Initial conversations with Bathurst Regional Art Gallery re Children Draw Health

Today I met with with Lilium Burrow, Audience Engagement Officer, Bathurst Regional Art Gallery to discuss the Children's Voices Centre's new research with the World Health Organization to listen to children about health, health equity and health access. She was enthusiastic about collaborating - and identified these connections: 

• Digital Platforms – including the forecourt projection: https://bathurstart.com.au/artist-opportunities/digital-platform-proposal-call-out/
• Home: Aboriginal art from New South Wales Regional education program https://www.artgallery.nsw.gov.au/artboards/home/home-program/ "The Home program is a partnership between Wiradjuri community at Wagga Wagga, The Arts Unit, NSW Department of Education, Wagga Wagga Art Gallery and the Art Gallery of NSW, and connects schools to local Aboriginal artists, community, language and culture."
  
• NSW Young Regional Creators Network (in collaboration with Arts Out West and Cementa Inc.)

A BRAG X Cementa initiative, The NSW Young Regional Creators Network is a network of established and emerging organisations and programs dedicated to delivering creative and social skills and confidence building outcomes for young people in Regional NSW through arts, new technology, and cultural expression.  This program will connect organisations across Central and Western NSW to share resources, ideas, methodologies and talent in a format designed to distribute access across the distances that isolate young people in the regional context. This program directly addresses the difficulty of delivering meaningful cultural outcomes for young people in regional NSW by connecting organisations in a network that will allow resource sharing and program integration that can be delivered to young people across the region. For example, Cementa can supply up to 20 artists a year to conduct workshops, BRAG can provide access to a celebrated regional gallery, artistic program, and professional development, while Arts Out West and Charles Sturt University can provide state of the art facilities for young people that participate in these programs and those of Headspace, Social Futures Clubhouse and BRAG Youth Advocates. This program also offers the potential for youth from across regional NSW to meet and collaborate on common projects and events.

•  Arts Out West

 

 

Meeting with Australian advisors about our new research project with the World Health Organization

This morning I met with Elsie (11), Zach (9) and Chloe (8) who were Australian advisors for the Children Draw Talking Project that now appears on the United Nations (UN) website:
https://www.ohchr.org/sites/default/files/documents/issues/youth/hr75/submissions/subm-views-youth-led-cso-early-childhood-interdisciplinary-resear.pdf
 
The World Health Organization in Geneva Switzerland saw our submission on the UN website – and want us to do something like this again – but this time about children’s insights into health, being healthy, and accessing healthcare services (hospital, doctor, dentist, nurse, vaccinations, optometry, audiology, speech pathology, physiotherapy, psychology, social work, occupational therapy,  etc.). The WHO especially want to learn about the insights of children who have a disability. 

This morning Zach, Elsie, and Chloe gave me advice about how to approach our new research project with the World Health Organization. They are going to brainstorm with their friends and family about "what makes you healthy". Here are some of their initial ideas: a carrot, exercise, sport, netball, medicine, bikes. We also talked about accessing healthcare. I will chat with them and more of my Australian advisors during January to prepare documentation for WHO in February.

Thanks Chloe, Zach and Elsie!

This work will be part of our new Children’s Voices Centre https://www.csu.edu.au/research/childrens-voices-centre/home

Zach, Chloe and Elsie chatting via Zoom

Elsie, Chloe, Zach, Sharynne

Here are some of the things that Elsie, Zach and Chloe's advice (+ others in their family) have helped us with in the past:

• Children’s Voices Centre: https://www.csu.edu.au/research/childrens-voices-centre/home
• The Treehouse: https://www.csu.edu.au/research/childrens-voices-centre/the-treehouse
• Early Childhood Voices Conference: https://earlychildhoodresearch.csu.domains/early-childhood-voices-conference-2024/
• Children Draw Playing: https://earlychildhoodresearch.csu.domains/early-childhood-voices-conference-2024/children-draw-playing/
• Children Draw Talking: https://earlychildhoodresearch.csu.domains/early-childhood-voices-conference-2022/children-draw-talking-gallery-3-australia/

Here is a page that summarizes lots of our work: https://www.csu.edu.au/research/childrens-voices-centre/research/childrens-voices

Caregivers’ insights into supporting their late talkers using a Hanen® parent program

Congratulations to Sarah Bartlett on her published paper from her Graduate Certificate that set the stage for her PhD research

Bartlett, S., & McLeod, S. (2025). Caregivers’ insights into supporting their late talkers using a Hanen® parent program. International Journal of Speech-Language Pathology, Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1080/17549507.2024.2438103

Here is the abstract

Purpose
To explore caregivers’ experiences and engagement during the 16-week Target Word™ Hanen® program for parents designed to support late talkers.

Method
Qualitative interpretative description methodology was used to understand the experience of five caregivers who had completed Target Word™ to support their children (aged 18-36 months). Caregivers attended a focus group to share their perspectives. Transcripts of these focus groups were analysed using reflexive thematic analysis.

Result
Two themes were identified regarding caregiver engagement during Target Word™ intervention. Firstly, caregivers described explicit support roles for speech-language pathologists: (a) Beginning phase (clarify expectations), (b) middle phase (enable caregiver to link changes in their behaviour to positive child outcomes), and (c) final phase (empowered caregivers). Secondly, caregiver engagement is influenced by: (a) Individual needs and expectations, (b) active engagement during key learning moments, and (c) influence of the broader environment.

Conclusion
Each caregiver participating in Target Word™ experienced unique engagement journeys over the course of the program. Speech-language pathologists can explicitly facilitate engagement at each phase of Target Word™ to promote active engagement for learning and ultimately caregiver empowerment to support their children’s language growth.

Listen Up: Autistic Youth Need to Be Heard

Our new Children's Voices Centre is important. Here is a new paper that has just been published in the US journal - Pediatrics. The author cited our communication rights paper (McLeod, 2018). Thank you Jace for speaking up! 

Listen Up: Autistic Youth Need to Be Heard 

Pediatrics Perspectives| December 17 2024
Jace E. Pooley
Address correspondence to: Jace Pooley, c/o Andrew F. Beck, MD, MPH, Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center, 3333 Burnet Ave, MLC 7035, Cincinnati, OH 45229. jacepooley@icloud.com
Pediatrics (2025) 155 (1): e2024069175.
https://doi.org/10.1542/peds.2024-069175

Subjects:Autism/ASD, Developmental/Behavioral Health, Interpersonal & Communication Skills
Topics:autistic disorder

Autistic youth need to be heard. Many have a difficult time speaking and are informally called “nonspeakers.” Too often, nonspeakers like me don’t get to share our thoughts even though we have lots to say. We aren’t broken or puzzles to unravel. We are, however, thoughtful and smart. We may not communicate like others do, but we have voices that deserve to be heard. I’d like to use my voice to share what being a nonspeaker means to me.

I’m a nonspeaker. I can say a few things, but not consistently and not always in the way that I intend. That’s part of the reason that I was diagnosed with autism. I hated that diagnosis until recently, because I felt the label suggested that I wasn’t smart. I have long struggled with the way autism is presented: a disease or problem to be solved. But I see autism as having...

Children's Voices Centre has begun

Welcome to the Children's Voices Centre's new staff members:

• Associate Professor Tamara Cumming, Associate Director Workforce and Policy
• Dr Carolyn Gregoric, Research Manager

We had a wonderful meeting to plan and dream today.

Part of our 3-year focus is for the world to "include children"and grow capacity at The Treehouse.

Carolyn, Tamara and Sharynne

ECV2024 certificates

The ECV2024 certificates are going out to presenters at the moment. Here is the accompanying email:

Dear Sharynne,

Thank you for presenting at the Early Childhood Voices Conference (ECV2024). This virtual and asynchronous event brought together 1,338 researchers and professionals from 54 countries.

Over four days, ECV2024 showcased the work of the four keynote presentations, 147 oral presentations, and 200+ children’s drawings across three streams - early childhood voices: international interdisciplinary research, multilingual children's speech development and children draw playing global online gallery. Participants also engaged in six yarning circle discussions and a workshop on understanding different communications methods presented by Shirley Wong, who has lived experience of augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) devices.

The conference website can be viewed here https://earlychildhoodresearch.csu.domains/early-childhood-voices-conference-2024/

Previous conferences are also available online
· ECV2020 https://earlychildhoodresearch.csu.domains/early-childhood-voices-conference-2020/
· ECV2022 https://earlychildhoodresearch.csu.domains/early-childhood-voices-conference-2022/

Thank you for your contribution to ECV2024
See you in 2026.

Dr Kelly Tribolet and Dr Belinda Downey
Early Childhood Voices 2024 Professional Recognition Committee
Charles Sturt University Early Childhood Interdisciplinary Research Group
 
Distinguished Professor Sharynne McLeod and Dr Belinda Downey
Charles Sturt University Early Childhood Voices 2024 Conference Chairs
 
Dr Carolyn Gregoric
Charles Sturt University Early Childhood Voices 2024 Conference Secretary

BlueSkySocial

I have just joined Blue Sky Social

@sharynnemcleod.bsky.social

 

YouTube

I have found a few places where I am on YouTube

• Professor Sharynne McLeod Keynote at the International Symposium on Bilingualism 14 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mbMRPo73ERE

• Child Language Teaching and Therapy Annual Summer Lecture 2024 with Professor Sharynne McLeod https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iajSaUyEuOw

CSU masterclass - Seeing like a researcher

I have been invited to present a CSU masterclass in the series "Seeing like a researcher"

My topic that has been postponed until 2025 is: "Professional skills: Editing a book: From beginning to end"

I am honoured to be amongst my distinguished colleagues from CSU within this series: https://staff.csu.edu.au/researchers/research-support/seeing-like-a-researcher-masterclass-series

Here is what is written on the website:

“Seeing like a researcher” is a masterclass series that draws on the experience, skills, wisdom and advice of Charles Sturt’s research leaders. The series includes sessions on both research innovation themes and professional skills for research.

Research innovation sessions encompass advanced pathbreaking tools of analysis and are designed to showcase new discoveries in research and update Charles Sturt researchers on new ways of doing research.

Professional skills sessions provide advice on research challenges such as developing a high quality ARC/NHMRC application, building long term partnerships nationally and internationally, delivering high impact research, working with First Nations communities etc.

The “Seeing like a researcher” masterclass series will be an invaluable mechanism for building research culture by inspiring experienced academics looking to re-energise their research programs, and next generation researchers hungry for learning and career advice.

I look forward to presenting this workshop in 2025.

 

CSU news stories

To end the year, CSU has published two news stories about our work and impact:

• https://news.csu.edu.au/latest-news/new-research-centre-champions-childrens-communication-rights
• https://news.csu.edu.au/latest-news/great-international-impact-recognised-by-top-us-speech-language-organisation

I was interviewed on the local 2BS breakfast radio show this morning. It's always great to champion children's communication and everyone's right to communicate.

Access to The Treehouse

With the announcement of the Children's Voices Centre (https://news.csu.edu.au/latest-news/new-research-centre-champions-childrens-communication-rights), signing the research agreement with the World Health Organization, and learning that we currently do not have funds for refurbishment of The Treehouse - we have come up with a solution to enable us to have access to begin The Treehouse for the work of the Children's Voices Centre. Brandon Schranzer, Operations Coordinator Bathurst Campus Facilities Management has blocked off the stairs (since they are not compliant for children's safety) so we are now able to use the building. We look forward to moving in - and to trying to secure funding so that we can fully use the building.

Children's Voices Centre jobs

 I have been having a wonderful time working with Holly Weal and Rebecca Dwyer from Division of People and Culture to prepare the following jobs for our new Children's Voices Centre

• Associate Director Children, Families and Communities: Children’s Voices Centre
• Associate Director Workforce and Policy: Children’s Voices Centre
• Research Manager: Children’s Voices Centre
• Senior Executive Support Officer: Children’s Voices Centre

Thank you to the Assumption Catholic Primary School Band for contributions to ECV2024

Here is an email I sent today to the Assumption Catholic Primary School Band

Dear students and teachers

We are writing to officially thank you for your outstanding contribution to the Early Childhood Voices 2024 (ECV2024) Conference Launch on Monday 25th November 2024 at Charles Sturt University.

We were thrilled to have such high-quality music and were impressed with your maturity and professionalism as band members. We were also very grateful that you were our ECV2024 press gallery. Your insights have been enjoyed by people across the world

• Here is the ECV2024 conference website: https://earlychildhoodresearch.csu.domains/early-childhood-voices-conference-2024/
• Here is the YouTube link to the Assumption Catholic Primary School Band’s press gallery: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RoBtflnofQ8
• Here is the YouTube link to the ECV2024 Conference launch: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XsjxDyMUbWY&t=3s

Over the week of the conference 1338 people registered from 54 countries:
Afghanistan, Australia, Bangladesh, Benin, Brazil, Bulgaria, Burundi, Canada, China, Colombia, Denmark, Ethiopia, Fiji, Finland, France, Germany, Ghana, Greece, Hong Kong (SAR China), Hungary, Iceland, India, Indonesia, Iran, Ireland, Israel, Jordan, Kosovo, Kuwait, Malaysia, Malta, Morocco, Namibia, Nepal, Netherlands, New Zealand, Nigeria, Norway, Pakistan, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Slovenia, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Uganda, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, USA, Zambia.

Many more people continue to access the free online content: 4 keynote presentations, 147 oral presentations, and 200+ children’s drawings.

In fact, you may enjoy viewing the Children Draw Playing Global Online Gallery: https://earlychildhoodresearch.csu.domains/early-childhood-voices-conference-2024/children-draw-playing/

It would be wonderful if you, or some other students from Assumption Catholic Primary School may be interested in collaborating with us during 2025. This week, we launched the Children’s Voices Centre https://www.csu.edu.au/research/childrens-voices-centre/home.
Here is the media release: https://news.csu.edu.au/latest-news/new-research-centre-champions-childrens-communication-rights
The Children’s Voices Centre has signed an agreement with the World Health Organization undertake research to listen to children’s perspectives about health.

Thank you again and best wishes for Christmas and the holidays.

Sharynne

Distinguished Professor Sharynne McLeod
Charles Sturt University

UTS Podcast - Understanding each other: Multilingual speech pathology practice

I was invited to be a guest on the "What’s Got Us Talking: The UTS Speech Pathology Podcast"

Discover the latest research and insights in Speech Pathology from the University of Technology Sydney. Join Professor Bronwyn Hemsley, Head of Speech Pathology at UTS, as she starts the conversations shaping the field. A must-listen for speechies, students, and their curious friends. 

https://omny.fm/shows/whats-got-us-talking-the-uts-speech-pathology-pod

 Here are the shownotes:

Understanding each other: Multilingual speech pathology practice

https://omny.fm/shows/whats-got-us-talking-the-uts-speech-pathology-pod/understanding-each-other-multilingual-speech-patho

Description
As multilingual speech pathology is an emerging field of research and practice, we explore how and why speech pathologists support multilingual clients, and several new developments. it.

Resources:

Multilingual Children’s Speech YouTube channel https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLRXcSAl_dA7arRMrE0qdxLuzGChY1LgY2

Multilingual Children’s Speech website: https://www.csu.edu.au/research/multilingual-speech

Key paper:

McLeod, S., & Crowe, K. (2018). Children’s consonant acquisition in 27 languages: A cross-linguistic review. American Journal of Speech-Language Pathology, 27(4), 1546–1571. https://doi.org/10.1044/2018_AJSLP-17-0100

Free posters: https://www.csu.edu.au/research/multilingual-speech/speech-acquisition/learning-english-consonants

Host: Prof Bronwyn Hemsley

Guests: Dr Denise Ng,  Prof Sharynne McLeod, Emily Chan, and Lily.

Produced by Laura Corrigan, thanks to 2SER

Sustainable Development Goals - Contributions to CSU's report

Charles Sturt University has just released their Sustainability Development Goals Report. The report highlights the university’s continued commitment to environmental and social sustainability.

Here is the CSU media release: https://news.csu.edu.au/latest-news/charles-sturt-university-releases-sustainability-development-goals-report

Here is the report: https://researchoutput.csu.edu.au/files/552252729/M3125_SDG_REPORT_2023_WEB_FINAL_VERSION_2.pdf

We are featured on pages 18 and 67

Charles Sturt University media announcement of the Children's Voices Centre

Today Charles Sturt University has announced the Children's Voices Centre via a media release:

https://news.csu.edu.au/latest-news/new-research-centre-champions-childrens-communication-rights

This is a very exciting milestone and gives us great direction for our research with and for children from 2025-2027. Our new centre focusses on children, families, professionals, workforce and policy – and is truly interdisciplinary with members across all three faculties. 

 

American Board of Child Language and Language Disorders (ABCLLD) - Dec 2024 newsletter

I am a certified specialist of the American Board of Child Language and Language Disorders with BCS-CL Certification.

"The American Board of Child Language and Language Disorders (ABCLLD) is a nonprofit Board recognized by the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association since 2000 as having oversight of Specialty Certification in the area of child language. Board Certified Specialists represent a cross section of our profession, including those who are in private practice or business; in school, medical, or university settings; and are from geographical areas across the world."

The ABCLLD included my ASHA award in their December newsletter: 

"The ABCLLD is immensely proud of two of our Board Certified Specialists in

Child Language who were named 2024 ASHA Awards Recipients... Each of these Specialists is a fine example of the ABCLLD's mission and the advanced knowledge, skills, leadership, and experience we exemplify in child language. We encourage all fellow Specialists to extend congratulations to both Shari and Sharynne!"

 

RED Award for Early Childhood Interdisciplinary Research Group

The  Early Childhood Interdisciplinary Research Group won the CSU RED Award for Research. We received the following email:

Good morning,
 
You are receiving this email because you have a team member who has been awarded a 2024 Charles Sturt Excellence Award.
 
The 2024 Charles Sturt Excellence Awards received 94 nominations across our four strategic categories.  The quality of the nominations was high in 2024 and we would like to congratulate not only our winners, but everyone who played a role in the Awards.
 
Log in to RED to see an overview of our winners here: Introducing RED | RED

Kind regards,

The RED Team
Recognising Excellence Daily
Division of People and Culture

Here is the award information

What is the nomination for:
The Early Childhood Interdisciplinary Research Group (ECIR) is an inspiring productive research group with global impact. ECIR collaboratively builds research capacity, profile and track record of ~50 early-mid career researchers and higher degree research (HDR) students by providing research mentoring and opportunities via an internship model using co-design and knowledge creation. ECIR increases research capacity for engaging in transformative research regionally, nationally, and internationally through interdisciplinary projects, such as the Children Draw Talking project presented at four 2024 conferences, including the International Conference on Sustainable Development (New York). The bi-annual Early Childhood Voices Conferences (to be held in November 2024) already has 620 registrations from 45 countries and 150 peer-reviewed presentations. ECIR supports members to write grants and publications, present at conferences, apply for promotion and publish from their PhDs. By engaging with ECIR members and activities, early career researchers have competitive CVs ready to apply for promotion and grants.

Why is this Excellence Award worthy?
ECIR has demonstrated sustained excellence in impactful research and support for researchers and HDR students during the Sturt Scheme funding period (2021-2024). ECIR members edited and co-authored 12/18 chapters in the book “Early Childhood Voices: Children, Families, Professionals” published by Springer in 2024 (269 pages). Additional achievements over the past 12 months (to Sept 2024) include books (6 published/in press + 1 proposal), book chapters (19 published/in press), journal articles (28 published/accepted), keynotes/public lectures (10), conference papers (42 presented/accepted), editorials (3), and media (3). During 2024, 2 ECIR members completed their PhD and ECIR members supervised 33 HDR students. Achievements over the past 3 years were recognised in a 2024 CRO impact case study demonstrating impact in policy and practice nationally and internationally, including at the World Health Organization

 

There were four winners in the research category

1. Groundbreaking research in AI and digital health - Dr Mohammad Ali Moni - 

2. Developing and sustaining opportunities for growth in data-science and cyber-security research - Azizur Rahman, Anna Shillabeer, Ashad Kabir, Manoranjan Paul, Philip Charlton, Zahid Islam, Xiaodi Huang, Rafiqul Islam, Michael Bewong, Muhammad Arif Khan, Lihong Zheng, Yeslam Al-Saggaf, Sabih Rehman, Jan Li, Mostafa Dahshan, Tanmoy Debnath, Quazi Mamun, Oliver Burmeister, Terry Bossomaier, Dmitry Demskoy, David Tien, Irfan Altas, Maumita Bhattacharya, Jason Howarth -

3. The Research Productivity Index Project- Samantha Phegan, Josh Kent, Deepa Narayanan, Karen Sinclair, Katie Dunn, John Burns, Helen Stephens, Veera Gogineni, Boram Kwon, Dale Curran, Rory Hock, Emmaline Lear, Lynne Creasy, Latha Bheemaneni, Amanda Shepherd, Samantha Phegan, Josh Kent, Deepa Narayanan, Karen Sinclair, Katie Dunn, John Burns, Helen Stephens, Veera Gogineni, Shyam Mohan, Ben Speirs, Andrew Paul, Simon Eriksson, Jason White, Paul Bristow, Darren Browne -

4. The Early Childhood Interdisciplinary Research Group - Sharynne McLeod, Suzanne C. Hopf, Sarah Verdon, Elizabeth (Libbey) Murray, Julian Grant, Carolyn Gregoric, Josephine Ohenewa Bampoe, Sarah Bartlett, Helen L. Blake, Kate Crowe, Jessamy Davies, Lysa Dealtry, Cheree Dean, Laura Delli-Pizzi, Belinda Downey, Tina Du, Jenny Dwyer, Sheena Elwick, Belinda Friezer, Leanne Gibbs, Kasey Hillyer, Laura Hoffman, Carmen Huser, Marie Ireland, Nicola Ivory, Janine Krecko, Linda Mahony, Olebeng Mahura, Kate Margetson, Cathie Matthews, Holly McAlister, Nicole McGill, Anne McLeod, Michelle Milan, Ben Pham, Azizur Rahman, Arifa Rahman, Mehdi Rassafiani, Goutam Roy, Shukla Sikder, Lindsay Smith, Sarah Stenson, Van H. Tran, Kelly Tribolet, Audrey (Cen) Wang, Emily-Jane Woodhead, Cherie Zischke

Research focussed position - hooray

I was delighted  to receive an email this morning to indicate that my work function has changed to being research focused. Since 1999 my work function has been 35% research, 65% teaching, 10% administration.  At different times, I have sought funding to change my work function to focus on research, however, this has been on an ad hoc basis and reliant on special funding. I have been asking for an official change in my work function since 2016 in my Employee Development and Review Scheme (EDRS) and am thrilled to see the signatures on the official document today. I believe that this accurately reflects my role at Charles Sturt and simplifies conversations and expectations. I look forward to continuing to undertake impactful research with my colleagues and students.

Communication is a human right

During the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association convention I was delighted to spend time with Lynn Williams  - and to share our passion and commitment for communication as a human right.

Lynn mentioned to me that while she was ASHA President she promoted communication rights based on the special issue of the International Journal of Speech-Language Pathology that I edited:

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

It is exciting to see communication rights on ASHA t-shirts and merchandise and now mentioned in ASHA's mission/masthead

American Speech-Language-Hearing Association
Making effective communication, a human right, accessible and achievable for all.