CVC2026 keynotes

CVC2026 keynotes - what a lineup!

1. Dr Chemba Raghavan, Global Lead, Early Childhood Development, UNICEF Global Center of Excellence, Kenya | Leaving no child behind: Global trends and transformative actions in early childhood development and parenting support
2. Dr Mélanie Gréaux, Disability Programme, World Health Organization, Switzerland | Amplifying the voices of children with disabilities in the health sector: An overview of WHO initiatives
3. Dr Zinnia Mevawalla, University of Strathclyde, United Kingdom | Beyond Fauxclusion: Generative listening for an inclusive world
4. Robyn Monro Miller AM, Play Australia, Australia | Weaving play into the national fabric: What can we learn from international leaders in children’s right to play
5. Laura Stone, Australian Broadcasting Commission, Australia | Stories that shape us: ABC Kids Early Education and the power of reflective media engagement

Our CVC kitchen in The Treehouse is FINISHED

 Hooray! Our Children's Voices Centre kitchen in The Treehouse is FINISHED. It has taken years of work. Thank you to the philanthropist who funded the building works, and Emma Hayes (CVC) and Blake (CSU) who oversaw the project.

 

Information about Australian Research Council's revised grant program

Thank you to Prof Jason White for his update about the Australian Research Council's revised grant program

 

CVC affilates and adjuncts contribute papers to CLTT special issue

Listening to Children with Diverse Communication Abilities

Child Language Teaching and Therapy Special Issue (2026, volume 42) - Q1 journal

Guest editors: Sharynne McLeod and Holly McAlister*, Children’s Voices Centre, Charles Sturt University, Australia
CLTT Editors: Judy Clegg and Victoria Joffe

https://journals.sagepub.com/home/clt 

The entire special issue contains 17 papers written by people from Australia, Canada, Denmark, Ireland, New Zealand, UK

It has been great to mentor and include so many CVC staff/affiliates/adjuncts/HDR students in the special issue:

• 6 CVC papers
• 2 CVC editors
• 19 CVC authors
• 8 CVC peer reviewers

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, 42, https://doi.org/10.1177/02656590261470993
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, 42, https://doi.org/10.1177/02656590261433348
3. 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, 42, https://doi.org/10.1177/02656590251406102
4. 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, 42, https://doi.org/10.1177/02656590261455298
5. McCormack, J., Cronin, A., McLeod, S., Ireland, M., Wang, C., & Tiong, C. (2026). Children’s drawings of intervention for childhood apraxia of speech: Place, people, activity, and emotion. Child Language Teaching and Therapy, 42, https://doi.org/10.1177/02656590251375340
6. 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, 42, https://doi.org/10.1177/02656590261477289

*bolded text = CVC affiliate/adjunct/HDR student

 

A new kitchen for The Treehouse - nearly finished

Our new kitchen is nearly finished. Thank you Emma Hayes for your oversight of this important project in the life of CVC.

CVC2026 - next milestone almost ticked off

Over the past 2 weeks we have been reviewing all submitted CVC2026 presentations, particularly checking them for ethical approvals and image source permission. We only have 7 more videos to review and 15 more to upload. The others are done. 

A huge thank you to Carolyn, Amy, Emma and our CVC scientific review committee (esp. Arifa Rahman, Suzanne Hopf, Belinda Downey, Lyndsay Smith, Jo Grimmond, Helen Blake, Katrina Gersbach, Sarah Bartlett, Kate Crowe, Holly McAlister, Kate Margetson, Alam Hossain, Kasey Garrison and Lysa Dealtry, Carolyn Gregoric, Sharynne  McLeod)

CVC mentoring - preparing a book proposal

It is such a joy to mentor our CVC affilates. Today over lunch Ros Cox and I constructed her book proposal on a napkin. This book is going to change the world and save children's lives. I can't wait to read it!

CVC Children Draw Playing - How is play good for the world

 Today we had another meeting of the people involved in the analysis of the Children Draw Playing data focusing on the question that children answered: "How is play good for the world?"

We had a great conversation about authorship and finishing writing journal articles

 

 

Published book chapter in Linguistic Varieties in North America

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. The best thing about this chapter is that all of the co-authors are my ex-PhD students :) How lovely to see ongoing collaborations between Kate, Van, Helen, Sarah and Ben

World Health Organization meeting with Children's Voices Centre

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.

Sharynne  McLeod, Mél Gréaux, Kate Freire, Carolyn Gregoric, Belinda Downey, Helen L. Blake

Open access journals - CVC Thursday lunchtime seminar

Today's CVC lunchtime seminar was by Lyndall Holstein from the CSU Library.

She shared these useful resources: 

• Charles Sturt University open access agreements: https://libguides.csu.edu.au/OpenAccess/readandpublish
• Find which journals have CAUL agreements: https://caul.libguides.com/read-and-publish 
• Information about Creative Commons licenses: https://libguides.csu.edu.au/copyright_for_teaching/openaccessandcreativecommons

Open Educational Resources (OER) 

• https://libguides.csu.edu.au/oer
• https://opentext.csu.edu.au/ 
• https://libguides.csu.edu.au/oer/licensing 
• https://opentext.csu.edu.au/oalicences/ 

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 (yellow) and 2 (blue)

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

We live in interesting times

 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."

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/