Prior to graduate school, Laurie worked as an early childhood special education teacher as well as a teacher for students with emotional and behaviour disorders. She has worked as a school psychologist in a special education cooperative serving infants, toddlers, and preschoolers with special needs as well as children with low incidence disabilities. She has also worked as a psychologist in paediatric settings.
Laurie continues to enjoy clinical work such as conducting psycho-educational assessments through the Psycho-Educational Research and Training Centre (PRTC) in the Faculty of Education at UBC, for local school districts, for child development centres, and with colleagues in the field. She does some family and teacher consultation and some short-term intervention work with young children and their families. Through the Child and Youth and Adult Assessment Clinics at the PRTC she works with and supervises graduate students and recent graduates on their psycho-educational assessments.
Early childhood assessment and the assessment of students with learning, social, emotional, and behavioural difficulties, and chronic health conditions, and consultation with families of children with special needs are areas of special interest and clinical expertise.