Schools for Vision Therapy?

[naearls]

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.

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[JMU07]

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.

 

[Oogilily]

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.

 

[caitsiex]

SUNY has an excellent VT program.

 

[DrSpontaneouz83]

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

 

[naearls]

Any thoughts on the program? What kind of training have you received and how have you liked the program so far?

 

[SonyaM]

I am also very interested in vision therapy, and SUNY is my top choice school. If anyone could provide me with any information about the program there or at any other school, it would be much appreciated

 

[Optogal]

Pretty much "every" school has its BV experts.

Houston has Bruce Wick.

Salus has Mitchell Scheiman.

I imagine Indiana, SCO, ICO, NECO and Berkeley have their gurus as well.

I never knew Pacific nor Southern were VT places, but according to the above, they are - and it doesn't surprise me.

It's a matter of using what you learn in school out in the real world.

 

[naearls]

It's a matter of using what you learn in school out in the real world.

When the optometrist that I worked for started out there pretty much was no training for behavioral, so he had to learn as he went and had to put everything together himself. So I want to discuss with him what his thoughts were on how difficult it is to learn that stuff after optometry school. A big reason for that is because I am from Southern Indiana so IU would be the most convenient school for me to go to. However, all of the optometrists in my area are from IU and from what I have been told there is almost no behavioral taught there. They said maybe one class was taught, but that was it.

I am really interested in doing behavioral so I want to know what my options are as far as schools that really work a lot with it and finding out what the best approaches are to learning about it.

 

[IndianaOD]

When the optometrist that I worked for started out there pretty much was no training for behavioral, so he had to learn as he went and had to put everything together himself. So I want to discuss with him what his thoughts were on how difficult it is to learn that stuff after optometry school. A big reason for that is because I am from Southern Indiana so IU would be the most convenient school for me to go to. However, all of the optometrists in my area are from IU and from what I have been told there is almost no behavioral taught there. They said maybe one class was taught, but that was it.

I am really interested in doing behavioral so I want to know what my options are as far as schools that really work a lot with it and finding out what the best approaches are to learning about it.

IU is not strong in behavioral optometry, you are correct. It is great at just about everything else.

 

[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.

 

[IndianaOD]

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.

 

[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.

 

[RegularGuy]

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.

 

[Optogal]

IU is not strong in behavioral optometry, you are correct. It is great at just about everything else.

What exactly is "behavioral" optometry? The term wasn't used by anyone in my 4 years of schooling.

The most I've come across is that "behavioral optometrists" don't believe in the genetic affects of refractive error, only in environmental factors.

Is this really it? I can't imagine that a group of optometrists can completely reject the effect of genetics in refractive error - that is not exactly being evidence-based.

 

[caitsiex]

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.

 

[QueenieCSS]

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.

 

[IndianaOD]

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.