Our team

Antonia has experience working with children with a range of speech and language difficulties, including children with hearing loss, global delay, language delay/disorder and children on the autistic spectrum. She is currently involved with the Cochlear Implant programme at St George’s Hospital and has a specialist interest in working with children who have cochlear implants.

Mandy has worked within paediatrics throughout her career as an occupational therapist. She has worked in the private and public sectors both in Australia and since arriving in the UK in 2005. She is a specialist in using a sensory integrative approach with children. Mandy specialises in working with children who have developmental, sensory processing and motor coordination difficulties. She has experience in working with a wide range of children, with various conditions such as Autism/ASD, Pervasive Developmental Disorder, Developmental Delay, Physical Disabilities, Learning Disabilities, Tuberous Sclerosis, Epilepsy and Downs Syndrome. Mandy enjoys working using a multi-disciplinary approach with parents and other health professionals and believes that this approach is essential when working with children. Mandy joined the Speech, Language and Hearing Centre in January 2008 and is committed to using a child centred approach to maximise children’s abilities to perform independently within their every day lives.

Dirk gained his Masters and Diploma of Educational Psychology in New Zealand. He is a trained teacher and has expertise as a family therapist and relationship counsellor. He specialises in psychological assessment and helping parents deal with challenging children.

Dee has experience of a broad range of speech and language difficulties, from working with children in a special school with mild-to-severe language problems; to statemented children in the language unit of a mainstream school; to preschoolers with multiple or complex needs. Dee is also a family therapist.

Phuong has a wide range of experiences and have worked mainly with children both in Australia and the UK. Her knowledge and understanding are varied as she has worked with children with diverse and multiple needs. These include children with Developmental Coordination Disorder, Attention Deficit Disorder, Austism Spectrum Disorder, Cerebral Palsy, Down’s Syndrome, Neurological Conditions, and Physical Disabilities. Phuong has success in working with families and other health professions to assist children with reaching their maximum potential.

An Ofsted inspector, Rose has 26 years' experience in four UK local authorities as a teacher and head teacher and was Chief Inspector, Head of School Improvement and Director of Schools in three of them. She has served on three UK government strategy groups, including developing early years' curriculum and expectations, and is proud of her contribution to the original 'Starting with Quality' document which led to the transformation of early years' practices nationally. She has led the integration strategies related to education, social care and health in a local authority, and is applying those principles to the practices, procedures and policies at Christopher Place.

For the past eight years, Megan has taught children who have a variety of special needs. In America, Megan has taught children who attended a special needs unit within a mainstream school and in an Early Intervention Centre for children under the age of three years. Megan enjoys teaching at Christopher Place because she is able to collaborate with knowledgeable and caring professionals who work together to assist in the progression of each child’s development.

Ranel has worked as both a Speech and Language Therapist and Audiologist. She has experience of working with children with a broad range of communication needs, including hearing impairment, speech and language delay, global developmental delay, autism and stammering. Since arriving in the UK in 2005, Ranel has worked in clinic settings as well as in mainstream and special needs schools before joining Christopher Place in 2008. Ranel loves being part of a multidisciplinary team that uses a child-centred approach to work with children and their families.

Tersia has had significant experience working with children under five with severe learning difficulties. She runs our early nursery groups for children with social communication difficulties and delay. Tersia loves working in this high adult-to-child-ratio setting where our input is very specific and always focused on each individual child.

Tanya has worked as both an Audiologist and Speech and Language Therapist. Since arriving in the UK in 1998, she has specialised in speech and language therapy with hearing impaired children. She joined the Speech, Language and Hearing Centre in 2001 and is committed to a holistic approach to maximise deaf children's auditory potential. She finds working with deaf children and their families meaningful and inspiring.

Since graduating Sally has worked primarily with children with severe and complex communication needs in a variety of settings. Sally has worked closely with families and teachers to support children with autism, cerebral palsy, Downs Syndrome and other developmental disabilties to develop meaningful communication skills. Sally has worked in the UK for the last five years, in schools and in children's homes, to provide a holistic and very practical approach to supporting daily communication in every day situations.

Evonne trained as an educational psychologist but became a special needs teacher as she enjoyed working closely with the children. She has many years of experience teaching children with autism and other diverse needs such as epilepsy, cerebral palsy and Down’s Syndrome. She has been trained in a variety of communication strategies (Makaton signing, PECS, symbols) to enable children to reach their maximum potential.

Neera has worked as a Paediatric Speech and Language Therapist since qualification in 1990.  In that time she has worked with children a wide range of communication impairments, including Down syndrome, Autistic Spectrum disorders, Specific Language Impairment and Dyspraxia.  Neera has a particular interest in working with families to ensure that they are best placed to understand and support their child’s communication needs in the fullest way possible.