Development of anisometropia in patients after surgery for esotropia.

.....Anisometropia may develop in patients with poor sensory fusion after surgery for esotropia....

Effectiveness of vision therapy for convergence dysfunctions and long-term stability after vision therapy.

.....One year follow-up examination revealed that most children maintained the improved symptom and clinical measures after VT.... This study supports the notion that VT is a successful method of treating CI and CI combined with AI.....

An Alzheimer's Vaccine in a Nasal Spray?

....researchers ... are working on a nasally-delivered 2-in-1 vaccine that promises to protect against both Alzheimer's and stroke. The new vaccine repairs vascular damage in the brain by rounding up "troops" from the body's own immune system.....

Optometric Vision Therapy and Dyslexia/Reading Problems

.....While not all children or adults with dyslexia have visual processing problems, many--at least two-thirds in some studies--do. This makes sense from a neurological standpoint, because several of the structural neurological features associated with dyslexia appear to predispose to visual difficulties. For example, coordinated control of the movements of the two eyes requires sending signals over long distances in white matter tracts, as well as sharing information between the two hemispheres of the brain, and oversight, modulation, and coordination by the cerebellum. Deficiencies in white matter function, interhemispheric communication, and cerebellar function are each known to be more common in dyslexic than non-dyslexic individuals (especially in the pre-adult years). In addition, many dyslexic children are known to have difficulty with muscular coordination, especially for fine motor actions. Consequently, it should not be surprising that their visual movement functions, which are controlled by many of the same neural pathways, are also poorly coordinated.....

Comments: Read more about this by clicking on the title above. DM

Preschool Program Produces Payoff

....In the January-February 2011 issue of Child Development, they reported that children who joined the program earliest showed the greatest benefits. Those enrolled in preschool CPC received net benefits at age 26 totaling $83,708 per participant in 2007 dollars, compared with children who didn't take part in the program. When projected over a lifetime, the economic benefits of the program, both to participants and society at large, amounted to nearly $11 for dollar spent—an 18% annual rate of return on the original investment. Even for children enrolled in CPC for the shortest amount of time—beginning in first or second grade—lifetime benefits were about $4 for every dollar spent, a 10% annual return on the initial investment.....

Comments: Now this sounds like a good investment! DM

Do Physicians Have a Blind Spot When it Comes to Understanding Optometric Vision Therapy?

 My friend and colleague writes a wonderful blog where he discusses many topics of vital interest to our patients and the profession of optometry. Start reading his latest installment here....then click on the title above to read the rest...It's worth the click! DM

.....We understand that neither pediatricians nor ophthalmologists have had the benefit of coursework in optometric vision therapy during medical school.  But is it really that difficult to accurately represent the core concepts in our field?  Once again, the Section on Ophthalmology of the American Academy of Pediatrics has  trotted out a Joint Statement - this one in 2011 just two years on the heels of their last Joint Policy Statement.  Enough with the Joint Policies already - even Goliath recognized when he was sufficiently stoned to move on.  Listen, I’m as sympathetic to the Going Green movement as anyone else.  But shouldn’t there be a limit as to how much the same item can be recycled?  This latest Joint Statement has now taken on the air of science by calling itself a “Technical Report”, perhaps because it has added significantly more references than its forerunners, yet its agenda remains the same as its prior iterations:  A shallow attempt to discredit optometric vision therapy, thoroughly exposed by Dr. Bowan’s rebuttal article published in the journal Optometry 2002, and by Dr. Lack’s rebuttal paper in the journal Optometry 2010......

No Autism Epidemic

....The study shows that the diagnosis of ASD may apply to as much as one per cent of the population....

Journal of Medicine and Life

Brain Stimulation for OCD?

....New evidence shows when obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) becomes severe, deep brain stimulation (DBS) may help patients. However, one researcher says this method should be used with caution. These techniques are promising but must be used with an abundance of caution. This is reserved for the small proportion of people who are severely disabled and have not benefitted anywhere near adequately from very aggressive use of conventional treatments. Patients who have DBS must either undergo repeated surgeries to replace batteries or continuously maintain a rechargeable battery pack. Some suffered side effects including excessive behavioral activation, especially in the early days of the research.....

ScienceDaily: Your source for the latest research news and science breakthroughs -- updated daily Science News Share Blog Cite Print Bookmark Email Tobacco Smoking Impacts Teens' Brains

....Tobacco smoking is the leading preventable cause of death and disease in the U.S., with more than 400,000 deaths each year attributable to smoking or its consequences. And yet teens still smoke. Indeed, smoking usually begins in the teen years, and approximately 80 percent of adult smokers became hooked by the time they were 18. Meanwhile, teens who don't take up smoking usually never do...

Preference for geometric patterns early in life as a risk factor for autism.

.... A preference for geometric patterns early in life may be a novel and easily detectable early signature of infants and toddlers at risk for autism....

How Sunlight May Reduce the Severity of Multiple Sclerosis

...New research into the neurod...egenerative disease, multiple sclerosis (MS) offers new insight into the link between sunlight, vitamin D3, and MS risk and severity.

Brain Waves 1: Neuroscience, society and policy

This first report from the Brain Waves project is a series of essays authored by leading experts in neuroscience, bioethics, and science and technology policy. .....

Brain Waves 2: Neuroscience: implications for education and lifelong learning

This report highlights advances in neuroscience with potential implications for education and lifelong learning.

What you need to know about 3D Viewing

Autism College: Info from VisionHelpBlog

Chantal Sicile-Kira is a dynamic and fierec advocate for individuals who are on the autistic spectrum. She has a vested interest in exploring which therapies have proven to be beneficial for autism, and which have not. Why is Chantal so passionate about giving voice to these issues? Because she was told when he was little that her son, Jeremy, was severely autistic and to find a good institution for him. After providing him with the benefit of developmental therapies in California and abroad, Chantal did find an institution well-suited to Jeremy’s needs at age 21. It’s called “College”.

It is likely this set of experiences moved Chantal to form a different type of college, one that educates parents, families and professionals about therapies making a difference in the lives of individuals with Autism and Asperger’s Syndrome.

I was delighted, therefore, to receive word from our optometric colleague Dr. Carl Hillier that he was invited to be part of the Autism College Faculty. Chantal has assembled an impressive array of individuals to present continuing education lectures. They include Joshua Feder, MD, who specializes in Child and Family Psychiatry and Neurobehavioral Medicine; Nancy Brady, a special education authority who specializes in the use of Assistive Technology in the general education classroom for those clients with limited communication abilities; and ASD icon Temple Grandin.


On April 9th at 9:00 AM Dr. Hillier will be presenting an invited lecture on-line for the college on the topic of developmental vision issues for individuals who are on the Autistic Spectrum. Please share this information widely with other professionals and families who will be enriched by what Optometry can offer.

Future Talk 3D

If you've been a frequent reader of MainosMemos, you know that I have a great interest in all things 3D including 3D movies, television, and video-games, as well as the binocular vision dysfunctions associated with 3D Vision Syndrome.

Over the last couple of months I've had the pleasure of dicussing 3D in the classroom with Len Scrogan. He is an educator and Digital Learning Architect in Boulder, CO. who is also the Director of Instructional Technology for the Boulder Valley School District, Adjunct Professor for the University of Colorado-Denver and Lesley University and an Educational Technology Speaker and Consultant.

Len has a wealth of information when it comes to the use of 3D technology in the classroom. I suggest that you visit his blog Future Talk frequently if you are a teacher, educational administrator, parent or optometrist. I will add his blog to my MainosMemmos blog list. To see this blog list scroll down and look to the right! DM

SMOG (Simple Measure Of Gobbledygook Detectors)

I recently wrote an editorial (Mistakes Were Made (Yes by You!) for volume 42 #2 for Optometry & Vision Development (This won't be available for some time...which as you read on may actually be a good thing!).


A colleague of mine told me about an assessment tool that would determine its SMOG Index (the article's level of readability aka a Simple Measure Of Gobbledygook).

The average SMOG scores for newspaper editorials are: 

The Sun: under 14
The Daily Express: under 16
The Telegraph and The Guardian: over 17

Here's what it found for my editorial:

The SMOG index: 20.2
Total words: 1694
Total number of polysyllabic words: 349
Total number of sentences: 78

So it appears as if this particular editorial closely approximates and slightly exceeds those you would find in The Telegraph and the Guardian. Or another possible interpretation is that I have plenty of Gobbledygook to spread around!

For more info go to the SMOG (Simple Measure of Gobbledegook) calculator at http://www.niace.org.uk/misc/SMOG-calculator/smogcalc.php

Additional information is also available at http://shop.niace.org.uk/media/catalog/product/R/e/Readability.pdf 

ICO Alumni Council President: Dr. Dominick Maino

Dominick M. Maino, OD, MEd, FAAO, FCOVD-A, a professor at the Illinois College of Optometry, also serves as  ICO's Alumni Council President.  Read the latest interview in the ICO Matters Spring 2011 edition. Discover how Dominick became interested in optometry. Learn about the ICO Alumni Council accomplishments. Find out about the Dr. & Mrs. Dominick M. Maino Visiting Professor Program. Learn Dominick's intermost thoughts and secrets! And MORE!

The spring issue of ICO Matters should be arriving soon in your mailbox....and also available soon on ICO's website (http://www.ico.edu/).

Colleague, Dr. Sandy Block and her CPS Kids on the front cover of ICO Matters Spring 2011

Watch for your issue of the Spring 2011 ICO Matters and read all about Dr. Block, ICO and how we are helping the children enrolled in the Chicago Public Schools!