Faculty and Research Associates

Alison Pritchard Orr is an Associate Professor in the School of Kinesiology at the University of the Fraser Valley where she has been a faculty member for over 20 years. Pritchard Orr completed her BPE at the University of Ottawa and her MSc at Dalhousie University with a focus on adapted physical activity.

Pritchard Orr’s research focus on FASD began as a collaboration with Dr. C. Bertram in 2003, with Dr. Kathy Keiver joining the research partnership in 2006. Their work focused on the development, implementation and analysis of physical activity interventions for children with FASD. Their main focus has been on the development of a physical activity intervention program, called FAST Club, and the assessment of its effects on motor skills, fitness, and cognitive function.

Dr. Keiver and Pritchard Orr have a strong interest in increasing the accessibility of intervention programs to families of children with FASD. They have established numerous collaborations over the years as their intervention work is seen as both effective and a rarity in FASD research. Their work has also included collaboration with Dr. O. Ipsiroglu (Sunny Hill Health Centre for Children) investigating sleep disturbances in children with FASD. In 2018, Pritchard Orr and Dr. Keiver were co-investigators with colleagues from Queen’s University and Sunny Hill in a multi-site school based exergames intervention. Resulting data suggested a positive effect of exercise on neuropsychological function. Dr. Keiver has also been investigating the effects of prenatal alcohol exposure on the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis, and the ability of exercise interventions to alter those effects.

Dr. Keiver and Pritchard Orr are currently collaborating with Alex Thompson, OT of the Abbotsford School District in investigating the effects of a combined exercise/self-regulation intervention (MYSelf Club) on fitness and executive functioning with children with neurodevelopmental challenges. Specific objectives are to determine the effect of the program on 1) physical literacy/fitness, 2) executive function tests (especially tests of inhibition skills) administered to the child, and 3) teacher’s perceptions of the child’s executive function skills.

Pritchard Orr and Dr. Keiver’s research has been and continues to be supported by legions of talented UFV students who have actively taken part in the running, organizing, data collection and tabulation of the ongoing interventions. Both Pritchard Orr and Dr. Keiver have presented nationally and internationally and have authored and co-authored published papers as well as several published abstracts.