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ABOUT THE AUTHORS
Amy Egan | Amy
Freedman | Judi Greenberg | Sharon Anderson
The authors, Amy Egan, special educator/behavioral specialist; Amy
Freedman, speech and language therapist; Judi Greenberg and
Sharon Anderson, occupational therapists, are members of a developmental
team based at Ivymount’s Center for Outreach in Education
(CORE) in Rockville, Maryland. This developmental team consults
with schools, childcare centers, teachers and parents in the Washington,
DC metro area about children who are experiencing difficulty at school
and/or at home. The primary objective of this team is to help
parents, teachers and childcare providers individualize programs
to support learning and play.
The varied age, experience, and specialties of the four authors
add to the perspective presented throughout this book. Imagine
getting parenting/teaching advice from your mother, your aunt,
your next door neighbor, your older sister, and your best friend,
all of whom happen to be early childhood developmental specialists,
in a cohesive easy-to-use manner. The authors present
“best practices” to guide parents and professionals toward ensuring
that children are happy and successful in all environments. These
authors span four decades of age and have between them 11 children,
2 grandchildren, and numerous nieces and nephews. All
four women share a belief that every child is unique and made
up of individual strengths and areas of need. Each operates
on the premise that all children want to do the right thing
and please adults, but realize that there are often other factors
that influence children’s participation, adaptability and behavior.
Amy Egan,
M.A.,a 30-something teacher and behavioral
specialist, is at the same stage in life as
the target audience for Is It a
Big Problem or A Little Problem? She
graduated from Stanford University with a BA
in Human Biology. She has a Master’s
degree and teaching credential in Special Education
(Early Childhood Special Education) from San
Francisco State University. In addition
to her “hands on” parenting role as the mother
of three young children, her experience is
extensive. She has been a classroom teacher
and designed and implemented a program
to serve preschoolers with autism. She
is trained and has extensive experience
with discrete trial teaching and Applied Behavioral
Analysis, and the use of the Picture Exchange
Communication System, (PECS). She
has served as a speaker and facilitator of
parent groups, and has presented numerous workshops
to both parents and other professionals on
the topics of understanding and managing behavior,
classroom management, and designing and implementing
individual behavior plans.
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Amy Egan, M.A.
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Amy Freedman,
M.A. CCC-SLP, a 40-something speech
and language pathologist, graduated from Syracuse
University with a BS in speech pathology. She
has a Masters degree in speech pathology from
George Washington University and Certificate
of Clinical Competence from American Speech,
Language and Hearing Association. She completed
the 8-week course in Pediatric Neurodevelopment
Treatment (NDT). In addition to her “hands
on” experience of doing life’s greatest work
- raising her own family of three children
ranging in age from elementary school to college,
Amy has 22 years of experience working with
young children. She has worked in an
early intervention programs and an outpatient
hospital-based program. For the past
17 years she has been a speech pathologist
at the Ivymount School, working in a home-based
infant program, and toddler and early childhood
classrooms. Currently Amy is the speech/language
therapist on the Ivymount CORE team.
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Amy Freedman, M.A. CCC-SLP
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Judi Greenberg,
M.S. OTR/L, our 50-something team
leader and occupational therapist, is the mother
of three and a recent “empty nester.” She
graduated from Penn State University with a
Bachelor’s degree in Elementary Education. She
has a certificate in Occupational Therapy from
the University of Pennsylvania and an
Advanced Masters in Occupational therapy from
Wayne State University. In addition to
her life experiences parenting and now seeing
the “fruits of that work”, Judi Greenberg has
32 years of experience as an occupational therapist,
with most of those years in the field of pediatrics. She
has worked in hospitals, learning centers,
a hospital- based child development center,
and public schools. She has worked
Ivymount School for the past 18 years specializing
in occupational therapy and training
for parents and teachers of preschool children. She
is currently the director of the Ivymount Center
for Outreach in Education (CORE).
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Judi Greenberg, M.S. OTR/L
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Sharon Anderson,
OTR/L, a 60-something mom, grandmother,
and occupational therapist, has a BS in Occupational
Therapy from the University of North Dakota,
with some additional course work at Howard
University. She is certified by the American
Board of Occupational Therapy Practice. She
completed the 8-week course in Pediatric Neurodevelopment
Treatment (NDT), and is certified in the test
process of Sensory Integration and Praxis (SIPT). In
addition to her experiences raising her children
and working as a volunteer in her neighborhood
schools, Sharon has 30 years experience as
a pediatric occupational therapist. She
has worked in a preschool for physically handicapped
children, in a home-based infant program, and
in toddler and preschool programs. She
is the past coordinator of the Occupational
and Physical Therapy department at Ivymount
School. Currently, Sharon is a member
of the CORE Team and the occupational therapist
for the Katharine Maddux Early Learning Center,
located at the Ivymount School.
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Sharon Anderson, OTR/L
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Collectively these authors have contributed to books, professional
articles, magazine articles, and presented numerous workshops
for parents, teachers and other professionals. This book
was inspired and based on the work that they do as part of the
Ivymount Center for Outreach in Education (CORE). |
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