Our Team
Vivian Yau
Vivian is a Speech-Language Pathologist registered to work in Ontario (member of CASLPO) and in the United States (member of ASHA). She graduated with a Masters of Science degree from the Pennsylvania State University with a research focus on bilingual language development and is conversant in Cantonese.
Vivian has over 17+ years of experience with Toronto Preschool Speech and Language Services. She is certified to conduct Hanen programs (It Takes Two to Talk, More Than Words, Target Word) as well as experienced in PROMPT, PECS, and the Lidcombe Program for Stuttering. She is also a mother of three young children and is excited to provide excellent service with Smile Speech Therapy.
Rakhee Maniar
Rakhee Maniar is a pediatric Speech-Language Pathologist with 20 years of experience. She is registered with the College of Audiologists and Speech-Language Pathologists of Ontario (CASLPO).
Rakhee has excellent clinical skills, mentorship experience and a specific focus in early identification and treatment, neonatal follow up, feeding and multicultural awareness. She has a passion for working with preschool-age children, and has experience with articulation, speech sound disorders, language/developmental delay, and social communication disorder/delay (including autism spectrum disorder).
Rakhee has worked at ErinoakKids, York Catholic District School Board (YCDSB) and York Region Preschool Speech Language Program (Child Development Programs, Markham Stouffville Hospital). She is PROMPT, PECS and Hanen trained (Talkability, It Takes Two To Talk, More Than Words and Target Word).
Rakhee completed her undergraduate specialist degree in exceptionality in human learning at the University of Toronto, and has a Masters of Arts degree in Speech Language Pathology from the State University of New York in Buffalo. She is keen to help and provide support to children and their families with various communication challenges.
Shelagh Durno
Shelagh graduated with her Master’s of Science degree in 1999 from the University of Vermont where she was both a Graduate Teaching Fellow and part of the Vermont Rural Autism Project grant team. Later she earned her Certificate in American Sign Language and Deaf Studies from George Brown College. She is registered with The College of Audiologists and Speech-Language Pathologists of Ontario (CASLPO). She is a certified Hanen Instructor for It Takes Two to Talk, More than Words and TalkAbility and has received training in the Fluency Plus Program and the Preschool Fluency Pathway from the Speech and Stuttering Institute. She is also trained in level 1 PROMPT.
Shelagh brings a breadth of experience to the Smile Speech Therapy team. She has experience with the York Region Preschool Speech Language Program working with children and their families with a wide variety of communication and social communication delays and disorders. For several years, she enjoyed working at St. Michael’s Hospital assessing, treating and educating adult patients with dysphagia, aphasia, dysarthria and other cognitive communication disorders. Her passion for client-centered care and working collaboratively with families to best help her clients reach their communication goals has continued in private practice where she dedicates herself to working with clients of all ages in the areas of articulation and accent modification, fluency, language delays and disorders and social communication.
Sheri Fineberg
B.A., M.H.Sc.(C), Reg CASLPO
Sheri is a Speech-Language Pathologist with over 10 years experience working with children and their families. Sheri received her Master of Health Sciences degree in Speech-Language Pathology from the University of Toronto. She also received a Certificat d'études supérieures spécialisées d'orthophonie en milieu francophone (Certificate in Francophone Practice for Speech-Language Pathologists) through the University of Alberta. Sheri is a certified member of Speech-Language and Audiology Canada (SAC) and is registered with the College of Audiologists and Speech-Language Pathologists of Ontario (CASLPO).
Sheri provides services in the areas of articulation (speech sounds), fluency (stuttering), expressive language, receptive language and social communication in English and in French. She has experience with preschool and school-aged children, including children with developmental disorders.
Nina Aghdasi
Nina is a speech-language pathologist with a passion for paediatrics and working collaboratively with families. She provides services in the areas of articulation, fluency, voice, motor speech, language, and social communication (including autism spectrum disorders). She has experience with preschool and school-aged children in hospitals, schools, and child development centres.
She is certified with Speech Language and Audiology Canada and registered with the College of Audiologists and Speech-Language Pathologists of Ontario. She holds Bachelor degrees from the University of Toronto and York University. She also has a Master of Health Science from the University of Toronto.
Her additional training includes Hanen programs (It Takes Two to Talk, More than Words, ABC and Beyond, Talkability and Target Word), PROMPT, SCERTS, the Kaufman Protocol, DIR Floortime and SOS Approach to Feeding. She is also an authorizer for the Assistive Devices Program.
She is able to provide some services in French and Farsi.
Sydney Goldberg
Speech-Language Pathologist,
Social Media Advisor
M.H.Sc., SLP, Reg. CASLPO
Sydney is a Speech-Language Pathologist registered with the College of Speech-Language Pathologists and Audiologists of Ontario (CASLPO). She graduated from the University of Toronto with a Master of Health Science in Speech-Language Pathology, and prior to that Sydney obtained Certification as a Communicative Disorders Assistant (CDA) at Durham College. She also holds an Honours Bachelor of Psychology with a minor in Education.
Sydney is enthusiastic about partnering with families to create a positive and playful therapeutic environment that supports each child in achieving their individual goals. She has a special interest in working with families of young children who are not meeting their speech and language milestones, as well as children with developmental disabilities. She strives to incorporate caregiver involvement and parent training into every speech and language session, as she believes this is a vital component of the therapeutic process and its outcomes. Sydney’s clinical experiences and training have allowed her to develop skills in assessment and treatment of children with a variety of speech and language delays and disorders including social communication, receptive and expressive language, speech, as well as augmentative and alternative communication (AAC).
Sydney is committed to providing evidence-based, child-centered care and is dedicated to life-long learning in the field of Speech-Language Pathology. She is passionate about pursuing professional development opportunities to support your child’s evolving needs. Presently, Sydney is certified in It Takes Two to Talk - The Hanen Program for Parents of Children with Language Delays.
Pavithiraa Ravindran
Speech-Language Pathologist
MHSc., S-LP(C), Reg. CASLPO
Pavithiraa is a dedicated Speech-Language Pathologist, who graduated with a Master of Health Science in Speech-Language Pathology from the University of Toronto. She is a member in good standing with the College of Audiologists and Speech-Language Pathologists of Ontario (CASLPO). She is also a member of Speech-Language and Audiology Canada (SAC).
She has clinical experience working with pre-school and school-aged children with a variety of communication needs. She is also familiar with low and high tech augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) tools.
Pavithiraa understands that each child is unique, has different needs and requires different approaches to be successful in therapy. She strongly believes in collaborating with her families to provide holistic and effective care. Pavithiraa is able to provide services in English and Tamil.
Pam Wein
Speech-Language Pathologist
Pam is a Speech-Language Pathologist registered to work in Ontario (member of CASLPO). She graduated with a Masters of Clinical Science degree from the University of Western Ontario.
Pam has over 17+ years of experience with Toronto Preschool Speech and Language Services. She is certified to conduct Hanen programs (It Takes Two to Talk, More Than Words, Target Word and Talkability) as well as training in PROMPT level 1 and the Lidcombe Program for Stuttering. Pam has a passion for working with children who present with language delays as well as speech sound/articulation delays. Pam brings a family centered approach to all her therapy sessions.
She is also a mother of two teenage boys, she enjoys cycling and being outdoors. Pam is excited to provide excellent service with Smile Speech Therapy.
Lisa Grover
Speech-Language Pathologist
MHSc. SLP, Reg. CASLPO
Lisa Grover is a registered Speech Language Pathologist with over 35 years’ experience in preschool speech and language services as both a clinician as well as a service manager. For most of her career, Lisa worked with children ages 12 months to 7 years and provided assessment and intervention for children who presented with a variety of speech and language challenges. Over the years, she expanded her expertise in the area of early identification and treatment of speech disorders. In collaboration with The Speech and Stuttering Institute, Lisa developed 2 early speech intervention programs that involved parents and as a result, in 2009 she was invited to be part of a provincial Motor Speech Work Group. This workgroup subsequently developed recommendations for a service model to guide service delivery to young children with suspected or identified motor speech difficulties in the province. This model is currently being implemented by the Ontario Preschool Speech and Language Program.
She has presented at ASHA, CASANA, CASLPA and OSLA and was co-author of a CJSLPA special edition journal publication on CAS (A Proposed Model for Identification of Childhood Apraxia of Speech in Young Children, CJSLPA, Special Issue, Vol 40, 2016).
She has held appointments as Assistant Clinical Professor (Adjunct) and Adjunct Lecturer respectively, at both McMaster University and the University of Toronto. Until recently, Lisa has been a lecturer within the Department of Speech Pathology at McMaster University.
Lisa is regularly invited to present workshops to Speech Language Pathologists and Supportive Personnel, on Early Speech Intervention for Children under 36 mos and Assessment and Treatment of Young Children with Childhood Apraxia of Speech. She is presently in private practice.
Monica A. Lamb
Prior to embarking on a second career as a CDA, Monica received her Bachelor of Education from Western University and taught in Primary/Junior and Special Education classrooms for close to 10 years.
It was during her time as an Educator that she saw the enormous impact that therapeutic intervention could have on speech, language and literacy development as well as the resulting confidence boost in children. From this, Monica felt impassioned to merge her interests, experience and talents together and specialize by obtaining Certification as a Communicative Disorders Assistant (CDA) from Durham College. This afforded her the
opportunity to specialize in working with children and their families on communication goals in a therapeutic setting.
Having practiced as a CDA for over 15 years, Monica has worked with toddlers, preschool and school-aged populations. She has experience in the areas of articulation, motor speech, receptive and expressive language, social communication skills, play skills, tongue thrust therapy, parent training, and early literacy with an emphasis on reading skill development and phonological awareness skill development.
Monica’s approach to working with her clients, is to tailor her programming in an engaging, fun, and child-centered way that motivates children to experience success with their individual goals.
Monica thoroughly enjoys working with children of all ages both individually and in small groups as well as working with families in parent/caregiver language and literacy groups. She is Phoneme Touch and Say© Certified.
Amanda Pires
Amanda is a caring, dedicated and enthusiastic Communicative Disorders Assistant with over 7 years of experience working with preschool and school aged children targeting the areas of language, speech, articulation and social communication in both English and Portuguese. In addition to providing service at Smile Speech Therapy, Amanda also works in the Preschool Speech and Language Program. She has taught Portuguese to school aged children in the past.
Amanda graduated from the University of Toronto with an Honours Bachelor of Arts in Linguistics and Portuguese and a Communicative Disorders Assistant Certificate from Durham College. She is dedicated to continuing education and has participated in various workshops through The Hanen Centre (SPARK and 4I's), The Speech and Stuttering Institute (Motor Speech 101 and 201) and Meaningful Speech (Course on working with Gestalt Language Processors).
Amanda is passionate about working with families to provide engaging, child lead sessions to target each child's specific goals.
Interested in joining our team?
We are always looking for qualified and motivated therapists to be part of our clinical team. Please contact us to discuss current opportunities.