Children's Speech: Advertised on Pearson's website

Elise Baker and I are currently in the final phases of copyediting and page proofing our new book. It has just been advertised on Pearson's website (here) and will be available in a few months' time.

Enjoying and learning about Northern Vietnam

Over the past 2 weeks Ben Pham has shown me and my family some of Northern Vietnam. Here are a few photos demonstrating the diversity, culture, and beauty of Northern Vietnam.

Waterlilies at Ninh Binh

Working (and enjoying the scenery) on a Ha Long Bay cruise

The data team and families enjoying the Vietnamese Cultural Museum

Going to dinner in our Ao Dais

Charlotte's last day with the Sound Start Study

Today was Charlotte’s last day on the Sound Start Study. She has been working hard with us for the last two years – and working particularly hard over the last 3 months. She has been an invaluable member of the Sound Start team and has shown incredible initiative since her first day with us. Charlotte has been a pleasure to work with and has remained as cool as a cucumber despite varying levels of stress, workload and scanning (!!). She has finished a mountain of work over these last few weeks...Charlotte has been offered an incredible position as a speech pathologist at one of the large teaching hospitals in Sydney and will definitely be an asset to her new team.
CONGRATULATIONS CHARLOTTE! Congratulations on an amazing time with us, an amazing honours result and an amazing job opportunity. What a way to start a new, exciting year. Sound Start wouldn’t have been the same without you. (Written by Sarah Masso)

Lecture to the Faculty of Early Childhood Education, Hanoi National University of Education

Today Ben Pham and I gave a lecture at the Faculty of Early Childhood Education, Hanoi National University of Education. Their report about the lecture is here (the photo only shows some of the audience). The faculty and students were an enthusiastic audience and were interested in the topics we covered including international speech acquisition, speech assessments, conducting research with children, and seeking ethical approval (from the university, preschools, caregivers and assent from child participants).

Research on the Vietnamese Speech Assessment

Ben Pham has been trialling the research version of the Vietnamese Speech Assessment (Pham, Le, & McLeod, 2015) in Ha Noi as part of her PhD data collection and Xuan Le has been assisting with reliability of transcription. We have been recording the levels and types of cues and prompts children require to identify the words/pictures during the testing.

Authors of the Vietnamese Speech Assessment (Pham, Le, & McLeod)

Today we were able to discuss the content validity of the test items and pictures regarding children in Northern Vietnam (Ben), Southern Vietnam (Xuan Le), USA (Dr. Giang Pham), and Australia (Sharynne) over a delicious lunch at the Hanoi National University of Education. We were also able to ask a Vietnamese-English-speaking child from the USA which words she knew from the VSA. Each of these procedures strengthens the content validity of the test.

Data collection in Ha Noi

Over the next few days I will accompany Ben Pham to preschools in Ha Noi, Vietnam where she has been collecting data for her PhD. The aim of her PhD is to describe speech acquisition of children in Northern Viet Nam and she is assessing children's speech using the Vietnamese Speech Assessment. Today we were also accompanied by Dr. Giang Pham from San Diego State University and Xuan Le from Ho Chi Minh City who are assisting us with reliability of transcription. Ben also has a team of excellent students from Hanoi National University of Education who are her research assistants during her data collection.

Visiting Ha Noi's speech therapist

Today I had the opportunity to visit Dr Oanh, one of only two speech therapists in Ha Noi (a city of over 7 million people!). Dr Oanh is a cleft palate surgeon who undertook the speech therapy course at Pham Ngoc Thach Medical University, run by the Trinh Foundation. I was her lecturer in 2013 and it was a pleasure to catch up with her in Ha Noi. She has just begun her PhD considering appropriate speech therapy assessment and intervention for Vietnamese children with cleft lip and palate.

Xuan Le, Dr Giang Pham, Sharynne, Dr Oanh, Ben Pham

Hanoi National University of Education: Faculty of Special Education

Ben Pham, my PhD student, is a lecturer in special education at Hanoi National University of Education (HNUE). Today I had the opportunity to visit HNUE and meet with the Dean and Vice Deans of Special Education. Dr. Giang Pham is visiting from San Diego State University, so after the meeting Ben, Giang and I presented lectures to the staff members of the Faculty of Special Education.

Museum of Ethnography in Ha Noi

Today Ben and I visited the Museum of Ethnography in Ha Noi. This excellent museum celebrates the cultures and languages of the 54 ethnic groups in Viet Nam as well as 10 other Asian countries. The museum includes outdoor and indoor exhibits. We enjoyed the water puppets and a lunch at the restaurant run by students with hearing impairment or other disabilities.

Temple of Literature in Ha Noi

The Temple of Literature in Ha Noi is the site of Viet Nam's first university, founded in 1070. It contains a series of gates that graduates pass through after different levels of graduation. The first gates are for graduates with bachelor's degrees, then there are gates for PhD students, and finally there is a section for PhD graduates and professors to provide wise council to the kings. When Ben graduates with her PhD from Australia, the city council of Ha Noi will have a ceremony for Ben at the Temple of Literature to recognise that she is a citizen with a PhD.

The first gate for graduates with bachelor's degrees

The gate that graduates with a PhD pass through

Turtle steles containing the names of graduates with PhDs (the earliest is from 1070)

A statue of the first teacher who graduated a PhD student