Course summary.
31 Lessons, 2 hours, 20 MCQ'sAccredited in: New Zealand; United Kingdom; Australia
Instructors.
Dr Kate Gifford PhDCost $50 USD
Reduced course fee available for low income countries, applied at checkout.About this course.
Mastering Refraction for Kids is a two hour, comprehensive learning journey to increase your knowledge, confidence and management skills in paediatric prescribing. It covers refraction techniques, visual acuity measures and normative data for children of all ages, and features a strong focus on upskilling your distance and near retinoscopy techniques. It will help you understand when to use cycloplegia and also how to refract accurately without it, as well as how to consider emmetropization when finalizing the prescription for children of all ages. Visual outcomes in specific myopia control treatments are detailed. The course then concludes with practical support aspects such as dispensing considerations, exam review schedules and practice staff training.
Throughout this course you will find downloads, animation and video demonstrations, prescribing advice, test-your-knowledge challenges and more. This is the place to master refraction techniques and prescribing processes for kids - let's get started.
Accreditation.
Accredited in: New Zealand; United Kingdom; Australia
Learner outcomes.
Course details.
Meet the instructors.
Dr Kate Gifford PhD
Dr Kate Gifford is a clinical optometrist, researcher, peer educator and professional leader from Brisbane, Australia, and a co-founder of Myopia Profile.
What you will learn.
Chapter 1: Welcome to the course - 4 Lessons
Learn about the course content, navigate the platform and set your learning goals.
- Welcome to Mastering Refraction for Kids! Here's what you'll learn
- Disclosures
- How to use this course
- Your continuing education
Chapter 2: Why refraction matters - 3 Lessons
Understand the rates and functional impacts of vision disorders in children, and why early intervention with an accurate refraction can have an enormous impact.
- Rates of vision disorders
- Visual skills for learning
- Amblyopia and functional effects
Chapter 3: Measuring visual acuity in kids - 4 Lessons
Types of visual acuity tests for younger children, accurate measurement with fogging and normative acuity results across childhood are described.
- Professional guidelines for measuring acuity
- Pre-literate acuity tests
- Managing accommodation with fogging
- Visual acuity norms in children
Chapter 4: Mastering your retinoscope - 7 Lessons
The main event! This chapter includes animation and video demonstrations, prescribing advice, reference downloads, calculation challenges and a comprehensive exploration of various techniques for distance and near retinoscopy.
- Reasons to love your retinoscope
- Professional guidelines on use of retinoscopy in kids
- Distance versus Near Retinoscopy
- Near retinoscopy - accuracy, techniques and normative outcomes
- Distance retinoscopy - accuracy and techniques
- Mastering sphere/sphere neutralization
- Test your learning - part one
Chapter 5: Autorefraction, cycloplegia and subjective methods - 4 Lessons
Comparing the accuracy of these other refraction techniques to retinoscopy, this chapter then explores when to use cycloplegia and how to refract accurately without it.
- When to use autorefraction
- When and how to use cycloplegia
- How to refract without cycloplegia
- Subjective refraction
Chapter 6: Finalizing the prescription - 3 Lessons
You've got the refraction - now what should you prescribe? Detailed advice is provided on when to undercorrect and fully correct, based on age and refractive disorder, with respect to childhood emmetropization. Specific advice on visual outcomes in myopia control treatments is also provided.
- What to prescribe and when: by age
- Understanding emmetropization
- Prescribing for myopia - vision outcomes of treatments
Chapter 7: Dispensing considerations and practice systems - 6 Lessons
Putting it all into practice, with a focus on communication. The frame selection lesson can be used as staff training alongside guidance provided on handover systems.
- Frame selection for kids
- Providing advice to parents
- Exam review schedules
- Handover systems to practice staff
- Test your learning - part two
- Congratulations, you did it! Here's what's next.
Course Reviews.
Great ret lesson and tips
Excellent section on retinoscopy and how to make it easier on the kids (especially the little ones who hate trial frames) and improve accuracy. And a great explanation of how to use dynamic ret.
And overall a well presented and thorough course on what to expect of kids' vision, and how to manage any problems.
Refreshing course
It summarise the information & theory which is useful and can directly using in our clinical practise.
Highly recommend
It was great experience, I feel more confident in my clinical practice.
Related courses.
Binocular Vision Fundamentals
Simplifies how to assess, diagnose and manage BV disorders with easy to follow video instructions, demonstrations and downloadable reference infographics
Myopia Management Made Simple
Get across the evidence, clinical steps, prescribing decisions and communication for best-practice myopia management.