PRACTICE MANAGER AND EARLY INTERVENTION EDUCATOR

Claudia has been with PEDAL Early Intervention since 2016. She has always worked in or alongside children's services and loves the sense of community that comes from working with children and families. She is a parent of three kids and in her spare time enjoys swimming, playing netball and puffing her way around the parkrun course.

SPEECH PATHOLOGIST

Merilyn has over 30 years of experience working as a speech pathologist in a variety of settings. She has worked with children in community health, early intervention and private practice as well as children and adults with intellectual disability through ADHC. She gained valuable experience working in London in a specialist hospital clinic for children with childhood apraxia of speech (CAS). In her private practice she has specialised in dyslexia and CAS.  Merilyn’s passion is helping people find ‘their voice’ and she gets very excited when her clients start being able to understand and communicate using signing and visuals and we can start speaking the same language. Merilyn is a Key Word Sign presenter and loves running workshops to teach others how to assist people through signing.  Outside of work she loves knitting, spending time with her grandchildren and family, and having coffee with friends.

OCCUPATIONAL THERAPIST

Olivia graduated from The University of Newcastle with a Bachelor of Occupational Therapy in 2019. In Olivia’s first role as an OT, she enjoyed working with a wide range of children aged 0-18 and developed a special interest in early intervention. Olivia has a passion for collaborating with families and providing opportunities for development through play. Olivia’s favourite thing about working at PEDAL is the opportunity to get to know each child’s strengths and provide individualised support as part of a team around each child. In her spare time Olivia enjoys reading, cooking and spending time with friends and family.

SPEECH PATHOLOGIST

Katrina graduated from Charles Sturt University in 2007 with a Bachelor of Health Science (Speech Pathology). Since then, Katrina worked with and learned from both paediatric and adult clients primarily in disability settings in Sydney before landing her dream job in early intervention in Armidale. Katrina is passionate about supporting clients and families using a strengths-based and collaborative approach and gets a thrill seeing clients, parents and carers learning and using new communication or feeding skills out in the community. Her special interests include Alternative Augmentative Communication (AAC), nurturing Gestalt Language Processors (GLP) and neurodiverse affirming practice and supporting mealtimes using a responsive feeding framework. In her spare time, Katrina enjoys attempting to play soccer and netball, reading, tackling furniture restoration projects and spending time with her family.

OCCUPATIONAL THERAPIST

Rashmi graduated from Australian Catholic University with a Bachelor of Occupational Therapy (Honours) in 2021. Though she has experience working with individuals across the lifespan, Rashmi has found her true calling in paediatrics! Rashmi has a passion for strengths-based practice and enjoys collaborating with families, teachers and other disciplines to create individualised support for her clients. Rashmi’s favourite thing about working at PEDAL is having the opportunity to connect with a child and their family and supporting them to reach their fullest potential! Having recently moved to Armidale from Sydney, Rashmi is enjoying exploring the New England countryside and in her spare time enjoys day trips out to nearby towns.

FAMILY SUPPORT WORKER

Elisa has recently completed a Bachelor of Community Services and is passionate about supporting and empowering children and families. She has a strong interest in trauma informed practice. She is a single mum to four beautiful teenage boys and has a background in hospitality and catering. In 2019 she decided on a career change and found the courage to undertake full time study for three and a half years! She feels very fortunate to have found her dream job at PEDAL. She loves cooking and feeding the people she loves as well as indulging her passion for horse riding.

EARLY INTERVENTION EDUCATOR

Having originally trained as a primary teacher, Cathy realised that she really enjoyed her part-time job in a preschool and retrained as an early childhood teacher. Preschoolers are fascinating to Cathy and she values being part of their learning while they explore their world. Her passion is for each child to feel that they belong, and she likes to use songs, music and a sense of fun to play beside them as we learn together. Play is a powerful tool is helping children discover their strengths. In her spare time she enjoys being outside, hanging out with her chickens... hoping they don't break into the veggie garden!

STUDENT WORK PLACE TRAINEE

Ruby enjoyed her work experience at PEDAL and has since commenced a school-based traineeship. Ruby works alongside the occupational therapists, speech pathologists and educators, supporting each child and the therapist. Ruby is gaining experience in assisting to facilitate small groups. She has a particular interest in the way speech pathologists support each child's learning and watching their progress. Ruby has been part of the Armidale Physical Culture Club since the age of 2 and is now an assistant teacher for kids from the age of 4-12. She loves seeing children improve throughout their time with the Physie Club.

OCCUPATIONAL THERAPIST

Annabelle is an enthusiastic occupational therapist who loves supporting her local community. She completed her Bachelor of Occupational Therapy (Honours) at the University of Newcastle and is passionate about creating fun, personalised interventions that build on each child’s unique strengths and interests. In her free time, Annabelle enjoys music, being creative with art, and exploring the outdoors. She’s loves to be part of the supportive team at PEDAL and to work together to make a positive difference in the lives of clients and their families.

ADMINISTRATION/RECEPTION

Gaylene has over 30 years experience working in reception and administration. She enjoys welcoming children and their families as they arrive for therapy sessions. Gaylene has a keen eye to nurture plants as well as people.

SPEECH PATHOLOGY ALLIED HEALTH ASSISTANT

Pam graduated from Cumberland College of Health Sciences in 1994 as a Speech Pathologist, then worked in the disability sector in Armidale (primarily in early intervention and school therapy) before taking a break to raise her own kids. She then worked in an administrative role for a number of years until her kids had just about left home, then jumped at the opportunity to work as an Allied Health Assistant at PEDAL, which enables her to use her past Speech Pathology skills as well as working with young kids which she loves. In her spare time Pam enjoys reading, working in the garden, and cooking(and sampling!) delicious baking.

BOOKKEEPER

Wendy is a local lady, from the Armidale region and has spent the best part of her life in bookkeeping, payroll and financial services, for various industries, as well as social support and community care sectors, such as Pedal.

Wendy manages the reception on her days at Pedal.

PAEDIATRIC PHYSIOTHERAPIST

Anna has specialist experience in developmental disability, primarily paediatric cerebral palsy.  After some time in spent in Sydney to complete her research training (PhD) Anna is now back in Armidale to provide world class best practice therapies and supports to children with all disabilities. She has both professional and personal experience working with neurodivergent children and she is really looking forward to learning best practice skills in this area.

Anna completed her PhD in the early detection of cerebral palsy in infants and her work helped to show that with the right resources CP can be diagnosed as early as 4-8 months of age. She also did work to understand a type of physiotherapy which is not effective in helping children with CP, and she is passionate about making sure interventions which are known not to work are taken out of practice. 

Anna is highly experienced in completing standardised assessments to understand where your child’s skills are and what to work on next. Anna is highly skilled in providing best evidence therapies such as motor training therapies, goal directed training, task specific training, child led therapies, and assistive technologies (equipment prescription).

Early Intervention Educator & Inclusion Consultant