Celebration - The Oxford Handbook of Speech Development in Languages of the World

Today we had two celebrations of The Oxford Handbook of Speech Development in Languages of the World with 61 of our our chapter authors. We had one celebration at 8am and one at 6pm AEST in order to accommodate the world's timezones. THANK YOU TO OUR WONDERFUL MULTILINGUAL MINDS.

OUP chapter authors - Celebration 1

 

OUP chapter authors - Celebration 2 (photo 1)

OUP chapter authors - Celebration 2 (photo 2)

OUP chapter authors attending celebration 1

OUP chapter authors attending celebration 2

The Oxford Handbook of Speech Development in Languages of the World (McLeod, 2026)

• 80 chapters: 5 intro chapters, 49 language chapters, 27 dialect chapters
• 173 authors 
• 1503 pages
• Publication 2026
• Companion child/adult recordings

Oxford University Press websites: 

• Online book: https://academic.oup.com/edited-volume/62951 
• Information: https://global.oup.com/academic/product/the-oxford-handbook-of-speech-development-in-languages-of-the-world-9780192868862 

Google books sample: 

• https://play.google.com/store/books/details?pcampaignid=books_read_action&id=PGDkEQAAQBAJ 

Charles Sturt University associated sites: 

• YouTube channel: https://research.csu.edu.au/multilingual-speech-playlist 
• Language, abstracts, PowerPoints and videos: https://multilingual-childrens-speech-development.csu.domains/by-language/ 

CELEBRATION 1 – 21 ATTENDEES
Wed 12 August 2026 – 8am AEST

1. Alexis Black
2. Barbara M Bernhardt
3. Benjamas Prathanee
4. Brenda Louw
5. Chelsea Sommer
6. Daniel Bérubé
7. Francoise Brosseau-Lapre
8. Hatun Zengin-Bolatkale
9. Helen Blake
10. Ida Stockman
11. Joe Stemberger
12. Kate Margetson
13. Kelly Farquharson
14. Krisztina Zajdó
15. Lynn Williams
16. Márcia Keske-Soares
17. Peter Flipsen
18. Sharynne McLeod
19. Simon McDonald
20. Susan Rvachew
21. Tanya Flores

CELEBRATION 2 – 39 ATTENDEES
Wed 12 August 2026 – 6pm AEST 

22.    Anna-Leena Martikainen
23.    Annette Fox-Boyer
24.    Spyros Armostis (Σπύρος Αρμοστής)
25.    Anniek van Doornik
26.    Avivit Ben-David
27.    Ben Phạm
28.    Ciara O'Toole
29.    Dana Buntová
30.    Diana Ignatova
31.    Elaine Ballard
32.    Ewa Czaplewska
33.    Ghada Khattab
34.    Hadeel Ayyad
35.    Hanne Gram Simonsen
36.    Helen Blake
37.    Helen Grech
38.    Jennifer Boer
39.    Katri Saaristo-Helin
40.    Lakshmi Venkatesh
41.    Leah Gedalyovich
42.    Marit Carolin Clausen
43.    Martina Ozbič
44.    Melanie Basinger
45.    Olebeng Mahura
46.    Paula Fikkert
47.    Paulina Zydorowicz
48.    Salome Geertsema
49.    Tamer Abou-Elsaad
50.    Rowena Garcia
51.    Saira Ambreen
52.    Sara Lavaggi
53.    Sari Kunnari
54.    Savitha Vadakkanthara Hariharan
55.    Sharynne McLeod
56.    Silke Fricke
57.    Sofia Strömbergsson
58.    Spyros Armostis
59.    Taelo Qhala
60.    Thora Masdottir
61.    Yvonne Wren

Apologies

1. Kathryn Crowe, Iceland
2. Sarah Verdon, Australia 
3. Wiebke Freese, Germany
4. Shahla Fatemi, Iran 
5. Mia Roux, South Africa

Bathurst Regional Council | Cultural & Community Services

I was invited by Cultural & Community Services at Bathurst Regional Council to speak to their team as part of their ongoing professional development and sector engagement program. It was as wonderful opportunity to speak about the Children's Voices Centre and all of the fantastic research, professional development and children's advocacy work we are doing in Bathurst and around the world. My presentation was held in the Motor Racing Museum on Mt Panorama and the following people were invited:

• Director Cultural & Community Services | Dan Cove
• Manager Community Services | Megan Bargwanna
• Manager Museums & Gallery | Amanda Crews
• Manager Library Services | Patou Clerc and Victoria (Tori)
• Manager Entertainment Centre | Graham McNab
• Manager Tourism & Visitor Services | Melinda Hadley
• Manager Events | Hannah Welch
• Assistant to DCCS | Alison Armstrong

Sharynne  with Patou Clerc, Manager of Library Services

A new kitchen for The Treehouse - demolition day

Finally - the day has come for us to get a new child-safe kitchen for The Treehouse. Thank you to the philanthropic donor who funded this through CSU Advancement.

Here are some demolition photos

 

 

Weekly CVC staff meeting

What a team! Our Children's Voices Centre team meets every week and achieves so much. Today we focused on our upcoming CVC conference, email compliance, newsletter, rebuilding our kitchen, visit to UoW last week etc. 

 

Sharynne  McLeod, Emma Hayes, 
Carolyn Gregoric, Kathy Cologon, 
Amy Whitfield, Tamara Cumming

Early morning meeting with World Health Organization

Working with colleagues from across the world on World Health Organization committees means that there are a number of meetings at inconvenient times of the day.

Early this morning we had the first meeting of Workstream 4, Subcommittee 3 of the World Health Organization Disability Health Equity Network. We discussed our plans for advancing disability health equity research and dissemination/translation. 

I mentioned that I am working on developing a new special issue for advancing disability health equity research.

I also learned from my colleagues about some great work that they are doing with people with disabilities.

Special issues

I have been involved in guest editing a number of special issues including: 

1. Communication is a human right: Celebrating the 70th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights | Guest Editor: Sharynne McLeod  | International Journal of Speech-Language Pathology 2018, 20(1)  https://www.tandfonline.com/toc/iasl20/20/1
2.  Communication, swallowing and the Sustainable Development Goals | Guest Editors: Sharynne McLeod and Julie Marshall | International Journal of Speech-Language Pathology  2023, 25(1) https://www.tandfonline.com/toc/iasl20/25/1
3. Listening to children with diverse communication abilities | Guest Editors: Sharynne McLeod and Holly McAlister with Journal Editors: Judy Clegg and Victoria Joffe | Child Language Teaching and Therapy, in process to appear 2026  | https://journals.sagepub.com/home/CLT
4. ​Children’s communication and the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) | Guest Editors: Sharynne McLeod, Helen L. Blake and Kathy Cologon  | Language, Speech, and Hearing Services in Schools, in process to appear 2027 |  | https://pubs.asha.org/journal/lshss

Collaborative conversations with researchers in Greece

This afternoon I had a great exploratory conversation with Dr Evangelia Kyritsi, a colleague in Greece, who contacted us about undertaking research together to support children with diverse communication abilities during wildfires/bushfires. CVC affiliates have undertaken a number of projects that are relevant

Dr Evangelia Kyritsi, University of Athens: https://en.phil.uoa.gr/academic_departments/linguistics/special_teaching_staff/evangelia_kyritsi

Relevant research by CVC affiliates:

• McGill, N., Verdon, S., Curtin, M., Crockett, J., Parnell, T., & Hodgins, G. (2023). The impact of climate-related disasters on children’s communication and wellbeing: Addressing Sustainable Development Goals. International Journal of Speech-Language Pathology, 25(1), 20–26. https://doi.org/10.1080/17549507.2022.2156613

• McGill, N., Curtin, M., Hodgins, G., Parnell, T., Verdon, S., Crockett, J., & Davison, W. R. (2024). Supporting children's recovery from bushfires: Stakeholders' views about the impact of a community-based intervention program on children. Australian Journal of Rural Health, 32(1), 42-52. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1111/ajr.13060 
• https://www.csu.edu.au/sustainability/sustainable-development-goals/success-stories/2021/investigating-the-impacts-of-bushfire-recovery-programs-for-children
• https://research.csu.edu.au/our-impact/success-stories/charles-sturt-research-shapes-community-based-disaster-preparedness-strategies

CSU CVC researchers featured on SPA website and communications

Speech Pathology Australia has featured us on their website! https://www.speechpathologyaustralia.org.au/

 

CVC Bimonthly Community Meeting and Lunch

Today CVC affiliates joined us for our bimonthly whole of centre meeting. The agenda included centre updates, collaborative projects, and opportunities to get involved. We also welcomed Amy Whitfield as our new Digital Media Curator

CVC2026 - Over 1,000 registrations

Today we were able to celebrate over 1,000 CVC2026 registrations 

1,041 registrations across 58 countries (6 August 2026)
(June 2026 Registrations = 666 from 40 countries)
Countries: Australia, Bangladesh, Belgium, Brazil, Bulgaria, Canada, Chile, China, Croatia, Denmark, Egypt, Fiji, Finland, Germany, Ghana, Great Britain, Greece, Hong Kong, Iceland, India, Indonesia, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Kenya, Kuwait, Latvia, Lesotho, Lithuania, Macao, Malawi, Malaysia, Malta, Mexico, Morocco, Nepal, Netherlands, New Zealand, Nigeria, Norway, Papua New Guinea, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Puerto Rico, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, South Africa, Spain, Sri Lanka, Sweden, Switzerland, Thailand, Türkiye, Uganda, United Kingdom, United States, Vietnam

Abstract acceptances = 145 from 35 countries (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, Sri Lanka, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, United States, Viet Nam 

Today we had our last CVC Scientific Review Committee meeting where we are looking at the quality of the videos that are submitted before we upload them onto the CSU YouTube channel for the CVC2026 conference

CVC2026 Scientific Review Committee - 6 Aug 2026

Amy Whitfield is our new CVC Digital Media Curator - and is working hard to ensure all quality reviewed CVC2026 presentation videos are captioned and online.

Amy Whitfield in The Treehouse

Visit to Early Start at University of Wollongong

This week A/Prof Tamara Cumming and I were able to visit Early Start at University of Wollongong and spend 3 hours with their fantastic staff

• Director, Culture and Community | Associate Professor Anthony McKnight  (Macca)
• Director, Research and Education | Associate professor Judy Pickard 
• Manager, Early Start Operations | Josef English 

IJSLP editorial board meeting

Tonight I attended the editorial board meeting for the International Journal of Speech-Language Pathology (IJSLP).

• Editors: Natalie Munro and Elizabeth (Libby) Cardell
• Editorial Board: Kirrie Ballard, Suze Leitao, Sharynne McLeod, Mark Onslow, Anne Whitworth
• International: Chris Code (UK) 

IJSLP's acceptance rate is 26% and they received 346 submissions in 2025.

Here is the 2025 impact factor for speech-language pathology journals:

• LSHSS 3.0
• JSLHR 2.5
• AJSLP 2.5
• IJLCD 2.5
• JCD 2.2
• CLTT 1.7
• IJSLP 1.6
• Folia Phon 1.2
• SLH 1.1
• CLP 1.1
• Seminars 1.0
• Logopedia 1.0 

OUP free chapter

Chapter 1 of The Oxford Handbook of Speech Development in Languages of the World is free until 28th August 2026 

https://academic.oup.com/edited-volume/62951/chapter-abstract/564582292?redirectedFrom=fulltext

McLeod, S. (2026). Children’s speech development around the world: A transformative paradigm shift. In S. McLeod (Ed.), The Oxford Handbook of Speech Development in Languages of the World. Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/9780191964909.003.0084 

SACHL research

Congratulations to Dr Kate Margetson and Fiona Baybrooks who are working so well on the implementation science research for the Speech Assessments in Children's Home Languages (SACHL). Last week, Kate applied the SACHL to the assessment of a child who spoke English, Swahili, French and two other languages - and it worked!

 

 

Vice Chancellor's All-staff Session

Today I attended the CSU Vice Chancellor's All-staff Session on the Bathurst. It was advertised as "This is a chance for me to update you on the university’s direction and priorities and to hear directly from you with any questions or views." The VC asked for news and updates, so I was able to provide a shout out to A/Prof Kathy Cologon, Dr Belinda Downey, Dr Goutam Roy, Dr Shukla Siker, their children and the Communications Team (Kevin Ng and Dom Lindsay) for their research that lead to the World Health Organization profiling our CVC children's advisory group 7-minute video in their presentation at the United Nations in June.

 

Holly has printed her PhD

There is a significant moment in writing a PhD - and that is when you print what you have written for the first time and start to read it as a book. Congratulations Holly McAlister for ticking off this important milestone.

 

CSU Writing for Publication Program

I am both an invited speaker and mentor for the CSU Writing For Publication Program run by the Research Office. There are 22 participants who meet every 3-weeks on Fridays. Their goal is to write a journal article during the program. I am mentoring Dr Carolyn Gregoric to write the paper about Children Draw Playing in Mongolia. This morning focused on writing the introduction, conclusion and literature review.

Child Language Teaching and Therapy Special Issue (2026) is finished

Child Language Teaching and Therapy Special Issue (2026)
Listening to Children with Diverse Communication Abilities
Guest editors: Sharynne McLeod and Holly McAlister, Children’s Voices Centre, Charles Sturt University, Australia
CLTT Editors: Judy Clegg and Victoria Joffe

1. Cologon, K. (2026). From space and voice to audience and influence: Methodological approaches to inclusive co-research with young children. Child Language Teaching and Therapy, Advance online publication.  
2. Deehan, H., McLeod, S., & Harrison, L. J. (2026). “Oh! I forgot the voice”: Comparing drawings of talking by children with and without speech sound disorder. Child Language Teaching and Therapy, Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1177/02656590261433348
3. Devane K., O’Malley-Keighran M., & Carroll, C. (2026). ‘Irish... It’s the native language...It representes who you are in a way’: Understanding the lives of Irish-English speaking children in Ireland. Child Language Teaching and Therapy, Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1177/02656590261460261
4. Doherty, G., O’Malley-Keighran, M., & Carroll, C. (2026). An exploratory study of the school experiences of multilingual children in an English monolingual primary school in Ireland. Child Language Teaching and Therapy, Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1177/02656590261461427
5. Esbensen, A., Pilesjö, M. S., &., & Clausen, M. C. (2026). “I’m a man of few words”: Children’s perspectives on living with developmental language disorder. Child Language Teaching and Therapy, Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1177/02656590261428941
6. Furlong, L., Clendon, S., Gillon, G. & McNeill, B. (2026). Children’s perspectives on structured literacy teaching and their emerging perceptions of themselves as readers and writers. Child Language Teaching and Therapy, Advance online publication.
7. Gregoric, C., McLeod, S., Hopf, S. C., Downey, B., Rahman, A., Sikder, S., Zischke, C., Tran, V. H., Murray, E., McAlister, H., Ivory, N., Delli-Pizzi, L., Elwick, S., Dealtry, L., &., & Davies, J. (2026). Advancing the Sustainable Development Goals by listening to children’s voices across the globe. Child Language Teaching and Therapy, Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1177/02656590251406102
8. Harasym, J. A., Gross, D. P., MacLeod, A. A., &., & Phelan, S. K. (2026). They smirk ‘but you’re not dying’ and other (mis)understandings about communication and concussion navigated by youth: An arts-based reflexive collective case study. Child Language Teaching and Therapy, Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1177/02656590261424124
9. Harding, S., Burr, S., Cleland, J., Stringer, H., & Wren, Y. (2026). Understanding the experiences of children with speech sound disorder in speech and language therapy using emotional mapping. Child Language Teaching and Therapy, Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1177/02656590261444674
10. McAlister, H., McLeod, S., & Hopf, S. C. (2026). Ladders, trees and matrixes: Child-focused participatory action research frameworks in speech-language pathology. Child Language Teaching and Therapy, Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1177/02656590261455298
11. McCormack J., Cronin A., McLeod S., Ireland M., Wang C., & Tiong C (2026). Children’s drawing of intervention for childhood apraxia of speech (CAS): Place, people, activity and emotion. Child Language Teaching and Therapy, Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1177/02656590251375340
12. McLeod, S. (2026). Large listening ears are not enough: How can we mature in our practices to listen to children? Child Language Teaching and Therapy, Advance online publication.
13. Miletic, K., Choi, L. D., Biggs, K., Bazzocchi, N. B., & Washington, K. N. (2026). Listening to Jamaican preschoolers’ voices: Exploring relationships between child- and proxy-based measures of communication experiences. Child Language Teaching and Therapy, Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1177/02656590261461429
14.  Shelton, N., Munro, N., Starling, J., Tieu, L., Sutherland, R., &., & Keep, M. (2026). Social media experiences of adolescents with communication disability: A structured interview pilot study. Child Language Teaching and Therapy, Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1177/02656590261432879
15. Spencer, S., Roberts, V., Schroeter, K., &., & Clegg, J. (2026). Being understood: Neurodivergent care leavers’ perspectives on their own communication skills. Child Language Teaching and Therapy, Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1177/02656590251411749
16. Tiong, C., McCormack, J., & Cronin, A. (2026). What is a good outcome in speech and language therapy and how can this be achieved? Exploring the views of school-aged children and parents. Child Language Teaching and Therapy, Advance online publication.
17. Weir, S., Forster, S., &., & Clendon, S. (2026). Exploring voice and participatory processes for children who communicate in unconventional ways. Child Language Teaching and Therapy, Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1177/02656590261422660

Holly and Sharynne  celebrating the achievement

CVC2026 and SDGs

We calculated today that the CVC2026 papers cover all Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) apart from 2, 6, and 7. What a comprehensive program!

CeTasSSD exciting numbers

Screening was attempted with the 1203 Kinder student cohort using the Intelligibility in Context Scale (ICS), a parent and educator (ICSE) report tool. Speech pathologists also screened speech using the International Speech Screener (ISS). The Diagnostic Evaluation of Articulation and Phonology (DEAP) was administered as a benchmark. Speech Pathology contractors completed diagnostic assessments as usual practice. Data collection was embedded within existing school processes, modified collaboratively with teaching colleagues. Ethics approval was granted by Charles Sturt University (CSU) Human Research Ethics Committee (approval 25025). 

Speech was screened with the ICS with 929 students and with 895 of these using the ISS also.  Some students were identified for additional assessment using ICS and/or teacher “worry” about students’ ability to pronounce speech sounds (n = 526). The DEAP Diagnostic Screen was completed on 219 students and the Phonology subtest on 119 students. Diagnostic speech assessments were completed on 497 students who did not pass screening.

Emma Scanlon has entered 529 ISS forms into Phon still a few hundred to go - but this is a big number. Thanks Emma and Felicity