Technical Advisors
Dr. Shashikala Gopalaswamy
Developmental medicine specialist
DEIC, VVH, BMCRI & Sagar Hospitals. Reputed resource person, speaker & mentor in developmental medicine with 31 years of experience in developmental medicine practice. Parent professional with a 39 year old son with GMFCS2 spastic bilateral cerebral palsy, Electrical engineer with MBA from IIM, CALCUTTA. MBBS BMC 1968-1974. M.D.- GENERAL MEDICINE 1977-1980. 1980-1986-INTERNAL MEDICINE SPECIALIST IN PUBLIC SECTOR HOSPITALS. 1986- SPECIALIZED TRAINING at Children’s orthopedic hospital-Haji Ali –Mumbai-in developmental therapy & pediatrics. Mentored By Dr. Perin K. Mullaferoze, Thakur Hariprasad Institute - Dr. Hans Dobler, I.G.Project, Hyderabad.
Member, Board of Directors, IACP Past President. Member, Karnataka State committee on Implementation of RPWD. Member, Communication committee, IAACD, state felicitated Parent Professional-2016. AACPDM fellowship in 1995,International scholar in 2004. Corresponding Member AACPDM-1995-2012, first to start transitional care in India. Parent member invite for PDA act & National trust & RPDA review, Member- editorial board, IJCP and CDU, reviewer, MKP, London. Recipient of role model Mother by Karnataka Govt on world disability day 2016, Member, State committee, RPWD act implementation. First one to start developmental neurology as a separate specialty at Nagpur under Late-Padmashri Prof. Vikram Marwaha, First Ped. Ortho Surgeon Of India. Senior Manager with French Bank, Society General-India Branch.H-H Expert High Risk follow up to Health monitoring of adults with developmental disability. Research leader in evolving Indian Eclectic developmental Therapy module, first to report Non-motor gains of Botulinum therapy, dynamic EMG in India, Team leader, BCDC pilot project and IDDEA module, Founder member of CDG and IACP. Has written chapters in Tropical Neurology text book. Introduced community awareness program- National CP day in the month of October for IACP in 2010 along with Dr. Ashok Johari.
Dr. Kirthika Rajaraman.
MBBS, DCh, Dip. NB (Paediatrics) Dip Course in LD. FIAP (Developmental & Behavioral Paediatrics). Consultant Developmental Paediatrician. Asst. Director, Centre for child development& Disabilities.
Dr. Kirthika is working as a Consultant developmental paediatrician at Centre for Child Development and Disabilities (CCDD), Motherhood child developmental center, Bangalore. She did her post-graduation in the Institute of Child Health (Madras Medical College) in Chennai & Dip. NB in Bangalore Baptist Hospital. Subsequently she pursued her interest in developmental paediatrics by doing an IAP fellowship in Developmental & Behavioral Paediatrics in CCDD, Bangalore.
She is trained in developmentally supportive care in NICU(Development & supportive care foundation for newborn & children) & completed her training in Precht's General movements assessment of newborn & infants (GM trust, Europe). She is trained & certified in administering development assessment tools and has worked along with a multi-disciplinary team in delivering early intervention to at risk infants. She has done a certified course in Learning Disability from Spastic Society of Karnataka & worked along with resource room special educators in designing IEP for children with Learning Disabilities & guided them in functional behavior analysis.
She has experience in early diagnosis of children in Autism spectrum & has good knowledge in Applied Behavior Analysis. She is trained in play therapy (National Association for play therapy India). She is certified practitioner in PEERS for adolescent social skills training & certified in Social thinking curriculum. She is also Avaz certified Alternate & Augmentative Communication Practitioner. She has been conducting parental training workshops & research analysis on parent based early intervention for Autism (EDITT- Scope program) and has done paper presentations in international & national conference.
Her special interests are Autism -Early intervention & High risk new born follow-up.
S Rekha Chalapathi
B.Sc. – Electronics, Bangalore University
B.Sc.– Optometry, Chitkara University
FBDO - Association of British Dispensing Opticians Member (IACLE)
PG Diploma special education & Inclusion, Northampton University
Director - Milestones Institute Of Allied Health Sciences
Founder - Milestones visual development center
State In-charge (Karnataka) - Indian Optometry Association
Associate - Eye Gurukul
DR DEEPTHI N SHANBHAG
Associate professor
Dr. Deepthi is a Medical doctor from Bangalore, India and finished her MBBS from KMC, Mangalore India and her MD in Community health from St. John’s Medical College Hospital, Bangalore where she joined as a Faculty after her MD in 2006 and has been working as Associate Professor. She has more than 14 years of teaching experience for both the medical undergraduates as well as postgraduates. She has been the Project Incharge of the Rural Community Based Rehabilitation Services from April, 2006 till date. The project’s main objective is to rehabilitate people with disability in all aspects of Health, Education, Livelihood, Empowerment and Social issues. She has also been principle investigator and co-investigators as well as guided many postgraduate and undergraduate research in public health as well as disability. She has attended many national and international conferences on disability and also has won best paper awards with several publications in scientific journals. She is a member of the Boards of 2 prestigious organizations dealing with disability in India. Most importantly she is the mother of a 19 year old son with Cerebral Palsy and understands the nuisance of raising a child with special needs.