Yvonne Swinth

Dr. Swinth is a professor and program chair at the University of Puget Sound. She has more than 25 years of experience working in pediatrics, primarily in school-based settings. Within the schools, she has provided therapy services for children from birth to 21 years of age and has been involved in the development of several different programs and grants that address service delivery issues to students with disabilities. She also has completed research projects, has worked on different local and national committees, and is a past chair of the School Systems Special Interest Section.

She has mentored student research studies for more than 12 years and has extensive experience with qualitative research, single-subject studies, and survey research. Currently, Dr. Swinth and some of her students have been researching the effectiveness and outcomes of dynamic seating in general education classrooms to support student participation. Other research interests include effective and efficient occupational therapy assessment and services in the schools, assistive technology, and service delivery options for children with disabilities. Dr. Swinth is currently completing the data analysis of a national research project that looks at issues of efficacy and efficiency of school-based practice.

Dr. Swinth has presented locally and nationally regarding issues of school-based practice for occupational therapists and has authored several chapters in books regarding occupational therapy service delivery in the schools as well as pediatric service delivery. Most recently, she authored a chapter on school-based services for Willard and Spackman’s Occupational Therapy and a chapter on services for children with severe disabilities in the new AOTA textbook for school-based therapists. She has also recently published several articles in the American Journal of Occupational Therapy on services for children with autism. Dr. Swinth is the founding editor of the Journal of Occupational Therapy In Schools and Early Intervention.