How to become a Orthoptist 2024

Orthoptist Diagnose and treat visual system disorders such as binocular vision and eye movement impairments.

Orthoptist is Also Know as

In different settings, Orthoptist is titled as

Certified Orthoptist
Clinical Orthoptist (CO)
Orthoptist

Education and Training of Orthoptist

Orthoptist is categorized in Job Zone Five: Extensive Preparation Needed

Experience Required for Orthoptist

Extensive skill, knowledge, and experience are needed for these occupations. Many require more than five years of experience. For example, surgeons must complete four years of college and an additional five to seven years of specialized medical training to be able to do their job.

Education Required for Orthoptist

Most of these occupations require graduate school. For example, they may require a master's degree, and some require a Ph.D., M.D., or J.D. (law degree).

Degrees Related to Orthoptist

Training Required for Orthoptist

Employees may need some on-the-job training, but most of these occupations assume that the person will already have the required skills, knowledge, work-related experience, and/or training.

Related Ocuupations

Some Ocuupations related to Orthoptist in different industries are

What Do Orthoptist do?

Assist ophthalmologists in diagnostic ophthalmic procedures, such as ultrasonography, fundus photography, and tonometry.
Provide nonsurgical interventions, including corrective lenses, patches, drops, fusion exercises, or stereograms, to treat conditions such as strabismus, heterophoria, and convergence insufficiency.
Develop nonsurgical treatment plans for patients with conditions such as strabismus, nystagmus, and other visual disorders.
Perform diagnostic tests or measurements, such as motor testing, visual acuity testing, lensometry, retinoscopy, and color vision testing.
Examine patients with problems related to ocular motility, binocular vision, amblyopia, or strabismus.
Evaluate, diagnose, or treat disorders of the visual system with an emphasis on binocular vision or abnormal eye movements.
Interpret clinical or diagnostic test results.
Provide instructions to patients or family members concerning diagnoses or treatment plans.
Refer patients to ophthalmic surgeons or other physicians.
Develop or use special test and communication techniques to facilitate diagnosis and treatment of children or disabled patients.
Collaborate with ophthalmologists, optometrists, or other specialists in the diagnosis, treatment, or management of conditions such as glaucoma, cataracts, and retinal diseases.
Prepare diagnostic or treatment reports for other medical practitioners or therapists.
Participate in clinical research projects.
Present or publish scientific papers.
Perform vision screening of children in schools or community health centers.
Provide training related to clinical methods or orthoptics to students, resident physicians, or other health professionals.

Qualities of Good Orthoptist

Written Comprehension: The ability to read and understand information and ideas presented in writing.
Oral Expression: The ability to communicate information and ideas in speaking so others will understand.
Written Expression: The ability to communicate information and ideas in writing so others will understand.
Oral Comprehension: The ability to listen to and understand information and ideas presented through spoken words and sentences.
Problem Sensitivity: The ability to tell when something is wrong or is likely to go wrong. It does not involve solving the problem, only recognizing that there is a problem.
Deductive Reasoning: The ability to apply general rules to specific problems to produce answers that make sense.
Inductive Reasoning: The ability to combine pieces of information to form general rules or conclusions (includes finding a relationship among seemingly unrelated events).
Speech Clarity: The ability to speak clearly so others can understand you.
Speech Recognition: The ability to identify and understand the speech of another person.
Near Vision: The ability to see details at close range (within a few feet of the observer).
Fluency of Ideas: The ability to come up with a number of ideas about a topic (the number of ideas is important, not their quality, correctness, or creativity).
Flexibility of Closure: The ability to identify or detect a known pattern (a figure, object, word, or sound) that is hidden in other distracting material.
Perceptual Speed: The ability to quickly and accurately compare similarities and differences among sets of letters, numbers, objects, pictures, or patterns. The things to be compared may be presented at the same time or one after the other. This ability also includes comparing a presented object with a remembered object.
Category Flexibility: The ability to generate or use different sets of rules for combining or grouping things in different ways.
Originality: The ability to come up with unusual or clever ideas about a given topic or situation, or to develop creative ways to solve a problem.
Visual Color Discrimination: The ability to match or detect differences between colors, including shades of color and brightness.
Far Vision: The ability to see details at a distance.
Finger Dexterity: The ability to make precisely coordinated movements of the fingers of one or both hands to grasp, manipulate, or assemble very small objects.
Arm-Hand Steadiness: The ability to keep your hand and arm steady while moving your arm or while holding your arm and hand in one position.
Selective Attention: The ability to concentrate on a task over a period of time without being distracted.
Information Ordering: The ability to arrange things or actions in a certain order or pattern according to a specific rule or set of rules (e.g., patterns of numbers, letters, words, pictures, mathematical operations).
Visualization: The ability to imagine how something will look after it is moved around or when its parts are moved or rearranged.
Manual Dexterity: The ability to quickly move your hand, your hand together with your arm, or your two hands to grasp, manipulate, or assemble objects.
Control Precision: The ability to quickly and repeatedly adjust the controls of a machine or a vehicle to exact positions.
Speed of Closure: The ability to quickly make sense of, combine, and organize information into meaningful patterns.
Time Sharing: The ability to shift back and forth between two or more activities or sources of information (such as speech, sounds, touch, or other sources).
Auditory Attention: The ability to focus on a single source of sound in the presence of other distracting sounds.
Mathematical Reasoning: The ability to choose the right mathematical methods or formulas to solve a problem.
Number Facility: The ability to add, subtract, multiply, or divide quickly and correctly.
Memorization: The ability to remember information such as words, numbers, pictures, and procedures.
Trunk Strength: The ability to use your abdominal and lower back muscles to support part of the body repeatedly or continuously over time without "giving out" or fatiguing.
Multilimb Coordination: The ability to coordinate two or more limbs (for example, two arms, two legs, or one leg and one arm) while sitting, standing, or lying down. It does not involve performing the activities while the whole body is in motion.
Static Strength: The ability to exert maximum muscle force to lift, push, pull, or carry objects.
Hearing Sensitivity: The ability to detect or tell the differences between sounds that vary in pitch and loudness.
Wrist-Finger Speed: The ability to make fast, simple, repeated movements of the fingers, hands, and wrists.
Depth Perception: The ability to judge which of several objects is closer or farther away from you, or to judge the distance between you and an object.
Dynamic Strength: The ability to exert muscle force repeatedly or continuously over time. This involves muscular endurance and resistance to muscle fatigue.
Extent Flexibility: The ability to bend, stretch, twist, or reach with your body, arms, and/or legs.
Explosive Strength: The ability to use short bursts of muscle force to propel oneself (as in jumping or sprinting), or to throw an object.
Response Orientation: The ability to choose quickly between two or more movements in response to two or more different signals (lights, sounds, pictures). It includes the speed with which the correct response is started with the hand, foot, or other body part.
Reaction Time: The ability to quickly respond (with the hand, finger, or foot) to a signal (sound, light, picture) when it appears.
Sound Localization: The ability to tell the direction from which a sound originated.
Glare Sensitivity: The ability to see objects in the presence of a glare or bright lighting.
Gross Body Equilibrium: The ability to keep or regain your body balance or stay upright when in an unstable position.
Spatial Orientation: The ability to know your location in relation to the environment or to know where other objects are in relation to you.
Peripheral Vision: The ability to see objects or movement of objects to one's side when the eyes are looking ahead.
Night Vision: The ability to see under low-light conditions.
Gross Body Coordination: The ability to coordinate the movement of your arms, legs, and torso together when the whole body is in motion.
Dynamic Flexibility: The ability to quickly and repeatedly bend, stretch, twist, or reach out with your body, arms, and/or legs.
Stamina: The ability to exert yourself physically over long periods of time without getting winded or out of breath.
Speed of Limb Movement: The ability to quickly move the arms and legs.
Rate Control: The ability to time your movements or the movement of a piece of equipment in anticipation of changes in the speed and/or direction of a moving object or scene.

Tools Used by Orthoptist

Adult trial frames
Amblyoscopes
Animated fixation targets
Bagolini lenses
Cardiff cards
Color vision testing devices
Combined vertical/horizontal prism bars
Contrast sensitivity charts
Deviometers
Digital cameras
Digital fundus cameras
Direct ophthalmoscopes
Fixation targets
Focimeters
Fresnel prisms
Handheld fixation lights
Hertel exophthalmometers
Indirect ophthalmoscopes
Lang stereo tests
Laptop computers
Lea symbols near vision cards
LogMAR charts
Maddox rods
Opaque occluders
Ophthalmic lensometers
Ophthalmic perimeters
Ophthalmic prisms
Ophthalmic slit lamps
Optokinetic drums
Overhead projectors
Pediatric trial frames
Personal computers
Pinhole occluders
Portable biomicroscopes
Randot stereo tests
Retinoscopes
Scanning laser ophthalmoscopes
Sheridan Gardiner tests
Slide projectors
Snellen eye charts
Synoptophores
Teller acuity cards
Titmus stereo tests
TNO stereo tests
Trial lenses
Vision testing charts
Visuscopes
Worth 4-dot tests

Technology Skills required for Orthoptist

Computer Aided Vision Therapy CAVT
Computer perceptual processing software
Email software
Eye Tracking Exercises Enterprises Track with Letters
HTS Vision CVS2
HTS Vision HTS2 Computerized Binocular Home Eye Exercise System
MAX Systems Max-Gold Medical Clinic Software
Microsoft Excel
Microsoft PowerPoint
Microsoft Word
SeeRite Flash and Match
Therapeutic orthoptic software

US Universities

How to become Orthoptist in 2024