Ellen Cohn

Ellen Cohn is a professor of occupational therapy at BU’s Sargent College of Health & Rehabilitation Sciences.

Dr. Cohn teaches courses related to integration of clinical reasoning, critical analysis of theory, evidence-based practice and occupational therapy intervention. Her research focuses on the perspectives of children, adolescents and families related to personal, contextual and occupational factors that support or inhibit successful social participation in school, at home, and in the community. As a qualitative researcher she is particularly interested in understanding how children and adolescents with disabilities and their families make sense of and attribute meaning to their experiences. She has published in the areas of clinical reasoning, fieldwork education and supervision, and client perspectives of living with or parenting people with disabilities. She is currently a member of the American Journal of Occupational Therapy and the Occupational Therapy Journal of Research   Editorial Boards and a former editor and now consultant to editors of_Willard and Spackman’s Occupational Therapy._ Dr. Cohn is a Fellow of the American Occupational Therapy Association, a recipient of the AOTF  A. Jean Ayres Research Award, and the  BU Sargent College Whitney R. Powers award for teaching excellence.

Dr. Cohn has conducted numerous qualitative studies of parents’ perspectives of living with and parenting children with a range of diagnostic conditions. Dr. Cohn’s current research, funded by the Deborah Munroe Noonan Memorial Research Fund, involves developing and testing a new intervention to promote friendship in adolescents with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). She also has an interest in children and families’ perspectives of personal, contextual and occupational characteristics that support or inhibit successful social participation in school, home, and in the community. She has published several papers on broadening the focus of occupational therapy intervention to include family perspectives in all aspects of service delivery. Related areas of interest focus on understanding outcomes of occupational therapy using sensory integration approaches.