 These experiences informed her decision to forge a career in the area of remedial education, with the specific aim of developing facilities for the diagnosis and treatment of children whose emotional and educational needs were not catered for in the mainstream educational system and she started working with children who struggled with a range of learning problems, including emotional behavioural issues, dyslexia and dyspraxia.Together with her husband and a group of other parents, Sonia Machanick was instrumental in founding South Africa's first mainstream multi-racial high school, Woodmead School.As her practice grew, the need for larger premises led to her setting up Japari School in Johannesburg in 1966.