Tara J. Glennon, EdD, OTR/L, FAOTA
Glennon cv Center for Pediatric Therapy 2026-CV
Dr. Glennon received her Bachelor’s degree in Occupational Therapy from Quinnipiac College in 1985. During the first five years of practice, she obtained certification in the administration and interpretation of the Sensory Integration and Praxis Tests (SIPT Certification). She began as adjunct faculty in Quinnipiac University’s Occupational Therapy department in September of 1990 and, after completing her Master’s degree in school psychology in 1993, she accepted a full time teaching position as an Assistant Professor of Occupational Therapy. Dr. Glennon completed her Doctoral degree in Counseling Psychology in September 2001. Since that time, she has been awarded tenure and has risen to the rank of full professor.
Tara has dedicated a good portion of her time and energy educating the community and other professionals on the benefits of occupational therapy for children. She has a long standing history of delivering local, state, and national conference presentations on the development of fine motor skills, sensory processing, and the role of the occupational therapist within the educational and medical systems. In 1997, Tara began teaching SIPT certification tract courses. Additionally, she has authored over 50 publications related to service delivery within the pediatric domain, has received grant funding for a pilot program in handwriting intervention, and is co-author of the Sensory Processing Measure and the Sensory Processing Measure – Preschool, school-based assessment tools.
As a clinician and tenured faculty member in the Occupational Therapy Department at Quinnipiac University, I have been keenly aware of the trends within the pediatric occupational therapy domain. The linkage between my academic and clinical roles has also guided my scholarly work. My scholarship includes nearly 100 publications related to the pediatric occupational therapy domain (including invited publications by the American Occupational Therapy Association), co-authorship of the Sensory Processing Measure (2007), the Sensory Processing Measure – Preschool (2010), and the Sensory Processing Measure – 2nd edition (SPM-2; 2021), which now includes expanded age ranges (e.g., infants/toddlers and their caregivers, preschool, school-ages, adolescents, and adults), and over 150 state, national, and international presentations.
In alignment with my focus on addressing the needs of front-line pediatric clinicians, I created an online professional development program titled Sensory Approaches to Infant/Toddler Learning (SAIL). This program currently includes a six-hour Sensory Integration Theory and Practice Webinar Series related to sensory integration theory and routines-based, family-centered care with an emphasis on coaching principles; an Ask the Mentor mentorship series; and access to the SPM-2 SPARK online searchable database, a professional reasoning guide of approximately 900 evidence-based and evidence-informed components.
The component information in the online database was tailored for early intervention within the natural context, which utilizes a coaching model of service delivery. The database components (e.g., theoretical tenets, evidence to consider, professional reasoning concepts, and applicable suggestions/strategies to share with the caregiver as deemed appropriate based on SPM-2 assessment results and caregiver priorities) are sorted and presented (online or print) as they relate to each specific SPM-2 item on the Infant, Toddler, and Caregiver forms.
The SPM-2 provides norm-referenced standard scores to measure everyday functioning in eight areas: social participation, planning and ideas (praxis), and six sensory systems: vision, hearing, touch, taste and smell, body awareness (proprioception), and movement (vestibular). These eight standard scores, along with a Total Sensory Systems standard score, help the practitioner to identify the individual’s strengths and challenges in sensory integration and processing. The individual item responses measure the degree of sensory dysfunction at a granular level, which allows for more targeted intervention planning and thus sets the stage for this proposal: to create and measure the impact of a bundle of implementation strategies specific to the SPM-2 assessment results on the Infant/Toddler and Caregiver Forms.
I am currently part of the five-person team charged with updating the American Occupational Therapy Association’s Clinical Practice Guidelines for Sensory Integration and Processing to compile the evidence on the effectiveness of interventions using Ayres Sensory Integration® and of specific sensory-based interventions (including sensory techniques, sensory environmental modifications, and caregiver-focused sensory interventions) to support functioning and participation for children and youth (0-21 years) with challenges in processing and integrating sensory information that interferes with everyday life participation.
Dr. Glennon’s national recognitions include:
- 2017 Virginia Scardina Award of Excellence by the American Occupational Therapy Foundation.
- 2011 Jeanette Bair Writers Award by the American Occupational Therapy Association.
- 2009 Award of Merit from the Connecticut Occupational Therapy Association.
- 2008 Recognition of Achievement Award from the American Occupational Therapy Association for the Sensory Processing Measure: Facilitating School-Based Team Collaboration.
- 2002 recognition as a Fellow of the American Occupational Therapy Association (FAOTA) for her Commitment to Professional and Community Education in Pediatrics.
- 1993 Board Certification in Pediatrics (BCP), a specialty certification in pediatric occupational therapy intervention from the American Occupational Therapy Association. Tara was one of the first four occupational therapists in the state of CT to obtain this certification.