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LAST CHANCE TO REGISTER FOR THIS VIRTUAL EDUCATION! Registration Closes on TUESDAY, FEB 20TH! Join us for this unique Primitive Reflex Course as we discuss the theories behind the importance of integrating Primitive Reflexes, a suggested scoring scale for assessment and re-assessment, how to monitor progress, as well as many exercises for integration! Space is… Read more

It always fascinates me a little how the universe constructs itself. Ideas come and go, people walk out of your life as quickly as they walked in, and our sense of self seems to change as every season passes. Sometimes the sun is shining on the inside, while other times the inner hurricane of despair… Read more

In 2015, I was honored to share a teaching platform with Jessi Stevenson COVT, as we presented our version of VT201. The course, which was originally written by Linda Sanet COVT, was expanded and specifically designed for Vision Therapists with the COVT Certification Open Book Questions in mind. Recently, as part of COVD’s newly announced… Read more

My idea in writing on this medium has always been to share what I have learned in Vision Therapy with the hope that someone finds it useful. It remains important to me to be open and honest about my lessons, whether they put me in a positive light – or not – in hopes that… Read more

As we dive into the second weekend of the Sanet-Vergara Seminar in San Diego, one of the initial moments included a question posed to the group: On a scale of 1 to 10, where we are in terms of energy? My answer – 26. Outcomes, as a concept, have never been all that important to… Read more

Most patient care people who work with others on a regular basis might agree that one of their most important skill sets is communication. Understanding what we are saying and how we are saying it, understanding the subconscious message we may be sending without knowing it, understanding the “message” patients hear, and understanding how our… Read more

When the opportunity to attend the Sanet-Vergara Series of Vision Seminars presents itself, ‘YES’ and ‘NO’ are not the answers. “What day does it start?” is the answer. I first met Dr. Bob Sanet in late 2001 after moving to San Diego. He was already a well-known and highly respected member of the Developmental Optometric… Read more

Just so we’re clear, I’m not as sensitive as I once was. I used to get offended very easily and cared a lot about what people thought, and would cringe at the idea that I screwed up. I’d feel the insults and want to crawl into a hole and die when someone chose to use… Read more

If you are like me, in the “sandwich generation”, you find yourself positioned between having older parents and adult children. Perhaps only now do you understand how your children sometimes struggle to get along with you by how you sometimes still struggle to get along with your parents. You may observe when becoming impatient with… Read more

I’m a helper; a fixer. Between working as a paramedic in my early years and a Vision Therapist in the more recent years, I have spent more than half my life trying to improve the lives of others. I’ve found that much like other personality traits, being a fixer has its pros and cons. This… Read more

There was a recent post on Facebook that a friend brought to my attention. Although these days, my time on social media is sparse, at best, I tracked down the post to read about a mother who was clearly feeling defeated after realizing her son’s VT home practice assignments are not going well, and she… Read more

I used to have the urge to prove myself in the land of vision care, especially when someone questioned or attacked my methods and ideas. “I need to say something to show that I know my stuff!” But now, I’m more of the “what’s the point?” mindset. It’s not like you can change many minds… Read more

Friends – It is with a heavy heart that I share current IECB Member Lori Griffith COVT, passed away on Thursday. Lori was a great therapist and a wonderful friend to so many of us and will be sorely missed. I interviewed Lori for my Sit Down series back in 2014. I am reposting the… Read more

If you’ve ever traveled on a commercial flight, surely you’re familiar with the term rapid decompression (sometimes referred to as the sudden change in cabin pressure) as spoken by a flight attendant whose pre-flight message about the whole thing seems to be “it is horrible, but don’t worry”. Yeah, OK. With any luck, reading this… Read more

In early 2014, I had reached out to Diana Ludlam COVT asking her to join my Sit Down series. Gracious as ever, Diana agreed to participate with the understanding that her work be published exactly how she presented it. At that time, she shared with me that she was working through some health issues and… Read more

It’s been a while since I’ve been here. My departure wasn’t a deliberate one, life just got busy, then COVID arrived, and time seemed to both stop and accelerate simultaneously – quite the paradox. Like most of you, we adapted and kept going, doing everything we could to help patients improve while maintaining our social… Read more

James B. Mayer, O.D., FCOVD, was a very special husband, father, and optometrist. I first got to know Jim when we served together many year ago on the International Examination and Certification Board (IECB) of the College of Optometrists in Vision Development (COVD). He was a man of principle who held firm in his beliefs, […]… Read more

Part of my contribution as guest editor of the next edition of VDR (tip of the cap to Dr. Leonard Press for asking me) is to take the general pulse of the Vision Therapy patient community at large and report back to the community. I’m hopeful every office comes back with gusto and patients return… Read more

Last Saturday afternoon, while helping my father construct a new gazebo in his backyard, a feeling of deja vu washed over me. Somehow, someway, this gazebo moment was not a new experience.  To be honest, moments like those usually bother me greatly (we can discuss that part later), but this time was different. The sensation… Read more

If there was a retroactive option to take our parents up on that “knock you into next week” threat, this week I’d likely cash it in. In this bizarre coronavirus society that we’ve temporarily become, time seems to have morphed into something totally different. Time is still moving, probably just as fast as it was… Read more

During his Moon Speech at Rice University in 1962, President John F. Kennedy noted “the greater our knowledge increases, the greater our ignorance unfolds”; an observation which has withstood the tests of time. I don’t believe ole’ JFK knew anything about Vision Therapy, but how many times have you, or someone in your office thought… Read more

In this land of this new virtual reality, the name of the game over the last few weeks has been adaptation. Adapt to the times, adapt to distance, adapt to our patients’ needs. Although a bit stressful, there’s been a lot of good that’s come out of it, too. We’re growing, we’re adapting, and we’re… Read more

Hello All – I’d like to invite you all to a virtual 90 minute “Think Tank” session tomorrow morning (Tuesday) at 8:30am PST/11:30am EST. Our goal is to have many people share how they have adapted specific “in-office” activities to apply over a virtual medium. Basically, it’s going to be a big game of show and… Read more

A special and profound thanks to Dr. Marc Taub for facilitating and hosting a successful conference call on behalf of OEPF. The goal was to keep everyone talking and to share as many ideas as possible as the VT community continues to endure this crisis, together. Great ideas were shared by many participants! Here’s a… Read more

I certainly hope everyone is managing well with this sudden and rapid transition into distance therapy and social distancing. I follow many of you on social media and have been reading the words of heartbreak as offices are closing for weeks at a time. We all certainly feel your pain. Surely, we will be back,… Read more

Another area to be addressed is maintaining accurate patient records while performing Vision Therapy by means of telehealth. Since many of our offices have closed, it’s conceivable visits will be conducted from our homes, or a place other than our office. This can present challenges in accessing EMR. Here are a few ideas we have… Read more

Ready or not – Vision Therapy by wire is here. There has been a TON of options floated in the last two days for seeing patients remotely. For ease of access, I’m going to do my best to share some of them here. Before reading on, please be aware of TWO facts: FIRST – Currently,… Read more

Per this morning’s press conference from the White House, HIPPA guidelines regarding tele-health have been temporarily waived: Under this Notice, covered health care providers may use popular applications that allow for video chats, including Apple FaceTime, Facebook Messenger video chat, Google Hangouts video, or Skype, to provide telehealth without risk that OCR might seek to… Read more

I get it. This is serious. For the last few weeks, talk of COVID-19 has dominated the airwaves, lunchrooms, and travel plans. We’ve seen Italy close it’s borders, cruise ships hold hostage its patrons for weeks of quarantine, and we’ve even seen Costco completely run out water and toilet paper – the latter of which… Read more

Since I’ve been away from blogging, I have a few mailbags worth of questions in the queue. Let’s begin with these. Cheers! My son is 9 years old, has been in vision therapy about 3 months, and our therapist has him working mostly on primitive reflexes. A book I’m reading explains how reflex integration can… Read more

If the decision was ever made to award indoctrination into the world of psychological treatment by proxy, my guess is most of us in the Vision Therapy room would at least qualify for consideration. Although few us could speak intelligently about the tactics of manipulation or influence a true psychologist may use, many in the… Read more

During a recent conversation, a trusted and learned optometry friend opined Pencil Pushups are a worthless activity and should be banished from the mind of everyone associated with Developmental Optometry. What’s more, continuing to administer Pencil Pushups in their traditional form would garner laughter from colleagues and outside professionals OK, maybe my rendition of the… Read more

The timeless American rock band, Journey, was formed in San Francisco in 1973 and many of its members, both past and present, still live in the city. One of Journey’s more popular songs, Lights, is seemingly an ode to the city by the bay, it’s spirit, it’s comfort and it’s energy. Although I have always… Read more

Just so you know, I set my alarm an hour earlier than normal to be sure I’d have enough time to finish this post this morning. It’s that important to me. As it just so happens, this is my 500th post on this blog; a milestone I share with pride, to be sure. I have… Read more

We’ve all been there. You head out on a Saturday afternoon to run a few errands, make a stop to get your hair cut, and BAM.  Get home to look in the mirror and realize the person who cut your hair had a rather aggressive interpretation for “just a little off the top” and now… Read more

As a passionate Vision Therapist I really have only one serious goal…I want to be just like Linda Sanet. I first encountered Linda at an OEPF sponsored event in San Jose, CA in 2000, where she was teaching a weekend course. At the time, I had been working with patients less than a year and… Read more

In recent years, there’s been a definitive push towards “patient first” language, acknowledging the person before referring to their affliction. For instance, the strabismus patient has become the patient with strabismus, or the TBI patient has become my patient with a brain injury, or even better, my 4 o’clock Vision Therapy patient has become “Johnny”.  The push… Read more

My best friend in high school, who we will call Mark, was an African American boy whose father was a Rabbi. His father’s immediate family had converted to Judaism a generation or two prior and Mark’s father felt his calling from within his faith.  His dad, who we lovingly referred to as “the preacher”, was… Read more

Shared by James Smith, COVT. Please consider helping this family during this horrible time. It was a great shock to all of us at Washington Vision Therapy Center to hear that our Office Manager in our Tri-Cities offices was tragically killed this weekend.   See the story here. Stephanie was the heartbeat of our clinic. … Read more

Last July/August I had cataract surgery. I am pleased with improved vision and clarity. However, I ended up with double (distant) vision. My P.T. recommended I see Tom Headline. I’d like to know if you would recommend I see my eye surgeon first and if he does not have a solution, ask him for a… Read more

My mom is a lefty. My sister is a lefty. My daughter is a lefty. My former boss is a lefty. Together, I’m sure they’re conspiring to celebrate National Left Handers today – and every August 13. Lucky them. These people in my life are also quick to point out three of our previous four presidents have been… Read more

My mom used to carry a wooden cooking spoon in her purse, which she affectionately named “Jimmy” after Jimmy Hoffa. Later in life, I’ve learned the idea of the spoon was never to become physical; rather, just to maintain the illusion over our young adolescent minds that Jimmy would and could enforce her parenting wishes… Read more

I’m the first to admit my propensity to become fascinated with the peculiar, bizarre, and eccentric. I’ve never really figured out why, although I suspect my growing up in San Francisco is widely responsible. I’m drawn to people who are different, unusual, quirky, and perhaps even surprising. Throw in a little kindness and integrity and you’ve got… Read more

Anyone who has been around Vision Therapy for a decent period of time may be familiar with the idea of offering rehabilitative care to patients with Traumatic Brain Injuries.  Helping patients to re-organize their visual inputs and balance their visual stimuli a lot of times can improve their quality of life post-injury. Just as every… Read more

There are some people who will never ask for help; it’s just not in their genetic makeup. My Vision Therapist friend Robin Vreeland has always been one of those people. She is strong, proud, determined, and through her entire ordeal with colon cancer, has complained very little. She rolls with every punch, jumps every hurdle,… Read more

There are moments when I’m really into Vision Therapy, be it helping an adult recover from a Traumatic Brain Injury, or helping a third grader find her way through some accommodative exercise, or even finding some group to speak to in hopes of enticing them with the wonders our profession has to offer. Working with… Read more

There are moments in life when we are given pause. Maybe talking to a child about a difficult topic or helping a friend through a tough situation, maybe even working through challenging moment on our own could all be reasons why. It’s one of those moments in life which has always fascinated me. Something external… Read more

The world can be unkind. Get used to it. In the not so distant past, an article came up on my screen detailing the inequities of online reviews with respect to the medical profession. The idea was, and surely still is, practitioners, be they involved directly or indirectly with a patient, should be immune to… Read more

Someone asked me recently if my blog is still active, to which I promised them it is, explaining my heart and mind are just channeled elsewhere for a bit. My passion and pride still remain on these pages though, and although I’m not currently as prolific as in the past, there are days where something… Read more

Sometime last year, I watched an interview with Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger, who was, of course, the captain of of the US Airways Flight 1549 which landed in the Hudson River in January 2009. Captain Sullenberger noted during the interview how he felt as if each of his previous flights, totaling some 42,000 hours, allowed him to… Read more

Just so we’re absolutely clear, I don’t think deciding against Vision Therapy for financial reasons makes you a bad person. Quite the contrary, in fact. If you travel far enough in the process to be told Vision Therapy is needed, you honestly have my complete admiration – even if you decide to take a pass.  If… Read more

For the love of money is the root of all evil; which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through many sorrows. ~ Timothy 6:10 There are many reasons patients and their families choose against enrolling in Vision Therapy, and although a few are tough to swallow from my… Read more