In this episode, we will be learning about an occupational therapy practitioner in vision therapy. Normanie McKenzie Ricks, MS, OTR/L is an Occupational Therapist who has a passion for helping individuals with neurological and vision deficits, particularly those with learning-related vision problems. She is a graduate of The University of Alabama at Birmingham and UCLA. As a proud veteran and Officer in the United States Navy, she provided Occupational Therapy Intervention to service members and their families and addressed neurological issues so that they could return to full duty and fulfilled lives. She is a member of the Lions Club which serves and advocates for the blind and visually impaired through its local and global initiatives She also travels internationally and provides instruction for educators at their schools for the blind and developmentally disabled. Normanie's personal passion for the field hits really close to home. As a third-grader her very own daughter began to have difficulty with reading comprehension, reporting daily headaches, and struggling with standardized assessments. After vision therapy, she now reads above grade level and scored at the ninth-grade level on her writing assessments as a fifth-grader. She continues to excel in her academic endeavors.

Show Key Points:

·      Normanie gives us a glimpse of her background and interests

·      Normanie describes her Uncommon OT work, the settings and the population she serves

·      Normanie describes what drew her to this type of work and her path there

·      Normanie describes typical areas of focus in treatment

·      Normanie dispels some myths about the specialty

·      Normanie provides other OTPs with valuable advice

·      Normanie provides her book and contact information

RESOURCES:

Website:  www.achievevisioncenter.com

facebook: @achievevisioncenter

instagram: @achievevisioncenter

Amazon link for book:  https://www.amazon.com/Vision-Therapy-Manual-Parent-Teachers/dp/1098376544/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?crid=1W4R0BIZBR9PG&keywords=normanie+mckenzie&qid=1647287509&sprefix=normanie+mckenzie%2Caps%2C146&sr=8-1

Another way to buy the book: https://store.bookbaby.com/book/visiontherapymanual

Dr. Mitchell Scheiman, OD, PhD is a nationally known optometric educator, lecturer, author and private practitioner. He is the author of “Understanding and Managing Visual Deficits: A Guide for Occupational  Therapists”, and Low Vision Rehabilitation: A Guide for Occupational Therapists” published by Slack Incorporated. Dr. Scheiman has a long and close relationship with occupational therapists. He works closely with occupational and physical therapists in his practice co-managing patients and has lectured to therapists on numerous occasions. He has specialized in vision therapy for the past 45 years. Dr. Scheiman is currently Dean of Research at Salus University. He has written three books for optometrists covering the topics of binocular vision and vision therapy, pediatric optometry, and learning-related vision problems and he has published over 225 articles in the professional literature. He is a Diplomate in Binocular Vision and Perception and a Fellow in the College of Optometrists in Vision Development.

Penny Stack, OTD, OTR/L, CLT is the founder of Dyslexia Center of Tulsa and host of the Educate to Advocate podcast. She is the parent of a child with dyslexia who also has demonstrated improved reading capabilities thanks to Dyslexia Center of Tulsa. In the quest to research the best possible services for her own child, she brought the Dyslexia Center of Tulsa to the Tulsa area.  

Sports Vision account on IG: @mrmentalmuscle A.K.A Nick Davenport. Nick is the owner of Mind Body 1 where he works on cognitive conditioning and hand-eye coordination for athletes.

As always, I welcome any feedback & ideas from all of you or if you are interested in being a guest on future episodes, please do not hesitate to contact Patricia Motus at [email protected] or DM via Instagram @transitionsot 

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