Finalising our project with OAMS

After 18 months our research project with OAMS has ended. This week we said farewell to Emily-Jane Woodhead as our amazing research assistant (0.4FTE) and wrapped up our research.

 Throughout the project we purchased books and toys to use with the children during the research. Now we are able to donate them to OAMS for future children and families to use them. The books were donated to four Little Libraries as well as to some of the elders and families who participated. 

The toys were donated to the Allied Health Assistant (Katrina) and the Early Years Program team. The maps were donated to sit above each of the Little Libraries as well as to one of the elders whose idea it was to add them to the Little Library display.

 

 

Charles Sturt Foundation profile of the Children's Voices Centre

This year, the Charles Sturt Foundation are profiling the Children's Voices Centre as a focus for philanthropic donations to advance research and deliver meaningful change across our communities. Page 27-28 of the 2024 Donor Impact Report provides details: https://issuu.com/csu4/docs/2024_donor_impact_report_-_charles_sturt_foundatio

Recently, the Children's Voices Centre received a $30K donation to support the development of The Treehouse as the site for the Children's Voices Centre. Justin Williams from CSU Advancement was instrumental in coordinating this. We are extremely grateful for this generous donation that has enabled us to make the building (1451 on the Bathurst campus) safe and fun for children, families, staff and visitors to the Children's Voices Centre. 

 

Building The Treehouse for the Children's Voices Centre

We are now up to the fun part of building The Treehouse. The rug and lounge have arrived for our Billabong room.

Sarah's family data collection is finishing this week

Sarah Bartlett has been working hard running Hanen language groups with three groups of children and families in Sydney and the Central West. This week the data collection finishes. She has worked so well with the families - and it was a pleasure to discuss their gains during her PhD meeting today.

Welcome A/Prof Kathy Cologon as Associate Director, Children's Voices Centre

The day finally has arrived! We are so excited to welcome A/Prof Kathy Cologon as Associate Director and our colleague in the Children’s Voices Centre. We  look forward to all of the wonderful things we will do together to make a difference in children’s lives around the world. Welcome!

Sharynne, Kathy, Tamara and Lorraine at The Treehouse

The billabong rug arrived while Kathy was visiting The Treehouse this week

Kate Margetson concludes her postdoc (in Greece)

Kate Margetson has worked with me 2 days a week for 18 months on her postdoc - which concludes now. Her postdoc was funded by a Commonwealth grant to the Rural Health Research Institute.

It has been a VERY productive time focusing on supporting speech-language pathologists to work with multilingual children in unfamiliar languages.

The end of Kate's postdoc coincided with the International Clinical Phonetics and Linguistics Association (ICPLA) conference in Patras, Greece. Kate presented two papers from her PhD and postdoc and had so many opportunities to network and plan the next steps of her research journey. 

It has been such a privilege to work with Kate and learn from her. I am glad she has a continuing position as a lecturer in the speech pathology course at Charles Sturt University so that we can continue to collaborate as colleagues.

Kate presenting work from her postdoc at ICPLA

Kate and Sharynne in Corinth on the way home from ICPLA

Helen Blake, Sharynne  and Kate Margetson at the ICPLA conference dinner

Kate Margetson discussed the SACHL with the President of the International Phonetics Association (IPA)

PhD meeting with Anneik van Doornik

While in Patras at the ICPLA conference, I was able to have a PhD meeting with Anneik van Doornik. Anniek is studying through Utrecht University, and I am her co-supervisor. She had done a huge amount of work - and will finish soon. Her presentation at ICPLA provided an excellent summary of her work. Here are her publications so far:

• Van Doornik, A., Gerrits, E., McLeod, S., & Terband, H. (2018). Impact of communication partner familiarity and speech accuracy on parents’ ratings of their child for the Intelligibility in Context Scale: Dutch. International Journal of Speech-Language Pathology, 20(3), 350–360. https://doi.org/10.1080/17549507.2018.1472808
• van Doornik, A., Welbie, M., McLeod, S., Gerrits, E., & Terband, H. (2025). Speech and language therapists' insights into severity of speech sound disorders in children for developing the speech sound disorder severity construct. International Journal of Language & Communication Disorders, 60(3), e70022. https://doi.org/10.1111/1460-6984.70022 

Launch of the Oxford Handbook of Speech Development in Languages of the World

The Oxford Handbook of Speech Development in Languages of the World edited by Charles Sturt University Distinguished Professor Sharynne McLeod presents a transformative approach to overcome traditional English- and Western-centric biases by respecting and acknowledging longstanding traditions of research, theories, and knowledge from a wide range of countries and cultures – including knowledge not previously translated into English. Languages spoken by First Nations people and traditionally marginalized groups are given equivalent status to majority languages, and the language maps, resources, and pronunciation guides have been created using a rights-based, social justice approach, acknowledging the impact of colonization. 

This remarkable book was written by 173 authors from across the globe. It contains 1008 pages and 80 chapters covering 49 languages and 27 dialects with companion audio recordings of children and adults. A Charles Sturt YouTube channel presents a free summary of each chapter in English and the target language (https://www.csu.edu.au/research/multilingual-speech/speech-acquisition/multilingual-childrens-speech-development). 

The Handbook was launched at the International Clinical Phonetics and Linguistics Association (ICPLA) conference in Patras, Greece on Thursday 26th June 2025. The CSU authors in the book are: Prof Sharynne McLeod , Dr Helen L. Blake, Dr Suzanne C. Hopf, A/Prof Sarah Verdon, Dr Kate Margetson, Holly McAlister. CSU Adjunct  staff authors are: A/Prof Kate Crowe, Dr Van H. Tran, A/Prof Ben Pham.

This volume presents a paradigm shift in the world’s knowledge about children’s speech development. Each of the chapters follows the same structure, facilitating comparison across languages and dialects. Researchers and students can identify relationships between common and unique elements of children’s speech to develop new theories and enhance understanding. Crucially, the curated data in the chapters can be used by communication specialists to collaborate with families and communities, in order to support children’s home language maintenance and speech development. 

More information: https://global.oup.com/academic/product/the-oxford-handbook-of-speech-development-in-languages-of-the-world-9780192868862
 

Chapter authors presenting in our 3-hour seminar based on the book's content

No one wanted to "eat the children" until we asked some children who were attending with their parents for permission!

International Clinical Phonetics and Linguistics Association (ICPLA) 20th conference, Patras, Greece

This week the 20th conference of the International Clinical Phonetics and Linguistics Association (ICPLA) is held from the 24th to 27th of June 2025 at the University of Patras, Conference and Cultural Centre, Greece, hosted by Dr Eleftheria Geronikou https://logoth.upatras.gr/en/icpla2025/

There are four of us representing Charles Sturt University: Dr Helen L. Blake, Dr Suzanne Hopf and Dr Kate Margetson - everyone has multiple roles during the conference. Here are the presentations I am involved in:

1.  McLeod, S. & Blake, H. L. (2025, June). Children’s speech development around the world: A transformative paradigm shift. [3-hour symposium presentation]. International Clinical Phonetics and Linguistics Association Conference, Patras, Greece.
2. Blake, H. L. & McLeod, S. (2025, June). Children’s speech development around the world in 170+ recordings. [Oral presentation]. International Clinical Phonetics and Linguistics Association Conference, Patras, Greece.
3. Margetson, K. & McLeod, S. (2025, June). Developing a clinical protocol for assessing speech in languages that you do not speak: The Speech Assessment of Children’s Home Language(s) (SACHL). [Oral presentation]. International Clinical Phonetics and Linguistics Association Conference, Patras, Greece.
4. Davies, A., Wren, Y., & McLeod, S. (2025, June). Understanding intelligibility in children born with cleft lip and/or palate: Findings from the Cleft Collective Cohort Study. [Oral presentation]. International Clinical Phonetics and Linguistics Association Conference, Patras, Greece.

I am the President of ICPLA so have a busy week of duties. 

• Tuesday - I am chairing the International Expert Panel on Multilingual Children's Speech and opening the conference
• Wednesday - I am chairing sessions, co-presenting a paper with Kate Margetson and Yvonne Wren, and I am receiving an honorary doctorate from the University of Patras.
• Thursday -  I am launching The Oxford Handbook of Speech Development in Languages of the World, co-chairing and presenting in a session with 16 presentations from around the world on multilingual children's speech (1:30-6:15pm), chairing the business meeting, and attending the conference dinner
• Friday -  I am co-presenting a paper with Helen Blake, presenting at the awards ceremony and farewell ceremony.

Sharynne  with conference chair Eleftheria Geronikou

CSU attendees: Dr Kate Margetson, Dr Helen L. Blake, Dr Suzanne Hopf, Prof Sharynne McLeod

Sharynne  opening the conference as ICPLA President

Sharynne with ICPLA founders: Martin J. Ball and Nicole Muller

Keynote speaker: George

Kate and Karla with a conference fan and hat to keep us cool since it was 40oC on one of the days!

Sharynne with Annette Fox-Boyer's current and ex-PhD students from Germany

Presidents

HDR students from Edinburgh and Sydney

Helen Blake presenting one of our papers

Conference dinner with keynote speaker Frank Guenther

Kristian Kristofferson (Norway) at the poster session

ICPLA colleagues at the conference dinner

Colleagures from Poland: Agetha and Paulina

ICPLA conference organising committee and students

Last day: Helen, Kate, Sharynne  and Anniek

Spanish/USA contingent: Chelsea Sommer, Angela, Tania Flores

Honorary Doctorate - The University of Patras, Greece

Today (Wednesday 25th June 2025) I was honoured to be conferred as an Honorary Doctor of the Department of Speech and Language Therapy of the University of Patras, Greece.

https://www.upatras.gr/25-6-2025-teleti-anagorefsis-tis-sharynne-mcleod-distinguished-professor/ 

Distinguished Professor Sharynne McLeod with Rector Professor Christos J. Bouras

Distinguished Professor Sharynne McLeod with the Rector Professor Christos J. Bouras, Dean of the School of Rehabilitation Sciences Elias M. Tsepis and members of the Speech Therapy Department

Dean of the School of Rehabilitation Sciences Elias M. Tsepis, Distinguished Professor Sharynne McLeod, Professor Arhonto Terzi, Rector Professor Christos J. Bouras

Here is a description of the event from the University of Patras and the photograph below shows the order for the seven speeches:

The ceremony usually includes brief welcome addresses by university and school officials, a short presentation of the honoree, the reading of the official resolution in ancient Greek, and the conferral of the title. This is followed by the dressing of the honored person with the university toga and the presentation of the university medal. The event concludes with the honoree’s lecture, which typically lasts 30 to 60 minutes, depending on their preference.

Colleagues, friends and family from across the world were present to celebrate together

It was followed by a dinner with members of the Department of Speech and Language Therapy, my husband, colleagues from Charles Sturt University, and Prof Lynn Williams from USA.

What a very special day. 

 Comments from Prof Lynn Williams

What a very special evening it was to celebrate your honorary doctorate from the University of Patras. I’m so proud of your many contributions to the world—and especially of your passionate advocacy for children’s rights and for everyone’s right to communication. I’m honored to be able to work with you and to witness the impact of your work across the globe.