Judith Flagle , Ed.D.

Dr. Flagle graduated from the Occupational Therapy Program at Colorado State University with a Bachelor of Science Degree in August of 1970. During her Bachelors Program, Dr. Flagle had the distinction of working with Dr. Newell Kephart at the Glen Haven Achievement Center in Ft. Collins. On the completion of her clinicals, Dr. Flagle started working for High Plains Easter Seal Rehabilitation Center, Sterling, Colorado, in January of 1971. She took a half day a week program and within one year had developed a full time program and in three years they had hired a second full time OT to work in the program. Dr. Flagle participated in a Child Find Program within a six county area of Northeastern Colorado as part of a grant program. Dr. Flagle was also responsible for developing a kindergarten screening program in conjunction with the school district in Sterling as they were seeing about a 50% rate of repeating kindergarten at that time and wanted to find a way to identify which children might need help before starting school.

In May of 1982, Dr. Flagle graduated from Colorado State University with a Master of Science Degree in Pediatric Occupational Therapy. It was during her studies for her Masters that she became interested in sensory integration as Dr. Jean Ayres was an adjunct faculty member and came to CSU on numerous occasions. Dr. Flagle was privileged to take the last theory course that Dr. Ayres taught on Sensory Integration and Dr. Ayres was also a member of her thesis committee. Dr. Flagle's thesis looked at using Sensory Integration versus Perceptual Motor treatment to try and increase the mastery motivation of Down's Syndrome Children.

Following graduation with her Master's Degree Dr. Flagle, with the encouragement of several faculty members at CSU became interested in herself becoming a faculty member and when Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center was looking to start their OT program, Dr. Flagle interviewed and became the initial Pediatric Faculty Member at TTUHSC moving to Lubbock, Texas in August of 1983. Dr. Flagle pursued her doctorate while she was an assistant Professor at TTUHSC and graduated in December of 1990 with a Doctor of Education Degree. Her dissertation work was completed in the area of school finance reform here in Texas. While a faculty member at TTUHSC Dr. Flagle also completed her certification in Sensory Integration and Praxis and also became a Board Certified Pediatric OT. Dr. Flagle was the recipient of two of the School of Allied Health's Teaching Excellence Awards and three of the Department of Occupational Therapy's Outstanding Teacher Awards during her twelve years at TTUHSC. Dr. Flagle continued in this position until January of 1995, when she left academia to pursue a career in private practice. Initially, Dr. Flagle was director of the Parenting Cottage as well as providing therapy services and while she was director received a community block development grant and Healthy Families of America Grant to develop community outreach programs in the Harwell area initially and then a six county area around Lubbock. Additionally, she was part of the Success By Six Initiative here in Lubbock and did the initial training of home visitors for this program. As part of her private practice, Dr. Flagle not only saw children privately for therapy services, but also contracted with Frenship School District until she made the move to Amarillo. During this time, Dr. Flagle also did consulting and testing for numerous smaller school districts in the area. Dr. Flagle became associated with Specialized Therapy Services in January of 2003 when she commuted one day per week to help supervise their COTA's. It was during this period that Karen Day and she talked about having a school in conjunction with the therapy services. Dr. Flagle told Karen that if she started a school, she would move to Amarillo and help with its development and so in May of 2010, Dr. Flagle made the move to Amarillo and has been working with both the school and therapy program ever since and has served as School Administrator. During this period, Dr. Flagle became interested in the use of music to help children with learning issues benefit from therapy services. She has taken training in and is certified to develop individualized programs for children as part of the Integrated Listening Systems programs and recently completed additional training in using this program specifically with autistic children.