Maggie has worked as an Occupational Therapist for over 25 years, first in Canada, where she trained, and then in the UK. Maggie has worked in mental health, with those with acquired brain injury and neurological rehab. Maggie currently works within a Children’s Therapy Service in the NHS and is beginning private work to support children in school and home.

Working in the NHS convinced Maggie that evidencing the value of OT, especially sensory based interventions, was the best way to protect services that were meaningful to the children and young people and their families who accessed the Children’s OT Service she worked within. She applied to do a poster presentation at ESIC 2015, about Sensory Smart Families, an intervention she helped design to support parents and caregivers to understand sensory challenges better and support the children in their care. Presenting the poster and attending the conference, Maggie discovered the fidelity measure for Ayers Sensory Integration. Back at work, Maggie reflected on therapy sessions using the tool and intrigued by the fit between her best sessions and her understanding then of fidelity, she resolved to train further to develop her skills.Maggie’s passion for research is rooted in her motivation to share ASI and its potential to be an important tool for OTs to support people succeed in their activities of daily life. She is pleased to have joined ASI WISE in their mission to ensure more therapists can access learning about ASI. Maggie is currently the lead therapist currently lead for the North East of England Region of the EASI normative data, reliability, and validity studies.

Maggie is currently completing an MSc, researching play and parent’s perspectives as providers of play.