CVC is featured in Thrive - CSU's alumni magazine

We are delighted that A/Prof Tamara Cumming and I are able to feature the Chidlern's Voices Centre in the CSU's Thrive magazine - since we are both alumni of CSU.

https://issuu.com/csu4/docs/thrive_magazine_november_2025

Planning CVC2026

Our planning for the Children's Voices Conference 2026 (CVC2026) began on 6th November - and has reached the stage of formalising the processes behind the conference.

Today Conference Secretary Dr Carolyn Gregoric and I met with  Annette Tainish (CSU Events), Kevin Ng and Pat McKenzie (FOAE Production Team) to plan the software (e.g., registration, abstract submission), website, synchronous events (launch, keynotes, yarning circles) and other aspects of the conference. What a productive meeting. Thanks team!

Sharynne McLeod, Annette Tainish, Carolyn Gregoric, Pat McKenzie, Kevin Ng

 

 

Multilingual Aspects of Children's Speech Sounds (2nd edition)

We are almost ready to submit Multilingual Aspects of Children's Speech Sounds (2nd edition). We had an Australian editors' meeting today

Helen Blake, Sharynne  McLeod, Kate Margetson

Helen and I met with Brian Goldstein a few weeks ago when we were in the Washington DC at the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA) convention. 

Sharynne  McLeod, Brian Goldstein, Christina Gildersleeve-Neumann, Helen Blake

 

Mark Filmer from Charles Sturt University has supported the copyediting of the chapters and we were able to thank him today.

Sharynne  McLeod, Mark Filmer, Helen Blake

In the final book there are:

• 34 chapters
• written by 59 authors from 17 countries: Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Cyprus, England, Fiji, Germany, Ghana, Hong Kong SAR, China, Iceland, Iran, Ireland, Singapore, USA, Vietnam, and Wales
• mentioning 151 languages: !Xũ, Afrikaans, Akan, Albanian, Amharic, Arabic (6 varieties: Algerian, Classical, Egyptian, Kuwaiti, Modern Standard, Palestinian), Asanti Twi, Assyrian, Azeri Turkish, Bahasa Indonesia, Balochi, Bengali, Brahvi, Bulgarian, Burmese, Cantonese, Catalan, Chichewa, Croatian, Dagbani, Danish, Dari, Dutch, English (10 varieties: Australian Aboriginal, British Standard, Fiji, Irish, Jamaican, Singapore Colloquial, Singaporean, Singapore Standard, Standard Australian, Welsh), Ewe, Fanti, Faroese, Farsi, Fe’efe’e, Fijian, Finnish, Flemish, French and French Canadian, Ga, German, Greek (Cypriot, Standard Modern Greek), Gujarati, Haida, Hawaiian, Hebrew, Hindi and Fiji Hindi, Hindko, Hmong, Hokkien, Hungarian, Icelandic, Igbo, Inuit, Irish, Italian, Jalapa Mazatec, Jamaican Creole, Japanese, Karen, Khmer, Kikamba, Kikuyu, Kinyarwanda, Kisii, Kiswahili, Korean, Kriol, Kurdish, Laki, Latvian, Lingala, Lithuanian, Luganda, Luhya, Luxembourgian, Madagascan, Malay, Maltese, Mandarin/Putonghua, Melpa, Mirpuri, Ndebele, Nepali, Norwegian, Pacific Island languages and dialects, Pakistani heritage languages, Pawaian, Pitjantjatjara, Polish, Portuguese (Brazilian, European), Potohari, Punjabi, Pushto, Romanian, Rotokas, Russian, Samoan, Sataiki, Scottish Gaelic, Sepedi, Serbian, Serbocroatian, Sesotho, Setswana, Shona, sign languages (5 varieties: American, Australian, British, Danish, Icelandic), Sindhi, Sinhala, Slovak, Slovenian, Somali, Spanish and Granada Spanish, Swazi, Swedish, Sylheti, Tagalog, Tagalog, Tamil, Teke, Telugu, Thai, Tlingit, Tok Pisin, Tongan, Tshivenda, Tsonga, Turkish, Twi, Ukrainian, Urdu, Vietnamese, Warlpiri, Welsh, Xhosa, Yolngu Matha, Yoruba, Yumplatok, and Zulu. 
• There is also discussion about the following 34 multilingual pairs: Albanian and Greek, Bengali and English, Cantonese and Greek, English and French and Spanish (trilingual), German and Russian, German and Spanish, German and Turkish, Greek and English, Gujarati and English, Hindi and Gujarati and English (trilingual), Irish and French, isiXhosa and English, Italian and English, Japanese and English, Lingala and English, Mandarin and English, Mandarin and Swedish, Polish and English, Portuguese and English, Spanish and English, Turkish and English, Turkish and German, Twi and English, Urdu and Balochi, Urdu and Brahvi, Urdu and English, Urdu and Hindko, Urdu and Potohari, Urdu and Punjabi, Urdu and Pushto, Urdu and Sataiki, Urdu and Sindhi, Vietnamese and English, and Yoruba and English. 

Thank you to the authors who have undertaken important research that enables us to support multilingual children and their families across the world.

Celebrating the first year of the Children's Voices Centre (2025)

In December 2024, we learned that Charles Sturt University would fund the establishment of the Children's Voices Centre as a CSU research centre for 3 years (2025-2027). During 2025, we have renovated building 1451 to become The Treehouse, recruited 4 staff (2.6 FTE) and had an amazing year with over 60 CVC affiliates, children, families, professionals, colleagues and friends.

Today we held our last CVC staff meeting for the year followed by a 2-hour celebration with CVC affiliates. During the 2-hour celebration 20 CVC staff and affiliates spoke: Prof Sharynne McLeod, A/Prof Tamara Cumming, Dr Carolyn Gregoric, Lorraine Bennett, Dr Shukla Sikder, A/Prof Kathy Cologon, Dr Leanne Gibbs, Dr Lyndsay Smith, A/Prof Suzanne Hopf, Dr Brendon Hyndman, Dr Lysa Dealtry, Dr Jo Grimmond, Dr Sabrina Syed, Sarah Bartlett, Dr Kate Margetson, Camilla Porsanger, Dr Lucia Wuersch, Alam Hossain, Dr Belinda Downey, and Dr Helen Blake. Congratulations to everyone for your accomplishments during 2025 that have impacted the lives of children, families and communities across the world. Have a restful holiday - to get ready for 2026.

Celebratory pavlova

Starting at the top: Alam, Tamara, Lucia, Lorraine, Belinda and Sharynne on the stairs in The Treehouse

CVC members online

Jo Grimmond's celebration of 2025

Kathy Cologon's thank you

Tamara, Belinda, Alam, Lorraine, Leanne and Shukla

Last CVC staff meeting for 2025

Celebratory pavlova covered in edible flowers

The Treehouse in the sunshine

Emeritus Professor Jo Reid

Coffee with Emeritus Professor Jo Reid was an unexpected pleasure this morning. Jo was at CSU to provide mentoring to a colleague. 

She also mentioned a new book:

Turner, M. & Green, B. (Eds.). (2026). Multilingualism as opportunity: An integrated perspective on English and languages education in Australia. Routledge. https://www.routledge.com/Multilingualism-as-Opportunity-An-Integrated-Perspective-on-English-and-Languages-Education-in-Australia/Turner-Green/p/book/9781032767079

Children Draw Health on display at the Bathurst Regional Art Gallery

Our Children Draw Health Global Online Gallery is currently on display at the Bathurst Regional Art Gallery. What a great way to profile our children's voices!

Here is the whole gallery:  https://www.csu.edu.au/research/childrens-voices-centre/research/childrens-health

 

WHO - CVC monthly meeting

 

Sharynne  McLeod, Mél Gréaux, Kathy Cologon, Tamara Cumming, Lysa Dealtry

We had a wonderful meeting this evening to summarize all of the achievements over the past year in our research with Dr Mél Gréaux from the Disability Programme of the World Health Organization in Geneva. Some of the highlights of the year included being accepted into the WHO Global Disability Health Equity Network and presenting our research to WHO meetings in Geneva and Fiji. I was excited to see that the summary of the WHO meeting in Geneva that I attended in November included a photo of me reading the children's insights from our CVC on page 8! 

We have submitted one journal article (under review) and have some of the children's insights available here: https://www.csu.edu.au/research/childrens-voices-centre/research/childrens-health Thanks Mél for your encouragement and support of our research to profile the voices of children with disabilities. We are excited to continue this work in 2026.

Congratulations to my colleagues who have just been promoted

Huge congratulations to my colleagues who have just been promoted. They do amazing work - and I'm so glad it has been acknowledged.

• Professor Jane McCormack
• Associate Professor Suzanne Hopf
• Senior lecturer Lucia Wuersch

Hooray!

 

 

Christmas lunch at CSU

Today Lorraine, Tamara and I joined our colleagues at CSU for a Christmas lunch. We enjoyed sharing the event with the CSU Advancement team. They have chosen to feature the Children's Voices Centre on their Christmas card this year! They have been important champions of our work during 2025 and we are very grateful.

Sharynne, Lorraine and Tamara at CSU

Christmas lunch

Christmas lunch

Sharynne and Tamara

CSU Advancement team - Stacey Fish, Naomi, Aimee, Sam Bolt and Justin

Catholic Education Tasmania grant meeting

We had an excellent meeting today to work on plans for 2026 for our data collection. Dr Kate Crowe joined us from Canada (better timezone than Iceland) and it was great to have Nicola back with us.

 

CSU end of year morning tea

What a lovely time of celebration at the end of year morning tea for Charles Sturt University. We appreciated the shout out to the Children's Voices Centre from the Vice Chancellor during the speeches.  I enjoyed catching up with Bruce Andrews (CSU media), Joanne Blatch (CSU Student Success Manager), Dr Nicola Ivory (Psychology).

Joanne Blatch visited the CVC after the morning tea

Dr Nicola Ivory and Prof Sharynne  McLeod wearing Christmas colours

The VC speaking at the CSU morning tea at Bathurst

CSU cupcakes in Christmas colours

 

CSU Town Hall - End of year summary

During the CSU Town Hall for all staff at the University, the Deputy Vice Chancellor profiled the work of the Children's Voices Centre as a highlight of 2025. She mentioned one of our achievements as an inaugural member of the World Health Organization's Disability Health Equity Network. Thanks for your support Prof Neena Mitter. Congratulations to ARC Future Fellow Amy Macdonald and our two new DECRA grant awardees.

The Vice Chancellor also profiled the successes for the year, including that in 2026 staff will be provided with a 40% research allocation. We have had 8,500 graduates in 2025 - and increases in enrollments.

The 2026 research strategic direction is focusing on finding regional solutions with global impact.

Visiting Emeritus Prof Lindy McAllister and discussing research in Vietnam

While in Brisbane this weekend I had a lovely time catching up with Emeritus Prof Lindy McAllister and discussing our collaboration and research in Vietnam. We also shared stories of our colleague Lucy Shanahan who passed away a few weeks ago.

 

APA7

 I am about to have a new PhD student in 2026 - and here is the email I sent to her this morning:

As you begin your PhD next year, please ask Santa for an APA7 publication manual - and engage in holiday reading. I think it’s important to read it from beginning to end. It’s so useful and is used in almost every  journal you will publish in (and your dissertation) The version with tabs is the fancy one. I created my own tabs https://apastyle.apa.org/products/publication-manual-7th-edition (I think you can buy it from other places too)

Kathy's presentations at AARE

Congratulations to A/Prof Kathy Cologon who presented three papers at the recent AARE conference - https://www.aareconference.com.au/ in Newcastle, NSW: 

• Beyond Words: Anti Ableist Pedagogies and Children's Participation Through Inclusive Arts - Olivia Karaolis and Kathy Cologon
• From Lived Experience to Systemic Change: Children’s Perspectives as the Foundation for Equity Education - Kathy Cologon, Zinnia Mevawalla, Timothy Cologon, Jackie Fulton, Jane Catlin

She was invited to present the Sue Grieshaber Commemorative Lecture (2/12/25) 
Anti-ableist pedagogy: A necessary foundation for inclusion

Abstract: Despite national and international commitments, legislative requirements, policy, human rights, and a deep moral imperative, inclusion remains an elusive phenomenon for most children. In this commemorative lecture I argue that realising inclusion requires an explicitly anti-ableist pedagogy built with, and accountable to, children. I invite us to reflect on where we have come from and explore what inclusion, disability, and exclusion mean from the perspectives of young children. This includes considering:

• Ontological inclusion recognising disability as a valuable and fundamental aspect of human diversity.
• Epistemic justice valuing diverse ways of knowing and communicating as legitimate sources of educational knowledge and decision-making.
• Design justice treating access as essential to design, across spaces, routines, assessment, and policy.
• Relational accountability centring children’s agency and interdependence, and moving from “voice” to influence in everyday practice and governance.
• Structural responsibility shifting inclusion from personal “goodwill” to enforceable, and resourced obligations.

Drawing on research exploring individual, family, and collective experiences, we learn from children the necessity of anti-ableist pedagogy as the foundation of all educational experiences – from the early years onwards. In conversation with AARE’s 2025 theme of New Connections and Directions for Educational Research, how can we connect and collaborate with children in generative ways to address individual, systemic and structural barriers and create a more inclusive future for every child?

Caregiver-implemented Hanen® programs: A narrative review of programs for children with speech, language and communication needs

Congratulations to Sarah Bartlett who has had her first journal article accepted for publication from her PhD: 

Bartlett, S. & McLeod, S. (2025, in press December). Caregiver-implemented Hanen® programs: A narrative review of programs for children with speech, language and communication needs. American Journal of Speech-Language Pathology

Here is the abstract: 

Purpose: Hanen® programs have been used by clinicians to support caregivers of young children with communication needs to learn optimal ways to respond in everyday interactions and facilitate child-oriented strategies that promote interaction and language. This review aimed to evaluate peer-reviewed literature regarding Hanen® programs for children with speech, language, and communication needs regarding the credibility, nature, quality, scope of the research, and outcomes of the research findings.
Method: The Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic reviews and Meta-Analysis (PRISMA) protocol was used. Of 196 papers documenting Hanen® interventions, 57 papers met inclusion criteria. Studies were synthesized and evaluated to rate (a) credibility/ levels of evidence, (b) nature of existing research: efficacy, effectiveness, and perceived effectiveness, (c) quality of the studies, (d) scope of evidence, and (e) outcomes for each Hanen® program for children with speech, language, and communication needs.
 Results: Credibility: Studies of Hanen® programs were reviews (7%), randomized controlled trials (17.5%), non-randomized controlled trials and mixed methods (31.6%), case-control or cohort studies (26.3%), qualitative reviews (1.8%) or employed qualitative methods (15.7%). Nature: The majority were efficacy studies (57.9%), others were perceived effectiveness (24.6%), and effectiveness studies (8.8%). Quality: Few studies were rated as high quality. Scope: Most studies related to two Hanen® programs (It Takes Two To Talk® and More Than Words®) conducted across eleven countries (Canada, USA, Spain, Turkey, Republic of Ireland, The Netherlands, United Kingdom, Australia, Hong-Kong, Singapore, Malaysia), and a few studies evaluated adaptations of Hanen® programs (e.g., telehealth). The studies reported on dyad interactions; child language, behavior, and autism; and caregiver perceptions, stress, and self-efficacy. Outcomes: Evidence supporting significant communication outcomes for different programs exists; however mixed results demonstrate a variety of language, interaction, acceptability, feasibility, and maintenance outcomes. 
Conclusions: A range of evidence supports the use of Hanen® programs in its original format, with acceptability reported by families from target communities (e.g., middle class families) and educators (e.g., westernized countries). Effectiveness studies in real world contexts conclude that future research could evaluate content flexibility and adaptations to meet a diversity of families and communities. A precision family initiative (PFI) has been suggested to shift future research from does Hanen® work, to how can Hanen®-based intervention optimize outcomes for individual families.

CSU communications precinct and TV studio

We are so fortunate to have an amazing communication precinct and TV studio at CSU in Bathurst:

https://arts-ed.csu.edu.au/schools/information-communication-studies/communication-precinct

CVC features in this video (at the end):  

https://media-studio.csu.edu.au/w/roej6wGkA9R?key=bab6dec7e6a9559990657cbf70b47c0a

TEDx - Reimagining Schools for Belonging

Congratulations to A/Prof Brendon Hyndman whose TEDx talk Reimagining Schools for Belonging has now gone live. His message connects strongly with children’s voices, agency, belonging and their experiences in school environments. He stated that students want a place for: doing, thinking, feeling, and being. When these places are created he has seen teamwork, belonging, wellbeing, when those needs are ignored he has seen bullying and disconnection. Here is the link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fcgnwa25xr0

International Day of People with Disability

The International Day of People with Disability is held on 3rd December each year. 

In 2022, the Australian Bureau of Statistics (https://www.abs.gov.au/) reported that 5.5 million Australians, or 21.4% of our national population, live with a disability. In NSW, this equated to 1.3 million individuals, or almost one-fifth of the state’s population. As of July 2025, almost 750,000 Australians were accessing supports through the NDIS.

Research shows that individuals living with a disability face numerous barriers in accessing and feeling included in the health care system. This contributes to higher rates of unmet healthcare needs and poorer health outcomes when compared to people without disability (Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, 2024 https://www.aihw.gov.au/reports-data/australias-health).  

Santiago Velasquez was selected for the 2025 ambassadorship program run by the Australian Government's Department of Social Services

• Announcement by Minister Jenny McAllister: https://www.health.gov.au/ministers/senator-the-hon-jenny-mcallister/media/international-day-of-people-with-disability-2025-ambassadors-announce
• Santiago Velasquez' individual video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=258EB0z2hlg&t=134s
• Videos for all the ambassadors: https://www.idpwd.com.au/about/our-ambassadors/

 

"Santiago Velasquez Hurtado is the CEO and founder of two companies, and an accomplished innovator and designer. Santiago utilises his lived experience and degree in electrical engineering to invent solutions to make the world more accessible. As a UN panellist, Churchill Fellow and TedX speaker, he is determined to change the way the world perceives people with disability."

 

Farewell Camilla and family

We have loved having Camilla Porsanger and family visiting the Children's Voices Centre over the past few months. Camilla is undertaking her PhD through Nord University in Norway focusing on Sami children's language learning. We have learned so much from Camilla and her family and will miss them. We look forward to ongoing collaborations.