Launch of Bilingual English-Spanish Assessment

The BESA authors: Liz Peña, Vera Gutiérrez-Clellan, Lisa Bedore, Aquiles Iglesias and Brian Goldstein

The Bilingual English-Spanish Assessment was launched during the ASHA convention after 14 years of development. It is a test of morphosyntax, semantics, phonology, and pragmatics for Spanish-English bilingual children aged 4;0 to 6;11 years. It has been normed on 10 dialects of Spanish and 7 regional US dialects of English for children. Here is the reference:
Peña, E. D., Gutiérrez-Clellen, V. F., Iglesias, A., Goldstein, B. A., & Bedore, L. M. (2014). BESA: Bilingual English-Spanish Assessment. San Rafael, CA: AR-Clinical Publications.

Communication choices: Translating research to practice for professionals working with children with hearing loss

The following manuscript has been accepted for publication.
Crowe, K., & McLeod, S., (in press, 2013 November) Communication choices: Translating research to practice for professionals working with children with hearing loss. Journal of Clinical Practice in Speech-Language Pathology.
The paper was submitted as a "clinical insight" paper and presents a translational review for speech-language pathologists of research undertaken by Kate Crowe during her PhD. Here is the abstract

When children are diagnosed with hearing loss, their families begin making many decisions, including whether their children will use speech or sign, and if they are multilingual, what languages they will use with their children. Parents frequently consult with health and education professionals concerning the best communication pathway for their children and their families. This paper is a translational summary of four studies investigating the communication choices of children (n=406) with hearing loss and their parents (n=792) who were participating in the Longitudinal Outcomes of Children with Hearing Impairment (LOCHI) study in Australia. Parents reported on the factors that were influential in their decision-making about whether their children with hearing loss would communicate using speech, sign, and/or more than one spoken language. The influences parents reported included advice from professionals, children’s access to speech through audition, children’s intervention experiences, children’s future opportunities, practicalities of communication, and creating a sense of belonging for their children.

A geographical analysis of speech-language pathology services to support multilingual children

The following manuscript has just been accepted for publication. 
Verdon, S., McLeod, S., & McDonald, S. (in press). A geographical analysis of speech-language pathology services to support multilingual children, International Journal of Speech-Language Pathology.
This is Sarah's first manuscript that has been accepted within her PhD. Here is the abstract:

The speech-language pathology workforce strives to provide equitable, quality services to multilingual people. However, the extent to which this is being achieved is unknown. Participants in this study were 2,849 practicing members of Speech Pathology Australia and 4,386 children in the Birth cohort of the Longitudinal Study of Australian Children (LSAC). Statistical and geospatial analyses were undertaken to identify the linguistic diversity and geographical distribution of Australian speech-language pathology services and Australian children. One fifth of services provided by Speech Pathology Australia members (20.2%) were available in a language other than English. Services were most commonly offered in Australian Sign Language (Auslan) (4.3%), French (3.1%), Italian (2.2%), Greek (1.6%), and Cantonese (1.5%). Among 4- to- 5-year-old children in the nationally representative LSAC, 15.3% were regularly spoken to in a language other than English. The most common languages spoken by the children were Arabic (1.5%), Italian (1.2%), Greek (0.9%), Spanish (0.9%), and Vietnamese (0.9%). Despite the relatively high number of multilingual SLP services, there was a mismatch between the location of multilingual services and the languages in which they were offered and the location of, and languages spoken by children. These findings highlight the need for speech-language pathologists, both multilingual and monolingual, to be culturally competent in providing equitable services to all clients regardless of the languages they speak.

Meeting old friends and making new friends at ASHA

The annual American Speech-Language-Hearing Convention is a wonderful time to reconnect with colleagues from around the world, and to meet new colleagues. Much of my time at ASHA is spent discussing research ideas with my colleagues. Here are a few photos of people I was able to meet with while at ASHA this year.

Brian Goldstein and Sharynne
(we are the co-chairs for the 2014 ASHA Cultural and Linguistic Diversity topic)

Li-Rong Lilly Cheng and Sharynne (at Lilly's ASHA Honors party)

Barbara Hodson and Sharynne

Sharynne, Lynn Williams, Marc Fey, Ann Tyler

Stephen Camarata and Sharynne
(Stephen has just written the lead and final articles to the IJSLP scientific forum on autism)

Sharynne and John Bernthal
(happy because we have just finished writing an encyclopedia entry together)

Chicago welcomes 15,000 ASHA delegates

The 2013 American Speech-Language-Hearing Association convention is the largest ASHA convention on record. Over 14,000 delegates pre-registered (and over 2,500 of these are students). It is tipped that by the end of the convention 15,000 delegates will be registered. There are 2,387 accepted presentations. ASHA has over 166,000 members. Chicago is happy to have so many visitors - and has welcome signs hanging along the Magnificent Mile.

American Speech-Language-Hearing Association Convention in Chicago

Sarah Verdon, Sharynne, Kate Crowe at the entrance to the exhibit hall

This week is the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association Convention in Chicago, IL. I was on the Issues in Culturally and Linguistically Diversity topic committee, so was invited to review many papers earlier in the year. While at ASHA I am co-presenting 6.5 hours of technical reports and seminars including a 3-hour short course:

Crowe, K., McLeod, S., McKinnon, D. H., Fordham, L., & Ching, T. Y. C. (2013, November). Language choice for children with hearing loss: Influences on caregiver decision-making. (30 minute oral presentation). [Winner of the ASHA student prize for best abstract in Cultural and Linguistic Diversity Topic]

Kate Crowe

McLeod, S., Bowen, C., Verdon, S., & Guiberson, M. (2013). Empowering monolingual SLPs to work with multilingual children with speech sound disorders. (3 hour short course)

Mark Guiberson, Sharynne, Caroline Bowen and Sarah Verdon planning our 3 hour short course

McLeod, S. & Verdon, S. (2013, November). A systematic review of tools to assess children’s speech in languages other than English. (30 minute oral presentation)

Sarah Verdon and Sharynne at ASHA 2013

McLeod, S., Verdon, S., Bowen, C. & International Expert Panel on Multilingual Children’s Speech (2013, November).  Aspirations of an international expert panel for working with multilingual children with speech sound disorders. (30 minute oral presentation).

Members of the International Expert Panel on Multilingual Children's Speech after our presentation

McLeod , S., Crowley, C. J., Williams, A. L.,  Louw, B., Westby, C., To , C. K. S., Washington, K. N., & MacLeod, A. A. N. (2013). Beyond Spanish: Competencies for SLPs working with children from diverse cultures. (2 hour seminar). 

Beyond Spanish seminar presenters: Sharynne, Karla Washington, Carol To, Lynn Williams, Andrea MacLeod, Brenda Louw, Carol Westby, Cate Crowely

Washington, K. McLeod, S., Devonish, H., & Samms-Vaughan, M. (2013, November).  Cross-cultural competencies for working with bi-dialectal children from Jamaica. Paper (20 minute oral presentation within a 2-hour seminar).