Colorado Vision Training Conference
We just returned from the annual Colorado Vision Training Conference (CVTC), usually held in Estes Park in September. This year, however, mother nature interfered with our plans (no roads to Estes!) so we moved the date and location to Winter Park.
This is always my favorite conference. 12 hours of CE, the speakers are always amazing and this year was no exception. Dr. Nancy Torgerson spoke about the wonderful results she sees in patients with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) in vision therapy. We are very excited to incorporate many new ideas and fun activities in the therapy room!
Here are some highlights from her discussion:
- Patients with ASD often have vision problems. Sometimes they will even ‘shut down’ their vision because it is so overwhelming.
- Yolked prism (special prism glasses) can have profound effects on the function of these individuals, and is a wonderful tool in the therapy room and sometimes in glasses prescriptions.
- Activities can be created out of the most simple tools, as long as you think creatively! Plastic spoon and a cotton ball? Put the cotton ball on the spoon and hold the spoon in your teeth (the opposite end), and try to walk around the room. This works on eye teaming, fixation and balance!
- The motor system is so very critical to vision development. This is why sometime we have to go back and fix the gaps in motor development first so we can address the vision issues.
Here are a few pictures from the trip. It was cold up there, but so beautiful to be in the mountains on a sunny day! We had a fun presentation on raptors and their vision, we got to meet some amazing birds and learn about how they see. Did you know birds have two foveas in each eye? Amazing animals!
