The Children's Voices Centre is overseen by the Deputy Vice Chancellor-Research. We are very grateful for their support in many ways. Today, I met with Nilima Mathai to discuss our communications (e.g., newsletter) and administration support requirements. We currently have an advertisement to hire another senior administration officer too.
Collaboration activities between WHO and Charles Sturt University (2025-2026)
Views of children and young people with disabilities about health and the health system
The Children's Voices Centre staff and affiliates have had a number of meetings this week. We are so proud of our achievements from 2025 and look foward to finalising the work during 2026.
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| CVC-WHO team meeting - 10 Feb 2026 |
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| Scoping review team - lead by Dr Kate Freire - 9 Feb 2026 |
Research team
• World Health Organization Disability Programme (Switzerland): Dr Mélanie Gréaux
• Charles Sturt University, Children’s Voices Centre (Australia): Prof Sharynne McLeod, A/Prof Kathryn Crowe, A/Prof Suzanne C. Hopf, Prof Sarah Verdon, Prof Julian Grant, Dr Lysa Dealtry, Dr Belinda Downey, Dr Kate Freire, Dr Helen L. Blake, Dr Carolyn Gregoric, and Holly McAlister, A/Prof Kathy Cologon
Research activities
During 2025 research activities were undertaken “to build evidence on the experiences and perspectives of children and young people with disabilities on health and access to healthcare services”.
Monthly progress meetings were held with WHO and CSU were held (typically Thursday 7pm-8pm Australian time).
Two main research activities were planned over the 2-year period (2025-2026)
Activity #1: A world-wide online qualitative study to explore children and young people with disabilities’ views about health and their experiences in health services.
Activity #2: A scoping or systematic review on the experiences of children with disabilities in the health sector.
Presentations (World Health Organization/United Nations)
• 76th Session of the World Health Organization Regional Committee for the Western Pacific (RCM76) | Nadi, Fiji | October 2025 | Prof Sharynne McLeod, Dr Helen L. Blake, Holly McAlister https://speakingmylanguages.blogspot.com/2025/10/76th-session-of-world-health.html
• Launch WHO Disability Health Equity Network Meeting | Geneva, Switzerland | 12-13 November, 2025 | Dr Mélanie Gréaux, Prof Sharynne McLeod https://speakingmylanguages.blogspot.com/2025/11/world-health-organization-disability.html
• World Children's Day event at Charles Sturt University with David Ohana, Chief Communications & Marketing Officer, United Nations Foundation https://unfoundation.org/who-we-are/our-people/david-ohana/ | 20th November, 2025| A/Prof Kathy Cologon, A/Prof Tamara Cumming https://alumni.csu.edu.au/news-and-events/events/industry/from-regional-roots-to-global-impact-kids-interview-un-changemaker-david-ohana
Outputs
Report
• Children draw health to advance health equity: Insights from children with disabilities (lay-person’s report) https://cdn.csu.edu.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0010/4506148/CVC-Children-draw-health-2025-Fiji-submission.pdf
Art exhibitions
• Children Draw Health Global Online Gallery https://www.csu.edu.au/research/childrens-voices-centre/research/childrens-health
• Bathurst Regional Art Gallery (BRAG) exhibition (November 2025-January 2026) https://bathurstart.com.au/exhibitions-events/cvc-children-draw-health/ (Opening Night Event: Friday 21 November – A/Prof Tamara Cumming guest speaker)
Research outputs
Journal article (submitted)
• McLeod, S., Gregoric, C., Downey, B., Cumming, T., Cologon, K. & Gréaux, M. (2025, submitted October). Children’s perspectives about health and healthcare: A global arts-based study focusing on children with disabilities [Manuscript submitted for publication]. Charles Sturt University.
Today the CVC staff reviewed and decided on the themes for the Children's Voices Conference 2026 (CVC2026) and will update our CVC website to align with these.
1. Children’s rights, voices, and perspectives
2. Children’s inclusion
3. Children’s communication
4. Children’s learning and activities
5. Children’s health and disability
6. Children’s services workforce and policy
This discussion is very important in the journey of the Children's Voices Centre. Our original themes (listed below) were based on the research undertaken by the end of 2024 when we were building the website, and before we had hired staff and had affiliates join the centre.
2024 CVC themes (now superseded):
The Oxford Handbook of Speech Development in Languages of the World has 80 chapters and is over 1500 pages. Most of the chapters are structured around a template to support comparisons across languages. Creating an index for the Handbook is a large task requiring attention to detail and a lot of pattern matching. I am so pleased that Wiebke Freese has worked with the template to create the index for chapters 6-80. Wiebke is visiting the Children's Voices Centre during February and is a PhD student at the University of Lubeck (Universität zu Lübeck), Germany. Her supervisor, Prof Annette Fox-Boyer co-authored the chapter on German speech development. Wiebke said she was surprised and impressed that there is so much research about children's speech across the world. Thanks Wiebke for supporting children's speech - you are a superstar!
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| Wiebke Freese working in The Beehive at CSU |
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| Discussing the index with Dr Helen L. Blake and the CSU copyeditor Dr Mark Filmer |
Holly McAlister and I have been working on the Child Language Teaching and Therapy special issue for about a year now. On Friday we did a stocktake:
The papers are excellent! It is going to be a great special issue focusing on children's voices.
Today was the first whole of centre meeting for the Children;s Voices Centre for 2026. It was exciting to welcome affilaites and HDR students to The Treehouse in Bathurst, and online.
We were pleased to welcome:
Topics included:
Camilla Porsanger was a visiting PhD scholar at the Children's Voices Centre in 2025. Here is her report published by Nord University that has been published for Sami day 2026:
https://www.uv.uio.no/spedaims/aktuelt/aktuelle-saker/2026/urfolk-sprak-og-rettigheter.html
It begins:
"– I år føles Samefolkets dag ekstra spesiell
Et forskningsopphold på den andre siden av kloden har gitt stipendiat Camilla Porsanger et tydeligere blikk på språk, identitet og rettigheter. – Å være på steder med så dyp kulturell og åndelig betydning for aboriginske urfolk gjorde sterkt inntrykk."
Translation
"– This year, Sami Day feels extra special
A research stay on the other side of the globe has given fellow Camilla Porsanger a clearer look at language, identity and rights. – Being in places with such deep cultural and spiritual significance for Aboriginal indigenous peoples made a strong impression."
There are so many projects and areas of overlap with Prof Yvonne Wren from University of Bristol and Cardiff that we needed a 2026 catchup tonight. Topics included
Our Children's Voices Conference (CVC2026) launch page is live today. Thanks to Patrick McKenzie https://childrensvoicesconference.csu.domains/
Welcome to Wiebke Freese who is a PhD student at the University of Lubeck (Universität zu Lübeck), Germany who is visiting the Children's Voices Centre and The Treehouse on the Bathurst campus of Charles Sturt University. It is a joy to host her.
Wiebke's supervisor is Prof Annette Fox-Boyer - a long-term colleague who has taught me a lot about German children's speech. Interestingly, Dr Sarah Masso, my previous PhD student undertook her postdoctoral scholarship with Annette a few years ago. Last time I saw Wiebke and Annette was at the ICPLA conference in Patras Greece.
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| A/Prof Tamara Cumming, Wiebke Freese and Prof Sharynne McLeod at the Children's Voices Centre |
Weibke has been welcomed by CSU kangaroos, beautiful skies, and friendly colleagues.
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| Welcome Wiebke |
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| Kangaroos on CSU's Bathurst campus |
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| Sunset on Wiebke's first night in Bathurst |
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| Bathurst's Machattie Park |
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| Wiebke in The Beehive |
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| Wiebke's bee-inspired gifts for The Treehouse |
Thanks to Sarah Bartlett and Holly McAlister who organised a meeting to discuss PhDs containing publications with the Research Office and Library. Here are some resources that were shared.
Copyright for HDR students - https://www.csu.edu.au/copyright/for-research/hdr-students
Requesting permission to use copyright material - https://libguides.csu.edu.au/copyright-permission/requesting
Open Access Licences https://opentext.csu.edu.au/oalicences/
by Jane Bowland and Lyndall Holstein
Book Description:This OER is a practical guide for Charles Sturt University staff, researchers, and students. It covers how to reuse openly licensed works in study, teaching, and research; the meaning of Creative Commons licences and how to apply them when publishing theses, research outputs, and open education resources (OER).
Figure permissions:
The first article has been published that will form a part of our special issue "Children's Communication and United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child". Congratulations to the team from Belgium.
Alighieri, C., Bettens, K., & Lierde, K. V. (2026, in press). Speaking up: Communication rights and the lived experiences of children with cleft palate. Language, Speech, and Hearing Services in Schools. https://doi.org/10.1044/2025_LSHSS-25-00131
Abstract
Purpose:
A cleft palate is a congenital condition characterized by an opening in the roof of the mouth that can affect speech, feeding, hearing, dentition, aesthetics, and social integration. This qualitative study explored the lived experiences of six children with cleft palate in relation to their communication rights as articulated in the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), specifically CRC Article 12 (respect for children's views), Article 13 (sharing thoughts freely), and Article 23 (children with disabilities).
Method:
Through semistructured interviews and participatory methods, six children with a cleft palate (aged 6–13 years) shared their perspectives on how speech-language therapy influences their ability to express themselves, engage socially, and participate in educational and family life. A hybrid thematic analysis approach was adopted, combining both inductive and deductive strategies.
Results:
The analyses of the data derived directly from the children revealed three overarching themes in relation to CRC Article 12 (respect for children's views), Article 13 (sharing thoughts freely), and Article 23 (children with disabilities): Theme 1: Voice, Agency, and Participation in Decisions; Theme 2: Freedom of Expression and Emotional Safety; and Theme 3: Awareness of Difference and Need for Support. These themes reflect a nuanced interplay between children's personal experiences and the realization of their communication rights in therapeutic contexts. Findings reveal both empowering aspects of intervention, enhancing confidence and social inclusion, and barriers including limited access to tailored services and communication challenges that hinder full expression.
Conclusions:
The study underscores the critical role of speech interventions in upholding children's communication rights and advocates for inclusive, child-centered approaches that prioritize children's voices and diverse communication needs. Implications for clinicians, educators, and policymakers highlight the need to address systemic inequities and foster environments where children with cleft palate can fully exercise their rights to be heard and freely express themselves.
Today Dr Carolyn Gregoric and I met with Prof Julian Grant and Wahid from the Rural Health Research Institute (RHRI) to discuss collaborations, membership and affiliate structures across the Children's Voices Centre (CVC) and RHRI. We have a long history of working together so it was a productive meeting.
This week I have spent a lot of time on our Tasmanian speech study (CeTasSSD). I have undertaken data analysis with Dr Nicola Ivory - which involved more data cleaning therefore beginning all of the analyses again (a very typical scenario in quantitative data analysis). I have hired a new research assistant, Emma Scanlon and worked on finalising the International Speech Screen with Helen Blake.
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| Emma Scanlon |
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| Nicola Ivory |
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| Carolyn, Medhi, Belinda, Brendon and Sharynne |
Thanks to Azizur Rahman who has worked closely with Carolyn Gregoric to undertake the analyses to determine the reliability of our Children Draw Playing data. We met on a very hot day (42oC in some cities) to discuss and write up the Cohen's kappa analyses.
We are very sad to farewell Lorraine Bennett who has been the inaugural Senior Administration Officer for the Children's Voices Centre. She has been an amazing support as we have established the Centre and The Treehouse. We wish her well and will miss her very much. Thank you Lorraine.
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| Kathy Cologon, Carolyn Gregoric, Tamara Cumming, Lorraine Bennett |
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| Tamara, Sharynne and Lorraine |
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| Thank you Lorraine |
Lorraine gave me permission to include her "heartfelt words" in my blog:
Subject: A Fond Farewell from Lorraine
Hello CVC Team,
As I sign off today for the final time as Senior Administration Officer with the Children’s Voices Centre, I wanted to take a moment to say thank you.
It has been an absolute privilege to be part of the CVC journey and to work alongside such passionate, thoughtful, and committed people. Being involved in a centre so deeply focused on research “with, for and about children” — and ensuring that children’s voices are gen heard, valued, and respected — has been incredibly meaningful to me.
I am so proud of what has been built: from the vision and values that guide the Centre, to the people who bring it to life every day, and the spaces (especially the Treehouse) that welcome children, families, researchers, and community. Watching CVC grow and flourish during 2025 has been such a wonderful experience.
I look forward to following your achievements and successes into the future, and will welcome any invitation to share in your successes and homecoming soup celebrations.
Always grateful for this experience 😊
Lorraine Bennett
This year has begun with the arrival of 1500 pages of The Oxford Handbook of Speech Development in Languages of the World. Every word and page must be checked over the next few weeks to ensure that the entire book is ready for publication. It is a BIG job - but I am thrilled to finally see this fantastic resource in its close to final form. Thanks to Dr Helen Blake who is assisting me and to the diligent chapter authors who have checked the orthography and typesetting so carefully.
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| 1500 pages - 9cm double sided! |
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| Sharynne with the page proofs at the Children's Voices Centre @ The Treehouse in Bathurst, Australia |
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| Helen with lot of paper to be read (this is double sided) |
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| Helen and Sharynne online ready for the work ahead |
I am excited to be supervising four wonderful PhD students in 2026:
At Charles Sturt University
At Utrecht University in The Netherlands
Wishing you a productive year everyone!
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| Holly and Sharynne in 2026 |
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Sarah, Sharynne and Carolyn in 2026
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Here are some graphics about the reach of the CVC publications in 2025 - we are very happy with our reach and collaborations in our Centre's first year.
