July 13, 2006

About Vision Therapy

Got a few posts from people wanting to know what I did for vision therapy so they could do it themselves. Well, I'm a librarian, not a doctor -- and I started VT over 5 years ago -- so I don't feel comfortable promoting the exercises *I* did.

Instead, as a librarian, I recommend doing some targeted research. I'm going to pull together some useful web sites & post 'em here, but in the meantime, here's a good approach:

You need to find a doctor who can provide a good diagnosis of your vision problem and provide a customized vision therapy plan. Ophthalmologists do not practice vision therapy, and neither do many optometrists. Behavioral/developmental optometrists are trained in optometric vision therapy, and most are members of the College of Optometrists in Vision Development (COVD). To find such an optometrist, go to http://www.covd.org and click on the Find A Doctor button. Look particularly for a Fellow of COVD, ie a doctor with FCOVD listed after his or her name.

There are some doctors who may provide some "vision therapy" but are not rigorously trained in the techniques as my eye doctor was. An FCOVD doctor is well trained.

Here's some info about vision therapy - it's from a doctor's practice, but it might be useful and doesn't look too commercial:
http://www.optometrists.org/virginia/vision_links.html

Try this Google search for educational sites about vision therapy, developmental optometry, or behavioral optometry:

site:edu "vision therapy" | "developmental optometry"| "behavioral optometry"

Hope this is helpful -- more later.

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