Optometry and Vision Development Latest Research

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The latest edition of the College of Optometrists in Vision Development journal, Optometry & Vision Development, features the latest in eye and vision care research that was presented at its annual meeting in San Juan, Puerto Rico this fall.

During this meeting, John Shelley-Tremblay, PhD, an associate professor of Psychology at the University of South Alabama, noted that positive gains in oral reading fluency were obtained when using the Perception Attention Therapy for Harmony (PATH) program for children exhibiting a reading disability and that brain function (Visual Evoked Potentials) were altered as well. Vision researchers at the SUNY College of Optometry led by Dr. Barry Tannen, conducted a retrospective study using objective measures of reading speed and efficiency noting significant improvements in all measurement parameters and a reduction in symptoms in 93% of their subjects after a program of optometric vision therapy was conducted. Several papers presented also supported the role vision plays in learning noting that reading rate slows when subjects were asked to exert extra visual effort to maintain single vision when reading, vision therapy in schools improved symptoms and reading fluency, and that high school students in an inner-city Milwaukee school demonstrated a significant number of learning-related vision problems that could benefit from optometric vision therapy.

Optometry & Vision Development also features a paper by Dr. Michael Gallaway of the Pennsylvania College of Optometry at Salus University, on the use of the VERA vision screening system in a community setting. He notes that there is a need for a better school vision screening program and that the VERA system may meet this need.

Dr. Dominick Maino, the editor of Optometry & Vision Development, has commented on several studies in his blog, MainosMemos, that note research concerning school vision screening programs is so poor that we do not even know if they are effective or not. There is currently little in the way of evidence-based research to support the use of school screenings and yet school districts still use these programs. "What Dr. Gallaway has done," says Dr. Maino, "is to show a possible school vision screening methodology that has the potential to not only make appropriate determinations on who needs eye and vision care, but to also have the possibility of improving the quality of life of students who struggle academically due to learning-related vision problems." Dr. Gallaway has also published a companion article in Optometry, the journal of the American Optometric Association on this topic as well.

Other articles in Optometry & Vision Development include information on optometric vision therapy for sensory fusion disruption syndrome; the pediatric, vision therapy and rehabilitation programs at the Southern College of Optometry; and a review of current eye and vision science literature.

About Optometry & Vision Development -Optometry & Vision Development (OVD) is a peer-reviewed open access journal indexed in the online Directory of Open Access Journals. OVD is an official publication of the College of Optometrists in Vision Development.

About COVD -The College of Optometrists in Vision Development (COVD) is an international, non-profit optometric membership organization that provides education, evaluation and board certification programs in behavioral and developmental vision care, vision therapy and visual rehabilitation. The organization is comprised of doctors of optometry, vision therapists and other vision specialists.