Children's Voices Cente - Whole of Centre Meeting - February 2026

 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:

• CVC staff: Sharynne McLeod, Tamara Cummiong, Kathy Cologon, Carolyn Gregoric
• CVC affiliates: Helen L. Blake, Lucia Wuersch, Brendon Hyndman, Sarah Verdon, Libbey Murray, Joanne Grimmond, Hannah Greig, Jessica Sears, Lindsay Smith, Sabrina Syed, Katrina Gersbach, Sarah Stenson, Kate Margetson, Kate Freire, Cyrena Hunt-Madden, Leena Awawdeh, 
• HDR students: Gotham Roy, Arifa Rahman
• CVC visitors: Wiebke Freese from Lubeck University, Germany 

Topics included: 

1. Welcome to 2026: vision, mission, areas of focus
2. Children’s Voices Centre achievements in 2025: Establishment: Launch, The Treehouse; collaborations
3. Impact: World Health Organization; United Nations Foundation, Grants, publications, presentations
4. Children’s Voices Centre staff, adjuncts, affiliates, higher degree students, visitors, friends, 
5. Recruitment for new Senior Administration Officer: http://internal-jobs.csu.edu.au/ci/en/job/498693/senior-administration-officer 
6. CVC2026 conference: Chairs: A/Prof Kathy Cologon, Prof Sharynne McLeod, A/Prof Tamara Cumming; Secretary: Dr Carolyn Gregoric. Committees
7. CVC research community meeting: Every Thursday 12-1pm; Call for presenters; Competition to make up name; Call for sites in Albury, Dubbo, Orange, Wagga, Port Macquarie etc. 
8. Children Draw Play project
9. World Health Organization project: scoping review and children’s perspectives of health research
10. Website: Suggestions for updates and refining research areas
11. Notification of meeting to set CVC Workforce research agenda
12. Call for Newsletter Edition 2
13. CVC whole of centre meeting: bimonthly, first Thursday of month starting February 5
14. The Treehouse: Drop in and say hello on Wednesdays 12-1pm

 

Happy Sami day (6 February) and Camilla's report about her visit to CSU

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."

Catch up with Prof Yvonne Wren

 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

• The Oxford Handbook of Speech Development in Languages of the World (Yvonne co-authored the English English chapter and the Welsh chapter - and has colleagues who may be able to write chapters in the next edition of the book) 
• Two papers with Amy Davis about using the Intelligibility in Context Scale with the Cleft Collective Cohort
• MISLToe studies - now there are 3 manuals for replications in other countries and with other populations to consider: core outcomes, list of definitions, and diagnostic protocols.
• AMS grant with our colleagues from Brazil 

 

Children's Voices Conference (CVC2026)

Our Children's Voices Conference (CVC2026) launch page is live today. Thanks to Patrick McKenzie https://childrensvoicesconference.csu.domains/

Welcome Wiebke Freese, visiting CVC from Germany

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.

Weibke has been welcomed by CSU kangaroos, beautiful skies, and friendly colleagues.

Welcome Wiebke

Kangaroos on CSU's Bathurst campus

Sunset on Wiebke's first night in Bathurst

Bathurst's Machattie Park

Wiebke in The Beehive room of The Treehouse

Wiebke's bee-inspired gifts for The Treehouse

 

 

 

PhDs containing publications - Copyright resources from the CSU Library and Research Office

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:

• CCC - https://marketplace.copyright.com/rs-ui-web/mp
• PLS - https://www.plsclear.com/Home/Index

 

LSHSS special issue on the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child

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.

RHRI and CVC membership and affiliate structures

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.

 

Tasmanian speech study - data analysis and preparation for 2026 data collection

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.

Emma Scanlon

Nicola Ivory

 

Children Draw Playing - Journal article team leaders' meeting

 

Carolyn, Medhi, Belinda, Brendon and Sharynne 

Today was the first meeting for 2026 of the lead authors to write up our Children Draw Playing dataset and the journal article leads outlined their aims, data sets, team members and target journals and conferences. Thanks to Dr Carolyn Gregoric for preparing the data set and leading ~20 CVC members to analyse the data in 2025. Here are some of the proposed papers. The first one is almost ready to submit :)

1. Children draw playing around the world: Carolyn Gregoric and Sharynne McLeod (leads) with 20 CVC affiliates as co-authors
2. Children draw playing in Mongolia: Carolyn Gregoric (lead)
3. Talking during play: Sharynne McLeod (lead)
4. Concepts of play: Belinda Downey (lead)
5. Why is drawing good for the world: Belinda Downey (lead)
6. Drawing movement: How children depict and describe active play: Brendon Hyndman (lead) 
7. PEO analysis: Mehdi Rassafiani (lead)  
8. Cultural historical activity theory: Shukla Sikder (lead)   

Children Draw Play reliability analysis

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.

 

Farewell Lorraine

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.

 

Kathy Cologon, Carolyn Gregoric, Tamara Cumming, Lorraine Bennett

Tamara, Sharynne and Lorraine

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

Oxford Handbook page proofs

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.

1500 pages - 9cm double sided!

Sharynne with the page proofs at the Children's Voices Centre @ The Treehouse in Bathurst, Australia

Helen with lot of paper to be read (this is double sided)

Helen and Sharynne online ready for the work ahead

Here is the OUP website for the book:
https://global.oup.com/academic/product/the-oxford-handbook-of-speech-development-in-languages-of-the-world-9780192868862
 
Published: 16 June 2026 (Estimated)
Length: 1552 Pages
 
VIDEOS and WEBSITE
Our videos will remain freely available on the Multilingual Children’s Speech website

• Multilingual Children's Speech Development (free videos): https://multilingual-childrens-speech-development.csu.domains/by-language/
• YouTube: https://research.csu.edu.au/multilingual-speech-playlist 
• Multilingual Children's Speech Website, under 'Speech Acquisition' and then ' Multilingual children's speech development' https://www.csu.edu.au/research/multilingual-speech/speech-acquisition/multilingual-childrens-speech-development

 
BOOK LAUNCH
Here are some lovely photos from our launch at the International Phonetics and Linguistics Association Conference in Greece in 2025: https://speakingmylanguages.blogspot.com/2025/06/launch-of-oxford-handbook-of-speech.html
 

PhD students in 2026

 I am excited to be supervising four wonderful PhD students in 2026:

At Charles Sturt University

• Holly McAlister: Primary supervisor A/Prof Suzanne Hopf. Co-supervisor Prof Sharynne McLeod
• Sarah Bartlett:  Primary supervisor Prof Sharynne McLeod. Co-supervisor Dr Carolyn Gregoric
• Sarah Bartlett:  Primary supervisor Prof Sharynne McLeod. Co-supervisor Prof Sarah Verdon 

 At Utrecht University in The Netherlands

• Anniek Van Doornik: Primary supervisor Prof Ellen Gerritts. Co-supervisor Prof Sharynne McLeod + others

Wishing you a productive year everyone!

Holly and Sharynne  in 2026

Sarah, Sharynne and Carolyn in 2026

 

 

CVC publications in 2025

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.

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Journal articles published in 2025

 Here are the journal articles I co-authored with my students and colleagues that were published in 2025:

1. Margetson, K., McLeod, S., & Verdon, S. (2025). Cross-linguistic transfer in Vietnamese-English speech. Language, Speech, and Hearing Services in Schools, 56(4), 1192-1216. https://doi.org/10.1044/2025_LSHSS-25-00046
2. van Doornik, A., Franken, M. C., McLeod, S., Terband, H., & Gerrits, E. (2025). Children’s, parents’, and experts’ perception of speech and communication. Language, Speech, and Hearing Services in Schools, 56(4), 1042-1053 https://doi.org/10.1044/2025_LSHSS-24-00140
3. Bartlett, S. & McLeod, S. (2025). Caregivers’ insights into supporting their late talkers using Target Word™ Hanen® Parent Program.  International Journal of Speech-Language Pathology, 27(5), 702–716 https://doi.org/10.1080/17549507.2024.2438103
4. McLeod, S., Gregoric, C., Davies, J., Dealtry, L., Delli-Pizzi, L., Downey, B., Elwick, S., Hopf, S. C., Ivory, N., McAlister, H., Murray, E., Rahman, A., Sikder, S., Tran, V. H., & Zischke, C. (2025). Children draw talking around the world. Language, Speech, and Hearing Services in Schools, 56(4), 1088-1109. https://doi.org/10.1044/2025_LSHSS-23-00190
5. Washington, K. N., Crowe, K., McLeod, S., Margetson, K., Bazzocchi, N. B. M., Kokotek, L. E., van der Straten Waillet, P., Másdóttir, T., & Volhardt M. D. S. (2025). Methods of diagnosing speech sound disorders in multilingual children. Language, Speech, and Hearing Services in Schools, 56(3), 469-487.  https://doi.org/10.1044/2025_LSHSS-24-00099
6. McLeod, S., Harrison, L. J., McMahon, C., Wang, C., & Evans, J. R. (2025). Parent-reported speech and language in early childhood is an early indicator of Indigenous Australian children’s literacy and numeracy outcomes. Language, Speech, and Hearing Services in Schools, 56(3), 730-746. https://doi.org/10.1044/2025_LSHSS-23-00200
7. Downey, B., Gibbs, L., Letts, W., & McLeod, S. (2025). Cultivating collaborative practice to sustain and retain early childhood educators. Education Sciences, 15(11), 1451. https://doi.org/10.3390/educsci15111451 
8. Hurley, C. R., McLeod, S., & Anthonappa, R. P. (2025). Extraction of primary maxillary incisors and children’s speech production: A case series. Clinical Linguistics and Phonetics, 39(4–5), 427–439. https://doi.org/10.1080/02699206.2024.2355481
9. van Doornik, A., Welbie, M., McLeod, S., Gerrits, E., & Terband, H. (2025). Speech and language therapists’ insights into severity of speech sound disorders in children for developing the speech sound disorder severity construct. International Journal of Language and Communication Disorders, 60, e70022. https://doi.org/10.1111/1460-6984.70022

Wonderful Children's Voices Centre staff retreat and commencement of 2026

This week the Children's Voices Centre staff came together for a 3-day retreat to celebrate our achievements for 2025 and plan for 2026. We met with DVC-R Neena Mitter and Monique Smith from the DVC-R's office. We also had pesentations from Carly Evans and Aimee Cook from CSU Advancement and Anna Grocholsky from the Research Office. 

 In 2025 we focused on the establishment of the Centre and The Treehouse. We hosted visiting scholars from USA, Norway and UK and many professionals, children and families who came to visit The Treehouse, We undertook impactful research with children that was presented to the World Health Organization (twice), and at an event with the United Nations Foundation and were one of only a handful of universities to be founding members of the WHO Disability Health Equity Network. 

In 2026 we are focusing on our people in order to undertake impactful research. Specifically, children and families; CVC affiliates, adjuncts and HDR students, and professionals, and policy makers. A focus on 2026 will be our Children's Voices Conference (CVC2026) - the fourth time we have run this online interdisciplinary conference. We will also be hosting weekly research seminars and weekly drop-in sessions. We have submitted a number of grants, books, and journal articles - and have more on the way.

Carolyn ready to work in The Beehive

Sharynne, Lorraine, Carolyn, Kathy and Tamara at The Treehouse

First morning

Tamara, Kathy, Lorraine, Carolyn and Sharynne 

Lunch with Anna

Meeting with Neena and Monique

Poppy popped in to start our morning with happiness

Mentoring Prof Jillian Marsh

Over the next six months I have the honour of mentoring Professor Jillian Marsh from the School of Indigenous Australian Studies. Most of our meetings will be online as she is based in Albury; however, next month she will be visiting Bathurst.

Jillian identifies as an Adnyamathanha Yuraartu [Aboriginal woman from the northern Flinders Ranges region of South Australia] and her language is Yura Ngawarla. She has expertise in language and linguistics, archeology and the environment.

 

Back to work for 2026

Today is my first day back at work for 2026. I had a productive and restful holiday spending time with family and friends. It was great to see Lorraine and Tamara - and to plan for our retreat tomorrow.

Tamara, Lorraine (and Sharynne in the background on the screen)

Italian book chapter has been published - Speech sound disorders: Evidenze scientifiche e buone prassi riabilitative

 I am very pleased to see that our invited chapter has been published (in Italian) in the following book:

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

It is exciting to see that this book will be used across Italy. Congratulations to the editors on the compilation of this important book.

 Here is the email we received from the editors:

Dear Colleagues,

First of all, we would like to wish you all a very happy New Year.

We are pleased to let you know that the Italian book on Speech Sound Disorders has finally been published: https://www.erickson.it/it/speech-sound-disorders

... Thank you for this wonderful achievement. We hope that this volume will become a reference textbook for Italian undergraduate and postgraduate Speech and Language Therapy programmes. The book will also be officially presented at the Italian Congress of Phoniatrics and Speech and Language Therapy in the coming months.

Thank you once again, and best wishes from all of us.

Silvia, Renata, Francesca, Nicole and Antonio

Silvia Piazzalunga, PhD
Speech-Language Pathologist, Adjunct Professor
Department of Biomedical and Clinical Sciences "L. Sacco"
"L. Sacco" Hospital
University of Milano, Italy