Impact! Apparently we "broke the internet" with our speech acquisition paper

Recently I was shown a blog post documenting the impact of the publication of McLeod and Crowe (2018) after the distribution of our speech sound infographics at the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association convention.

Here is the blog post talking about the impact of our work: "That one time a journal article on speech sounds broke the SLP internet"
https://www.theinformedslp.com/how-to/that-one-time-a-journal-article-on-speech-sound-norms-broke-the-slp-internet

Here is my blog post about our original journal article (McLeod & Crowe, 2018) with all of our relevant links: https://speakingmylanguages.blogspot.com/2018/11/childrens-consonant-acquisition.html

I had heard that our paper and infographics had been of interest to SLPs - particularly in the US - but hadn't realised the extent of discussion about it. I am pleased that its legacy has been to promote extensive discussion about how to identify children for intervention. Kate and I have been invited to discuss our work at the 2019 American Speech-Language-Hearing Association convention, so this should be fun.

Here are some other blog posts about our journal article:

• https://www.banterspeech.com.au/important-update-in-what-order-and-at-what-age-should-my-child-learn-to-say-his-her-consonants-faqs/ 
• https://www.slptoolkit.com/blog/we-have-been-interpreting-the-articulation-norms-all-wrong/

Data analysis meeting - Waiting for Speech Pathology Grant

Today our NSW Health Translational Research Grant Scheme team met to discuss the first phase of data analysis with our statisticians (Dr Nicola Ivory and Dr Audrey Wang). It was an exciting meeting as we were able to see changes over time for our different interventions.  We will be presenting the data at the Speech Pathology Australia National Conference in June. Today's participants were in Bathurst, Dubbo, Albury, and Shepparton meeting via video conference.

Nina and Kate in Dubbo (in front of their vocabulary wall)

Nicola, Nicole, Emily, Audrey, Sharynne and Katrina (on screen)

Katrina, Audrey and Emily in Bathurst

Inaugural issue of Journal of Monolingual and Bilingual Speech

Our VietSpeech team has a paper published in the inaugural issue of Journal of Monolingual and Bilingual Speech:
Language Proficiency, Use, and Maintenance Among People with Vietnamese Heritage Living in Australia
- Sharynne McLeod, Sarah Verdon, Cen (Audrey) Wang, and Van H. Tran

Planning to attend the Conference of States Parties (CoSP) at the United Nations

In June I will be attending the Conference of States Parties (CoSP) to the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities at the United Nations in New York. Last Wednesday I attended the Pre-CoSP event at the Australian Human Rights Commission in Sydney to gain an understanding of the roles of government, civil society and National Human Rights Institutes at CoSP. We also began planning logistics and activities for CoSP. It was great to meet others from Australia who will be attending this important meeting in New York.

Attendees at the Pre-CoSP event

Robert Strike from CID created an Easy Read guide for attending CoSP

Intelligibility Enhancement Assessment and Intervention: A single-case experimental design with two multilingual university students

The following manuscript has been accepted for publication:
Blake, H. L., McLeod, S. & Verdon, S. (2019, in press April). Intelligibility Enhancement Assessment and Intervention: A single-case experimental design with two multilingual university students. Clinical Linguistics and Phonetics. doi:10.1080/2050571X.2019.1585681

This manuscript is part of Helen Blake's PhD.
Here is the abstract:

Speech-language pathologists (SLPs) may be approached by multilingual speakers wishing to improve their intelligibility in English. Intelligibility is an essential element of spoken language proficiency and is particularly important for multilingual international students given their need to express complex ideas in an additional language. Intelligibility Enhancement aims to improve the intelligibility and acceptability of consonants, vowels, and prosody with multilingual speakers who are learning to speak English. This study aimed to describe the Intelligibility Enhancement Assessment and Intervention Protocols and determine whether the intervention changes multilingual university students’ English intelligibility. A multiple-baseline single-case experimental design was applied with direct inter-subject replication across two female participants whose home languages were Vietnamese and Putonghua (Mandarin). English intelligibility was assessed at multiple intervals pre, post, and during intervention. The intervention protocol consisted of 11 weekly 1-hour sessions with an SLP targeting English consonants, vowels, and prosody. Following intervention, both participants displayed increased performance across most measures. For example, the Vietnamese participant’s percentage of consonants correct (PCC) increased from 62.5% to 85.0% in probe keywords. Effect sizes, when comparing baseline and withdrawal phases, were 5.5 for PCC, 4.6 for final consonants, 2.3 for consonant clusters, and 1.6 for syllables indicating improvements in all variables measured. Her speech rate reduced, word stress increased in accuracy, and she perceived less difficulty communicating in English. These promising results suggest further testing of Intelligibility Enhancement Protocols is warranted to determine its effectiveness as an intervention for multilingual speakers.

The SAGE encyclopedia of human communication sciences and disorders

The SAGE encyclopedia of human communication sciences and disorders has just been published. The 4-volume encyclopedia was edited by Jack Damico and Martin Ball. The website states "The editors have recruited top researchers and clinicians across multiple fields to contribute to approximately 640 signed entries across four volumes"  Members of our SLM team have written seven of these entries:

1. Blake, H. L. & McLeod, S. Intelligibility enhancement. 
2. Cronin, A. & McLeod, S. Cleft lip and palate: Speech effects. 
3. Cronin, A. & McLeod, S. Craniofacial anomalies.
4. McLeod, S. International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health. 
5. McLeod, S. Prevalence of communication disorders.
6. McLeod, S. & Verdon, S. Multilingualism and speech sound disorders. 
7. Phạm, B. & McLeod, S.  Tone languages and communication disorders.

Anna Cronin with volume 1 (of 4) of the encyclopedia

HDR representative on the Faculty of Arts and Education Research and Graduate Studies Management Committee

Dr Van Tran has been nominated as the Higher Degree Research (HDR) student representative on the Charles Sturt University Faculty of Arts and Education Research and Graduate Studies Management Committee. Congratulations on being elected to this position!

Transcription of Vietnamese adults’ and children’s consonants by English-speaking speech-language pathologists

The following paper has been accepted for publication today:
Masso, S., McLeod, S., Cronin, A., & Phạm, B. (2019, in press April). Transcription of Vietnamese adults’ and children’s consonants by English-speaking speech-language pathologists. Folia Phoniatrica et Logopedia.

Here is the abstract:

Objective: To examine English-speaking speech-language pathologists’ (SLPs) transcription of consonants in Vietnamese words and identification of correct/incorrect productions of Vietnamese children’s speech.
Participants and Methods: Twenty English-speaking SLPs completed three tasks. Task 1: transcription of 22 English words using the International Phonetic Alphabet. Task 2: transcription of 47 words spoken by Vietnamese adults. Task 3: transcription of 94 Vietnamese words spoken by Vietnamese children and identification of correct/incorrect productions. Participants completed questionnaires exploring language proficiency, transcription skill, musicality, and confidence with multilingual clients.
Results: Task 1: participants demonstrated good accuracy transcribing English words (M = 97.2%). Task 2: An average of 52.9% consonants were transcribed correctly (89.4% when Vietnamese–English common transcription errors were considered). Common transcription errors included voicing of plosives, place, and syllable-final omission. Accuracy was higher on shared English and Vietnamese consonantal articulations (e.g., /b/ and /m/). Task 3: On average SLPs correctly identified accuracy of 73.8% of Vietnamese children’s productions and transcribed 69.2% consonants correctly (83.8% when Vietnamese–English common transcription errors were considered). Musicality was correlated with SLPs’ accuracy of transcription.
Conclusion: English-speaking SLPs have some skills transcribing Vietnamese adults and transcribing and identifying correct/incorrect productions of children’s speech. SLPs may use knowledge of common transcription errors to support understanding of their transcription of speech.

10 books + 200 journal articles and book chapters

Today marks an exciting milestone. Throughout my career to date I have co-authored and published 10 books + 200 peer reviewed journal articles (148) and book chapters (52)!

This number does not include encyclopedia entries, commissioned reports, government reports, non-peer reviewed journal articles, position papers, clinical guidelines, conference papers and presentations.

It has been wonderful to work with so many inspirational people across the world to achieve this goal - and to make a difference in the lives of children with speech, language and communication needs and their families and professionals who support them.

Vietnamese-speaking children’s acquisition of consonants, semivowels, vowels, and tones in Northern Viet Nam

The following manuscript has been accepted for publication today:
Phạm, B. & McLeod, S. (2019, in press April). Vietnamese-speaking children’s acquisition of consonants, semivowels, vowels, and tones in Northern Viet Nam. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research.
It was written as part of Dr Ben Phạm's PhD and is the first research to comprehensively describe Vietnamese children's speech acquisition.
Congratulations Ben!

Here is the abstract

Purpose: To investigate children’s acquisition of Vietnamese speech sounds.
Method: Participants were 195 children aged 2;2-5;11 living in Northern Viet Nam who spoke Vietnamese as their first language. Single-word samples were collected using the Vietnamese Speech Assessment (Phạm, Le, & McLeod, 2016) to measure accuracy of consonants, semivowels, vowels, and tones.
Results: Percentage of consonants correct for children aged 2;0-2;5 was 46.39 (SD=7.95) and increased to 93.13 (SD=6.13) for children aged 5;6-5;11. The most difficult consonants were /ɲ, s, z, x/. Percentage of semivowels correct for children aged 2;0-2;5 was 70.74 (SD=14.38) and increased to 99.60 (SD=1.55) for children aged 5;6-5;11. Percentage of vowels correct for children aged 2;0-2;5 was 91.93 (SD=3.13) and increased to 98.11 (SD=2.79) for children aged 5;6-5;11. Percentage of tones correct for children aged 2;0-2;5 was 91.05 (SD=1.42) and increased to 96.65 (SD=3.42) for children aged 5;6-5;11. Tones 1, 2, 5, and 6 were acquired by the youngest age group; whereas, tone 3 (creaky thanh ngã) and tone 4 (dipping-rising thanh hỏi) did not achieve 90% accuracy by the oldest age group. Common phonological patterns (>10%) for children aged 2;0 to 3;11 were: fronting, stopping, deaspiration, aspiration, and semivowel deletion and for children aged 4;0 to 5;11 were: fronting and deaspiration.
Conclusion: This is the first comprehensive study of typically developing Northern Vietnamese children’s speech acquisition and provides preliminary data to support the emerging speech therapy profession in Viet Nam.

Congratulations Dr. Ben Phạm

Today Dr. Ben Phạm found out that the Vietnamese Government officially recognised her PhD.
She is now able to be known as Dr. Ben Phạm throughout Viet Nam.
Congratulations Dr. Ben!
Details of Dr. Ben's graduation in December 2018 are here: https://speakingmylanguages.blogspot.com/2018/12/congratulations-dr-pham-on-your.html

Student Excellence Award from Ulster University Students' Union

Today Natalie Hegarty (my PhD student) and George Martin were awarded the Jordan Kennedy Award, a Student Excellence Award from Ulster University Students' Union, Northern Ireland for their charitable contribution to the local community in Derry while undertaking their PhDs. Over the last year they raised money for the Little Orchids Nursery in Derry who provide therapeutic intervention for children with special needs and support for their parents. They also started a society to get more students out and volunteering in the local community. Congratulations Natalie and George.

Natalie and George at the awards night

Details about Natalie's PhD are here: https://speakingmylanguages.blogspot.com/2019/03/congratulations-dr-natalie-hegarty.html

NSW Health Translational Research Grant data collection has finished

Today data collection for the NSW Health Translational Research Grant finished. Katrina Rohr from Bathurst Community Health centre just sent 52,173 cells of data collected by the research team across 2 sites from 121 children over 4 stages of our randomised controlled trial. The data will now be cleaned then analysed. It is an exciting stage of research. What have we found?

Speech-Language-Multilingualism Team Publications for 2018

Here is a list of the Speech-Language-Multilingualism Team publications for 2018 that are registered with Charles Sturt University. What a productive team!

	Type	Citation
1.	Book chapter	Crowe, K. (2018). DHH multilingual learners: Language acquisition in a multilingual world. In H. Knoors & M. Marschark (Eds.) Evidence-based practice in deaf education (pp. 59-79). New York, NY: Oxford University Press.
2.	Book chapter	Wren, Y., McCormack, J., Masso, S., McLeod, S., Baker, E., & Crowe, K. (2018). Digital tools to support children’s speech and language skill. In S. Danby, M. Fleer, C. Davidson, & M. Hatzigianni (Eds.), Digital childhoods: Technologies and children's everday lives (Vol. 22, pp. 235-251). Singapore: Springer. doi:10.1007/978-981-10-6484-5_15
3.	Journal article	Baker, E., Masso, S., McLeod, S., & Wren, Y. (2018). Pacifiers, thumb sucking, breastfeeding, and bottle use: Oral sucking habits of children with and without phonological impairment. Folia Phoniatrica et Logopaedica, 70(3-4), 165-173. doi:10.1159/000492469
4.	Journal article	Baker, E., Williams, A. L., McLeod, S., & McCauley, R. (2018). Elements of phonological interventions for children with speech sound disorders: The development of a taxonomy. American Journal of Speech-Language Pathology, 27(3), 906-935. doi:10.1044/2018_AJSLP-17-0127
5.	Journal article	Blake, H. L. & McLeod, S. (2018).  The International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health: Considering individuals from a perspective of health and wellness. Perspectives of the ASHA Special Interest Groups (SIG17: Global issues in Communication Sciences and Related Disorders), 3(17), 69-77. doi:10.1044/persp3.SIG17.69
6.	Journal article	Blake, H. L., & McLeod, S. (2019, published online 2018). Speech-language pathologists’ support for multilingual speakers’ English intelligibility and participation informed by the ICF. Journal of Communication Disorders, 77, 56-70. doi:10.1016/j.jcomdis.2018.12.003
7.	Journal article	Blake, H. L., McLeod, S., Verdon, S., & Fuller, G. (2018, published online 2016). The relationship between spoken English proficiency and participation in higher education, employment and income from two Australian censuses. International Journal of Speech-Language Pathology, 20(2), 202-215. doi:10.1080/17549507.2016.1229031
8.	Journal article	Guiberson, M. & Crowe, K. (2018). Interventions for multilingual children with hearing loss: A scoping review. Topics in Language Disorders, 38(3), 225-41. doi: 10.1097/TLD.0000000000000155
9.	Journal article	Hegarty, N., Titterington, J., McLeod, S., & Taggart, L. (2018). Intervention for children with phonological impairment: Knowledge, practices and intervention intensity in the UK. International Journal of Language and Communication Disorders, 53(5), 995-1006. doi:10.1111/1460-6984.12416
10.	Journal article	Hopf, S. C., McLeod, S. & McDonagh, S. H. (2018, published online 2017). Linguistic multi-competence of Fiji school students and their conversational partners. International Journal of Multilingualism, 15(1), 72-91. doi:10.1080/14790718.2016.1241256
11.	Journal article	Hopf, S. C., McLeod, S., McDonagh, S., Wang, C., & Rakanace, E. (2018, published online 2017). Communication disability in Fiji: Community self-help and help-seeking support. International Journal of Speech-Language Pathology, 20(5), 554-568, doi:10.1080/17549507.2017.1337226
12.	Journal article	Hopf, S., McDonagh, S., Wang, C., & McLeod, S. (2018). English language and literacy proficiency of students in an urban Fiji primary school. Language, Culture and Curriculum, Advance online publication doi:10.1080/07908318.2018.1541999
13.	Journal article	Howland, C., Baker, E., Munro, N., & McLeod, S. (2019, published online 2018). Realisation of grammatical morphemes by children with phonological impairment. Clinical Linguistics and Phonetics, 33(1-2), 20-41. doi:10.1080/02699206.2018.1518487
14.	Journal article	Marschark, M., Walton, D., Crowe, K., Borgna, G., & Kronenberger, W.G. (2018). Relations of social maturity, executive function, and self-efficacy among deaf university students. Deafness and Education International, 20(2), 100-120. doi:10.1080/14643154.2018.1474330
15.	Journal article	Masso, S., McLeod, S., & Baker, E. (2018). Tutorial: Assessment and analysis of polysyllables in young children. Language, Speech, and Hearing Services in Schools, 49(1), 42-58. doi:10.1044/2017_LSHSS-16-0047
16.	Journal article	McCormack, J., Baker, E., & Crowe, K. (2018). The human right to communicate and our need to listen: Learning from people with a history of childhood communication disorder. International Journal of Speech-Language Pathology, 20(1), 142-151. doi:10.1080/17549507.2018.1397747
17.	Journal article	McLeod, S. (2018). Communication rights: Fundamental human rights for all. International Journal of Speech-Language Pathology, 20(1), 3-11. doi:10.1080/17549507.2018.1428687
18.	Journal article	McLeod, S. & Masso, S. (2019, published online 2018). Screening children’s speech: The impact of imitated elicitation and word position. Language, Speech, and Hearing Services in Schools, 50, 71-82. doi:10.1044/2018_LSHSS-17-0141
19.	Journal article	McLeod, S., & Crowe, K. (2018). Children's consonant acquisition in 27 languages: A cross-linguistic review. American Journal of Speech-Language Pathology, 27, 1546-1571. doi:10.1044/2018_AJSLP-17-0100
20.	Journal article	McLeod, S., Crowe, K., McCormack, J., White, P., Wren, Y., Baker, E., ... Roulstone, S. (2018). Preschool children’s communication, motor and social development: Parents’ and educators’ concerns. International Journal of Speech-Language Pathology, 20(4), 468-482. doi:10.1080/17549507.2017.1309065
21.	Journal article	McLeod, S., Harrison, L. J., & Wang, C. (2019, published online 2018). A longitudinal population study of literacy and numeracy outcomes for children identified with speech, language, and communication needs in early childhood. Early Childhood Research Quarterly, 47, 507-517. doi:10.1016/j.ecresq.2018.07.004
22.	Journal article	Van Doornik, A., Gerrits, E., McLeod, S., & Terband, H. (2018). Impact of communication partner familiarity and speech accuracy on parents’ ratings of their child for the Intelligibility in Context Scale: Dutch. International Journal of Speech-Language Pathology, 20(3), 350-360. doi:10.1080/17549507.2018.1472808
23.	Journal article	Wang, C., Harrison, L. J., McLeod, S., Walker, S., & Spilt, J. L. (2018). Can teacher–child relationships support human rights to freedom of opinion and expression, education and participation? International Journal of Speech-Language Pathology, 20(1), 133-141. doi:10.1080/17549507.2018.1408855
24.	Commissioned report	McLeod, S., Harrison, L., Wang, C., & Verdon, S. (2018). Indigenous Australian children’s speech and language: Academic outcomes and access to services. Melbourne, Australia: Speech Pathology Australia.
25.	Commissioned report	Verdon, S., Mackenzie, N., McLeod, S., Davidson, C., Masso, S., Verdon, L., & Edwards-Groves, C. (2018). Assessment of children as effective communicators in early childhood education and care: Literature review. Melbourne, Australia: Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Authority.
26.	Editorial	Crowe, K., Masso, S., & Hopf, S. (2018). Innovations actively shaping speech-language pathology evidence-based practice. International Journal of Speech-Language Pathology, 20(3), 297-299. doi:10.1080/17549507.2018.1462851