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The Lowenfeld-Akeson Symposium is held every winter to educate service providers, families and students about new developments in the fields of pediatric ophthalmology, neurology and early childhood education of children who are blind or have low vision. It is named after two leading lights in the field of early childhood development, Dr. Berthold Lowenfeld and educator Nancy Akeson. For the past 26 years a number of California-based organizations in this field co-host the symposium and LightHouse is extremely proud to be one of this year’s hosts.

LightHouse board Chair Dr. Sharon Sacks, is a longtime and key organizer of this annual event to help inform professionals and families about best practices in the field of early education, from birth to seven years of age, of children who are blind, deafblind, have low vision or cerebral visual impairment.

This year’s Symposium is entitled “Digging Deeper: Exploring prematurity from visual diagnosis to active learning.” Distinguished speakers will be:

William V. Good, MD, Senior Clinical Research Scientist at the Smith-Kettlewell Eye Research Institute (SKERI), who will speak on The ABCs of Retinopathy of Prematurity (ROP)

Douglas Fredrick, MD, Director of the Elk’s Children Eye Clinic at the Casey Eye Institute, Oregon Health Sciences University, who will speak on Cortical Visual Impairment in the Premature Infant: Seeing In/Looking Out

Patty Obrzut, MS, OTR/L, Assistant Director of the Pendrickton Center for Blind Children, who will speak on Active Learning: Promoting independence and learning in children with multiple special needs

There will be Q&A sessions with each of our presenters.

This event is taking place on Saturday, February 5 over Zoom, from 9.00 am to 3:00 pm. If you are a professional in the early development field, a student interested in the area or a family of a child who is blind or has low vision, this stimulating and thought-provoking event is for you.

The cost is $20 for families and students, and $40 for professionals.

Join a supportive cohort of interested people to learn the latest thinking in this field. You can register here: https://tinyurl.com/bucz64zj

If you have any questions concerning this year’s event, please email at LowenfeldAkeson@gmail.com or call, Jacqueline Barden, at 415-694-7366.