Jo Atkinson

Jo is an Occupational Therapist specialising in working with children, young people and families. She has particular interests in neurorehabilitation and primary school based occupational therapy approaches and interventions to support handwriting and sensorimotor skill development, attention to task.

Jo qualified as an Occupational Therapist (OT) in the UK in 1993 and completed USA National Board Certification in 1997. She has worked with adults in neuro-rehabilitation, acute, palliative care and social services settings. She has worked with children, young people and families in NHS, community and hospital based teams, in primary schools and in independent practice. Most recently as a highly specialist OT with an NHS Autism Assessment Team and in the OT team completing OT assessments for Special Educational Needs Tribunals. She has experience of for example completing Sensory Profiles, The Movement Assessment Battery for Children, Detailed Assessment of the Speed of Handwriting, Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule, Autism Diagnostic Interview-Revised. She has recently completed Alert Program® training.

She is a member of the Centre for Applied Education Research, Wolfson Centre for Applied Health research in Bradford specialising in applying evidence based OT approaches to support handwriting and movement skills development for Primary School age children. She was part of the 'Helping Handwriting Shine' intervention team a collaboration between the Education Endowment Foundation, the SHINE Schools consortium in Bradford, the Born in Bradford project and the University of Leeds. Prior to this Jo worked as a research OT on a Stroke Association funded randomised controlled trial evaluating OT intervention in nursing and residential settings. Jo then completed a research training fellowship at the Department of Primary Heath Care, University of Oxford and a thesis 'Disability and restrictions to participation: the first year after stroke or transient ischaemic attack' working as part of the Oxford Vascular (prospective cohort) study team.

Alongside clinical and research work she has 17 years part-time experience teaching undergraduate occupational therapists and providing specialist paediatric teaching to physiotherapy and physician associates programmes. She has supervised postgraduate research students and undergraduate occupational therapy students on placement in child development centres, child and adolescent mental health services, pre-schools and special schools.

Jo is registered with the HCPC and is a member of the Royal College of Occupational Therapists (RCOT), National Handwriting Association and RCOT Specialist Section Children Young People and Families.

• BSc (Hons) Occupational Therapy
• MSc Occupational Therapy (pre-registration)