Contemporary Practices in Early Intervention and School-based Practice: Fifth Annual Institute

March 23-24, 2007 at the Desmond Hotel, Malvern, PA

About the presenters . . .

Alexandra Bricklin has a Master's Degree in previous director of Parent to Parent of PA Music Therapy. She has worked and chair of PA's Interagency Coordinating professionally in the disability field for the Council for Early Intervention. She is a past 15 years, integrating her staunch believer that creative and open- professional development with the challenges minded thinking, determination, and parent/ of parenting her now 21 year old daughter professional teamwork are the powers needed with autism. Previously, Alexandra worked to overcome obstacles. for the ARC's of Chester, Montgomery and Delaware Counties in Pennsylvania as an Cheryl Colangelo, MS, OTR is a pediatric expert in Long-Term Planning and the Aging occupational therapist with more than 30 Caregiver Dilemma. Currently, Alexandra is years of practice experience, working in the Community Resource Coordinator for hospital, early intervention and school Orion Communities Inc., a small non-profit settings. She currently works at the North Salem corporation in Phoenixville, PA that promotes Central School District in Westchester County, "hope, dignity and self-reliance for people NY and is an adjunct faculty member at experiencing poverty, disability or illness." Columbia University and Mercy College, both in New York. Cheryl was a lead therapist at Camp Avanti, an integrated Kathy Brill is a parent to three sensory integration summer camp. Her daughters. Her youngest is 16 and uses a publications include chapters in Kramer and power wheelchair, numerous assistive Hinojosa’s Frames of Reference for Pediatric technology devices and supports which allow Occupational Therapy as well as American her to be successfully and happily included in Occupational Therapy Association resources her home, school, and community. Kathy on the treatment of cerebral palsy. She currently serves on the boards of Parent to presents training and professional Parent USA, PA TASH, and National Council development programs on topics of adaptive on Self-Determination. She also served as equipment and sensory integration in school- based practice.

Marilee Comfort, Ph.D., M.P.H earned her Pediatric Occupational Therapy, that she co- doctoral degree in early childhood special edited with Jim Hinojosa, PhD, OT, FAOTA is education from the University of North Carolina currently under development. at Chapel Hill. She is a founding partner of Comfort Consults, an organization that provides evaluation services and tools aimed at promoting Toby Long, Toby Long, PhD, PT is the the healthy development of children. Currently, Associate Director for Training of the she is the principal investigator of research Georgetown University Center for Child and funded by the National Institute of Child Health Human Development, the Director, Division of & Human Development, focused on developing Physical Therapy of the Georgetown University and validating tools to assess the quality of Center for Child and Human Development and parenting behavior. Her professional career Associate Professor in the Department of continues to include a variety of consultation Pediatrics, Georgetown University. She is also projects, onsite and online training programs an adjunct faculty member of the Krannert directed to providers who work with families Graduate School of Physical Therapy at the and their young children, as well as numerous University of Indianapolis. She received her related publications. degree in physical therapy from Boston University, a master’s degree in special education from George Washington University Phil Gordon, PhD is a partner in Comfort and her doctoral degree in human development Consults. His experience includes research, and from the University of Maryland. professional development activities in a variety of areas, including problem-based learning, She is nationally and internationally recognized parenting and the healthy development of as a leader in the field of early intervention, children. His current funded research concerns service delivery to children with disabilities and parenting and parent-child assessment as well as their families, and the training of professionals, school-based initiatives under No Child Left especially physical therapists and occupational Behind programs. therapists in state of the art service delivery. Dr. Long has taught at the university level and for continuing professional education on issues Paula Kramer, PhD, OTR/L, FAOTA is the related to the delivery of service to children and Chair and Professor in the Occupational Therapy their families. She is the Past President of the Program at the University of the Sciences in Section on Pediatrics of the American Physical Philadelphia. Her clinical practice in pediatrics Therapy Association. Dr. Long has published includes experience in early intervention and extensively in the area of early intervention. The school-based settings. second edition of her book Handbook of Pediatric Physical Therapy is available through Dr. Kramer has written extensively on pediatrics Lippincott, Williams and Wilkins. and frames of reference, and has co-authored several books and chapters on pediatric assessment and evaluation. Her work has been Molly McEwen, MHS, OTR/L, FAOTA has a recognized by the American Occupational professional career spanning over 30 years. She Therapy Association with numerous awards, has practice experience in major medical centers, including the A. Jean Ayres Award for public and private schools. She has established contributions relating theory to practice. The 3rd and maintained a private practice serving edition of the seminal text in pediatric children and youth, developed a professional occupational therapy, Frames of Reference for continuing education business and provided consultative services to educational institutions and She was a lecturer in the Department of Psychology industry. She has been an occupational therapy at the University of Pennsylvania from 1981-85, educator at Texas Woman’s University, the during which time she continued her clinical University of Texas Health Science Center at training at the Philadelphia Child Guidance Center Dallas, and most recently at Pacific University in and the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. She Oregon. She is currently in private practice in joined the faculty in the Department of Human Hillsboro, Oregon. Molly has received both state Development at Bryn Mawr College as an Assistant and national awards for contributions to the Professor in 1985-86. She was promoted to profession and is continually promoting Associate Professor in 1991-92 and to Professor in occupational therapy as a cost-effective approach in 1996-97. Dr. Rescorla served as Director of the supporting and maintaining healthy communities. Clinical Developmental Psychology Doctoral Program from 1985 - 2005. In 1993-94, she became Director of the Child Study Institute of Bryn Mawr Robert J. Palisano, PT, ScD is a Professor in the College, a clinic serving children and families, and Programs in Physical Therapy and Rehabilitation the administrative head of the Phebe Anna Thorne Sciences, Drexel University in Philadelphia. He is School, an early childhood program serving both Associate Editor of the textbook Physical Therapy typically developing and language delayed for Children and Co-Editor of the journal Physical youngsters. From 1994 to 2004, Dr. Rescorla served & Occupational Therapy in Pediatrics. as Chair of the Department of Psychology at Bryn Mawr College. Dr. Palisano is Co-Investigator, CanChild Centre for Childhood Disability Research, McMaster Dr. Rescorla is a licensed clinical psychologist and University, Ontario, Canada and a member of the a certified school psychologist. In addition to her Scientific Staff at Shriners Hospitals for Children, teaching, research, and administrative activities, she Philadelphia. His current research involves two maintains a small clinical practice at the Child studies funded by the Canadian Institutes of Health Study Institute, where she works with children and Research and the National Institute for Disability their families and consults with schools. Her current Rehabilitation Research on determinants of changes research is concentrated on language delay, in mobility and self-care of young children and Empirically based assessment of emotional and adolescents with cerebral palsy. Dr. Palisano is behavior problems in children and adolescents and Principle Investigator of a multi-site project on individual differences in early reading. activity and participation of children with cerebral palsy funded by Shriners Hospitals for Children. He is Associate Editor of the textbook Physical Shelley Wallock, Dr.PH, OTR is an Assistant Therapy for Children and Editor of the journal Professor in the Department of Occupational Physical & Occupational Therapy in Pediatrics. He Therapy at Thomas Jefferson University. She is has taught graduate courses, presented workshops, responsible for teaching in both the undergraduate and published research on outcomes measurement and graduate curriculum. Dr. Wallock has including individualized measures of change. extensive clinical and administrative experience in Early Intervention and school-based therapy. As part of her faculty duties she is responsible for Leslie Rescorla received her B.A. degree from teaching coursework and labs related to pediatric Radcliffe College in 1967 (in Modern European occupational therapy as well as the meaning of History and Literature), an M.Sc. degree from the IDEA and other related laws and their impact on London School of Economics in 1968 (in Economic practice. Other areas of her work include the use of History), and her Ph.D. in Child Development and play and the promotion of health and wellness in Clinical Psychology from Yale in 1976. She did a families and children. clinical internship at the Yale Child Study Center and then continued on there for several years as a Research Associate and member of the psychology staff.