Shoba. S. Meera, Ph.D.
Principal Investigator
Dr. Shoba Meera is an Associate Professor at the Department of Speech Pathology and Audiology, National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences (NIMHANS), Bangalore, India. She is part of a multidisciplinary team that works with children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and other developmental disorders (DD).
Prior to accepting her current position at NIMHANS, she was a Fulbright-Nehru post doctoral research fellow in neurosciences at an NIH funded autism center for excellence network study - the Infant Brain Imaging Study (PI: Dr. Piven) at the Carolina Institute of Developmental Disabilities, UNC-Chapel Hill, USA. Her work included understanding how parent report of early signs (around the first birthday) can help in identifying infants at elevated likelihood for a later diagnosis of autism and identifying early language markers of autism in infants at elevated familial likelihood for Autism.
Dr. Meera is a recipient of the prestigious Wellcome Trust DBT India Alliance early career fellowship in clinical and public health, 2019-2024. Funding from this fellowship has supported her to kick-start this lab – The Infant-Toddler Language Development and Intervention Lab (LiL’).
https://www.indiaalliance.org/fellow/s-s-meera
Her current areas of interest include screening methods for early identification of autism and related DD, parent-mediated early support for children with DD, language and communication deficits in the broader autism phenotype, co-morbidity in autism, augmentative and alternative Communication (AAC) and bilingual language development in children with DD.
When Meera is not at work, she devotes time to practice and teach a traditional Indian classical dance form Bharathanatyam, which she has been learning with an abiding passion for over 2 decades. She believes that dance has not only kept her happy but has hugely impacted the way she thinks of her profession.
Malavi Srikar
Senior Research Fellow
Malavi is a Ph.D. scholar at the department of speech pathology and audiology, NIMHANS, Bangalore. She completed her masters in speech-language pathology from All India Institute of Speech and Hearing (AIISH), Mysore.
Prior to joining NIMHANS, Malavi worked at the Tele-center for persons with communication disorders at AIISH, Mysore, where she provided both direct and parent-mediated tele-intervention. She is enthusiastic about working with cognitive linguistic disorders, autism, and other neuro-developmental disorders.
She has been awarded the 2022 INSAR Virtual Research Internship in Autism and Cultural Diversity where she will be studying the caregiver-infant interaction in infants at elevated likelihood for autism and neurotypical dyads in the Indian context.
Malavi's current area of research focuses on parent-mediated early support program, delivered online, for infants at elevated likelihood for autism and related disorders.
Malavi enjoys exploring different cuisines and loves to travel.
Reny Raju
Senior Research Fellow
Reny is a Ph.D. scholar at the department of speech pathology and audiology, NIMHANS, Bangalore. She completed her masters in speech-language pathology from All India Institute of Speech and Hearing (AIISH), Mysore. A Gold medalist from the University of Mysore, she has won several other awards for her academic excellence including the prestigious Abhilasha award for the best student clinician at AIISH, Mysore.
Prior to joining the lab she worked at the department of clinical services at AIISH, Mysore. She was part of a multidisciplinary team that conducted evaluation and intervention for individuals with speech-language disorders. Her areas of interest include in-depth study of language disorders across the life span and fluency disorders.
Reny's current area of research focuses on
maternal linguistic input in mothers with postpartum severe mental illness and its impact on their infants’ language abilities.
In her free time, Reny enjoys listening to music. She loves to travel and explore places.
Divya Swaminathan
Ph.D. Scholar
Divya is a speech-language pathologist and audiologist by clinical training and is currently a Ph.D. Scholar at the department of speech pathology and audiology, NIMHANS, Bangalore. She completed her masters in audiology and speech-language pathology from Dr S. R. Chandrasekhar Institute of Speech and Hearing, Bangalore.
Prior to joining NIMHANS, Divya worked at the St. John’s National Academy of Health Sciences, Bangalore for 3 years. She worked on developing an early screening tool for autism. Divya is trained in Play therapy and Oral Placement Therapy (OPT Level 1). She is passionate about working in early identification of, and early intervention in children with autism and related neurodevelopmental disorders.
Divya has been awarded the prestigious Fulbright-Nehru Doctoral Research Fellowship for the academic year 2023-2024. She is currently conducting her research at the University of Chicago, under the expert guidance of Dr. Marisa Casillas, whose work can be explored at https://chatterlab.uchicago.edu/. Over the course of her nine-month fellowship, Divya will be working on elevating the performance of existing Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR's) models with a specific aim to enhance its performance and utility in India.
Divya's current area of research focuses on the early home language environment and its impact on the development of early communication and language skills in infant-toddlers.
Divya is a pro in basketball. Like the rest of the lab members, she too enjoys traveling around the world.
Shree Volme
Ph.D. Scholar
Shree Volme is a speech-language pathologist by clinical training. She completed her masters in speech-langauge pathology from All India Institute of Speech and Hearing, Mysore.
Shree Volme is a university rank holder at bachelor's level. She is an experienced clinician working with various communication disorders and a keep interest in research around autism and adult speech and language disorders.
She is a foodie and a melophile who also loves dancing!
Divya Vernekar
Project Research Scientist
Divya is a speech-language pathologist by clinical training. She completed her masters in speech-language pathology from All India Institute of Speech and Hearing, Mysore.
She is an experienced clinician-researcher with a keep interest in areas involving language disorders across the life span ranging from autism to motor speech disorders. She also strongly advocates for AAC.
In her free time, she enjoys listening to music and dancing!
Subhiksha Murali
Research Assistant
Subhiksha is a speech-language pathologist by clinical training. She completed her masters in speech-language pathology from All India Institute of Speech and Hearing, Mysore.
Her key areas of interest include bi/multilingualism, motor speech disorders and language disorders.
In her free time, she loves drawing mandalas, watching movies and reading books!
Nitya Raman
Research Assistant
Nitya is a speech-language pathologist by clinical training. She completed her masters in speech-language pathology from Sri Ramachandra institute of higher education and research, Chennai.
She is a dedicated clinician-researcher with keen interest in neurodevelopmental disorders. She is also interested in research around advancements of tele-medicine in the field of communication disorders.
In her free time, she enjoys Carnatic music and reading books!
Lab Alumni
Rachel Elizabeth Johnson, MSc. SLP
PhD Scholar at University of Bloomington, USA
Prathiksha Vaidhyanathan, MASLP
Speech language pathologist at Jupiter Hospital, Pune
Nikita Dadlani, MASLP
Speech Language Pathologist, USA
Sahana Shyam Sundar, BSLPA
MSc Student at University of Helsinki, Finland
Supraja Srikumar, MSc. SLP
PhD Scholar at University of South Carolina, USA
Nadia Khateeja, MSc. SLP
Speech Language Pathologist
Sri Ranjani V, MSc. SLP
Ph.D. Scholar at Sri Ramachandra Institute of Higher Education and research, Chennai
Manasa R.B., MSc. SLP
Speech Language Pathologist at Navarang Speech & Hearing Clinic, Bangalore
Diya Nair, BSLPA
MSc student at Western University, Canada
Ashish Kumar, BSLPA
Speech Language Pathologist at Latika Roy Memorial Foundation, Dehradun