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requiring medical interference tend to be delayed when it comes to crawling, grabbing toys, rolling over, pulling up, and even walking. The pediatric ophthalmologic muscle specialist will refer the patient to an orientation and mobility instructor for assistance to strengthen the eyes and improve hand-eye coordination thus laying the groundwork for improvement of the gross and fine motor skills necessary for the child to become functional and reach the age-appropriate levels.

Various special toys will help coax a child to begin crawling, pulling up, and eventually walking but this does not mean the child overcome all the obstacles. Eye tracking will be sluggish as will gross and fine motor skills. This is where age-appropriate video games can be the best medicine.

The television screen is constantly moving and changing during a video game. This movement will hold the child's visual attention thus strengthening the eyes and allowing the visual movement to change from sluggish to eventual darting back and forth at an age-appropriate level. On a similar note, the use of a game controller with the many various buttons will increase the functionality of gross and fine motor skills. The playing of video games is playtime fun practice. Games easily engross children, even young children. Video games are available for children as young as 2 and 3 years old. As the child learns to complete the levels of play on one game it is time to move on to another game that is a little more difficult to further stimulate the visual movement and hand-eye coordination.

Building blocks and other hands-on play will provide similar results although rarely do these items provide the results at the speed found with using video games to overcome difficulties associated with the aftermath of strabismus and amblyopia surgical treatment. In addition to helping children who undergo the surgical procedures, the video game play helps children who recovered with patching yet still experienced delays in motor skill growth.

Many major university research centers are learning that video games are not the mindless void parents once believed them to be in the beginning. Independent studies are showing similar results. In addition to advancements seen in children recovering from visual disorders, we are now learning that children with disorders such as ADD and ADHD (Attention Deficit Disorder and Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder) are seeing benefits as well.

This is not to say that parents should

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