Pointer straw is an activity used to develop localization. The goal of the pointer straw is to increase spatial awareness.
During this activity, the therapist will hold the straw in various positions. The patient will attempt to place the pointer's tip into the straw's end. All different directions include horizontally, vertically, and diagonally. Along with these three positions, the therapist will hold the straw at different distances and heights.
The changing of positions, distances, and heights forces the eye and the hand to coordinate while finding where the straw is placed in space. In addition, the size of the pointer object and the straw object can be modified depending on the needs of each patient. If the patient is overshooting or undershooting significantly with the standard-size pointer and straw, a bigger target may be needed, and you may work your way down to a smaller straw.
Pointer straw is an activity that can be done patched or unpatched, depending on the patient. The goal when patching is to improve depth perception of each eye individually, and once they are strong separately, the eyes can then work together to gain depth perception while teaming. Once each eye has improved individually, the therapist will advise the patient to do the activity unpatched.
This activity uses visual processing to guide the movement of the hand to the correct spot. This makes pointer straw a fundamental activity in the world of vision therapy.
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