 17 visual skills include (taken from optometrist.org): Eye Movement Control- moving and controlling the eye musclesBinocular Coordination- Using both eyes smoothly togetherSaccades-Quick eye jumps between two pointsPursuits- Smooth movements between two pointsConvergence-Both eyes focus together on a single pointAccommodation Flexibility- Change focus from near to far objectsAccommodation Endurance- Maintain focus for periods of timeVisual Memory- remembering what you have seenVisual Thinking- Analyzing what has been seen to draw conclusionsCentral Visual Acuity- Seeing clearly (20/20 number)Peripheral Vision- Seeing objects to the sides simultaneously with central visionDepth Perception- Ability to discern how close or far objects areColor Perception- Discriminate between different colorsGross Visual Motor- Using vision to guide body through spaceFine Visual Motor- Using vision to guide close-up and accuracy activitiesVisual Perception-Awareness of environmentVisual Integration-Combining vision with the other senses Whew, that was a mouthful. I highly recommend using any of the apps on a larger screen, like an iPad or computer to engage peripheral. Sometimes focusing on one specific skill at a time is super beneficial, other times, combining several skills into one is best. PART 1: Dichoptic Apps And How They Work to Fix a Lazy Eye There are over 50 different apps currently in the App Store that claim to "fix a lazy eye," "correct strabismus," or "restore eyesight." Many of them are apps with simple eye tracking, relaxation or focusing exercises which are are super important visual skills, but a few of them are dichoptic, meaning that the app is designed to be used with anaglyph glasses that have lenses of different colors. You can get them from your optometrist but I think the ones in my shop are even better! These glasses have one lens that is red, and one that is blue or green. It is pretty incredible yet so so simple! Everything red blends into the background for the eye looking through the red lens, and everything in the blue/green family blends into the back ground for the eye looking through the blue/green lens. This means that the red lens side sees everything BUT red, and the blue side sees everything BUT blue. Brilliant app designers have developed games that use mostly blue and red icons and pictures, forcing both eyes to work simultaneously. This is a huge deal for people with amblyopia or lazy eye because it forces the weak eye to work which will start strengthening it. It also helps the brain coordinate what it is seeing out of each eye separately, together. Instead of just working saccades, acuity, or pursuits with tracking exercises, they add binocular vision, convergence and depth perception to the mix. With strabismus, these types of apps can be super helpful in breaking suppression and getting the eyes to coordinate together, but beware of creating double vision. It's probably fine, but may not give you the results you want. Definitely discuss using any sort of "lazy eye" quick fix app with your Developmental Optometrist before using it! You should know that there is no such thing as a quick fix for eyes that don't work together! It is going to take work, but using effective apps can definitely be part of your road getting there! I am not a doctor, just a vision therapy enthusiast who loves checking out all the latest and greatest tools to help with strabismus and amblyopia! Okay, disclaimer over, let's dig in! I think all of the next 4 apps are great. I recommend that everyone in VT get the Galactic Bounty Hunter because it adds in depth perception and some great peripheral! Lazy Eye Training and Eye Kare are similar, but Lazy Eye Training can work for younger kids (my 3 year old can play it) and Eye Kare has some games for older people. Lazy Eye Training $34.99 (app link) This app was developed in 2019 and has 10 different games. It has plenty of adjustable settings to make it work with different anaglyph glasses and can be used on a phone, iPad, or computer. Each individual game is dichotic and consists of red or blue icons, letters, or numbers keeping both eyes working. It also has individual settings for each game that can increase or decrease the difficulty level which is super important and helpful. Each game works anti-suppression, but there are not any stereo building activities (most apps don't have this). It has a great variety and would work well for children as young as 2 or 3 which is a great feature. It can work for adults as well. I love the variety and the fact that you pay one time and have it forever! I hate the apps that require a subscription. Here are the 10 games it has: Shape Maze- This game has a grid of icons, letters or numbers (you can adjust this setting), the object is to get from the top corner to the bottom corner by only clicking the icons that match the one given.Shape Maze Lines-A line of icons is presented and the object is to click all icons that match the top icon.Shape Pop- One shape is stays at the top of the screen while other shapes move down the screen. Click the ones that match the top shape. Speed and shape size can both be adjusted.Find It- A grid of icons, letters or numbers appears and the object is to select the icon that matches the top. Once you have selected them, they disappear and a new icon appears at the top. Eventually all the icons will be gone. Unfortunately, you cannot change the size on this one.Memory Tiles- This is typical memory game, the number of cards can be adjusted and it is great for creating memory and coordination with both eyes together.Flash Cards-This one isn't as exciting, but could be great for younger kids working on number and letter recognition. An icon, number or letter appears and you click it once you identify it. Shape Hoops-I must be a "newb" as my 13 year old would tell me, I cannot figure this one out.Shape Catch- There is a moving bar at the bottom the the player controls, move it to catch only the items that match the top icon.Shape Shooter- This reminds me of candy crush, but much more simple. Shoot the icon at a matching icon to make them both disappear.Smash It- A square moves left and right across the top of the screen and a circle moves at a different time across the bottom. Tap to make the square drop and try to time it correctly so that it hits the circle. Great for working tracking and time with both eyes! *Lazy Eye Galactic Bounty Hunter $0.99 (app link) This game is AWESOME! Whoever developed it should make more. It is an "endless runner" style video game, but it is all set up to work with 3D anaglyph glasses. There are anti-suppression components; the comets that the player tries to avoid are either red or blue and they cancel REALLY well with red/blue or red/green glasses. This makes it a typical dichoptic game. What sets this game apart are the 3D elements. In the peripheral are stars that appear to be flying out of the screen. The design is high enough quality that even I was impressed and I have limited depth perception. My kids tried it out and thought it was awesome. I love that the "flying stars" keep the peripheral WIDE open. A+ value. Everyone should get this one! Eye Kare Free (app link) Is it wrong to have a favorite??? I am a math teacher so when I saw the math facts combined with anaglyph glasses, I felt a little flutter of happiness. Also, 2048 is the best, my nerdy self LOVES that game! Colors cancel really well with red/blue or red/green glassesIt's FREE with no in-app purchases, pretty cool.This app has games that are more advanced. If you have complete suppression or a severe eye turn, these may be too hard. I can't even come close to success with Tetris and the other ones are pretty challenging for me. Look- Eyes Gymnastics (Smotri). $1.99 (app link) This app was developed by Russian Ophthalmologists and has a variety of different types of visual exercises. There are activities that can be used with anaglyph glasses for suppression, magic eye pictures, tracking exercises, relaxation and massage, Brock string and a few others. This is definitely the most comprehensive app I have seen which makes me nervous and excited. I love that they are trying to help kids with amblyopia and strabismus to strengthen their vision and acuity and for some with less severe conditions, this could be amazing. For others, it could be like giving half the ingredients for a cake to a 10 year old and expecting to win a baking contest. I get nervous because the visual system is so incredibly complex. I will just say, use with caution and make sure you're working with an eye doctor before you start! Part 2: Apps For Improving Vision See Worthy $2.99 (app link) This is a really cute, simple app designed to be used in combination with patching. This would be great for kids who are patching and it even has a link to the "See Worthy" store where you can buy the cutest patches. There are only 3 games, but they each work specific visual skills that will definitely help strengthen acuity in that amblyopic eye. *Optics Trainer $19.99/year (app link) The design of Optics Trainer is definitely more professional than other apps. It feels more like a "real" app instead of being homemade. It is designed by Optometrists that practice Vision Therapy and focuses on 5 main visual skills: eye-hand coordination, eye movement, peripheral vision, memory vision, and dynamic acuity. It is not dichotic and does not require patching or special glasses, the focus is not on anti-suppression (waking up the eye that is being ignored) although it could be used with patching for sure! As I played each individual game, I was reminded of some of the same types of activities that I have been doing at vision therapy for the last few years. They involve memory, reaction time and hand eye coordination and you can just feel your brain working! They seem simple, but are really important for stimulating different parts of the brain and have been a huge benefit for me in vision therapy This app is perfect for any person in vision therapy or someone wanting to improve vision and learning balance. It would definitely be beneficial, but it's not going to be the one and only ticket to straight, perfect eyes. There are 15 games total and each one is a little different. A free 3-day trial is available so that you can see what each of the games are and get a feel for the app before you buy it. Apps For Improving Overall Vision There are SO MANY apps claiming to improve visual acuity. Apparently there is a whole "Bates Method" dedicated to helping people improve their vision to the point that they don't need glasses or are able to reduce their prescription. I am very new to this world, I've only just heard about it in the last few months so I am not going to claim to be an expert here, but I will say that I find it all fascinating! Some claim that they can fix strabismus, but after 2 years of intense vision therapy I would say there is no way one of these apps will single-handedly fix severe strabismus. BUT I think the exercises are fantastic and I am keeping my favorite app and adding the 12 minute eye workout to my bedtime routine. I am a math teacher so I think of it in the following way. Vision therapy is like Calculus. It is complicated and requires so much knowledge and careful calculation and work. The Bates Method is the Algebra, the more simple, yet imperative basics. You definitely need algebra for calculus and being an absolute expert at algebra with make calculus SO much easier, but they just aren't the same thing. Most of these apps have a combination of the following: Palming- covering eyes with palms of handsFocusing near and far-switching back and forth (accommodation)Eye tracking in various patternsVisualization tracking (imaging a square and tracing with your eyes)BlinkingHead rotations with fixed eyes If you don't want to read through it all, just go with Eyes+Vision if you want to make your own workouts It is free (with minor ads) and extremely comprehensive. Other apps are more simplified and have video trainings like numbers 3 and 5 and might be good if you want something automated. Number 2, Eye Fitness Workout Training, would be the best option for kids. 1. Eyes + Vision: Training and Care Free (app link) This app has 136 different exercises and is very user friendly. You can actually go in and select which exercises you want to include in your daily exercises. They have pre-made "workouts" that can be completed, but there is also a "My Workouts" section where specific exercises can be picked according to your Eye Doctor's recommendation. About 60 of the exercises involve tracking various shapes and lines with different backgrounds. Sometimes you are prompted to track the shape when looking forward, not at your phone so you have to visualize the shape, which is SO good! About 20 of the exercises involve head rotations, blinking, eye massaging and looking far and near. 25 exercises involve stereo pairs. Most of these apps do not include any stereo activities so I was so surprise to see these on there! You are shown two of the same image and the goal is to cross or relax your eyes in order to see a third image. On some of the exercises, the images move and others they have dots in the corner to help the viewer know if they are successfully combining the images. The rest involve looking at a Gabor patch in various ways with blinking. This one is my favorite because it has everything any of the other apps offer plus extra and it doesn't cost anything. I can turn off any exercises that my optometrist doesn't want me to do and it only requires one app on my phone. This is the app I will be using. 2. Eye Fitness Workout Training $3.99 (app link) This is another great app with a ton of different activities. It is designed more for kids and has videos of the (creepy) monkey doing the exercise first and then the child repeats. I also really like that with the tracking activities you first track the moving target on the screen, the viewer is then prompted to close their eyes and "track" in their mind. This is HUGE and so important. There are also settings for exotropia, amblyopia and esotropia. Changing these settings makes slight adjustments to the different exercises and will prompt the player to cover one eye at a time. This app doesn't have set daily exercises like some of the others that randomly select specific exercises to do each day, but it does have an autoplay mode that will keep it going. It also has multiple language, music, and voice prompt settings that can be changed. 3. Eye Exercises and Vision Therapy Free (app link) This app is simple and only has 15-20 unique exercises, but I love the set up. It has a calendar and gives you a 7-13 minute program to complete everyday. You can quickly read the directions and then do the exercises without looking at the screen. There are no objects to track, you are just prompted to move eyes in a circle, or move eyes up and down, etc. If you aren't interested in coming up with your own program, this is a great option that has a preselected program to follow. 4. Eyehacks- Yoga for Eyes Free (app link) I love the super simple layout and functionality of this app. There isn't a huge variety, just the 12 main Bates Method exercises. But I like it, it is a nice clean looking app. There are not preselected programs, you simply select the specific exercises you want and the time of day you'd like to do them and it creates the training for you. It has Bigs Eyes, Focus, Window Look, Diagonal, Circle, Square, Tension Release, Blinking, Eight, Palming, Massage, and Up & Down. An exercise is described and then the screen goes black with a timer that counts down one minutes. 5. Eye Trainer App. $9.99 yearly subscription (app link) This app is similar to other Bates Method apps here are the highlights: It has pre-selected compilations of 4-12 timed exercises It has a larger focus on massage and visualization than other appsYou never need to look at the screen except to see directions. It is all done in free space with verbal cues from the app. It has categories for a general daily training, double vision, massage, eye yoga, release headache, near and farsightedness, color blindness, a dominant eye. This all sounds great, but there isn't a huge difference between the categories, some focus more on tracking and focusing, while others focus more on massage. Overall, there are 15-20 different exercises. 6. EyeQuix- Quick, Fun Eye Training $5.99 (app link) This app was designed by a retinal doctor and is super interesting. It contains 19 different exercises and tests, many of which are used in medical offices like OKN stripes. This app seems more focused on stimulating the retina with various colors and movements. It claims to help those who use a computer more than 4 hours per day or those who want to see more accurately and vividly. I just don't know enough about all of this to give an opinion on whether it works or not, but it is the most comprehensive and medical app of it's kind. I'm interested to learn more about it! I am bothered that each exercise is only set for 10-15 seconds and I am constantly having to reset the timer. That just doesn't seem like enough time. There also isn't a huge variety so I would recommend combining this with other apps. 7. Eyes Workout Free (app link) This app features 9 tracking exercises. You follow a moving ball across a checkerboard grid. It has a user friendly interface where you can track the time that you've spent on each exercise. 8. Amblyopia-Lazy Eye $9.99 (app link) This app is built to be used with patching and does not require red/blue glasses. There is a ball/smiley face that moves around the screen in various patterns. There are 19 exercises that each have different movements for the ball and within each exercise, there are three different levels. On the level for younger kids, the background is white with a smiley face moving around the screen. The mid-range level has a stationary white background with tiny black circles all over it. The final level has a black and white optical illusion looking background moving. This app is very simple, but would be great for someone looking to improve tracking and strengthen a weak or amblyopic eye. After using it for just a few minutes, I could feel my eye working really hard. All of the different levels keep the brain guessing so that it can't just memorize the pattern. Check with your optometrist and see if tracking is something they want you or your child to work on! This app is FDA approved as a medical device. It was designed by a dad for his daughter and now he is sharing it with more people who have amblyopia. 9. Eye Exerciser- Eye Training $3.99 (app link) This app has 23 different eye tracking workouts. They are really basic and I like the white background because it doesn't hurt my eyes, but I think that there are other apps with more that don't cost anything. 10. Extreme Eye Exercise Free (app link) From the app: "There is prior knowledge that a person's eyesight can possibly be improved by focusing on a pattern called the Gabor patch. By using the Gabor patch and rearranging it in a simple match-3 puzzle, the player can further focus and train for an extended period of time." I have no idea if this is true or if it works. This is basically candy crush with Gabor patches. Let me know if it helps you. Eye Recovery Training Free (app link) 11. Eye Recovery Training Free (app link) This app is a very simple matching game with Gabor patches. It is free and simple, I don't have near or farsightedness so they might help that, but I don't know. I don't think it is going to do anything for strabismus and depth perception, I could totally be wrong though. 12. Patching Pirate Free (app link) This app is for tracking patch time. At first glance, it seems to have games and other features, but the games are "coming soon" so it is really just a calendar to mark when and for how long you've patched. I am not a fan of the midriff showing or the pirate references. I'm so over being compared to a pirate, but maybe kids would think it's funny. It definitely didn't pique my interest as an adult. I wanted to include it since it is one that would seem to be great for kids, hopefully they get those games working so that it can be! Conclusion Was that information overload for anyone else? Whew. Hopefully, you found exactly what you were looking for, I know I learned a ton in doing this research. The visual system is so complex and vast, it isn't surprising that there are SO MANY apps out there claiming to improve vision. Each has their place, but as you've seen, some are better than others. To read my article about some other great apps that have been around a little longer, click here. And if you are needing anaglyph glasses, you can get some over in my shop. Have a fabulous day!