Back to School, Back to Pain: Pediatric Overuse & Growth Spurts

This CME program on pediatric overuse injuries during growth spurts equips clinicians with a developmentally informed framework for evaluating musculoskeletal pain that emerges as children return to school and organized sports. Participants will review the relationship between rapid growth, changing biomechanics, and load intolerance, with emphasis on identifying apophyseal injuries, stress reactions, and early overuse conditions unique to the growing skeleton. Learners will also examine risk factors, early clinical warning signs, and evidence-based management strategies that prioritize activity modification, load management, and safe return to sport. By integrating growth physiology with injury mechanics and clinical decision-making, this program empowers clinicians to recognize overuse pathology early, prevent progression to more serious injury, and deliver patient- and family-centered care during periods of rapid growth.