This course is designed for the practitioner who has experience in working with children with CNS dysfunction and habitual toe walking, including physical therapists, orthotists, pediatric orthopedists and PM&R physicians. We believe that team education fosters more effective teamwork.
The content covered in this program spans a range of topics related to foot function and development; postural control acquisition and its influence on foot development; gait development and gait pathology related to foot pathomechanics; physiologic adaptation of lower limb muscle to routine use – both ideal and pathologic; and the contribution of postural control deficits to equinus deformity development.
A review of science-based assessment of passive ankle dorsiflexion range of motion (PADFROM) prepares participants for training in lab sessions. The assessment findings serve as outcome data and lead to a systematic clinical decision-making process regarding optimizing orthotic design.
Billi applies these sciences to a review of strategies for optimizing body weight loading on - and somatosensory input from - the feet, using customized and specialized cast boots and orthoses.
Participants receive digital handouts to use during the course. A flexible skeletal foot model is required for use during the didactic course. Details on how to purchase the foot model are included in the Course Welcome Email upon registration.
In this course you will learn...
Describe, in plane-based terminology, the motions of the joints and various bones of the foot in the open and closed kinematic chains.
Discuss the kinesiologic benefits of optimizing functioning alignment.
Describe the verticality drive and its role in lower extremity (LE) deformity development in ambulatory children with bilateral CP.
Describe the role of the foot and ankle load receptors in the achievement and maintenance of postural control in standing and gait.
Relate body weight acceleration to gait development – typical and pathologic.
Describe the connection between excessive pronation and equinus deformity development.
Identify the deformities of the foot and ankle that occur most commonly in children with CNS dysfunction and describe the segments of illustrated deformities in plane-based terms.
Discuss the validity of the prevailing presumption that spasticity causes equinus deformity.
Discuss the growing evidence of muscle tissue pathology resulting from any Botox-A injection.
and so much more!
In addition to offering a substantial investment in your professional development, this course delivers 11.5 contact hours of Cusick-level content.
Certificates will be emailed within 2 weeks to those who complete all sessions, record 80% or better on all quizzes, and submit their online evaluation.
PHYSICAL THERAPISTS & ASSISTANTS: This course is approved for 11.5 contact hours — which are accepted for PT continuing education credits in over 40 states via Redefine Health Education. For a list of states that accept these CEUs and information about obtaining them in those that do not, please visit Redefine Health Education's website.
ORTHOTISTS and PROSTHETISTS: The Pediatric Equinus Deformity Conservative Management course has been approved for 11.5 scientific contact hours by ABC.
Beverly (Billi) Cusick PT, MS, NDT, COF/BOC is an internationally known pediatric physical therapist whose specialty is the orthopedic development and orthotic management of children with cerebral palsy and other neuromotor deficits.
She has been teaching these and related topics since 1978 - including presentations by invitation for the APTA, AACPDM, AOPA, and AAOP and more than 460 full programs and workshops worldwide.
Ms. Cusick received her BS in PT from Bouve College at Northeastern University in Boston, MA in 1972, and her MS in Clinical and College Teaching for Allied Health Professionals from the University of Kentucky in Lexington in 1988. She is an Associate Professor for the Rocky Mountain University of Health Professions – Pediatrics Program – Provo, Utah (2006-present) and is NDT basic- and baby-trained.
