Dr Anna Cooper is a paediatric occupational therapist (OT) with over 15 years clinical experience. She worked at the Royal Children’s Hospital across several different areas including acute inpatient wards, outpatient developmental assessment clinics and community outreach for children with complex neurological and medical needs. She is passionate about evidence-based practice and completed her PhD exploring motor and functional outcomes following paediatric arterial ischaemic stroke through the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute.

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Anna has worked internationally, at the Frankfurt International School (FIS) with children in primary school and kindergarten and at the Cerebral Palsy Alliance in Sydney with babies and young children with, or at risk of cerebral palsy, supporting their developmental and functional goals.

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Anna is currently an academic lecturer and researcher at Australian Catholic University (ACU), teaching paediatric units to undergraduate occupational therapy students and continues to hold an honorary position at MCRI.

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Clinical areas of expertise:

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Specialising in developmental assessments and goal-based intervention for babies, pre-school and school-aged children with, but not limited to:

 

• Developmental Delay

• Cerebral Palsy (CP)

• Developmental Coordination Disorder (DCD)

• Fine motor difficulties (inc. handwriting)

• Stroke

• Pre-term babies

• Sensory processing difficulties

• Brachial Plexus Palsy

 

Specialised training:

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• Cognitive Orientation to Occupational Performance (CO-OP)

• Assisting Hand Assessment (AHA)

• Mini-Assisting Hand Assessment (mini-AHA)

• Hand Assessment for Infants (HAI)

• Prechtl’s Assessment of General Movements (GMs)

• Hammersmith Infant Neurological Examination (HINE)

• Constraint Induced Movement Therapy (CIMT)

• Bimanual Occupational Therapy (BOT)

• Goal Directed Training​