A/Prof Cylie Williams

PRESENTING: SUNDAY 11TH JULY, 2021

PRESENTATION TITLE: 
Footwear and kids, not just a fashion item. 

PRESENTATION DESCRIPTION:
The children's footwear market is estimated to reach USD 59.2 billion by 2025. Parents are bombarded with messages about children's footwear shape, hardness, and fit, and how these factors may impact their child's health, development and future foot function. Unpacking the claims of footwear benefit is difficult, even harder where there is foot or gait pathology. We unfortunately can contribute to this confusion as health professionals giving parents advice. This advice is often given from our training, own experiences or taking research undertaken with adults and scaling it to children. However, children are not little adults. This makes it even more important that our messaging about footwear is evidence-based, pragmatic and appropriate to the child's age or stage. 

This presentation will focus on what we do (and don't) know about young children's footwear. It will present a footwear taxonomy developed by over 120 health professionals, parents and shoe designers. Using this, we will also explore what features each of those participant groups believe are important, and which of these beliefs and features are founded on fact or fiction.

BIO:
A/Prof Cylie Williams is a podiatrist and researcher. She is an Associate Professor at Monash University, School of Primary and Allied Health Care, Senior Researcher at Peninsula Health, National Centre for Health Ageing, and Research Fellow at Staffordshire University, UK, Centre for Biomechanics and Rehabilitation Technologies. Cylie also maintains a small paediatric caseload in private practice.Cylie has a diverse research and education portfolio. She has led or supervised research in paediatric gait, children's footwear, developmental or lower limb orthopaedic conditions and their impact on participation, allied health models of care, or communication. More recently, was the podiatry lead for the website: My Allied Health Space a portal co-designed with NDIS participants, aiming to help allied health professionals and NDIS participants and their carers navigate the NDIS.