Schools for Vision Therapy?

I am currently in my last ear of undergraduate and am looking into different schools. After working for a local optometrist specializing in Behavioral optometry/vision therapy I have become very interested in that field. I know that the field is still in its infancy and is not covered that well at most schools. So I was hoping to hear from some current optometry students about how much training they got at their school in that field and what the attitudes toward it are there. Any insight would be greatly appreciated.

We have a good VT program here. I'm not really into that so I can't speak much for it, but you start rotating through it as soon as you start clinic. We also have a few extern sites that are VT practices.

Same thing at Pacific University. They hammer things that can be treated with VT pretty hard. I'm not much into it, but they do have rotation sites (including an internal one) that you could do with VT.

SUNY has an excellent VT program.

Nova hits VT HARD.

I've heard many great things about SUNY's program relating to VT.

SCCO has an excellent binocular vision and VT program, but it is very classically based. There is not much of a behavioral component, if that is what you're looking for.

As for residencies in VT, I've heard that SUNY, Houston, UAB, SCCO and Berkeley are some good ones.

Originally Posted by eyeloveit

SCCO has an excellent binocular vision and VT program, but it is very classically based. There is not much of a behavioral component, if that is what you're looking for.

As for residencies in VT, I've heard that SUNY, Houston, UAB, SCCO and Berkeley are some good ones.

Berkley would not give you behavioral either. Dr. Cotter is definitely not a behavioral OD.

It is very hard to have a VT practice because insurances do not cover it and patients do not want to pay. How does this affect your decision to get into a school.

Originally Posted by ICOOD

It is very hard to have a VT practice because insurances do not cover it and patients do not want to pay. How does this affect your decision to get into a school.

If you are in a wealthy area it may not be that hard. I work in a VT practice outside of New york city and it is so popular that we actually have a waiting list. If patients have issues paying we offer a few different payment plans to make it easier.

Pacific starts off with Behavior as a course first semester. I have heard a bit about VT woven into other classes first year as well. I can't speak for the rest of our time here since I only finished first year, but I do know we have at least one straight VT course and I have heard of quite a few rotation sites that allow you to gain more experience.

Originally Posted by IndianaOD

Berkley would not give you behavioral either. Dr. Cotter is definitely not a behavioral OD.

Dr. Cotter is a professor at SCCO. (I just heard a lecture from her last week-- I think she's one of the best lecturers at SCCO.) What's her connection to Berkeley? Is Berkeley's VT program like SCCO's?

I can't compare SCCO's VT program to any other school, but I can say that the classes here are tough but very well taught. Dr. Borsting won COA Excellence in Optometric Education Award in 2009. He's good at making complicated things easy to understand.

I am thinking about doing VT in my private practice some day, and one thing I like about SCCO's huge bias towards private practice is that they routinely bring people in to talk about VT in private practice (and private practice in general).

That said, I'm sure a lot of schools do VT well. Unfortunately, I dunno if we have a good way to compare programs.

Originally Posted by RegularGuy

Dr. Cotter is a professor at SCCO. (I just heard a lecture from her last week-- I think she's one of the best lecturers at SCCO.) What's her connection to Berkeley? Is Berkeley's VT program like SCCO's?

I can't compare SCCO's VT program to any other school, but I can say that the classes here are tough but very well taught. Dr. Borsting won COA Excellence in Optometric Education Award in 2009. He's good at making complicated things easy to understand.

I am thinking about doing VT in my private practice some day, and one thing I like about SCCO's huge bias towards private practice is that they routinely bring people in to talk about VT in private practice (and private practice in general).

That said, I'm sure a lot of schools do VT well. Unfortunately, I dunno if we have a good way to compare programs.

Yes, sorry. You are correct. I was just switching the Cali schools around.