International Speech Screener Recording Session

This morning Dom Ingersole from CSU Communications recorded my speech at the CSU radio station to be imported into the updated International Speech Screener to be used in our CeTasSSD research project.

 

CVC2026 social media assets

https://childrensvoicesconference.csu.domains/

 

 You are warmly invited to register and submit an abstract for our Children's Voices Conference 2026 (CVC2026), our fourth biennial international conference hosted by Charles Sturt University. 

The theme for our conference is "Creating a more inclusive world for children" 

This is a FREE international conference (with FREE registration, FREE abstract submission, and it is FREE to attend)! If you are a practitioner, established or emerging researcher, or research student, doing work with, for, or about children, this is the opportunity to share your work!

The conference will run from 1-3 September 2026. All presentations will be prerecorded and streamed online, with perpetual access to presentations. 

Our previous conferences have attracted approximately 1,300 participants from around the world, along with countless presentation views post the conference.

Abstract submission closes: Monday 11 May 2026. All abstracts are considered by the scientific review committee and outcomes are posted in July.

We invite you to invite you to register, present, and share widely!

For more information go to: https://childrensvoicesconference.csu.domains/

Image description: An orange tile with the Charles Sturt University logo and the following words: 
Children's Voices Conference 2026:
Creating a more inclusive world for children!
Submit your abstract and register now for this FREE international conference that will run from Sep 1-3 2026
For more information go to: followed by a QR code for the website https://childrensvoicesconference.csu.domains/

CeTasSSD 2026 team meeting

Tasmanian speech sound disorders prevalence and screening pathway project(CeTasSSD)

Today was our first official CeTasSSD team meeting for 2026 with our new and expanded team. It was great to have almost the whole 2026 team together this morning to remind ourselves of the importance of this project, look at what we achieved in 2025 and plan for 2026.

Online: Ally Barrett, Emma Scanlon, Sharynne  McLeod, Felicity Laurence, Lisa Johnson, Sarah Verdon, Helen Blake

 

 

 

Children's Voices Centre: 2025 Summary report

The Children's Voices Centre (CVC) was launched 1 October 2025. In 2025 CVC staff, affiliates, HDR students and adjuncts produced 242 outputs documented in CRO including 6 books, 9 reports, 3 theses, 15 chapters, 97 journal articles, and 58 conference presentations. In 2025 CVC staff submitted 5 grants, generated $117,000 HERDC income (undertaking research with Worksafe Victoria, Catholic Education Tasmania, Orange Aboriginal Medical Service), and CVC received its first anonymous philanthropic donation of $30,000. Collaborative research with 20+ interdisciplinary affiliates (mostly early career researchers) resulted in Q1 journal articles and conference presentations with more underway. 

The World Health Organization has invited CVC to apply to become a collaborating centre in 2026 following a co-operative research program, official membership WHO Disability Health Equity Network, and presentations at WHO (Geneva, Fiji).  CVC research impact includes with United Nations Foundation (USA), Australian Government (Thriving Kids Inquiry, Disability Discrimination Act), Bathurst Regional Art Gallery (3-month exhibition). Leadership roles in International Clinical Phonetics and Linguistics Association (ICPLA) and European Early Childhood Education Research Association (EECERA). Awards from Patras University (Greece), International Association of Communication Sciences and Disorders (IALP, non-state actor of WHO). One CVC HDR student graduated as a CSU university medallist. Visiting scholars were from: Nord University (Norway), Wellcome Trust visiting scholar (UK), East Tennessee State University (USA).

• Books    6
• Reports    9
• Theses    3
• Chapters    15
• Journal articles    97
• Commentary    3
• Editorial    7
• Book/Film/Article review    2
• Contribution to specialist publication    15
• Conference presentation/poster    58
• Resources/Non-textual outputs    27
• TOTAL    242

 

“Oh! I forgot the voice”: Comparing drawings of talking by children with and without speech sound disorder

Congratulations to Hannah Deehan who has had her honours research accepted for publication in Child Language Teaching and Therapy

Deehan, H., McLeod, S. & Harrison, L. J. (2026, in press March). “Oh! I forgot the voice”: Comparing drawings of talking by children with and without speech sound disorder. Child Language Teaching and Therapy.

Here is the abstract

Recognition that children’s views should be respected has increased since the United Nations’ publication of the Convention on the Rights of the Child. This study explored whether preschool children’s drawings and descriptions of themselves “talking to someone” differed for children with speech sound disorder (SSD) compared to children with typically developing speech. Participants were 78 children matched for age and sex and divided into two groups (SSD and Typical) based on percentage of consonants correct on the Diagnostic Evaluation of Articulation and Phonology. The SSD group was significantly more likely to self-report some difficulty talking but did not differ from the Typical group on how they felt about their talking or on developmental maturity for drawing human figures. Analyses applying a focal points approach (Furth, 2002) showed a significant difference in participants’ portrayal of “body parts” but no difference for “facial expressions”, “talking and listening”, “relationships and connections” (number of people and conversational partner/s) and “sense of self”. Children with SSD were more likely to accentuate ears in their drawings, while typically developing children were more likely to accentuate hands. In sum, drawing and describing “talking” did not differentiate SSD and typically developing children, but enabled understanding of how individual children conceptualise and represent communication with others.

A special day with Orange Aboriginal Medical Service (OAMS)

Over the past 3 years, we have been undertaking research with OAMS. Today, Sarah Bartlett and I visited OAMS to finalise four journal manuscripts (submissions and revisions) based on the work we undertook with the OAMS team. We also have presented at a number of conferences as well. We had a rich discussion about the research, representing the people and work of OAMS, the importance of the research internationally, tracking research (ORCiD, SCOPUS, Google Scholar, Web of Science), authorship, and many other topics. What a special bond.

Sharynne  McLeod, Janay Apps, Marie-Christine Sweeney, Sarah Bartlett

It was exciting to see the Little Libraries, map, and posters available from our research project

Sharynne  and Sarah arriving at OAMS

Here are the conference presentations from our research so far:

 CONFERENCE PRESENTATIONS

1. Bartlett, S; McLeod, S; Gregoric, C; Newman, J; Apps, J. (2026, June). Implications of caregiver-implemented intervention for three underserved communities [Research insights]. Speech Pathology Australia National Conference, Gold Coast, Australia.
2. McLeod, S., Bartlett, S., Woodhead, E-J., & Gregoric, C., Newman, J. & Sweeney, C. (2025, November). Community support for Indigenous children’s speech, language and communication [Oral presentation]. American Speech-Language-Hearing Association Conference, Washington DC, USA.
3. McLeod, S., Newman, J. & Sweeney, M-C., Bartlett, S., Woodhead, E-J., & Gregoric, C. (2025, September). Building the present and the future: Indigenous children’s speech, language and literacy [Oral presentation]. Oceania and Indigenous Trans-national Methods and Practices, Charles Sturt University, Orange, Australia.
4. McLeod, S., Woodhead, E-J., Hay, E., Bartlett, S. & Gregoric, C. (2025, June). Rural Australians’ ratings of Indigenous children’s books to support communication and literacy [Oral presentation]. Speech Pathology Australia National Conference, Adelaide, Australia.
5. McLeod, S., Woodhead, E.-J. Bartlett, S., Hay, E., & Gregoric, C. (2024, November). Indigenous children’s speech, language and communication: Identifying and co-creating resources and services [Oral presentation]. Early Childhood Voices Conference, Online, Bathurst, Australia. https://earlychildhoodresearch.csu.domains/early-childhood-voices-conference-2024/ecv2024-413/ 

CSU orientation week 2026

2026 has officially begun for the Charles Sturt University students. Welcome to CSU to our new undergraduate students!

All of my PhD students have been working hard throughout February. My new PhD student, Felicity Laurence had her PhD induction sessions this week.  I have been delighted to read drafts of journal articles (chapters) ready for submission from Sarah Bartlett, Holly McAlister and Anniek Van Doornik. These three students are in their final year of PhD studies and have undertaken great work.

CVC2026 planning is underway

 The CVC2026 planning is underway.

Today I chaired the Children's Voices Committee - and had a wonderful time reflecting on the successes of our involvment of children in ECV2020, ECV2022, and ECV2024 - and dreaming about involving children even more in CVC2026.

Sharynne, Sarah S, Katrina, Kate F, Kasey

 We also have sent out the following email - far and wide

[Please distribute throughout your networks]
 
Dear Friends and Colleagues
You’re warmly invited to participate in the free online Children’s Voices Conference (CVC2026) from Tuesday 1 September to Thursday 3 September 2026 hosted by Charles Sturt University’s Children’s Voices Centre. The conference theme is Creating a more inclusive world for children.
 
You are invited to
(a) register to attend (free) https://childrensvoicesconference.csu.domains/
 
(b) submit an abstract to present a 10-minute online on-demand research paper https://childrensvoicesconference.csu.domains/
 
(c) invite a child to draw/create art, podcasts and postcards about belonging https://childrensvoicesconference.csu.domains/ (coming soon)
 
CVC2026 offers the unique opportunity for you to present at or attend the conference – for free – through our dedicated online space. In 2024, our Early Childhood Voices Conference (ECV2024) united over 1300 early childhood researchers from around the world. This year the focus expands to include children of all ages.
 
What to expect
Get set to expand your knowledge and enhance your practice at our multidisciplinary international conference.

• Hear from international researchers on the latest evidence, innovative methods, critical theories and collaborative partnerships in children’s research.
• Engage in dynamic discussions with a passionate global community of researchers and professionals.
• Extend your research and critical analysis capability and deepen your knowledge.

Present at CVC2026
Are you a researcher or research student? We invite you to share your work by submitting abstracts on your research about children, families and practitioners. Qualitative, quantitative and mixed-method studies, rigorous and insightful reviews, and thought-provoking theoretical explorations are welcomed. We invite contributions on a wide range of topics related to the following streams:

• Children’s rights, voices, and perspectives
• Children's inclusion
• Children's communication
• Children's learning and activities
• Children's health and disability
• Children's services workforce and policy

Abstract submissions close on Monday 11 May 2026. Late submissions will not be accepted.
Best of all, the conference is free to attend and present.
 
Children’s Voices Global Online Gallery
Children are invited to inform us about belonging through drawing and creating art, podcasts and postcards about being together or being part of something. These works will be displayed via a global online gallery during the conference.  Find out more about how children can be part of this year’s conference and help shape children’s futures at  https://childrensvoicesconference.csu.domains/ (coming soon).
 
We are looking forward to your participation in this exciting event.
 
Sincerely
Dr Carolyn Gregoric, Conference Secretary
A/Prof Kathy Cologon, A/Prof Tamara Cumming, Prof Sharynne McLeod, Conference Co-chairs
Children's Voices Centre
Charles Sturt University, Bathurst, NSW
Email: cvc2026@csu.edu.au 
  

Seven book chapters finalised

 Seven book chapters finalised

1.  Margetson, K. & McLeod, S. (2026, in press). Considering idiolects and translanguaging when working with multilingual children and families. In H. L. Blake, S. McLeod, K. Margetson & B. A. Goldstein (Eds.), Multilingual aspects of children’s speech sounds (2nd ed.). Multilingual Matters.
2. Margetson, K., McLeod, S. & Blake, H. L. (2026, in press). Multilingual children’s speech: Foundations, development, and practices. In H. L. Blake, S. McLeod, K. Margetson & B. A. Goldstein (Eds.), Multilingual aspects of children’s speech sounds (2nd ed.). Multilingual Matters.
3. McLeod, S., Verdon, S., Margetson, K., Phạm, B., Tran V. H., & McAllister, L. (2026, in press). Translation to practice: Understanding multilingual children’s speech through long-term collaboration between Vietnam and Australia. In H. L. Blake, S. McLeod, K. Margetson & B. A. Goldstein (Eds.), Multilingual aspects of children’s speech sounds (2nd ed.). Multilingual Matters.
4. McLeod, S. (2026, in press). Assessment of multilingual children’s speech. In H. L. Blake, S. McLeod, K. Margetson & B. A. Goldstein (Eds.), Multilingual aspects of children’s speech sounds (2nd ed.). Multilingual Matters.
5. McLeod, S. (2026, in press). Translation to practice: Creating sampling tools to assess multilingual children’s speech. In H. L. Blake, S. McLeod, K. Margetson & B. A. Goldstein (Eds.), Multilingual aspects of children’s speech sounds (2nd ed.). Multilingual Matters.
6. McLeod, S. & Goldstein, B. A. (2026, in press). Children’s multilingual speech acquisition. In H. L. Blake, S. McLeod, K. Margetson & B. A. Goldstein (Eds.), Multilingual aspects of children’s speech sounds (2nd ed.). Multilingual Matters.
7. Blake, H. L., McLeod, S., Margetson, K., Goldstein, B. A. (2026, in press). Reflections on multilingual aspects of children's speech sounds. In H. L. Blake, S. McLeod, K. Margetson & B. A. Goldstein (Eds.), Multilingual aspects of children’s speech sounds (2nd ed.). Multilingual Matters.

Page proofs submitted!

What a huge job! The 1500+ pages of The Oxford Handbook of Speech Development in Languages of the World have been proofed by the 173 authors and I have read every chapter (online and on paper - because you find different errors). I have collated all of the changes, with assistance from Helen Blake. After a month of working days, evenings and weekends - it has been submitted. I expect to see one more set of proofs - then publication. Nearly there. Hooray. It is an AMAZING resource. Thank you to the fantastic authors for the outstanding research they do and have collated in this book.

"We would also like to sincerely appreciate the significant effort you have both put into collecting, consolidating, and clearly marking the corrections across the volume. We recognize the scale and complexity of this handbook, and your thorough and well-organized review has greatly supported the smooth progression of this stage." Suriya, Newgen | 25 February 2026

Brainstorming with colleagues

What a fantastically rich brainstorm we had today thinking about the best way to analyse the Children Draw Health artworks. Thanks team!

Sharynne, Carolyn, Holly, Helen, Suzanne, Kathy, Kate F

 

CVC Community Research - Thursday presentation

Today I was the CVC Community Research presenter at our weekly Thursday lunch session.

Multilingual Minds are Unlocking Global Knowledge, γνώση, 认识, إدراك, דַעַת, ज्ञान …
Distinguished Professor Sharynne McLeod Children’s Voices Centre, Charles Sturt University
There are over 7,000 languages in the world. Literature about children’s communication development focusses on English, northern hemisphere Indo-European languages (Draper et al., 2023; Kidd & Garcia, 2022), and “Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich, and Democratic (WEIRD) societies” (Henrich et al., 2010). This presentation will commend the work of multilingual minds (researchers, professionals, and translators) who provide English-language access to global knowledge about speech, language, and communication. It will outline the decade of work of the International Expert Panel on Multilingual Children’s Speech, and knowledge contained within two global initiatives
The Oxford Handbook of Speech Development in Languages of the World (https://global.oup.com/academic/product/the-oxford-handbook-of-speech-development-in-languages-of-the-world-9780192868862) 
Multilingual Children’s Speech website (https://www.csu.edu.au/research/multilingual-speech/speech-acquisition/speech-acq-studies)
The presentation will conclude by challenging our reliance on English as the medium for knowledge dissemination and acknowledging the future potential of our connected multilingual world for greater understandings of speech, language, and communication.

Sharynne McLeod, PhD is a Distinguished Professor at Charles Sturt University, Australia specialising in multilingual children’s speech and language acquisition. She has a legacy of leading interdisciplinary teams, building world-class research capacity to undertake impactful international research. Her transformative research has reframed the speech-language pathology profession by foregrounding communication rights and social justice. The American Speech-Language-Hearing Association has awarded her Honors and the Certificate of Recognition for Outstanding Contributions in International Achievement. She is a Life Member of Speech Pathology Australia, Fellow of the Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia, Fellow of the Royal Society of New South Wales, and served as editor-in-chief of the International Journal of Speech-Language Pathology. The Australian Newspaper describes her as Australia’s Research Field Leader and Best in the World in Audiology, Speech and Language Pathology based on the “quality, volume and impact” of her research. 

19 people attended online and in person. Thanks for your encouragement and great discussion about the importance of home language maintenance and looking beyond English-language research.

CVC strategic and operational plan

 Today the Children's Voices Centre staff worked with the CSU Office of Strategy to develop our operational plan. Thanks to Marion Ware and Tiffany Thornton for leading the conversations.

School of Indigenous Australian Studies visits The Treehouse

 It was an honour to host a visit from the CSU School of Indigenous Australian Studies (SIAS) at The Treehouse yesterday. In 2025 we co-hosted Sami PhD student Camilla Porsanger from Nord University. We look forward to continued collaborations and connections.

 

Invited Presentation - Conference of the Italian Society of Phoniatrics and Speech Therapy

Dr Kate Margetson, Dr Helen Blake and I have been invited to present at the Conference of the Italian Society of Phoniatrics and Speech Therapy in March. We were invited to speak about our invited chapter that was published last year.

Margetson, K., McLeod, S., & Blake, H. L. (2025). Gli Speech Sound Disorders nei bambini plurilingue [Speech sound disorders in multilingual children]. In S. Piazzalunga, R. Salvadorini, N. Pizzorni, F. Todaro, & A. Schindler (Eds.). Speech sound disorders: Evidenze scientifiche e buone prassi riabilitative [Scientific evidence and best rehabilitative practices] (pp. 415-432). Erickson University & Research. https://www.erickson.it/it/speech-sound-disorders

 

Professor Antonio Schindler and Professor Silvia Piazzalunga wrote:

The afternoon of 5 March will be dedicated to the 'Official Report', the new book on SSDs. Due to time constraints, it will not be possible to discuss the entire book; therefore, as editors, we have identified eight topics that represent the different contents of the work. We would be honoured if you could present the topic of bilingualism.

Here is my presentation:

https://charlessturt.zoom.us/rec/share/Co96F2XtYqPmdSxWMxz3FOy7Ur7Oq_t2bbSZ5o0hqldaXxs22QPLlPAImhpDIIM.SbeW8JYKbMx7szSn

Translations of the ICS and SPAA-C

This week we have just uploaded a Nepalese translation of the Intelligibility in Context Scale https://www.csu.edu.au/research/multilingual-speech/speech-assessments/ics to the Multilingual children's Speech website.

We also have been contacted by people across the world to translate the SPAA-C into Chinese (Traditional and Simplified) and the ICS into several Indian languages:

Assamese
Bengali
Bodo
Dogri
Kannada
Kashmiri
Konkani
Maithili
Malayalam
Manipuri
Marathi
Odia
Sanskrit
Telugu
Urdu

CVC has a printer!

The little things in life can drastically increase productivity and reduce expense. It has taken many many months - but this week the Children's Voices Centre has a printer/scanner. Hooray! No more walking to another building to find that the printer didn't connect - and no more paying hundreds of dollars for printing of our newsletters.

Happy lunar new year

Happy lunar new year!

• 新年快乐 Xīnnián kuàilè" (Putonghua/Mandarin)
• 恭喜发财 Gong hei fat choy (Cantonese)
• Chúc mừng năm mới (Vietnamese)
• 旧正月おめでとうございます (Kyūshōgatsu omedetō gozaimasu) (Japanese)
• ซินเจียยู่อี่ ซินนี่ฮวดไช้ Sin Jia Yoo Ee Sin Nee Huad Chai (Thai) 

Dr Audrey (Cen) Wang gave me some gifts to display in The Treehouse for lunar new year 2026 - the year of the horse. Thank you Audrey.

Welcome to The Treehouse Holly and Merlin

It was lovely to welcome my PhD student Holly McAlister and her dog Merlin to The Treehouse (CSU Bathurst) this week. While visiting, she and Wiebke Freese (visiting PhD scholar from University of Lubeck, Germany) spent time together looking through some of the speech tests I have gathered from across the globe).

Sharynne  McLeod, Holly McAlister, Wiebke Freese, Shukla Sikder

 

Global knowledge in 131 languages and dialects about children’s speech development, assessment, and intervention

 The following manuscript has been accepted for publication. I am so proud of this work.

McLeod, S. & Blake, H. L. (2026, in press February) Global knowledge in 131 languages and dialects about children’s speech development, assessment, and intervention. Clinical Linguistics and Phonetics.

Here is the abstract

This paper exhorts communication specialists to look beyond English language knowledge by providing evidence to disrupt the unsubstantiated belief that there are few assessment and intervention resources for supporting multilingual children’s speech. The Multilingual Children’s Speech website https://www.csu.edu.au/research/multilingual-speech/home has curated 1,337 (mostly free) resources for supporting multilingual children’s speech acquisition, assessment, and intervention in 131 of the world’s languages and dialects (86 languages). Specifically, there are 658 speech acquisition studies in 55 languages, 423 speech assessment resources in 77 languages, and 178 speech intervention resources in 21 languages. This free website includes links to assessment tools, intervention manuals, journal articles, books, chapters, theses, and video recordings for 16 of the top 20 most spoken languages in the world and many minority languages, Indigenous languages (e.g., Māori, Samoan, Sesotho, Setswana, Warlpiri, isiXhosa, Zapotec, isiZulu) and languages and dialects impacted by colonization and slavery (e.g., African American English, Fiji English, Jamaican Creole, Tok Pisin). Only 17.95% of the resources are about English, with 51.68% about 39 other Indo-European languages, and 30.37% about 46 languages belonging to 15 non-Indo-European language families. Previous analyses of curated knowledge about children’s development in psychology and linguistics have found a WEIRD bias “Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich, and Democratic societies”; however, only 29.07% of the languages included on the Multilingual Children’s Speech website are WEIRD. While only 1.23% of the 7000 world languages are represented on the website, these assessment and intervention resources will continue to grow due to ongoing work of multilingual communication specialists across the globe.