Advisory Board

Dr. Isha Soni

Centre Head and Senior Occupational Therapist

Dr. Isha Soni has over 10 years of clinical experience in pediatric occupational therapy. She has worked intensely with children on the Autism Spectrum, ADHD, Down syndrome, global developmental delays and handwriting difficulties.

She holds the Sensory Integration Certification from University of Southern California and is trained in Brain Gym Movements, Handwriting without Tears®, Play Therapy and works towards mainstreaming students with Autism among others. She strives to constantly stay updated by attending international conferences and numerous workshops to have a better understanding of the recent advances in the field.

She was the head and worked as a Senior Occupational Therapy Consultant at the Department of Behavioural Sciences and Mental Health, Sahyadri Superspeciality Hospitals for over 10 years. She has also been on the panel of reputed schools in Pune, where she has trained the teachers and given classroom modifications for students to promote an inclusive community for education. She is also one of the founding members of The Lexicon Rainbow School.

She strongly believes in taking every child at his/her own pace and training the families in her therapy sessions to ensure that the child receives a structured and supportive home program too.

Mrs. Alka Kapadia

Special Educator

Alka Kapadia is a passionate special needs educator, who firmly believes that “All children can learn”. She has been working for eighteen years with children at a disadvantage, of which the last decade has been exclusively with differently abled children.

Alka has studied and trained in Singapore and Australia. She has worked in Singapore with children having learning disabilities like Dyslexia, Autism, ADHD and children who are slow learners. She has also worked with children having Down Syndrome. Her expertise lies in working with children from the age of 4–11 years and from kindergarten to grade 6.

Alka tailors her teaching methods to suit the child’s individual learning style, designing intervention to help them overcome learning challenges in their academic growth and to aid them in achieving their true potential. She uses multi-sensory teaching techniques, which enable the child to use the maximum number of senses to understand the concept.

As a passionate educationist, Alka keeps abreast of new teaching methodologies. Her teaching aids and resources are procured from across the world, while she also designs, creates and uses self-made teaching aids as and when required.

Alka believes in following structured learning goals, where she works out the student’s individual educational plan (IEP) in consultation with the school. If the school involvement is not possible, then she evaluates the current level of the child and then decides their IEPs so that they can work towards achieving their current grade’s academic level.

The child’s progress is regularly monitored and the IEPs are modified to match with their learning pace.

Alka’s Qualifications

Trained in ‘Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule (ADOS-2)’ (Melbourne, Australia)
Trained in ‘Understanding and Managing Challenging Behaviours’ (Melbourne, Australia)
DAS Certification Dyslexia Studies (Singapore)
Foundation in Supporting Learning with Numeracy Difficulties (Singapore)
Certification in Autism (Singapore)
Trained in ‘Support and Interact with children effectively’ (Singapore)
Trained in ‘Assist with programming and Learning Needs for children with Special Needs’ (Singapore)
Certificate in ‘Pay Attention– ADHD through the lifespan’ (Coursera)
Certificate in ‘Applying Principles of Behaviour in K-12 classroom’ (Coursera)
Certificate in ‘Coaching teachers and promoting changes that stick’ (Coursera)

Mrs Sonakshi Rawal

MASTER’S IN AUDIOLOGY AND SPEECH LANGUAGE PATHOLOGY

Consultant Speech Language Pathologist

Sonakshi Rawal is a consulting Speech Language Pathologist (SLP) at the Lexicon Rainbow, Pune.

Sonakshi earned her Bachelor’s degree in Audiology and Speech Language Pahtology from Ali Yavar Jung National Institute for the Hearing and Speech Disabled (Divyaangjan), Mumbai. She earned her Masters in Audiology and Speech Language Pathology from the Bharati Vidyapeeth Deemed University, Pune. She has also received The Medical excellence award by the Indian Solidarity Council, New Delhi. She is a member of the Indian Speech and Hearing Association and the Rehab Council of India.
During her Masters degree, Sonakshi’s research interests were in voice disorders; she researched the Effects of age and gender on the voice of individuals between 4 to 18 years of age.
Prior experience includes working at KEM Hospital, Manhar Medical and Jeet CDC (as a Head SLP for 9 years). Sonakshi specializes in autism spectrum disorders, social communication disorders, augmentative and alternate communication systems (AAC), articulation /phonological disorders and cleft lip and palate. She won best case study for her paper on "Effectiveness of Proloquo2go in speech and language intervention in an individual with Autism Spectrum Disorder- A case study" at the AAC seminar At Bharati Vidyapeeth, November 2018, Pune. She has a publication as the First Author on ‘Use of Metacognitive Strategies in Marathi speaking Individuals with Cleft Lip and/or Palate’ on the Journal of Cleft Lip and Palate and Craniofacial Anomalies, January 2018 issue.

She has trained and speech language pathologists. She has hosted workshops on AAC for parents and professionals. She is presently doing her certification in Oral placement and feeding therapy. She has training in several aspects of Brain gym as well. She has undergone training in speech therapy for cleft Lip and palate treatment by renowned SLPs Maria Del Carmen Pamplona and Dr Anjali Kant. She has presented several research papers on Cleft lip and palate and AAC at various conferences. Her Facebook live on AAC and autism via Autism connect is one of the most popular video with 18k views. Sonakshi dreams to develop an app for speech language therapy so that someday every child in the country has access to therapy.

An ode to Augmentative and Alterative Communication AAC as a student I often pondered, what is it, how could I use it without relent, How could I make my kids communicate and connect! Then reading, exploring, trying and trying is all I did, Only to learn AAC is a way of life, All you have to do is lift the lid. Core and fringe, high tech and low, Teaching our kids vocab In us trust they bestow. Hungry, thirsty, eat, please open door, Soon you’ll see there’s more to core. Modelling and shaping with your child’s AAC device, Please remember it is your child’s voice. You think AAC is a hassle, But when your child learns it you’ve won half the battle! Play based AAC is just like every day play, Use speech, signs and visuals to display.
Keep my AAC device near me, When you see me communicate only then you will agree, I will use it all the time in my daily routine, It isn’t merely a screen. AAC is not only for the non verbal, It is to facilitate speech and make them more verbal. Go ahead, take the plunge, trust me you won’t regret:You would be glad you used your mind’s intellect.