Margetson, K., Tran, V. H., Blake, H. L., Verdon, S., Phạm, B., & McLeod, S. (2026). Speech and language of Vietnamese-English-speaking children and their families. In E. Babatsouli, Y. F. Holt, & K. N. Washington (Eds.), Linguistic varieties in North America: A guide for speech and language practitioners. (pp. 308-320) Multilingual Matters. https://doi.org/10.21832/BABATS2682
A wonderful collaboration based on our VietSpeech research
Tonight we had our 2-monthly meeting with Dr Mél Gréaux from the World Health Organization to advance the collaborative project with the Children's Voices Centre
AIM: To advance health equity for persons with disabilities by understanding the experience and perspectives of children with disabilities in the health sector
We are at the 18-month point of our 2-year project - so there are a lot of excellent results being discussed as we are finalising the presentations and publications from our research. We were pleased that Mél summarised the meeting with the sentence "As always, it's massively impressive". Thanks Mél - we really enjoy working with you too.
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| Sharynne McLeod, Mél Gréaux, Kate Freire, Carolyn Gregoric, Belinda Downey, Helen L. Blake |
Today's CVC lunchtime seminar was by Lyndall Holstein from the CSU Library.
She shared these useful resources:
Open Educational Resources (OER)
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.
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| OUP chapter authors - Celebration 1 |
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| OUP chapter authors - Celebration 2 (photo 1) |
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| OUP chapter authors - Celebration 2 (photo 2) |
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| OUP chapter authors attending celebration 1 (yellow) and 2 (blue) |
The Oxford Handbook of Speech Development in Languages of the World (McLeod, 2026)
Oxford University Press websites:
Google books sample:
Charles Sturt University associated sites:
CELEBRATION 1 – 21 ATTENDEES
Wed 12 August 2026 – 8am AEST
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
We live in interesting times.
Here is the segment of a discussion from the ASHA Board of Directors Meeting this week as provided in the full report Linda I. Rosa-Lugo, President, American Speech-Language-Hearing Association:
"GENERATIVE DISCUSSION ASHA’s BOD conducts generative discussions during each BOD meeting. At the August meeting, Chief Staff Officer for Science and Research Margaret Rogers facilitated a generative discussion on the topics of the American Instability, Splintered Society, Rejection of Expertise, and Declining Trust, with a focus on how ASHA, audiologists and SLPs, and academic programs might prepare for a future that has been heavily influenced by these persistent trends. They discussed the strain on America’s rules-based democratic system, noting that increasing polarization and distrust may be pushing the country beyond political gridlock toward potential institutional breakdowns. The Board also discussed the ways Americans are increasingly self-segregating across multiple dimensions, including political affiliation, economic status, educational attainment, social relationships, consumer spending, media consumption, and geography. They noted that political, economic, and technological trends are contributing to these divisions. The discussion included how these developments could create a more uncertain and insecure operating environment for the Association and the members. The Board discussed trends related to these topics to consider their future impact, to guide future decision-making, and to help identify future challenges to the Association’s mission, academic preparation, professional practice, and service delivery."
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:
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| Sharynne with Patou Clerc, Manager of Library Services |
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
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.
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| Sharynne McLeod, Emma Hayes, Carolyn Gregoric, Kathy Cologon, Amy Whitfield, Tamara Cumming |
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.
I have been involved in guest editing a number of special issues including:
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
Relevant research by CVC affiliates:
Speech Pathology Australia has featured us on their website! https://www.speechpathologyaustralia.org.au/
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
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| 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.
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| Amy Whitfield in The Treehouse |
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
Tonight I attended the editorial board meeting for the International Journal of Speech-Language Pathology (IJSLP).
IJSLP's acceptance rate is 26% and they received 346 submissions in 2025.
Here is the 2025 impact factor for speech-language pathology journals:
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
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!
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.
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.
