The Association of British Dispensing Opticians (ABDO) has announced plans to launch a new professional certificate in paediatric eyecare that will enable eyecare practitioners to develop advanced skills and knowledge in relation to many different aspects of paediatric eyecare, including myopia management.
The flexible, CPD-accredited professional certificate will be delivered online by leading academics, with a training and assessment day at ABDO’s National Resource Centre in Birmingham.
Discussing the programme at ABDO’s Myopia Management Conference, Dr Alicia Thompson, ABDO director of education, research and professional development, said: “This exciting new programme will provide access to all the latest developments in paediatric eyecare, including myopia management, and draw on groundbreaking research by academics from a range of disciplines. For dispensing opticians and other eyecare practitioners wanting to develop advanced skills in paediatric eyecare, this programme has everything that you need.”
Building on the expertise that dispensing opticians develop in gaining ABDO’s Level 6 FBDO Diploma, the programme will contain the following modules:
- advanced communication skills and psychology
- facial development
- facial parameters and frame design
- refractive management in children
- neurodiversity and dispensing
- interventions
- specialist care, including for patients with Down’s syndrome
- paediatric low vision.
ABDO will be announcing full details of the programme in early 2024. In the meantime, you can register your interest on the ABDO website at: https://www.abdo.org.uk/paediatric-eyecare-course/
