Kristina Babbitt

Kristina teaches in both of our BSc and MSc Occupational Therapy programmes either as a module lead or teaching specific sessions within other modules. She provides visiting tutor support to BSc and MSc Occupational Therapy students on their practical placements as well as providing year tutoring for pastoral and academic support.

Kristina trained and qualified as an occupational therapist in the United States. She practised there for six years as a paediatric occupational therapist in primary schools working with children aged 3 to 12 years who had additional support needs. She then practised as a community paediatric occupational therapist with the NHS in the United Kingdom for almost two years before joining our teaching team in Occupational Therapy.

Kristina's primary experience is with children who have a variety of developmental diagnoses. These impact on fine and gross motor skills leading to difficulties in completing daily living tasks such as dressing, self-feeding, handwriting, and play. She also provided advice to teachers and schools regarding sensory-based environmental adaptations and tools. Kristina has experience in assistive technology for learning in primary and secondary schools. This includes helping teaching teams to identify, trial, and implement a variety of assistive technology tools to facilitate student learning with additional support or meeting needs. She also held a smaller, developing caseload of work with children who had postural needs requiring specialist seating and assessments/recommendations for home adaptations.

From the earliest point possible in her career, Kristina volunteered to educate occupational therapy students regularly as a practice placement educator which then led to her interest in teaching at a university level.