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• This is a flex course designed to accommodate your busy schedule. Feel free to mix and match live and recorded sessions according to what best fits your needs, ensuring you have the flexibility to learn at your own pace while still benefiting from real-time interactions and resources. 
  
  
• Early Bird Rate Through June 1, 2026 

DESCRIPTION
This 10-session virtual course provides a unique in-depth exploration of the observation and analysis of standing and walking. Optimal Segment Kinematics and Alignment approach to Rehabilitation (OSKAR) principles give equal emphasis to segments and joints, crucial for understanding standing, walking, rehabilitation, and orthotic management. The course covers the alignments, kinematics and kinetics of typical and atypical patterns of standing, stepping, and walking with full gait cycles, emphasizing the application of OSKAR principles to orthotic management and rehabilitation programs. Discover clinical algorithms and tools for collaborative decision-making, including a Pictorial Tool that facilitates family-centered goal setting for orthotic management in all areas of the International Classification of Functioning Disability and Health (ICF), and a Dosage Tool.

Participants will learn to maximize biomechanical outcomes using footwear, ankle-foot orthoses, and their combinations, refine their clinical decision-making through video vector gait laboratory case studies focusing on conditions like cerebral palsy, neural tube defects, stroke, and apply OSKAR rehabilitation programs for enhanced mobility. The course, applicable to both pediatric and adult cases, culminates in participants being able to directly integrate these principles and techniques into their clinical practice, supported by a comprehensive 700-page manual.

IMPORTANT DATES
This course will run from October 2 to December 11, 2026.
The first self-study will be made available by August 28, 2026.
The course requirements must be completed by December 30, 2026, to receive credit. 

The recordings of each of the sessions are available within 24 hours of the live airing if you are unable to attend a live session or wish to review the content. It is highly recommended that participants attend at least one live session from modules 1–4 and one live session from module five.

FACULTY 

This course is presented by Elaine Owen, who has developed the OSKAR approach to rehabilitation. Elaine has been practicing as a physical therapist since the 1970s, working in and managing interdisciplinary multiagency childhood onset disability services.  She has postgraduate training in all areas of pediatric therapy, and qualifications in Lower Limb Orthotic Biomechanics and Clinical Gait Analysis. Her MSc in Rehabilitation Studies included a thesis about orthotic management of neurological conditions, normal standing and gait.  She is ESMAC trained in Clinical Gait Analysis. For over 30 years she has used a video vector gait laboratory for gait analysis, and orthotic and physical therapy management of children and adults, at Bangor, UK and other locations, during which time OSKAR was developed.  She has peer reviewed publications and has regularly been invited to teach her course and lecture internationally.  As well as through her own courses these principles have been presented at the International Society for Prosthetics and Orthotics (ISPO) World Congress, American Academy for Cerebral Palsy and Developmental Medicine (AACPDM), American Academy of Orthotists and Prosthetists (AAOP) and the European Society of Movement Analysis of Adults and Children (ESMAC). She has received a UK national award (MBE) for Services to Children with Disability and in 2019 AAOP awarded her the Clinical Creativity Award. She has experience as a caregiver of a child with a disability. 

AUDIENCE
Orthotists, Pediatric Physical Therapists, Physical Therapists working with acquired or childhood-onset disability in adulthood, Orthotic Assistants, Physical Therapist Assistants, Orthotic Technicians, Orthotic Fitters, Pedorthists, Physicians and Surgeons (not offering CME).  Other professionals working in pediatrics have also found the content relevant and valuable.

LEARNER OUTCOMES
Upon completion of this course, participants will be able to: 

• Apply Pictorial, Table and Dosage Tools for collaborative goal setting across the ICF components of body structures, body functions, activities and participation, for children who use ankle-foot orthoses
• Demonstrate the six clinical algorithms for determining optimal orthotic designs, alignments and dosage in order to implement OSKAR (an Optimal Segment Kinematics and Alignment Approach to Rehabilitation.) The algorithms consider not only the ankle-foot orthosis but the entire AFO Footwear Combination

SUCCESSFUL COMPLETION
Self-study will consist of on-demand viewing of lectures, reading assignments and optional activities. Participants will complete an assessment at the end of each module. It is highly recommended that participants attend at least one live session from modules 1–4 and one live session from module 5. We strongly encourage you to attend the case study live sessions, as learners have consistently found this portion of the course invaluable for integrating the material. A community discussion board operates throughout the course, where participants who are not able to attend live sessions may post questions to faculty.

The course requirements must be completed by Dec. 30, 2026, to receive credit. Course rosters will be sent to ABC (for orthotists) at this time. Participants will have extended access to view materials through March 12, 2027 for review purposes only.

CONTINUING EDUCATION CREDIT
Early Intervention: This program has applied for 47.0 hours of EI credential credit from Illinois Early Intervention Training Program. 2.0 – Assessment 3.0 - Atypical Development 40.5 – Intervention, 1.5 - Typical Development

Physical Therapy: This course has been approved by the Illinois Physical Therapy Board for 47.0 Contact Hours (30.5 Hours Self-Study 16.5 Live). Approval #216-000069

The Shirley Ryan AbilityLab is recognized by California and the New York State Education Department's State Board for Physical Therapy as an approved provider of physical therapy and physical therapist assistant continuing education. This 10-week course has been approved for 47.0 Contact Hours (30.5 Hours Self-Study, 16.5Live). California Contact Hours approved on February 3, 2026.

Many states accept continuing education contact hours recognized in other states, enabling professionals to use these hours to meet their licensing or certification requirements. Please consult your state regulations to see if this meets CEU requirements for your license.

Orthotics:

This program has been applied for up to 47.0 scientific credits through the American Board for Certification in O&P (ABC) for Orthotists, Orthotic Assistants, Orthotic Technicians and Orthotic Fitters and Pedorthists. Full participation in this program is required to be eligible for the full amount of credits. CFo, CO, COA, CPed, CPO, CPOA, CTO, CTPO