Human Development and Performance Throughout the Lifespan

Anne Frances Cronin has practiced occupational therapy with children and families for more than 30 years. She received her bachelor's degree in occupational therapy from the University of Missouri and a doctorate in Medical Sociology from the University of Florida. Currently, Anne is an Associate Professor at West Virginia University and involved in inter-professional teaching involving students from occupational therapy, physical therapy, and speech language pathology. Anne has also been involved in professional occupational therapy activities at state, national, and international levels. Anne's initial work in occupational therapy was with adolescents and adults with severe developmental disabilities. It was this work that led to her passion in supporting a life course viewpoint in clinical reasoning. Anne has worked at in-patient, outpatient, and public school settings providing occupational therapy interventions to children and youth. In recent years Anne's clinical focus has been in the area of behavioral medicine with research interests in the areas of cognitive rehabilitation, autism interventions, and support for self-regulation for children with behavioral challenges. In this text, Anne has sought to offer a broad occupation-based viewpoint of life-course development with careful attention to the factors that influence daily participation and optimal performance of desired daily life tasks. Anne is grateful for the support of the Division of Occupational Therapy at West Virginia University for allowing a sabbatical to develop this completely revised second edition.The continuing support of her family and colleagues has made it possible for her to continue to grow both personally and professionally. Mary Beth's work in physical therapy has centered on adults and children with neurologic problems. In particular, her work emphasizes the importance of environment as a contextual factor in promoting optimal life course development. The emergence and adoption of life course theory as a model for health care practice (see new Chapter Two) is a perfect example of how internal and external environmental contextual factors impact the ability of individuals to participate in meaningful life roles. More recently, Dr. Mandich has been involved in conceptualizing models of health that involve physical and occupational therapy as key elements of the professional team. There has been a reciprocal relationship in writing this text. On the one hand, there is dissemination of information to the reader; however, as an author, I feel the writing of this material has helped me grow in understanding and appreciation of the human experience across the lifespan. In addition, there has been the opportunity to review new science in the area of genomics and fetal development (revised Chapter 8). My colleague and co-author, Dr. Anne Cronin, has been a treasured source of professional collaboration during her tenure at West Virginia University. I feel that we model a collaborative, interprofessional perspective in our approach to content in our teaching and in our scholarly writing.