Click here to read about one of my summer adventures.  We had a great time!

Leaving today to travel to Bolzano Italy to lecture at the first Behavioral Optometry Academy’s 2012 Conference. My lecture is titled: The How and Why of Acquired Brain Injuries.

Susan R. Barry, Professor of Biological Sciences at Mount Holyoke College, South Hadley, Massachusetts talks about “Fixing My Gaze.”

I will be speaking at the Behavioral Optometry Academy’s 2012 Conference.  

Lecture Topic:  The How and Why of rehab is critical.

This course will be a journey into the basic underlying components of Neuro-Optometric Rehabilitation. I will cover aspects of basic observations and evaluations of patients with acquired brain injuries. This will lead to treatment plans looking at how the patient can recover visual processing as related to the overall rehabilitative process. Case examples and demonstrations will be used to make this a clinically driven lecture.

On January 27-28 I had a unique opportunity to lecture to a group of about 25 functional optometrists in Mexico.  The lectures included: “Numerosity, Reading and Spelling”, “EOM Paresis and Palsy-To Treat or Not to Treat”, “Occlusion: A potpourri of Treatment Strategies” and “Prescribing Prism for Stroke and Traumatic Brain Injury”.   The lecture was translated directly to the attendees in spanish.  This of course was much different than I’m used to but we had some fantastic questions from the group so I know it was well understood.  Thanks to Eira and Carlos for putting the meeting together and for the kind hospitality throughout the weekend. 

I will be speaking at the 74th Northwest Congress of Optometry on Saturday & Sunday, February 25-26, 2012.  The event will be held at Pacific University in Forest Grove, Oregon. The topic is Critical of the Critical Period – Year 2 Infant Development, Stereopsis, & Strabismus.

We have added a valuable piece of information for our patients in the past week.  We have began using the Diopsys Visually Evoked Potential which allows us to have a purely objective test for vision.  It allows us to determine what infants and nonverbal patients can see by sending a visual stimulus through your brain as it measures both the speed of processing and the amplitude of the signal of the visual pathway.  Besides infants, it can be used for a variety of patients including: cortically visual impairment, delayed visual maturation, amblyopia, traumatic brain injuries and other neurological conditions including MS and stroke.  The important part is that we now have the ability to measure objectively the visual system.  This information can be helpful in diagnosis and evaluating appropriate treatment protocols for visual recovery.

There’s More to Good Vision than 20/20 from r c on Vimeo.

The 41st annual COVD meeting is being held in Las Vegas, October 26-29.   Speakers have been from a variety of topical areas including:

Allen Cohen, OD presented a traumatic brain injured lecture titled: “”Top to Bottom”- applying neuroscience to enhance visual therapy procedures for patients with brain filtering deficits”. 

WC Maples presented a excellent lecture on “Infantile Esotropia”. 

Deborah Waber who wrote the book: “Rethinking Learning Disabilities: A developmental perspective” reviewed some of her important research on children with learning issues. 

A prominent world renowned eye movement researcher named Zoi Kapoula from Paris France presented some of her recent research on eye movements and dyslexia. 

The rest of the meeting included updates on the topics of vision and autism, myopia and intermittent exotropia.