The Course

Advancing Learning Through Vision

Our mission is to make the benefits of a comprehensive understanding of the visual process broadly available to change lives.

Our North Star, our guiding principle, is that no one, especially no child, should be denied the benefit of full scope optometric care practiced from the behavioral perspective. 

The aim of the course is to change lives of both patients and practitioners; the most common review of the course is that ‘It changed my life.’  The course has three instructors with a wealth of experience in Behavioral Optometry, presenting and Vision Therapy providing an exciting experience for Optometrists and Vision Therapists to enhance their skill and approach.  

The OPSIS course should be considered as one complete course spread over six sections, covering the art and practice of optometry including human development, examination techniques, case analysis, case based optometric philosophy and prescribing.  Prescribing lenses is designed to help each patient reach their visual potential, including in depth coverage of refractive conditions, i.e. myopia, hyperopia,  & astigmia.  

The experience and training in using optometric visual therapy is throughout the course, to enable delegates to help each patient develop their utmost in visual skill, including, but not limited to, developmental learning, strabismus, amblyopia, reading and learning problems, and visual inefficiencies.  The course emphasis is learning and sharing for both in person and online delegates, and, with improving technology, improves the ability for online delegates to feel included in all the discussions and questions. Each section will be recorded and available to all delegates for a month after it has taken place.  

Here is an overview of the topics covered in each section as confidence and practice builds with each visit. The interactive nature of the learning means that sometimes topics may be moved to a different section.

More on our philosophy

Scroll down for details on each of the sessions.

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The course begins with a case-based approach, focusing on patient encounters, tools used in vision therapy, the behavioral optometric insights gained from interactions, and the importance of the visual process in understanding human behavior.

This part introduces a clinically proven protocol for vision therapy, offering a sequence of developmentally challenging experiences  for patients to develop their vision and movement. Activities and the role of the metronome are explained.

In this gem Rob discusses the space solid and stereopsis and how our work helps us gain insight into how the person is functioning in their space world and the myriad of ways we can help them be more effective and more efficient.

Rob Lewis on WHY we are doing these courses. 8/27/2021

This section explores the analytical aspects of vision therapy, emphasizing prism equilibrium findings, when to prescribe for conditions beyond measurements, and the relationship between refractive conditions and stress.

This section addresses cases related to reading and learning, emphasizing the role of language in child development, inner speech, dyslexia, and the impact of stress on reading. Various activities and probes are introduced and cases discussed.

The use of the metronome is fairly ubiquitous in VT. Here Rob discusses his view of the value of using the metronome as part of behavioral vision care and VT in particular.

Telling stories has become a core vehicle for communicating our thoughts, ideas, clinical insights and that which we want people to know without "lecturing" people.

Visual therapy principles, including cortical plasticity, just noticeable differences, and the role of movement in visual development, are discussed. The development of posture and movement is highlighted, and Primary and Secondary Variabilities of Movement are explored.

The course concludes with the analysis of three specific cases, along with additional activities and theoretical concepts such as the binocular continuum, strabismus, and amblyopia.

Here Rob Lewis speaks on symmetry in binocularity and why some people choose asymmetric ways of using their binocular system and how we can assist them in getting back to symmetry, should they choose to do so.

Here Rob discusses both the joys and the challenges of running a practice which provides VT as part of the services for its patients and the community.