Michelle Newby is a registered Occupational Therapist with over 20 years’ experience working with children and families of all ages and levels of ability. Michelle is an international speaker and has worked all around the world including England, Canada, New Zealand, China and Azerbaijan. Michelle is Clinical Director of Stepping Stones Therapy for Children, a successful children’s Occupational Therapy practice in Newcastle.

Michelle graduated from the University of Newcastle in 1998 with a Bachelor of Health Science (Occupational Therapy). She also has a Master of Science (Health Research) with Distinction from City University, London. She is currently a PhD Candidate at the University of Newcastle, and is examining the developmental challenges experienced by children with Paediatric Acute-onset Neuropsychiatric Syndrome (PANS), including their sensory development.

Passionate about helping children to achieve their potential, Michelle has a strong family centered approach. She values empowering families with the skills and knowledge they need to connect meaningfully with their child, and to support their child’s developmental needs.

Michelle has a special interest in early childhood development and has worked on neonatal units and in early intervention settings. She also has extensive experience working with children experiencing a range of different developmental challenges and diagnoses, including those with dyspraxia and other coordination challenges; ADHD, sensory processing disorders; developmental delay; neurological disorders (e.g.: cerebral palsy, traumatic brain injury); and those on the autistic spectrum.

Further information about Michelle and Stepping Stones can be found at www.steppingstonesforchildren.com.au. You can also follow Stepping Stones on Facebook www.facebook.com/steppingstonesTFC, where Michelle periodically runs informative Facebook live sessions on her “Friday Clinic” segment.

Andrea Cooper is a Certified Practicing Speech Pathologist and a registered member of Speech Pathology Australia. Andrea graduated from the University of Newcastle with a Bachelor of Speech Pathology (Honours).

Andrea enjoys working together with families and other professionals, to create a family-centered, personalised and holistic approach to therapy.

Using her patience, understanding and bright personality, taking into consideration each client’s unique character, interests and strengths, Andrea adopts a fun and upbeat approach to speech and language therapy.

Andrea is trained in:

• Hanen ‘It Takes Two To Talk’ Program for Parents of Children with Language Delays
• Audiometry Screenings and Assessment Program
• Key Word Signing

Andrea has also attended the following workshops:

• “Building Communication: Supporting Parents of Preschoolers with Autism Spectrum Disorder or Social Communication Difficulties” by the Hanen Centre
• “Starting Early: Red Flags and Treatment Tips for Toddlers on the Autism Spectrum” by the Hanen Centre
• “Teaching Tuning In: Practical Strategies to Promote Theory of Mind for Verbal Children on the Autism Spectrum” by the Hanen Centre
• “Blades – Adding Meaning and Interaction to Language therapy for 2-5 year olds” presented by Mellanie Sherwood
• “Reading Comprehension and Written Expression: Supporting primary and secondary students with written language difficulties” presented by Dr Julia Starling
• “Reading and Spelling Difficulties in Children: Assessment and Treatment” presented by Dr Saskia Kohnen
• “Making it a Success – Teaching and Behaviour Support Strategies For Students with Autism Spectrum Disorder” presented by Sue Larkey
• “Speech Sound Disorders – The Basics & Beyond II” presented by Dr Caroline Bowen
• “Childhood Apraxia of Speech” presented by Dr Caroline Bowe

To find out more about Andrea Cooper, visit her website: www.acspeechpath.com.au

Emma Langham is a Clinical Psychologist (BA (Psych) Hons, M Psych (Clin), Grad Cert Dev Trauma) and Director of a successful local child psychology practice, The Jacaranda Centre.

Emma has over 20 years of experience as a Psychologist throughout the Hunter region, and has dedicated her career to working with children and their caregivers to promote the knowledge and skills families hold in order to maximise the opportunities children have for living a full and happy life.

As an experienced therapist, lecturer, supervisor, mentor and mother, Emma is only too aware of the contradictory advice that exists about what is needed to raise capable, resilient children and maintain your calm as a parent! So while Emma enjoys sharing practical tips for children and their caregivers to support growth and development, she does this with a wealth of scientifically grounded knowledge underpinning her work to ensure families benefit from emerging research and understanding in an easy to digest way.

From her extensive experience providing assessment and intervention services for children and families across a range of settings and contexts, Emma recognises that the most successful prevention and intervention approaches for children include the whole family, and the whole ‘team around the child’ including key caregivers, especially educators.

Emma’s passion and commitment to the early childhood stage of development recently led to Emma’s involvement in a national pilot project, developing mentoring support to early educators aimed at minimising the impact of psychosocial stressors for children, their peers and educators in the early childcare setting.

Further to this, Emma is in the process of writing two books for children and their caregivers to better understand feelings and behaviours.

Further information about Emma’s clinical services can be found at www.thejacarandacentre.com.au, with a new website dedicated to providing an information library for parents and educators soon to be launched, so watch this space!

Dr Jane Watson is an Accredited Practising Dietitian with Ethos Health where she works alongside physiotherapists and exercise physiologists with the common vision of better health outcomes for individuals, communities and workplaces.

As an Accredited Practising Dietitian, Jane translates nutrition science into practical advice to promote healthy eating. Her interest in infant, child and maternal nutrition was consolidated during her PhD research in childhood obesity. Jane has undertaken additional study in child nutrition, population health and is an accredited practitioner for the Triple P parenting program. She is passionate about working with families to promote healthy eating habits during pregnancy and beyond.

Jane and her husband, Trent, have three energetic sons and feeding the family is the biggest challenge and delight Jane has faced as a dietitian.

Sherrian Price is an Advanced Practice Child and Family Health Nurse (CFHN) in the public sector (Sydney Residential Family Care Services) as well as in private practice called ‘Sherrian Price Newcastle Baby Settling Consultant’ in the Hunter. She is also a member of the Australian and World Association for Infant Mental Health (AIMHI; WAIMH).

Sherrian brings 30 plus years of CFHN clinical expertise, experience, knowledge and qualifications to the private sector of sleep, settling and parenting of infants and toddlers 0-3 yrs to the Hunter.

Sherrian’s qualifications are:

• Registered Nurse,
• Registered Midwife,
• Child and Family Health Nurse,
• Immunisation Nurse
• Bach. Nursing,
• M.Nursing (Qualitative Research about First Time Fathers), and a
• Graduate Diploma in MH (Perinatal and Infant Mental Health).

She is now in final training with Beulah Warren at AAIMHI to become a Brazelton Newborn Assessor to be able to help parents understand and work out their infant’s temperament, strengths and needs in the first 5 weeks of age.

She has spoken at many conferences regarding her passion and research regarding fathers and continues to be part of the Australian Fatherhood Research Consortium to promote father inclusive practice and further research regarding father’s needs.

Sherrian’s aim in private practice is to provide home visits promoting warm, sensitive, responsive caregiving (feeding , sleeping, play) for 0-3 year olds in the Hunter. This support is through consultations with parents in their home and working with them to tailor the best approach for them, that meets their baby and family needs. She also believes in helping parents discover the best evidence based information regarding infants and parenting for both mums and dads, and also helping parents learn the art of parenting.

She looks forward to providing some interesting and thoughtful information for parents through some blogs on this Go Kindy site, as well as her own site.

For further information regarding phone or home visit support see Sherrian’s flyers available at Go Kindy Centres or go visit newcastlebabysettling.com.au.