eBook Visual Training Preliminary Considerations Part 1
$44.19
This project was brought to the Optometric Extension Program Foundation by
Dr. Sue Barry many years ago. She had in her possession two pieces of writing from
Dr. Fred Brock was originally published starting in 1947 in Optometric Weekly. The
writing took place over the course of a decade and was completed in 1957. Dr. Barry,
unfortunately, was missing part three and came to another member of the OEPF team
to help find the missing part. I was brought into the project as I was getting involved in
helping the organization produce new books. Luckily, I work at Southern College of
Optometry, which was founded in 1932, and the library still held the entire series from
Dr. Brock.
Before the project could begin, we needed to make sure that OEPF could legally
publish the material. Point of fact, material published before 1978 has a copyright of
95 years! To get permission, I started tracking the publisher of Optometric Weekly, which became Optometric Monthly. In the 1970s, the publisher ceased to exist, making the journal an orphan. To be extra careful, I wanted to get permission from Dr. Brock’s
family. With luck, I was able to track down a family member living in an assisted living
facility in the northeast … it was Dr. Brock’s 90-something-year-old daughter! She was
so thrilled to hear from me and quite shocked. She was happy to give permission to
publish the material once again and said that her father would be thrilled that someone
still cared about him and his work. I thanked her profusely and did a happy dance.
What you hold in your hands is the first of three parts that will be brought to you
over the next three years, one per year. The entire series was identified in the Optometric
Weekly volumes and scanned. The text was converted from PDF to a Microsoft Word
document format and checked for accuracy by student volunteers. The images were
scanned and amazingly fixed by Phillip Tribble in the publication department at SCO.
The tables were recreated as well. Dr. Mark Dean and I both edited the text, correcting
obvious mistakes in the production process and errors from the original publication but
essentially changing very little. This has become a passion project. It was interrupted by a pandemic and other personal projects, but I kept coming back to it. After five years, I am thrilled to make this work by Dr. Fred Brock once again available to the general public. Look for the next two volumes in the coming years! Seventy years after their first publication, OEPF is thrilled to present the works of Dr. Fred Brock.
by Frederick W. Brock, D.O.S
Edited by Marc Taub, OD, MS, EdD
Visual Training Preliminary Considerations Part1 was written by Dr. Frederick Brock, with the firstinstallment published in Optometric Weekly in 1947.His writing continued over the next 10 years andwas completed in 1957. Dr Sue Barry had twopieces of his work, but was missing the third part,which is where Dr Marc Taub was able to help!Dr Taub obtained a copy of all three pieces fromthe library at Southern College of Optometry andthen got permission from Dr Brock’s daughter torepublish the work for us all to enjoy.With the help of Dr. Taub and Dr. Mark Dean,who edited the text and corrected any errors in theproduction process, they were able to republishthe phenomenal work of Dr Brock seventy yearsafter it was originally published.While I was at the annual OVDRA meetingthis year, Dr W.C. Maples made a remark that hasstuck with me. He said that in our field “We standon the shoulders of giants.” I thought I had anunderstanding of what he meant at the time, but itwas not until I finished Dr Brock’s book that I reallygot it. Of course, I knew about Dr Brock beforereading this, and use his famous Brock String prettymuch every day in my practice, however, I had noidea how many of the other tools I use regularly arebased on his work from the 1940’s.The concepts that he discusses in this book arecomplex. Many times, I found myself re- readingpassages, and I even printed out the ebook so thatI could write in my notes and study the pictures ofhis experiments better. Reading through this bookwas truly a remarkable experience that I recommendeveryone do, whether you order the ebook or thesoftcover.In the book Dr Brock begins with an introductionwhere he states “The reason why visual training stillremains a comparatively foreign subject to manypracticing optometrists may be that its foundationdoes not lie in physiology, anatomy, or optics.These three subjects were, and to a great extent stillare, considered the Fundamentals of OptometricProcedure. They are the fundamentals of eyeballoptometry (Renshaw). Unfortunately, this kind ofoptometry has proven inadequate in many ways:It does not take into consideration the personalfactors in the dealing with human beings who are,first and foremost, persons.” (p.2) This is the firstparagraph in Dr. Brock’s writing, and I found itto be profound. I see this every day in practice,that no two diagnoses are the same, and that wemust take into consideration the person that has thediagnosis and the “Why” behind what is bringingthem into the office.Vision Development & Rehabilitation Volume 10, Issue 2 • June 2024121Dr. Brock then goes on to discuss his ownexperiments involving patients with amblyopia,unilateral and alternating strabismus, and anomalouscorrespondence. In the book he has figures thatoutline these experiments, and it is incredible tosee how he curated these setups. I could notstop seeing how these experiments and trainingstrategies he created served as the basis for othertypes of equipment that I use in the therapy room.Not only did this book help me understandhow many of the tools I use today came to be, butit gave me new tips on how to coach my strabismicpatients. The patients that Dr Brock addresseswere not straight forward at all. They were largeangle strabismics and many had anomalous corres-pondence. In the book he details the set up heused with these patients and the strategies thathelped them, such as making the targets larger andmore peripheral, changing the patient’s distancefrom the target, and making the setup more natural.He also encouraged patients to recognize spatialrelationships and attend to the volume of space andsize. He truly used a developmental approach andtailored it to exactly what each patient needed atthe time.In my office, a common question I hear fromnew patients is “I have never heard of this before.Is vision therapy new?” After reading Dr. Brock’sbook I now have a much better understandingof developmental optometry and vision therapy’shistory. I am now aware of the knowledge I lackedand can more confidently answer my patients’questions about how long vision therapy has beenaround.This book is one that I think all developmentaloptometrists must read. We need to understandwhere the knowledge we use everyday came fromand which giants shoulders we stand on. Also, asDr. W.C. Maples said, “If you don’t know your pastit’s hard to plan for the future.”I look forward to volumes 2 and 3 of Dr Brock’sbooks so that I can continue learning!