AUSTRALIAN RESEARCH COUNCIL FUTURE FELLOWSHIP UPDATE
‘Speaking my language: International speech acquisition in Australia’
Written by Kim Woodland, Research Institute for Professional Practice, Learning and Education for the October 2012 RIPPLE Update
In early August, Sharynne, along with CRN colleagues and
members of the Department of Families, Housing, Community Services and
Indigenous Affairs (FAHCSIA), got together to learn more about the Longitudinal
Study of Indigenous Children (LSIC). LSIC parallels the Longitudinal Study of
Australian Children (LSAC), both Australian Government initiatives and rich
sources of data.
Sharynne also spent more time hosting international visitors
over the last couple of months than travelling herself; however, she was still
kept busy with long-distance Skype and conference calls. During August she
hosted a visit from two former students—Lê Thi Thanh Xuân (Xuân) and Lê Khánh
Điền (Điền)—from Pham Ngoc Thach University, Hồ Chí Minh City, Việt Nam. The
trio met to work on a phonological analysis of Vietnamese children’s speech and
to play in some snow that had fallen in the Central Tablelands of NSW (the first
time the two students had ever seen snow).
In late August she hosted Dr Elise Baker from the University
of Sydney. Sharynne and Elise have been writing chapters for their new book,
Children’s speech: An evidence-based approach to assessment and
intervention. During the visit, they took photos of mouths at the CSU Dental
and Oral Health Clinic, which will be used to demonstrate how speech is
produced.
Sharynne has also continued her work with the International
Expert Panel on Multilingual Children’s Speech on developing a position paper on
multilingual children with speech sound disorders, which has involved extensive
international collaboration. Dr Caroline Bowen visited Bathurst in September,
and worked with Sharynne and Sarah Verdon to moderate comments on the
penultimate version of the draft. The final paper should be ready within a few
months and will be made available to children, families, speech-language
pathologists and other professionals.
For more information, please visit Sharynne’s blog: Speaking my languages.
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| Lê Thi Thanh Xuân and Lê Khánh Điền visiting CSU |
