Children's Speech - second edition

Today Elise and I met to continue working on the second edition of Children's Speech - to be published by Oxford University Press.

 

Children Draw Playing data analysis and write-up

This morning I met with one of the many groups who are analysing different parts of our Children Draw Playing data for different purposes using different philosophical and methodological lenses. This morning I met with the group lead by Dr Belinda Downey that was analysing "How is playing good for the world?" The children had such wonderful insights. Here is some of what we have learned from them. 

Belinda Downey, Sharynne, Katrina Gersbach, Kate Freire, Laura Hoffman

Play is recognised across the globe as important to children's wellbeing and development. In the early years, play is understood as a valuable learning tool with which children develop skills that support engagement in their world across their life. Children's perspectives about play are important yet children's voices are often underrepresented in research. Drawing offers one way to support children to express their lived experience without relying on language, reducing barriers related to age, ability, and linguistic or cultural background.   
The aim of this study was to explore children’s understandings of why play is good for the world. 
During the 2024 Early Childhood Voices Conference, children were invited to create a drawing or artwork of play. A total of 83 drawings were received from children aged between 1 and 12 years from 10 different countries. University ethical approval, parental consent and children’s assent were gained. The artworks were digitally submitted to the Children Draw Playing Global Online Gallery (https://earlychildhoodresearch.csu.domains/early-childhood-voices-conference-2024/children-draw-playing/). An interdisciplinary team of 20 researchers conducted the study and nine researchers considered the children’s text-responses.
Most children (74.7%) drew themselves playing with someone and portrayed themselves as happy (81.9%).  The drawings often displayed physical or active play, outside, in parks and playgrounds, or at home.
A conventional content analysis was conducted on children’s text-based responses to “How is playing good for the world?” Themes were: Playing makes the world happy (n=16), keeps us healthy and energetic (n=17), is fun and entertains us (n=15), brings people together (n=9), and we can try new things (n=9). One child said “it’s not” and three children said “I don’t know”. 
This research contributes to a deeper understanding of children's lived experience of play, why it is an important part of their everyday lives and what play can offer the world. 
 

 

CVC2026 update

Overview: Conference to be held 1-3 September 2026

• 666 registrants across 40+ countries
• 174 abstracts from 36 countries
• 114 papers with 2+ reviews completed (9 no reviews + 51 one review)
• 4 keynotes accepted

Registrations = 666
Countries: (40) Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Chile, China, Denmark, Great Britain, Greece, Iceland, India, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Kenya, Kuwait, Latvia, Lithuania, Malaysia, Malta, Mexico, Morocco, Nepal, Netherlands, New Zealand, Nigeria, Norway, Papua New Guinea, Philippines, Portugal, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, South Africa, Spain, Thailand, Turkey, United Kingdom, United States, Vietnam

Abstract submissions = 174
Countries: Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, China, Egypt, Fiji, Greece, Hong Kong, Iceland, India, Indonesia, Ireland, Israel, Lithuania, Malaysia, Malta, Mongolia, Morocco, Nepal, New Zealand, Nigeria, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Slovakia, South Africa, Spain, Sri Lanka, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, United States, VietNam

CVC2026 Committees
Scientific review committee (Chair: Associate Professor Tamara Cumming)
Committee membership: Dr Helen L. Blake; Sarah Bartlett; Associate Professor Kathy Cologon; Associate Professor Kate Crowe; Dr Jessamy Davies; Dr Lysa Dealtry; Dr Belinda Downey; Dr Kate Freire; Katrina Gersbach; Dr Leanne Gibbs; Dr Carolyn Gregoric; Hannah Greig; Dr Jo Grimmond; Mrs Kasey Hillyar; Dr Laura Hoffman; Dr Suzanne C. Hopf; Cyrena Hunt-Madden; Alam Hossain; Associate Professor Brendon Hyndman; Dr Marie Ireland; Janine Krecko; Dr Kate Margetson; Professor Jillian Marsh; Holly McAlister; Distinguished Professor Sharynne McLeod; Arifa Rahman; Associate Professor Mehdi Rassafiani, Dr Goutam Roy; Dr Shukla Sikder; Dr Lindsay Smith; Sarah Stenson; Associate Professor Sarah Verdon, Dr Lucia Wuersch

Children's voices committee (Chair: Associate Professor Kathy Cologon)
Committee membership: Associate Professor Kate Crowe; Dr Kate Freire; Katrina Gersbach; Kasey Hillyar; Dr Marie Ireland; Janine Krecko; Holly McAlister; Distinguished Professor Sharynne McLeod; Arifa Rahman; Dr Lindsay Smith; Sarah Stenson

Organisation committee (Chair: Dr Carolyn Gregoric)
Committee membership: Associate Professor Kathy Cologon; Associate Professor Kate Crowe; Distinguished Professor Sharynne McLeod; Sarah Stenson

Participant network and fun committee (Co-chairs Ms Sarah Bartlett and Dr Jo Grimmond)
Committee membership: Dr Lysa Dealtry; Dr Carolyn Gregoric; Alam Hossain; Dr Shukla Sikder

Professional recognition committee (Chair: Professor Sarah Verdon)
Committee membership: Dr Carolyn Gregoric; Kasey Hillyar; Janine Krecko; Holly McAlister; Arifa Rahman

Promotion/social media committee (Chair Associate Professor Kathy Cologon)
Committee membership: Associate Professor Kathy Cologon; Dr Marie Ireland; Janine Krecko; Dr Kate Margetson; Arifa Rahman

Publications committee (Chair: Associate Professor Tamara Cumming)
Committee membership: Associate Professor Kathy Cologon; Dr Leanne Gibbs; Dr Suzanne C. Hopf; Mr Alam Hossain; Associate Professor Brendon Hyndman; Distinguished Professor Sharynne McLeod; Arifa Rahman; Dr Goutam Roy; Dr Shukla Sikder; Associate Professor Sarah Verdon

Arifa Rahman on the Scientific Review Committee reviewing abstracts in EasyChair

CVC finance update

Thanks to Gil Burmeister who is overseeing the finance for CVC. We learned a lot from her today during her visit to The Treehouse.

A new kitchen for The Treehouse

For over two years we have been working towards having a new safe kitchen in The Treehouse for the Children's Voices Centre. We are getting very close to realising our goal. The plans are in - and the builders are ready. Thanks to the philanthropist who donated the funds for this to occur.

CVC and World Health Organization collaboration

Our CVC team met this morning to update our progress on the CVC and WHO collaborative projects exploring children's perspectives of health. Most projects have completed the data collection phase and are currently being written up. There will be a lot of publications submitted in the next half of the year.

Tamara, Sharynne, Belinda, Kathy, Carolyn, Helen, Kate F

Publication impact

Kate Crowe and wrote two papers summarizing children's speech acquisition. Recently we learned that they are two of the three papers that are the most downloaded of any papers published in the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association journals. WOW!

• Children's English Consonant Acquisition in the United States: A Review, authored by Kathryn Crowe and Sharynne McLeod and published in AJSLP in November 2020 currently has 298, 831 downloads.  At the current rate it will pass 300,000 downloads sometime this month.
• Children's Consonant Acquisition in 27 Languages: A Cross-Linguistic Review, authored by Sharynne McLeod and Kathryn Crowe and published in the November 2018 edition of AJSLP is currently at 205,471 downloads. 

Orðaheimurinn Team Meeting

This morning was the first Orðaheimurinn (OH+) Team Meeting (World of Words).

Grant title: Optimisation of the World of Words (Orðaheimurinn batnandi fer) 

Here is the abstract: Many children from homes where Icelandic is not spoken, or not the only language spoken, experience challenges communicating effectively in Icelandic during their preschool years and beyond. This can be due to these children having insufficient access to high quality Icelandic language models in their daily lives. Difficulties with Icelandic in the preschool years can have long-term negative consequences for children’s language, literacy, academic, social, emotional, psychological, and vocational outcomes. This project is an extension of a cluster randomized controlled trial conducted in 2022-2024 and will test an optimised version of the Orðaheimurinn [World of Words] intervention, called Orðaheimurinn+ (OH+). OH+ is a teacher-delivered shared-reading intervention and education program for increasing the Icelandic language skills of children in preschool, especially children who are multilingual. This project uses a Translational Research Framework within a Community-Based Participatory Research approach to maximise the social validity of OH+ and ensure that an intervention is developed that can be widely used by preschools across Iceland. 

The project is based on World of Words: /https://www.worldofwordswow.com/

The following people are researchers involved in the project and were present:

• Kate Crowe - University of Iceland
• Þóra Másdóttir - University of Iceland
• Jóhanna T. Einarsdóttir - University of Iceland
• Susan B. Neumann - New York University, USA
• Mark Guiberson - University of Wyoming, USA
• Sharynne McLeod, Charles Sturt University, Australia 
• Frederic Borries - USA

We received a grant from the Icelandic Research Fund to undertake this work (17% success rate)  

Susan introduced us to this paper: 

Weiss, C. H. (1995). Nothing as Practical as Good Theory: Exploring Theory-Based Evaluation for Comprehensive Community Initiatives for Children and Families. In J. Connell, A. C. Kubisch, L. B. Schorr, & C. H. Weiss (Eds.), New Approaches to Evaluating Community Initiatives: Concepts, Methods, and Contexts (pp. 65-92). Aspen Institute. https://docs.opendeved.net/lib/2URBNM2X

 

Intelligibility in 3- and 5-year-olds born with cleft lip and/or palate: Reference data on Intelligibility in Context Scale scores

The following paper has just been published. It was commenced during my Benjamin Meaker Visiting Distinguished Professorship at the University of Bristol.

Davies, A., McLeod, S. & Wren, Y. (2026). Intelligibility in 3- and 5-year-olds born with cleft lip and/or palate: Reference data on Intelligibility in Context Scale scores. The Cleft Palate Craniofacial Journal. https://doi.org/10.1177/10556656261456526

Here is the abstract:

Objective
(a) Provide reference data for the Intelligibility in Context Scale (ICS) for children born with cleft lip and/or palate and (b) compare ICS scores: between cleft types; with typically developing and normative samples; and across ages 3- and 5-year-old children.
Design
Longitudinal prospective cohort study.
Setting
Questionnaire data from the Cleft Collective.
Participants
Three-year-old (n = 928) and 5-year-old children (n = 795) born with cleft lip and/or palate.
Main Outcome Measure(s)
ICS – parent-reported measure using a 5-point Likert scale to indicate how intelligible their child is with seven different communication partners.
Results
Median scores for children born with cleft lip only were higher (4.14, 95% CI = 4.00–4.14 for 3-year-olds; 5.00, 95% CI = 4.29–5.00 for 5-year-olds) than those born with any form of cleft palate (3.71, 95% CI = 3.57–3.86 for 3-year-olds; 4.14, 95% CI = 4.14–4.29 for 5-year-olds). Scores for children born with cleft lip only aligned with studies comprising typically developing children and normative samples, whereas those born with any form of cleft palate did not. Children born with cleft palate and a diagnosed syndrome scored lower than those born with non-syndromic cleft palate. For children who had data at both ages, 75.4% showed improvement over time, 14.3% stayed the same and 10.3% scored lower at age 5.
Conclusion
Reference data are now available for children with the major cleft subtypes which can be used for comparison in clinical settings. These data show how children born with cleft compare with the non-cleft population and change over time.

Congratulations Holly

Congratulations to Holly McAlister who has had these papers published for her PhD while I have been on leave:

McAlister, H., McLeod, S., & Hopf, S. C. (2026). Ladders, trees and matrixes: Child-focused participatory action research frameworks for children with diverse communication abilities. Child Language Teaching and Therapy. https://doi.org/10.1177/02656590261455298 

McAlister, H., Hopf, S. C., & McLeod, S. (2026). Mountain garden views: Speech-language pathologists’ beliefs, practices and aspirations for culturally responsive practice with Pacific Islander children and families. Speech, Language and Hearing, 29(1), 2671099. https://doi.org/10.1080/2050571X.2026.2671099
 

CeTasSSD catchup

While I was away the CeTasSSD team finalised the data collection. There are 1207 students in kindergarten across the state and were were able to assess 880 students. Most of the students we were unable to assess did not have consent forms returned. We are very pleased with this number. We are now analysing the data so that we can create a bespoke speech screening pathway for the state.

Felicity, Sharynne  and Lisa

The latest registrations for CVC2026

The latest registrations for CVC2026 are: 548 registrants across 40 countries. Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Chile, China, Denmark, Great Britain, Greece, Iceland, India, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Kenya, Kuwait, Latvia, Lithuania, Malaysia, Malta, Mexico, Morocco, Nepal, Netherlands, New Zealand, Nigeria, Norway, Papua New Guinea, Philippines, Portugal, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, South Africa, Spain, Thailand, Turkey, United Kingdom, United States, Vietnam. 

We have received 174 abstracts from 36 countries. Our scientific review committee is currently reviewing the papers so that only high quality papers are accepted for presentation at the conference. 

Welcome back to CVC

Today was my first day back at work (yesterday was a public holiday). My Children's Voices Centre team has been fantastic. They have been so productive while I have been away. Thank you to A/Prof Kathy Cologon who was the acting director of CVC while I was away and Dr Helen Blake who answered many of my research emails. I also had a kangaroo hop across the lawn outside of my office and some gorgeous birds come to say hello. It is nice to be back.

CVC children's advisory group present at the WHO Disability Health Equity Network side event at COSP19

This week the Children's Voices Centre Children's Advisory group are presenting at the United Nations in New York! They have prepared a 7 minute video to be played during the official United Nations side event. Kathy Cologon has worked with nine children associated with CVC to prepare the video. Wow!

The CVC Children's Advisory Group who presented were: Finbar, Zac, Chloe, Knox, Jocelyn, Greta, Nayantara, Biju facilitated by A/Prof Kathy Cologon, Dr Belinda Downey, Dr Shukla Sikder, and Dr Goutam Roy

Here are the details: 

World Health Organization (WHO) Disability Health Equity Network (DHEN) Side Event at the 19th Conference of States Parties (COSP19) to the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disability in New York City

Title: Rights to Results: Political Prioritization of Disability Health Equity 20 Years After the CRPD
Time: Wednesday, June 10 ∙ 11:30 am  - 12:45 pm EDT
Location: Bahá'í International Community, 866 United Nations Plaza, Suite 120, New York, NY 10017
Co-sponsors:
•    WHO Disability Health Equity Network (DHEN)
•    International Disability and Development Consortium (IDDC)
•    Deaf Child Worldwide
•    International Cerebral Palsy Society (ICPS)
•    Rehabilitation International (RI)

Here is the run sheet for the UN side event

11:30 – 11:35    Opening        Christoph Gutenbrunner
11:35 – 11:45    Welcome Addresses       
•    Rehabilitation International President: Christoph Gutenbrunner
•    WHO: Kaloyan Kamenov 
•    Deaf Child Worldwide and IDDC: Elizabeth Sidell
•    ICPS: John Coughlan 
11:45 – 11:50    Introduction of the speakers    Christoph Gutenbrunner    
•    Janet Charchuk, Board Member of Down Syndrome International
•    Rafael Bonfin, Co-founder of Noussa Casa Institute (International Cerebral Palsy Society)
•    Dr. Latoya Dixon, Post-Doctoral Student/Lamar University, Disability Advocate & Critic of the ADA
•    Danielle Engel, Programme Specialist, SRHR Across Life Course, UNFPA
11:50 – 11:57    Video Children’s Voices Centre Advisory Group of Charles Sturt University, Australia
11:57-12:07    Panelist statements
12:07 – 12:32    Panel discussion
12:32 – 12:42    Open discussion with the audience
12:42 – 12:45     Wrap up and closure

 

Universities

While I was on leave I had the opportunity to visit the campuses of a few universities around the world. I did not visit in an official capacity - so had a lovely time just exploring the campuses of ancient and modern universities in cities including:

• Fes and Marrakesh in Morocco 
• Coimbra, Aveiro and Braga in Portugal

I particularly enjoyed the tour of the UNESCO heritage listed university in Coimbra and chatting to the students about the customs and traditions. 

Chatting with students at the University of Coimbra about traditions when students transitioned from first to second year

 

On leave

Thanks to Kathy, Tamara, Helen, Emma and Carolyn who are holding the fort while I am on long service leave (a unique Australian legislated employment entitlement https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Long_service_leave) 

Oxford Handbook page proofs - round 2

Over the past week Helen Blake and I have been reviewing the second round of page proofs for The Oxford Handbook of Speech Development in Languages of the World. It is a very complex book filled with phonetic symbols and many orthographies from across the world. It is also a book that I have standardised with every chapter presented in exactly the same way so that people can compare one language and dialect with another. The book has been written by 173 authors speaking 75 languages and dialects. These factors make the typesetting phase very complicated. We are nearly there...

I am so proud of this amazing book - I can't wait until it is published in June so that the world can share the contents.

Here is the link to the book: https://global.oup.com/academic/product/the-oxford-handbook-of-speech-development-in-languages-of-the-world-9780192868862 

Here is the view out of my window across the autumn leaves as I finalise the page proofs:

Here is a paper that Helen and I wrote about the work we have been doing to support multilingual children's speech: 

McLeod, S., & Blake, H. L. (2026). Global knowledge in 131 languages and dialects about children’s speech development, assessment, and intervention. Clinical Linguistics and Phonetics, Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1080/02699206.2026.2635344 
 

 

CeTasSSD Speech Census wrap up

This week our CeTasSSD Speech Census team met to celebrate meeting so many wonderful 4- to 5-year-olds during our research. We also reflected on what went well and what can be changed in the future.

Here are our statistics so far:  

• 1207 Kinder students in the state
• 981 consent forms returned (226 not returned)
• 945 consent forms provided consent (36 did not provide consent)
• 874 assessments attempted (45+ more not yet entered into the spreadsheet)
• 14 children did not give assent and 8 could not be assessed (e.g., due to disability)
• 859 (+45) children have completed the International Speech Screener (ISS)

Thanks so much to the children and schools (especially the SSCs and TAs). Thanks to our wonderful CeTasSSD research team. Hooray team!

Helen Blake, Sharynne McLeod, Felicity Laurence, Emma Scanlon, Ally Barrett met for 2 hours to debrief, summarise, and plan

Team members not pictured: Sarah Verdon, Kate Crowe, Lisa Johnson 

CVC2026 update

Today's CVC2026 conference update:

• 302 registrations from 33 countries
• 32 abstracts submitted so far - closing 11 May 2026 

Registrants' countries:  Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, China, Denmark, Fiji, Greece, Iceland, India, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Kenya, Kuwait, Latvia, Lithuania, Malaysia, Malta, Netherlands, New Zealand, Nigeria, Norway, Papua New Guinea, Philippines, Portugal, Qatar, Singapore, South Africa, Spain, Thailand, Turkey, United Kingdom, United States

CVC's Finance Business Partner visits The Treehouse

Today Gil Burmeister, the Finance Business Partner for CVC visited The Treehouse and provided extremely useful advice and updates for Emma Hayes (our new Senior Administration Officer) and myself. Thanks Gil.