This week Professor Þóra Másdóttir (Thóra Másdóttir) from the University of Iceland and The National Hearing and Speech Institute of Iceland, Reykjavik, Iceland visited me at Charles Sturt University, Bathurst. I had a wonderful time visiting Iceland a few years ago (
see here) so was keen to ensure Þóra enjoyed her visit to Australia. During Þóra's visit we have enjoyed the Australian countryside (including seeing kangaroos, the
Blue Mountains and
Jenolan Caves), discussed Þóra's publications, her research into the Intelligibility in Context Scale, and worked on her analysis of Icelandic children's speech acquisition. She also met Ben Pham who is currently working on a similar analysis of Vietnamese children's speech acquisition. Þóra has published a number of resources that are used throughout Iceland in speech pathology and education:
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Sharynne and Þóra with her test and book |
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Ben Pham and Þóra discussing creating speech assessments and resources for Vietnam and Iceland |
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Sharynne and Þóra in Jenolan Caves |
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A mother and joey kangaroo near Charles Sturt University |
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While Þóra was visiting she saw many Australian animals including: kangaroos, a platypus, galahs, rosellas, lorikeets, cockatoos, a lyre bird, an echidna, and a (dead) wombat |