Our team

Anouk Balderstone, Paediatric Occupational Therapist
BA Applied Science Occupational Therapy (2000, University of Sydney)

Anouk joined Christopher Place in September 2006 and has considerable experience in working with children with a large range of needs, including children with cerebral palsy, autism, social communication disorders, sensory integration dysfunction, ADD, ADHD, Downs Syndrome and developmental delay.

Aderinola Hotonu, Senior Speech and Language Therapist
BA Hons Linguistics and Psychology (1987, Hatfield)
Post graduate diploma in Clinical Communication Studies (1990, City University)
Diploma in Systemic Family Therapy (1997, Kensington Consultation Centre)

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.

Rose Johnson JP FRSA , Director
B.Ed (1981, University of London)
MA Curriculum Studies (1992, University of London)

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.

Tersia Smit, Specialist Nursery Teacher
B. Primary Education (2002, University of Potchefstroom)

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.

Dirk Flower, Chartered Psychologist
Chartered (1993) British Psychological Society

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.

Emma Scadden, Senior Speech and Language Therapist.
Bachelor of Speech and Language Therapy (1997) (University of Canterbury; New Zealand).

Emma had had considerable experience working with pre school and school aged children with a wide variety of speech, language and communication delays and disorders, in both the public and private sectors in New Zealand and England. Emma has a special interest in working with hearing impaired children and enjoys being able to provide intensive therapy to children in the Big Toddler and Nursery groups at Christopher Place.

Tanya Smollan-Kaplan, Senior Speech and Language Therapist.
BA (Hons) Speech and Language Therapy and Audiology (1994, Wits University, Johannesburg, South Africa)
Currently completing MSc Human Communication: Deafness (City University).

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.