Pediatric Lower Extremity Pathology and Physiotherapy Management

We are so excited to share this extensive, evidence-informed course on the pediatric lower extremity.  Children can experience a wide variety of lower extremity injuries, and by deepening your knowledge of pediatric pathologies and exploring management strategies throughout this course, you will be better able to create comprehensive differential diagnosis lists, perform specific assessments, refer as needed for further medical evaluation and build effective treatment plans for your pediatric cases.

This course is designed to assist practitioners who work with school-aged children or adolescents, whether they are pediatric physiotherapists looking to extend their knowledge or orthopedic physiotherapists looking for more information surrounding their pediatric cases. Between the extensive literature reviews, insight from our own pediatric experiences, and the many video demonstrations of assessments and exercises, there is something for everyone! 

Throughout the course, you will review 12 Parts that each include slides, voice recorded lectures and demonstration videos to support your learning. The content will include: 

• Introductions & Background: Pediatric-specific considerations including the effects of growth, motor milestone development, children’s unique anatomy and lower limb alignment development throughout childhood.
• Pathology: Evidence-informed review of pathologies specific to the pediatric foot, ankle, knee, hip and pelvis, as well as a review of red flags and insidious conditions that practitioners should be aware of when working with pediatric cases.
• Assessment:  We will explore assessment strategies both from the literature and our clinical expertise to help build your differential diagnosis list and inform your treatment approach.
• Treatment:  We will review the literature and our favourite tips and tricks for common treatment techniques for acute and chronic stages of injuries. This includes education, mobility techniques, progressive strengthening, biomechanics training, as well as supplementary techniques such as taping and manual therapy. You will be introduced to a lower extremity injury management flow chart that can be used as a resource to guide your clinical reasoning and progress your treatment plans.
• References: We also include the 30-page reference list for further reading, if you are interested in even more context.

For more details on what is included in this course, please see the course outline below. 

We believe that children deserve access to fun, world-class physiotherapy that is specific to the unique pediatric needs and are excited for you to join us in our mission  wherever you are in the world! We hope we can educate and empower you to support children & adolescents in achieving full recovery from lower extremity injuries and returning to what they do best… playing and having fun!