March - May 2013 Summary

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 May 2013 RIPPLE Update

Sharynne has continued working on her Future Fellowship, participating in CRN-related research, launching the ARC Sound Start study in March, and supervising PhD students.

Back in January, Sharynne travelled to Jamaica with Karla Washington from the University of Cincinnati to study Jamaican children’s speech and language acquisition. Karla and a team from the University of Cincinnati continued the data collection, and 60 children have now had their speech and language skills in Jamaican and English assessed. The researchers are now analysing the data, in readiness for presenting their findings later this year.

In April, Sharynne attended the first meeting of Speech Pathology Australia's Australian Strategic Advisory Group on the International Communication Project. The aim of the intern

ational group is to foreground communication and people with communication disability. To date, five international professional organisations are involved in the discussions, with a focus on hosting events in 2014 and beyond.

Sharynne has also co-authored a manuscript outlining the work of the International Expert Panel on Multilingual Children’s Speech that met in Cork, Ireland in June 2012 and the resulting position paper.

McLeod, S., Verdon, S., Bowen, C., & the International Expert Panel on Multilingual Children’s Speech. (In press). International aspirations for speech-language pathologists’ practice with multilingual children with speech sound disorders: Development of a position paper. Journal of Communication Disorders.

Her journal article publication record for 2013 already looks outstanding: to date she has 6 articles submitted, 6 in press, and 7 published.

For more information, please visit Sharynne’s blog: Speaking my languages.

2013 publications (so far)

I have been asked to submit summary of my 2013 research activity. It was interesting to see the ratio for my journal articles: 6 submitted: 6 in press: 7 published.

SUBMITTED (under review)

1.   Verdon, S., McLeod, S., & Winsler, A. (submitted). Language diversity, use, maintenance, and loss in a population study of young Australian children.

2.   McLeod, S., Verdon, S., & Bennetts Kneebone, L. (submitted). Celebrating Indigenous Australian children’s speech and language competence.

3.   Washington, K., Thomas-Stonell, N., Oddson, B., McLeod, S., Warr-Leeper, G., & Robertson, B., & Rosenbaum, P. (submitted). Predictors and outcomes of communicative participation for preschoolers with speech-language impairments with and without concomitant mobility impairments.

4.   McLeod, S., McAllister, L., McCormack, J. & Harrison, L. J. (submitted). Applying the World Report on Disability to Australian children with communication disability.

5.   Crowe, K., McLeod, S., McKinnon, D. H., & Ching, T. Y. C. (submitted). Speech or sign: Factors influencing caregiver choice for children with hearing loss.

6.   To, C. K. -S., Cheung, P. S. -P., & McLeod, S. (submitted). Phonetic variations and sound changes in Hong Kong Cantonese and implications for speech sound assessment.

IN PRESS

1.   McLeod, S., Verdon, S., Bowen, C., and the International Expert Panel on Multilingual Children’s Speech (2013, in press April). International aspirations for speech-language pathologists’ practice with multilingual children with speech sound disorders: Development of a position paper. Journal of Communication Disorders.

2.   Crowe, K., Fordham, L., McLeod, S., & Ching, T. Y. C. (2013, in press February). “Part of our world”: Influences on caregiver decisions about communication choices for children with hearing loss. Deafness and Education International.

3.   Washington, K. Thomas-Stonell, N., Oddson, B., McLeod, S., Warr-Leeper, G., & Robertson, B., & Rosenbaum, P. (2013, in press January). Construct validity of the FOCUS© (Focus on the Outcomes of Communication Under Six): A functional communication outcome measure for preschool children. Child: Care, Health and Development (Special Issue on Participation)

4.    Lockart, R. & McLeod, S. (2012, in press December). Factors that enhance English-speaking speech-language pathologists’ transcription of Cantonese-speaking children’s consonants. American Journal of Speech-Language Pathology

5.   McLeod, S., Harrison, L. J., McAllister, L. & McCormack. J. (2012, in press December). Speech sound disorders in a community study of preschool children. American Journal of Speech-Language Pathology.

6.   Crowe, K. & McLeod, S. (in press, December, 2012). A systematic review of cross-linguistic and multilingual speech and language outcomes for children with hearing loss. International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism.

PUBLISHED

1.    To, C. K. S., Cheung, P. S. P., & McLeod, S. (2013). The impact of extrinsic demographic factors on Cantonese speech acquisition. Clinical Linguistics and Phonetics, 27(5), 323-338. doi:10.3109/02699206.2013.763385

2.   To, C. K. -S., Cheung, P. S. -P., & McLeod, S. (2013). A population study of children's acquisition of Hong Kong Cantonese consonants, vowels, and tones. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, 56(1), 103-122. doi: 10.1044/1092-4388(2012/11-0080)

3.   Limbrick, N., McCormack, J., & McLeod, S. (2013). Designs and decisions: The creation of informal measures for assessing speech production in children. International Journal of Speech-Language Pathology, 15(3), 296-311.

4.  Crowe, K., McKinnon, D. H., McLeod, S., & Ching, T. Y. C. (2013). Multilingual children with hearing loss: Factors contributing to language use at home and in early education. Child Language Teaching and Therapy, 29(1), 103-121. doi: 10.1177/0265659012467640.

5.  Wren, Y., McLeod, S., White, P., Miller, L. & Roulstone, S. (2013). Speech characteristics of 8-year-old children with speech difficulties: Findings from a prospective population study. Journal of Communication Disorders, 46(1), 53-69. doi: 10.1016/j.jcomdis.2012.08.008

6.  McLeod, S., Daniel, G., & Barr, J. (2013). “When he's around his brothers … he's not so quiet”: The private and public worlds of school-aged children with speech sound disorder. Journal of Communication Disorders, 46(1), 70-83. doi: 10.1016/j.jcomdis.2012.08.006

7.  Hambly, H., Wren, Y., McLeod, S., & Roulstone, S. (2013). The influence of bilingualism on speech production: A systematic review. International Journal of Language and Communication Disorders, 48(1), 1-24. doi: 10.1111/j.1460-6984.2012.00178.x

Congratulations Nicole!

Nicole Limbrick recently completed her honours degree in speech pathology. Jane McCormack and I were fortunate to be her supervisors. A journal article based on Nicole's honours thesis has recently been published

Limbrick, N., McCormack, J., & McLeod, S. (2013). Designs and decisions: The creation of informal measures for assessing speech production in children. International Journal of Speech-Language Pathology, 15(3), 296-311.

In addition Nicole will present her findings at the upcoming Speech Pathology Australia conference in June, and she presented a paper at last years' conference as well.

Here is a list of the additional awards she has received over the past 2 years

• 2012 - Speech Pathology Australia Student Award for outstanding academic and clinical performance within the Bachelor of Health Science (Speech Pathology) program at Charles Sturt University
• 2012 - Dean’s Awards for Academic Excellence recipient (Semester 1 and 2)
• 2012 - Inaugural Three Minute Thesis Competition Winner at Charles Sturt University Albury
• 2012 - Charles Sturt University Honours Operating Grant recipient 
• 2011 - Charles Sturt University Honours Scholarship recipient

Congratulations Nicole!

World Day for Cultural Diversity for Dialogue and Development

Today is the United Nations' World Day for Cultural Diversity for Dialogue and Development. Here are the aims for 2013

• "To raise awareness worldwide about the importance of intercultural dialogue, diversity and inclusion.
• To build a world community of individuals committed to support diversity with real and every day-life gestures.
• To combat polarization and stereotypes to improve understanding and cooperation among people from different cultures."

More information is available here.
UNESCO adopted the Universal Declaration on Cultural Diversity in 2001.

Congratulations Jane!

Today Jane McCormack was awarded second place in the Pursuit Awards for PhDs in the field of child disability research. There were 19 applications in total from the US, Hong Kong, Canada, and Australia.
See previous blog post for details. Congratulations Jane!

Pursuit Award prize winners

Dr Karla Washington congratulating Dr Jane McCormack

Dr Jane McCormack with Dr Tom Chau,
Vice President, Research - Holland Bloorview Kids Rehabilitation Hospital

The importance of international travel and multicultural friendships

Statement 4 of the Multilingual Children’s Speech Position Paper says‘‘SLPs aspire to develop rich partnerships with families, communities, interpreters, and other health and education professionals to promote strong and supportive communicative environments’’ (International Expert Panel on Multilingual Children’s Speech, 2012, p. 2).

Within my 4-year Australian Research Council Future Fellowship I have been provided with funds to travel around the world and cultivate multicultural collaborations and friendships. This travel has enabled me to "develop rich partnerships". The importance of this was highlighted to me as I read the page proofs of our recent manuscript to be published in the Journal of Communication Disorders. Page 9 of the page proofs states

"The importance of collaborative partnerships with families and communities was identified repeatedly. For example, an online panel member wrote ‘‘Our experience ... is that students need to TALK with people of other cultures and not just attend cultural events’’. There was emphasis placed upon a genuine appreciation of cultural viewpoints and valuing the contribution of diverse cultural attitudes rather than tokenistic inclusion of cultural elements. Subsequently, position statement 4 was included ..." (McLeod, Verdon, Bowen, International Expert Panel on Multilingual Children's Speech, 2013)

 I am very grateful for the funds to enable me to visit and work with so many people in so many different countries over the past 4 years.

Review of Multilingual Aspects of Speech Sound Disorders in Children

A review of our book “Multilingual Aspects of Speech Sound Disorders in Children” has been published in The Phonetician, Volume 105-106 (2012 I/II), pp. 121-124. The review was written by Judith Rosenhouse from Israel who wrote: 

"...The numerous chapters of the book present much more information than expected about the linguistic and practical problems in treating multilingual children with speech sound disorders and the possible outcomes of various linguistic interactions. Yet this is the tip of the iceberg, as the authors write, because many questions remain un-answered and unresolved, and lack of knowledge or missing research tools, assessment and treatment are noted in almost every chapter. Thus, the principal readers of this book would be practitioners in speech-language pathology, therapist, logopedists, etc. But this volume is not less important for students and researchers interested in linguistics, phonetics and/or phonology who will find here a host of interesting facts and topics for further study." (pp. 123-124)

A previous blog post containing details of the book is here

Time out with my family

Over the past few weeks I have taken long-service leave to spend time with my family. Most of the time time I did not have internet access, and I decided not to take my computer (!) It was great to take time out from work, and I am very thankful to my students and colleagues for enabling me to take a break.

My daughter has been learning Japanese at school, so I went on a high school trip to Japan for 13 days. We had a fantastic time visiting schools and significant sites across Japan, practicing Japanese, and most importantly learning about Japan and Japanese culture from local students, teachers, and many others. The photo below is of our welcome from the Ōkuma community who have been relocated to Aizu since the earthquakes, tsumani and nuclear disaster in 2011. You can read about our links with the Ōkuma community on previous blog postings here, here, and here.

 After my trip to Japan we drove across Australia to hear my son performing at a national jazz festival that also featured Gordon Goodwin and the Big Phat Band from LA. Many  posts on my blog show that I am proud of my students, but I thought this blog may show readers I am very proud of my family as well.