LEAP Family

MICHELLE THAM

Founder / Clinical Director
Speech and Language Therapist

Michelle is a dynamic, creative, and caring therapist. She is the principal co-founder of Leapfrogs and has been the head of the Speech Team since 2005. She’s been a sought-after speech therapist for over 16 years and graduated from the University of Queensland in Australia with top Honors.

In Singapore, she’s worked with KK Women’s and Children’s hospital, was a board member of the additional qualification panels, and supervisor registered with the Allied Health Professional Council, and supervisor for the NUS Masters of Speech Pathology.

Her passion and experience has made Michelle a frequent panel expert and specialist for talks and workshops on learning challenges. She has also led specialist teams of volunteers in Cambodia with the Singapore International Foundation.

Michelle is especially rewarded by her work with and has an interest in children with complex learning challenges such as specific language impairment, learning disability, social challenges, and executive function disorder. And is inspired by how much students innately want to succeed.

ALEXANDRA LEE

Speech and Language Therapist

Being an animated and enthusiastic individual, Alex has always been drawn to working with young children. Of British and Chinese heritage, Alex received her Bachelor in Science – Speech Pathology from Curtin University, Western Australia. Alex has also received professional training in various areas including; Hanen – It takes two to talk, Visualising and Verbalizing (Lindamood-Bell, USA) and Basic Learn to Play to name a few.

Alex has worked with children from various backgrounds with a range of difficulties and impairments for over three years. These include Autism, difficulties with articulation, speech and language impairments, stammering and phonological awareness. Having worked in a range of settings; community clinics, rehabilitative wards, mainstream schools and private clinics, Alex is competent in executing both assessment and intervention for children.

Alex believes in working collaboratively with the child, family and other professionals in developing a family-centered approach, so as to help each child achieve the goals they set out in therapy.

ARNOLD CHUA

Educational Therapist

Arnold has been an Early Interventionist for more than 10 years, teaching children with learning difficulties such as autism, global developmental delay, and speech and language delay. With a Master Degree in Special Education from National Institute of Education, Arnold is a frequent contributor to research within the field.

Arnold has conducted several workshops for both parents and teachers in mainstream and special schools in Singapore. As an advocator for special education, he has contributed his opinions on social media to advocate for the inclusion of people with special needs in the areas of education and employment.

Wanting to fill the gap between young children and adults, Arnold is beginning to see the importance to teach older children as well. He is currently an Educational Therapist teaching both young children within the Early Intervention Program (EIP) and older children who have learning difficulties in mainstream schools.

GERALDINE CHONG

Speech and Language Therapist

Geraldine has worked with children for more than 10 years. She loves seeing how each child progresses in their own little ways.

Before graduating from the University of Sydney, she worked with children and adults at special and mainstream schools, the school clinic, hospitals, health centres, rural areas and India.

Upon graduation, she set up the Speech Therapy department at Fei Yue EIPIC and worked with children who have Autism, Global Developmental Delay, speech and language delay. Geraldine moved on to Leapfrogs to gain experience with older children. She is now experienced in working with young children and adolescents who have speech and language delays, Autism, ADHD, Global Developmental Delay, learning disorders, selective mutism, social communication, feeding difficulties and executive functioning delays.

Geraldine is an Allied Health Professions Supervisor, does mentoring at Leapfrogs and is a field supervisor for the NUS Speech Therapy Masters Program. She is also a mentor to Singaporean graduates from her University.

Felicia Lee

Educational Therapist

Felicia is passionate about working with children with special needs and learning difficulties and has worked with children in both professional and voluntary settings since 2013. She brings creativity into her sessions to create fun and interesting activities to help the children learn. 

She worked at AWWA Early Intervention Centre previously and supported families and children from age two to seven with various diagnoses including Autism, Global Developmental Delay (GDD), Speech and Language Delay.

She has a Master’s in Psychology from University of York, Bachelor’s degree in Psychology and Counselling from University of Greenwichan and an Advance Diploma in Early Childhood Intervention (Special Needs) from Ngee Ann Polytechnic. Other teaching qualifications she has include, Picture Exchange Communication System (PECS), Hanen – Learning Language and Loving It, Certificate in Autism. Felicia has designed and driven both action based and empirical research projects in the areas of building developing independent work skills in children and shared attention.

A. SHANTHI

Educational Therapist

Shanthi has a rich background in early childhood education with over 10years experience and her inspiration to move to the Special education field came while she worked in MINDS.

Her passion and interest lies in working with school-aged children. She runs social and dynamic thinking groups to develop executive functions, literacy, comprehension, character development, social competence and classroom learning skills. She establishes meaningful relationships and encourages the children to realize their maximum potential. She interchanges her roles as a teacher, mentor and friend with ease.

She spearheaded the Outreach Program in 2009 and has collaborated with many preschools and childcare centers to conduct teacher and parent training workshops.

Shanthi has acquired the Advance Diploma in Early Childhood Intervention (Special Needs) from Ngee Ann Polytechnic and the Bachelors in Arts (Honours) in Childhood Studies and Guidance and Counselling degree from Northumbria University (UK). She has added value to her professional development through various overseas training certifications.

NATALIE TANG

Speech and Language Therapist

Natalie earned her Master’s degree from Northwestern University (Evanston, Illinois, USA). Prior to that, she graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology with a minor in Linguistics from Nanyang Technological University. She has received professional training in Lindamood-Bell’s Visualisation and Verbalisation program, and the Lidcombe Program. 

During her time in the US, Natalie worked in a variety of settings, including clinic-based, school-based as well as home-based. Her client population ranged from Early Intervention programs (aged 0-3) with medically fragile conditions to geriatric, where she evaluated and treated clients with a range of speech and language disorders, including speech sound disorders, pragmatic delays, aphasia, motor

speech disorders, fluency disorders and children with autism spectrum disorder. Since returning home three years ago. Natalie has continued to develop and expand her work with and understanding of these populations. 

Throughout her experiences, Natalie’s passion has always remained in paediatrics, particularly preschool and school-aged children. She firmly believes that every child possesses an innate desire to communicate, however abstract, and sees her role as one that nurtures and develops that desire while helping to overcome the obstacles preventing their communication attempts from succeeding.