JEDDAH, 26 September 2007 — Jeddah-based Ebsar Foundation is organizing a pediatric low vision course in Bahrain for two days from Dec. 5. The event is being held in association with the Middle East African Council of Ophthalmology (MEACO) and the National Committee for Prevention of Blindness at Bahrain’s Crowne Plaza Hotel. Ophthalmologists, optometrists, rehabilitation professionals and special educators will be among those participating in the course.
Its goals include raising awareness of the importance of low vision rehabilitation as a treatment option that extends the range of what can be done to help children who are visually impaired, and clarifying and illustrating the techniques used to assess, prescribe for and train children who are visually impaired, according to Mohammed Tawfik Bellow, Ebsar Foundation’s general manager for Saudi Arabia.
Course participants will be able to list the diseases most commonly found in the region that affect function and respond to low vision care and vision rehabilitation services, review typical visual development in the child, learn how to perform comprehensive functional visual assessment used for children with low vision, determine appropriate interventions including optical devices and learn examination techniques specific for children with multiple disabilities.
Abdulaziz AlRajhi, president of the Middle East African Council of Opthalmology and co-chair of EMR-IAPB, Lindo Lawrence of the United States, Lea Hyvarinen of Finland, Patricia Sonksen of the UK, Ebtisam Al-Alawi of Bahrain, Nathalie Bussieres of Canada and Anne Stroem, Finland’s special educator, are part of the guest faculty. The Ebsar faculty includes Sarfaraz A. Khan of Saudi Arabia, aside from Bellow.
The course will cover subjects including visual disability among children, magnitude of childhood blindness, impact of vision loss on early development, when and what to observe and test for early diagnosis and intervention at different ages, examination techniques, assessment of visual functioning for early intervention and special education among other issues. The last day for registration is Nov. 5, Bellow said.
