Our students are our future

Yesterday I had the priviledge of meeting two final year speech pathology students who are in the final week of their final placement. One more exam/assessment task to go, then they are speech pathologists. All the best Bridgette Hardman (UTS) and Wanting Lin (Celia) (UC). Thanks to Cathie Matthews and others like her who mentor students during their clinical placements.

Leadership and retention in early childhood education

Congratulations to Belinda Downey who has just had this paper published from her PhD: 

Downey, B., Letts, W., Gibbs, L., & McLeod, S. (2024). Leadership and retention in early childhood education. Australasian Journal of Early Childhood, 49(4), 343-357. https://doi.org/10.1177/18369391241286935 

Here is the abstract: 

Global early childhood education workforce shortages have highlighted the importance of recruitment and retention. The development of effective leadership has not been a retention policy focus even though effective leadership has been identified as an important driver for improving working conditions and supporting educator retention. The aim of this research was to investigate what factors affect retention focussing on retention challenges for leaders in an under researched context. Participants were 34 early childhood educators in the Northern Territory of Australia. A constructivist grounded theory methodology framed the research and the data analysis, and a constant comparative method was used to generate categories. The lack of learning on leadership, coupled with competing priorities, were identified as critical factors that contribute to increased attrition. However, informal mentoring was found to support both the positional and emerging leaders, increasing the probability of their retention regardless of their access to leadership development.

Collaboration with World Health Organization Sensory Functions, Disability & Rehabilitation (SDR) Unit in the Disability Programme

We have been invited to collaborate with the World Health Organization Sensory Functions, Disability & Rehabilitation (SDR) Unit in the Disability Programme https://www.who.int/teams/noncommunicable-diseases/sensory-functions-disability-and-rehabilitation/disability 

Together we are going “to build evidence on the experiences and perspectives of children and young people with disabilities on health and access to healthcare services”.

We will be working with Dr Mélanie Gréaux and Dr Kaloyan Kamenov from WHO who have co-authored this important paper:

Gréaux, M., Moro, M. F., Kamenov, K., Russell, A. M., Barrett, D., & Cieza, A. (2023). Health equity for persons with disabilities: A global scoping review on barriers and interventions in healthcare services. International Journal for Equity in Health, 22(1), 236. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12939-023-02035-w
 

The WHO Disability Programme has been learning from from adults with disabilities (including women and people in rural areas) as outlined in this video "Persons with disabilities share their experience of accessing health services"

https://www.who.int/teams/noncommunicable-diseases/sensory-functions-disability-and-rehabilitation/persons-with-disabilities-tell-their-stories#

The video concludes with 

"People like me... like me... like me... like me... need to be included in the system that decides on the policy matters over healthcare...
to ensure that can access the quality and inclusive health services that we deserve.
Leave no one behind.
Let's build together a disability inclusive health sector"

We look forward to expanding the world's knowledge about the experiences and perspectives of children and young people with disabilities.

Call for Papers - Child Language Teaching and Therapy Special Issue

Call for Papers - Child Language Teaching and Therapy Special Issue
https://journals.sagepub.com/home/CLT

Listening to children with diverse communication abilities

Editors: Professor Judy Clegg and Professor Victoria Joffe

With Guest Editors: Distinguished Professor Sharynne McLeod and Holly McAlister from Charles Sturt University, Australia

"Child Language Teaching and Therapy is an international peer reviewed journal which aims to be the leading inter-disciplinary journal in the field of intervention and management of children’s speech, language, and communication needs. The journal publishes original research and review articles of high practical relevance, and which emphasise inter-disciplinary collaboration between education and therapies. The readership of the journal consists of academics and practitioners across the disciplines of education, speech and language therapy, psychology, and linguistics."

Child Language Teaching and Therapy is inviting authors to submit to a special issue titled: Listening to children with diverse communication abilities. This special issue supports children’s communication rights and expands on the Child Language Teaching and Therapy summer lecture titled “Do we really listen to children?” presented by Prof. Sharynne McLeod.

You can watch the Child Language Teaching and Therapy summer lecture here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iajSaUyEuOw

Here is the abstract from the summer lecture:

Communication is a human right for all; and ALL includes children with speech, language, and communication needs, including those who speak/sign non-dominant languages (McLeod, 2018). Aligning with the Convention on the Rights of the Child (United Nations, 1989) we have given attention to the “voice” of children. For example, we have creatively engaged in child-friendly arts-based methods to provide children with the “right to freedom of expression… regardless of frontiers” as outlined in Article 13. However, do we REALLY listen to children? As we become more accustomed to including children’s perspectives in our professional practices, it is time to reflect on whether some of our inclusion of children’s voices could be perceived as “tokenistic” (Hart, 1992). As communication specialists, we have the power to support children’s voice and to assist others to listen. How can we mature in our practices to enhance children’s participation within democratic processes in their families, schools, communities, and society?

For this special issue, the editors invite papers that explore:

• Innovations in the identification and support of children and young people with speech, language and communication needs (SLCN) as a result of listening to and learning from children and young people.
• Methods to support children’s voice and to assist others to listen by considering space, voice, audience, and influence (see Lundy, 2007).
• Moving beyond tokenistic inclusion to supporting children’s engagement in research processes where children are lead researchers, or collaborators and co-designers of the research (see Hart, 1992; 2008; Shier, 2019).
• Diverse languages, cultures, modes of communication (sign language, AAC), ages (including infants and toddlers), geographies, abilities, and types of speech, language, and communication needs (SLCN). 

Theoretical, methodological, systematic review and empirical papers are all invited for consideration across the disciplines of education, speech and language therapy, psychology, and linguistics, as well as interdisciplinary and international contributions. Papers must be supported by new evidence and/or evidence-based literature. Papers that include research data must include a statement about ethical approval (including information about parent/guardian consent and child assent). Papers are encouraged from people who live and work in Majority World countries (including low and middle-income countries and small island states) and people who have lived experience of communication and / or swallowing disability.

We aim to publish this special issue of Child Language Teaching and Therapy in early 2026.

Submissions

To be considered for publication, papers must be received using the online submission system by Friday 18th April 2025 (early submissions are encouraged). Please prepare and submit manuscripts according to the guidelines available at https://journals.sagepub.com/author-instructions/CLT. Papers should be between 5,000 and 8,000 words, including all elements (title page, abstract, notes, references, tables, biographical statement, etc.). Papers in excess of 8,000 words will not be sent for review. When submitting your paper, please indicate that the paper is to be considered for the special issue. The manuscript should be submitted to https://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/cltt. All papers will receive a double-blind review, following the usual review process and criteria of Child Language Teaching and Therapy. The special issue is scheduled for publication in early 2026. Accepted papers will be published online first before the issue. Any papers accepted for publication but not included in the special issue due to space constraints will be published later in a regular issue. For further information, please contact the Editors, Judy Clegg (j.clegg@sheffield.ac.uk), Vicky Joffe (v.joffe@essex.ac.uk) and Guest Editors Sharynne McLeod (smcleod@csu.edu.au) and Holly McAlister (hmcalister@csu.edu.au).

References

• Hart, R. A. (1992). Children’s participation: From tokenism to citizenship. United Nations Children’s Fund International Child Development Centre.
• Hart, R. A. (2008). Stepping back from ‘the ladder’: Reflections on a model of participatory work with children. In A. Reid, B. B. Jensen, J. Nikel, & V. Simovska (Eds.), Participation and learning: Perspectives on education and the environment, health and sustainability (pp. 19-31). Springer. https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-1-4020-6416-6
• Lundy, L. (2007). ‘Voice’ is not enough: Conceptualising Article 12 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. British Education Research Journal, 33, 927–942. https://doi.org/10.1080/01411920701657033
• Mahony, L., McLeod, S., Salamon, A., & Dwyer, J. (Eds.). (2024). Early childhood voices: Children, families, professionals. Springer. https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-031-56484-0
• McCormack, J., McLeod, S., Harrison, L. J., & Holliday, E. L. (2022). Drawing talking: Listening to children with speech sound disorders. Language, Speech, and Hearing Services in Schools, 53(3), 713–731. https://doi.org/10.1044/2021_LSHSS-21-00140
• McLeod, S. (2018). Communication rights: Fundamental human rights for all. International Journal of Speech-Language Pathology, 20(1), 3–11. https://doi.org/10.1080/17549507.2018.1428687
• Roulstone, S., & McLeod, S. (Eds.). (2011). Listening to children and young people with speech, language and communication needs. J&R Press. http://www.jr-press.co.uk/communication-needs.html
• Shier, H. (2019). An analytical tool to help researchers develop partnerships with children and adolescents. In I. Berson, M. Berson, & C. Gray (Eds.), Participatory methodologies to elevate children’s voice and agency (pp. 295–315). Information Age Publishing.
• United Nations (1989). Convention on the rights of the child. https://www.unicef.org/crc/

Nord/ CSU Early Childhood Education Group

Tonight we had a meeting with the Nord/Charles Sturt University Early Childhood Education Group working towards a memorandum of understanding between the universities. 

There are three sub-groups:

• Children's Voices (Leads: Elisabeth Bjornestad)
  
• Online Learning for Early Childhood Education/ITE and Med (Lead: Leanne Gibbs/Martin Per Samuelsson)
• Quality Assurance, Regulation and Qualifications (Leads: Kelly Tribolet/Belinda Downey)

The Children's Voices group shared the following projects and would like to have a seminar where people share their work

• Nord University is working with Malta on a project about children's voices + a philosophical approach regarding children's hut building in Sweden/Norway and New Zealand.
  
• CSU is running the Early Childhood Voices Conference (ECV2024) next week and are working with the World Health Organization on a project about children's voices. 

Children's Voices Group

 

Preparing for the ECV2024 conference launch

This afternoon we did a pre-production walk through of the Charles Sturt University television studio and The Treehouse in preparation for the Early Childhood Voices 2024 (ECV2024) conference next Monday.

Thanks to:

• Kevin Ng, Karl Shead and Simon Fraser (DLT) - Communications, CSU
  
• Brendon McLeod - Assumption School Band conductor

SACHL - Phase 2 information session 2

 Today we hosted another information session about Phase 2 of the Speech Assessment of Children’s Home Languages (SACHL, Margetson & McLeod, 2025).

https://www.csu.edu.au/research/multilingual-speech/speech-assessments/sachl

We met with another group of very enthusiastic participants who are keen to collaborate with us to develop resources for multilingual children and families across the world.

We also showed the attendees the Multilingual Children’s Speech website - 1000+ free resources in 100+ languages - https://www.csu.edu.au/research/multilingual-speech/home

One of the attendees said "Languages are a very big part of my identity"

ECV2024 - CVent and website preparation

The ECV2024 conference is happening next week. We are working around the clock.

Prof Sharynne McLeod, Dr Carolyn Gregoric, Patrick McKenzie, Michelle Egan, Annette Tanish, Dr Belinda Downey, Janelle Egan, Connor Crawford

DTTC research - preparing for conference presentations

This morning our research team met as we finalise the analysis and prepare to present the data at:

• American Speech-Language-Hearing Association convention (Seattle, WA, USA)
• Early Childhood Voices Conference (ECV2024) (online)

Dr Anna Cronin, Prof Sharynne McLeod, Dr Marie Ireland, A/Prof Jane McCormack

SACHL - Phase 2 information session 1

The first SACHL information session for people who want to participate with us in Phase 2 was held tonight. 

 It was great to see how many people came along for a session that was held at 8-9pm on a Monday evening!

We provided the first look at the data from Phase 1 - the need for this tool is compelling

We also showed the attendees the Multilingual Children’s Speech website - 1000+ free resources in 100+ languages - https://www.csu.edu.au/research/multilingual-speech/home

Nord University and CSU collaboration

Today was the Nord University and CSU collaboration meeting with CSU coordinators led by Susanne Francisco. The MOU is in its final stages

"The MOU has been developed based on a shared philosophy that building a sustainable and productive working collaboration takes time. It relies on development of interpersonal relationships leading to trusting and sustainable collaborations."

Here are the six groups as part of the MOU:

1. Indigenous Studies - Holly Randall-Moon
   
2. Professional Learning - Susanne Francisco
3. Rural Education - James Deehan
   
4. Early Childhood Education - Leanne Gibbs
   
5. Creativity in Education
6. Children’s Voices: Researching children’s speech, communication and culture - Sharynne McLeod
   

Here is an update on our group "Children’s Voices: Researching children’s speech, communication and culture"

• Leaders - Kathrin Olsen and Karianne Berg/ Sharynne McLeod and Kate Crowe
  
• Meetings during 2024 – 13 March, 10 May, 8 October, 30 October

We are planning a range of initiatives including 

1. Collaborating with the Nord team in their research supporting children who speak the Sami language (Nord University: Language of the Heart project with the Sámi community 
2. Visits from Nord PhD students to CSU in 2025 
3. Collaborative conferences and seminars including: Early Childhood Voices Conference (ECV2024)

Commendation - Higher Degree by Research Thesis / Creative Work of the Year

Congratulations to Dr Kate Margetson who was named in the Charles Sturt University Research Excellence Awards “Higher Degree by Research Thesis / Creative Work of the Year: Faculty commendations: Faculty of Arts and Education”

ECV2024 map

ECV2024 and Charles Sturt University welcomes 1100+ people who have registered from 56 countries.

Frustration

This blog typically is about celebrating achievements - especially the achievements of my amazing colleagues and students. Today I need to write a blogpost about frustration. I realize these are small thing. especially in the global context - but some weeks it seems that too many small things stop us from doing big important things. Here are a few of the many frustrating things that have occurred recently.

• Hearing - I attended an important event where there was no microphones/amplification of the speakers. I couldn't hear what they were saying. I asked the people around me - and we all thought that one of the invited speakers proudly said he was either a "boozer" or a "user" - but in the context I am sure he said something else! It is discourteous to invite a panel of speakers to speak to a large audience and not have a microphone. Communication (listening and speaking) is a human right.
• Accounting - I have a grant that includes funds for provisions and resources. Recently I spent about 4 hours justifying and gaining approval for the purchase of a few punnets of strawberries to be used during data collection research with children. Typically I don't have funds for expenses like this and fund it out of my own money. Unusually, this time I did. I think I'll go back to funding things myself!
• Disqualification - I have had two significant pieces of work that have taken many many months to prepare that have been disqualified. One was a large grant that received very positive external reviews but was disqualified because it may include "health/medical" benefits. The other is an award for ~50 colleagues that would have been considered had someone other than me submitted it (I was a runner-up for a different award in 2022 - so the whole team's application was deemed ineligible).
• Timezones - We are about to launch an online asynchronous conference where 1100 people have registered from 56 countries/regions. Our commitment has always been to allow people from anywhere to participate fully whatever their timezone since we do not have set times for events. Today we learned that the commercial platform we have been made to use for the 2024 conference requires that everything is allocated a time and they don't have capability to run it an asynchronous event. With a week to go before the we begin - we hope that the company can enable us to successfully run a conference that is in the way we have done effectively twice before.

Thank you to my awesome colleagues who provide much encouragement and do great work. Doing good work involves lots of rejected journal articles and unsuccessful grant applications. It also includes lots of frustrations - but some weeks I'd rather be working on the important issues to change the lives of children and the people who support them.

ECV2024 launch to be held on Monday 25th November

Today we have been finalising the ECV2024 launch to be held on Monday 25th November, 2024.

Here is our description of the event:

Join us for the official launch of ECV2024 that will be livestreamed from Charles Sturt University, Bathurst campus, Australia on Monday 25th November. 

ECV2024 will be launched by the Charles Sturt Vice Chancellor, Professor Renée Leon. 

The keynote presentation will be given by Professor Tony Dreise, Pro Vice-Chancellor First Nations Strategy who will present “Giving voice to ‘villages’, listening to ‘Country’: It’s time to unlock the power of ‘place’”. 

The achievements of the Early Childhood Interdisciplinary Research Group (ECIR) will be celebrated. 

Children will be a focus of the ECV2024 launch. Children are involved in the welcome, acknowledgment of country, the Children Draw Playing Global Online Gallery, and we will enjoy the Assumption Catholic Primary School Band

UTS Honorary Professor

I have been invited to extend my role as Honorary Professor in the Graduate School of Health, Faculty of Health at the University of Technology, Sydney (UTS). I began this role in 2019 and this is the second time the appointment has been extended. I enjoy collaborating with Prof Bronwyn Hemsley and her team at UTS.

I acknowledge the Gadigal People of the Eora Nation, upon whose ancestral lands UTS stands. I pay my respect to the Elders both past and present, acknowledging them as the traditional custodians of knowledge for this land.

Ethics application

Today Dr Nicola Ivory and I worked hard on our ethics application for our research with Catholic Education Tasmania. Lots was accomplished.

ECV2024 - more than 1000 registrations

Today we are at 1091 registrations :) for the Early Childhood Voices 2024 conference!

We have all of the video presentations ready for uploading to YouTube - then the website will be built - and the conference will begin in less than two weeks time. The Faculty of Arts and Education (FOAE) team are about to begin uploading.

Thanks everyone - and especially Dr Carolyn Gregoric our magnificent conference secretary.

Patrick McKenzie (FOAE), Michelle Egan (FOAE), Dr Belinda Downey, Janelle Bateman (FOAE), Dr Carolyn Gregoric, Prof Sharynne McLeod

ECIR leadership team meeting - Dr Carolyn Gregoric, Prof Sharynne McLeod, A/Prof Libbey Murray

Facilities Management team visit The Treehouse

Thanks to the Facilities Management team,  Therese King (Campus Facilities Manager) and Brandon Schranzer (Operations Coordinator Bathurst Campus), who visited The Treehouse and 1435 accommodation today to discuss current and future plans for the buildings.

Brandon Schranzer, Therese King and Sharynne McLeod

 

Recording the ECV2024 Conference Welcome

This morning Dr Belinda Downey and I recorded the Early Childhood Voices 2024 conference co-chairs welcome:

Dr Belinda Downey and Prof Sharynne McLeod - ECV2024 conference co-chairs

BD: Greetings from the Wiradjuri lands of New South Wales, Australia. I'm Dr. Belinda Downey,

SM: and I'm Professor Sharynne McLeod.

BD: We are the co-chairs of ECV2024 - the Early Childhood Voices Conference - at Charles Sturt University, Australia.

SM: The Early Childhood Voices Conference began in 2020 and this is our third conference.
It is a free online interdisciplinary conference focusing on children.

At ECV we share research about innovative methods, theories, and partnerships with children, families, and practitioners that support social justice during early childhood and within the early childhood sector.

BD: ECV 2024, is organised by the Early Childhood Interdisciplinary Research Group at Charles Sturt University in Australia.

There are 3 ways to participate,  

1. Attend the conference online from the 25th to the 28th of November 2024 – watching the online recordings at times that suit you
2. Join online yarning sessions to discuss topics relevant to the conference on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday during the week of the conference.
3. Enjoy the Children Draw Playing Global Online Gallery – where approximately 200 children from across the world present their views of playing.

SM: We are so excited to welcome over a 1000 people from 54 countries who have registered to attend. We hope you enjoy listening to our 4 excellent keynote presentations and the 147 oral presentations across two streams:

1. 71 papers in the  “Early childhood voices: International interdisciplinary research” stream  (71 abstracts)
2. And 76 papers in the “Multilingual children's speech development” stream. These papers are presented in English and in many other languages including Kurdish, Jamaican, Icelandic, Danish, Turkish, and Swedish.

The peer reviewed abstracts are published online and in the Conference proceedings. 

BD: Thank you to our amazing colleagues from Charles Sturt University for working hard on committees to ensure this conference is a success. We particularly thank our wonderful conference secretary, Dr Carolyn Gregoric.
We hope that by participating in ECV2024 you are inspired to listen to children’s voices, advocate for children and social justice during early childhood.
 

BD&SM: Welcome to our conference!