Children’s eyes: An introduction

Healthcare providers/staff who mainly provide services for adults, and only occasionally see children, often do not feel confident to interact with children with eye/vision problems and their families. This course aims to introduce the learner to the basic concepts of paediatric ophthalmology, in order to give them confidence when approaching children.

Course aims
  • Support clinicians/clinic staff who wish to develop their skills and build their confidence when working with infants and children.
  • Support clinicians’ awareness of vision screening programmes, normal/abnormal development of eyes and vision, developmental and acquired eye/vision conditions in children, and the holistic need of the child with sight problems and their family.
  • Introduce clinicians to common eye conditions in children and to enable them to make appropriate referral decisions for infants and children.

You can hear more from the course lead by watching the short video below:

Course structure

This is an online course which includes an estimated 8 hours of self-paced learning with a 2 hour live webinar to conclude. The webinar will be repeated on different dates throughout the year as people complete the course. Once you have purchased this course you will receive instructions explaining how to access it.

  • Unit 1: Normal child development
  • Unit 2: Developmental disabilities
  • Unit 3: Communicating with children and families
  • Unit 4: Safeguarding children
  • Unit 5: Normal refractive development
  • Unit 6: Normal visual development
  • Unit 7: Abnormal refractive development; colour vision deficiency
  • Unit 8: Abnormal visual development: strabismus, amblyopia
  • Unit 9: Developmental eye conditions
  • Unit 10: Vision Screening; Assessing eye alignment and eye movements
  • Unit 11: Taking the history
  • Unit 12: Testing vision in children
  • Unit 13: Refraction, prescribing and dispensing glasses and contact lenses
  • Unit 14: Assessing children’s eye health
  • Unit 15: Common eye conditions in children
  • Unit 16: Children and research
Who should apply?

The course is suitable for Eye clinic nurses, A&E nurses, Paediatric nurses, Eye clinic imaging technicians, Trainee optometrists, Trainee orthoptists, Trainee eye doctors, GPs, Associate specialists and ophthalmologists working in general ophthalmology, Researchers working with children with eye/vision problems.

Benefits of attending

Attending this course will enable you to demonstrate:

  • Knowledge of typical visual development and common developmental vision problems.
  • Knowledge of vision screening pathways.
  • An ability to effectively communicate with infants, children and their parents or carers.
  • An ability to obtain infants’/children’s and personal and family history.
  • Knowledge of basic tests and techniques to assess vision in infants and children, appropriate for age.
  • Knowledge of how to examine eye health in infants and children.
  • An awareness of the visual problems in infants and children with developmental disabilities.
  • Basic knowledge of tests for glasses and spectacle prescribing and dispensing for infants and children.
  • An awareness into the key issues surrounding safeguarding children from child abuse and the ability to recognise and deal with the issues that might arise in clinical practice.
CPD certification

CPD points and a certificate of attendance will be awarded at the end of the course.

The content of this course has been certified by The CPD Certification Service as conforming to continuing professional development principles. The course carries 10 CPD hours.

Requirement

In order to access the programme online, you will need access to a computer (laptop or desktop). To take part in the webinar you will need a device with a webcam and microphone.

Enrolment

This course is hosted on UCLeXtend, UCL's learning platform for professional education. This platform is not linked to the Moorfields Education website and so enrolment for this course is carried out manually rather than being automatic upon purchase. There may therefore be a delay between the time of your purchase and the receipt of login details for the course.

Book Now

Date Location Time Seats Price
Course available to start any time Online A link to access the course will be emailed £450.00
 

Course fees

Location

 

Children’s eyes: an introduction is a brilliant course well suited for junior ophthalmologists in training. The contents were constructed thoughtfully and the short lectures are very detailed. Each of the self paced materials are followed by a set of questions to complement learning. I highly recommend this course.

Thevamalar Puspanathan, William Harvey Hospital

Taught by

 

Dr Annegret Dahlmann-Noor

Dr Annegret Dahlmann-Noor is the Director of the Children’s Service and the Clinical Trials Lead for Paediatric Ophthalmology at Moorfields Eye Hospital in London, UK, and Honorary Clinical Associate Professor in Ophthalmology at University College London, UK. Her clinical practice includes paediatric ophthalmology and ocular motility and neuro-ophthalmology in children and adults. Her research interests include myopia, amblyopia, and rare vision disorders and support strategies for children and families

 
 

Katherine Anguige

Katherine Anguige completed pre-registration at St James's hospital, Leeds, which fuelled her passion for hospital optometry. She has worked at Moorfields since 2009 in a range of clinics including adult and paediatric refraction, low vision, contact lenses, glaucoma, general ophthalmology, medical retina and paediatric extended role.

Katherine has completed the College of Optometrists Professional Cert in Paediatric Eye Care, and Higher Cert in Glaucoma. She is also a registered independent prescriber and holds a Postgraduate Certificate in Healthcare Leadership.

Katherine is responsible for running the Paediatric Optometry service in Moorfields. She is passionate about the development of our workforce and strongly believes that optometrists will continue to work at the forefront of paediatric eyecare, both in primary and secondary care settings, especially in these changing and challenging times.

Katherine is interested in visual problems in developmental disorders and learning difficulties, and the provision of eyecare to this population, and has been involved in eye screening within special needs schools and setting up adults with learning difficulties clinics, as well as being a Moorfields safeguarding champion.

Dr Dionysios Alexandrou

Dionysios Alexandrou is a Consultant Paediatrician and the Named Doctor for Safeguarding Children at Moorfields NHS Trust. His clinical practice includes all aspects of general paediatric care. He has an extensive experience in neonatal medicine, during his work as consultant neonatologist in major level-3 regional neonatal units in London & Canada. His research interests are focused in lung development during late fetal and early neonatal life, and more specifically the dynamics of lung liquid and ion transport around birth.

 
 

Dr Siobhán Ludden

Siobhán Ludden is a joint Clinical Specialist and Research Orthoptist at Moorfields Eye Hospital, London. Upon graduation from the University of Sheffield in 2011 she began working as a full time clinical orthoptist at Moorfields before moving into a research capacity. In 2014 Siobhán moved to the University of Reading to undertake her PhD research, investigating ocular accommodation in typical children and its relationship with educational attainment and attention. Siobhán’s present research focus includes amblyopia treatment, accommodation, clinical examination techniques and visual crowding.

Emma MacVeigh

Emma is a Specialist Optometrist at Moorfields Eye Hospital, London. Upon graduation from Cardiff University in 2015, she completed her pre-registration year at Moorfields Eye Hospital, continuing her further training there as a Resident Optometrist. At present she works in a range of extended role clinics including glaucoma, corneal, urgent care and paediatrics. She received a College of Optometrists grant in 2019 to jointly undertake a research project with Dr Siobhán Ludden which is ongoing. This involves the testing of a new visual acuity chart – The Auckland Optotypes - in children with Amblyopia.

 
 

Avani Rughani

Avani is a Specialist Optometrist at Moorfields Eye Hospital working in several core and extended role clinics since 2012. She has experience working in a variety of paediatric clinics, including Optom/Orthoptic led Children’s Vision Clinics. Avani is currently undertaking Independent Prescribing Qualifications.

Julie Broadbent

Julie is a Specialist Optometrist at Moorfields Eye Hospital. She joined the Optometry Department in 1991 and was the first Optometrist to work in the joint Orthoptic/Optometrist led Children’s Vision Clinics 1996 onwards. She become Paediatric Lead for Optometry to 2009. Julie has completed the Professional Certificate in Paediatric Eye Care.

 
 

Dr Ngozi Oluonye

Dr Ngozi Margaret Oluonye is a Consultant in Paediatric Neurodisability with expertise in the assessment, diagnosis and management of children with complex neurodevelopmental conditions including, Autism, ADHD, Developmental and Intellectual disability. She works in the Neurodevelopmental Assessment Service and in the Developmental Vision Clinic at Great Ormond Street Hospital as part of a multidisciplinary team. Her current specialisms include assessment of the development of children with visual impairment and the diagnosis of children with autism within the context of visual impairment and runs the developmental vision service at Moorfields. Dr Oluonye is passionate about thinking about the child and young person within the context of their family and environment and strives to bring the multidisciplinary ethos into her assessments.

Jacqueline Miller

Jacqueline Miller has been a Children’s Research Nurse for the past 9 years. The past 6 years have been spent working in the NIHR Moorfields Clinical Research Facility and Richard Desmond Children’s Eye Centre at Moorfields Eye Hospital. She is also a PhD student at City, University of London. Her project is called Ci2i, and will use Experience-based Co-design to improve the experience of children and young people taking part in eye and vision research. Her PhD studies are funded by the NIHR Moorfields BRC. Jacqueline is also co-founder and co-facilitator of Moorfields Young Persons’ Advisory Group for Research (eyeYPAG).

 
 

Dr Dipesh Patel

Dr. Dipesh Patel BMedSci, PGDip, PhD – NIHR Advanced Fellow; Population, Policy & Practice Dept. UCL GOS Institute of Child Health and Honorary Clinical Research Fellow (Orthoptics); Moorfields Eye Hospital. Dipesh is a clinical academic Orthoptist whose previous research has informed the development of clinical guidelines for the assessment of visual fields in children with complex ophthalmic disorders, in both clinical and research settings. His current research investigates key issues about amblyopia (lazy eye) management, from generating evidence to support decisions about referral for treatment, to improving understanding of management choices. Dipesh has previously held HEE NCEL and CLAHRC personal Fellowships.

Tracey Foster

Tracey Foster is the Interim Head of Safeguarding for Children, Young People and Adults and the Lead Named Nurse for Child Protection at Moorfields Eye Hospital. Qualified as an adult and paediatric nurse, she moved into the specialist field of child protection and safeguarding in 2001. She has worked in acute, tertiary specialist and community healthcare settings in general, specialist and safeguarding roles including with looked after children, children excluded from school and young offenders. Her interests within child protection include the Think Family Agenda, contextual safeguarding and the recognition of safeguarding in young people (16 and 17 year olds) within adult healthcare settings.

 
 

Ms Leena Patel

Ms. Leena Patel BMedSci, MSc – Consultant Orthoptist and Orthoptics Education Lead; Moorfields Eye Hospital and Honorary Teaching Fellow; UCL Institute of Ophthalmology. Co-Director for UK’s first MSc Orthoptics (Pre-registration) course. Leena is a consultant Orthoptist who teaches formally and clinically at UCL Institute of Ophthalmology, Moorfields Eye Hospital and City University. She is also a member of the Education and Professional Development Committee for British and Irish Orthoptic Society (BIOS).

Dr Tessa Dekker

Dr Tessa Dekker is an Associate Professor at University College London. She completed her PhD on child visual development and functional MRI in 2012 at Birkbeck, University of London. She then came to the UCL Institute of Ophthalmology to study visual development in normal sight and eye disease. Her research interests include, development of new brain based and behavioural tests of vision using tools from neuroscience and signal detection. She has studied vision in children and adults with normal sight, retinal eye diseases, optic neuropathies, and amblyopia.

 
 

Dr Louca-Mai Brayde

Dr Louca-Mai Brayde is a Senior Research Fellow at the NIHR Moorfields Biomedical Research Centre. Her research interests include children and young people, public involvement and engagement, participative methods and health and social care. She is a co-founder and co-facilitator of the Moorfields Young Persons’ Advisory Group for Research (eyeYPAG) and a Strategic advisor to theMoorfield’s young people’s forum.

Naomi O’Brart

Naomi O’Brart is a specialist optometrist at Moorfields Eye Hospital, working in a variety of core and extended role clinics. She spend her pre-registration year at Essex County Hospital, then held a 2-year position as resident optometrist at Moorfields. Her research interest is in corneal collagen cross-linking.

 
 

Mr Vijay Tailor

Vijay Tailor is a clinician in Orthoptics with 16 years experience. He has been working at Moorfields Eye Hospital for 13 years. Vijay is currently undertaking a PhD in Visual Crowding and Nystagmus. His areas of interest are Developmental Eye Genetics, Visual Perception, Nystagmus, amblyopia, Strabismus (lazy eye).