“One Belt, One Road” Speech and Language Rehabilitation Summit, Beijing, China

This week I was invited to represent Australia to speak at the “One Belt, One Road” Speech and Language Rehabilitation Summit Forum at the China National Convention Center in Beijing. My invited presentations were titled:

• Speech Sound Disorders in Children 
• Speech Pathology Education in Australia 

Prof GAO Liqun (China - Organizer), Prof Sumalai Maroonroge (Thailand/US), Philippa Friary (NZ), Prof Lilly Cheng (US), Prof Sharynne McLeod (Australia), Prof Kartini Ahmad (Malaysia), Dr Ben Pham (Vietnam)

Prof Pao-Chuan Torng (Taiwan) and Prof Sharynne McLeod

 Dr Ben Pham represented Vietnam and presented an invited paper on the development of the speech and language therapy (SALT) profession in Vietnam.

Dr Ben Pham presenting her invited paper

Congratulating Ben after her presentation: Prof Sumalai Maroonroge (Thailand/US), Dr Lemmietta McNeilly (ASHA, US), Prof Kartini Ahmad (Malaysia), Dr Ben Pham (Vietnam), Christine Medina-Chin (Philippines), Prof Lilly Cheng (US), Mae Catherine Sadicon and Elinor Cunanan-Bautista (Philippines)

Prof Sharynne McLeod presenting the McLeod and Crowe (2018) research about children's speech acquisition

Chatting with Dr Ao Chen from Beijing Language and Culture University

Radio interview about new website for waiting for speech pathology

Recently ABC radio talked with Emily Davis and Katrina Rohr about our Waiting for Speech Pathology website. Here is the interview:
Part 1
Part 2
Emily described the website and the importance of book sharing.

• Here is the Waiting for Speech Pathology website: https://wnswlhd.health.nsw.gov.au/our-services/speech-pathology
• Here is a blogpost about our NSW Health Grant: https://speakingmylanguages.blogspot.com/2019/10/finishing-our-waiting-for-speech.html

Well done Emily and Katrina.

Vice Chancellor's Blog - October 2019

Thanks to the members of our Speech-Language-Multilingualism team at CSU for their impactful research contributing to this mention on the Vice-Chancellor's blog for October.

A couple of pieces of good news that have made headlines in these past weeks include topping the Good Universities guide for graduate employment ranking, receiving $460,000 for Indigenous and rural student scholarships and research from the Central West Medical Association, two of our researchers Dr Hamid Jamali and Professor Christine Edwards-Groves acknowledged as national leaders in the Australian's 2019 Research magazine and our Public Relations students taking out first place in the national industry competition 'Pitch This'... Charles Sturt is at world standard in seven Fields of Research, which map to five of the 10 Fields of Education in which we teach. Based on this, we believe the University is already compliant with the proposed 2030 thresholds. As an example of our success on the world stage, is Professor of Speech and Language Acquisition, Professor Sharynne McLeod, was recently hailed as the world’s most cited expert in her field.

Research assistants are wonderful!

I have a grant from the Faculty of Arts and Education to employ research assistants to support the research of our Speech-Language-Multilingualism team. My current research assistants are:

• Dr Kate Crowe - Multilingual Children's Speech
• Jake Sheader - Professorial support and VietSpeech
• Lily To - VietSpeech
• Kylie Huynh - VietSpeech
• Olivia Richards - StoryBabies

Their support makes a HUGE difference to the rigour and productivity of our research. It is great to have them on our team.

Jake Sheader

Lily and Kylie's role on the VietSpeech project is described here

Dr Michelle Brown and Olivia Richards (StoryBabies)

Congratulations Helen!

Helen Blake has just received a letter from Chair of the Faculty PhD Examinations' Committee to say "Congratulations to you and your supervisory team for a successful PhD completion." What wonderful news. Congratulations Helen.

Meetings

Being involved in a university includes attendance at and contributions to many meetings. Today I attended the Faculty of Arts and Education Board Meeting - that had a 293 page agenda, and lasted for almost 3 hours. Although this time there was limited discussion of research, higher degree students, and other issues that are directly related to my day-to-day work, it was useful to both learn about and be part of the meeting addressing the wide-ranging issues facing the Faculty and University.

Planning to finish Nicole's PhD

This week Nicole McGill is in Bathurst to discuss the final phase of her PhD. She has written and submitted five journal articles already. We are having fun considering her introduction and conclusion chapters as well as other parts of the exegesis. How exciting.

Nicole visiting Sharynne in springtime Bathurst

Finishing our Waiting for Speech Pathology grant

In mid 2017 we were awarded a grant from the NSW Health Translational Research Grant Scheme. Our journey is documented through this blog here: https://speakingmylanguages.blogspot.com/search/label/NSWHealthTRGS

Two years later we are happy to report that the grant has been completed as planned on time and on budget. This week we had a meeting to go through the initial grant application and finalise our reports, media, and dissemination.

Here is the Waiting for Speech Pathology website: https://wnswlhd.health.nsw.gov.au/our-services/speech-pathology

Here are a few of the outputs from our study (so far):

Journal articles

• McGill, N. & McLeod, S. (2019). Aspirations for a website to support families’ active waiting for speech-language pathology. International Journal of Speech-Language Pathology, 21, 263-274. doi:10.1080/17549507.2019.1604802 
• McLeod, S., Davis, E., Rohr, K., McGill, N., Miller, K., Roberts, A., Thornton, S., Ahio, N., & Ivory, N. (2019, submitted July). Waiting for speech-language pathology services: A randomised controlled trial comparing device, advice, and therapy. Manuscript in submission (under review). 
• McGill, N., McLeod, S., Ivory, N., Davis, E., & Rohr, K. (2019, October). Randomised controlled trial evaluating active versus passive waiting for speech-language pathology. Manuscript in submission (under review). 

Conference presentations

• Davis, E., McLeod, S., Rohr, K., Roberts, K., McGill, N., Miller, K., Thornton, S., Ahio, N. (June, 2019). Randomised controlled trial evaluating the effectiveness of advice versus device for children on speech pathology waiting lists. Poster presented at the Speech Pathology Australia National Conference, Brisbane, Australia. 
• McGill, N., McLeod, S., Davis, E., Rohr, K., & Miller, K. (June, 2019). ‘Wait’ lifting: Randomised controlled trial evaluating active versus passive waiting for speech pathology by children with speech and language difficulties. Poster presented at the Speech Pathology Australia National Conference, Brisbane, Australia.

Discussing the finalisation of our grant: Sharynne McLeod, Audrey Wang, Emily Davis, Katrina Rohr, Nicole McGill

Celebrating the outcome of our hard work on the grant

Catching up with Jacqui Barr - and the importance of siblings

Last weekend I had a chance to catch up with Jacqui Barr. Jacqui was my research assistant, honours and PhD student many years ago. Her important work on siblings of children with disabilities has changed professional practice and increased visibility of siblings throughout the world.

• Barr, J., McLeod, S., & Daniel, G. (2008). Siblings of children with speech impairment: Cavalry on the hill. Language, Speech, and Hearing Service in Schools, 39(1), 21-32. doi:10.1044/0161-1461(2008/003) 
• Barr, J., & McLeod, S. (2010). They never see how hard it is to be me: Siblings' observations of strangers, peers and family. International Journal of Speech-Language Pathology, 12(2), 162-171. doi:doi:10.3109/17549500903434133 
• 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 
• Crowe, K., McLeod, S., & Barr, J. (2017). Siblings of children with hearing loss. Retrieved from http://www.raisingandeducatingdeafchildren.org/2017/10/16/siblings-of-children-with-hearing-loss/

She has spent the past several years supporting adults with disabilities in the community at Glenray Industries and is about to embark on a new job continuing working with people with disabilities. I wish her well - and it was wonderful to spend time together.

Communication and human rights in speech pathology

"Communication and human rights in speech pathology" was the title of the James Cook University Speech Pathology Student Society's Inaugural Lecture. Congratulations to the JCU Speech Pathology Student Society, Gareth Lloyd, and Bill Mitchell (Townsville Community Legal Service) for addressing this important topic tonight. Thank you for inviting me to introduce the evening outlining some of the work we have been able to undertake to speak up for communication rights.

Speech-language pathologists are human rights defenders and cross-cutting enablers. We also need to "speak up" to be human rights advocates.
Speech-language pathologists are "canaries in the coal mine". We are first identifiers - unlocking communication to enable positive health, educational and social outcomes ~ Bill Mitchell

Welcome to new VietSpeech team members

Recently, the VietSpeech team has welcomed Lily To and Kylie Huynh as research assistants. They are final year speech pathology students and have brought excellent knowledge and skills to the team. The VietSpeech team are currently working with children (and their parents) to document Australian Vietnamese-English-speaking children’s speech acquisition in both Vietnamese and English and to consider the environmental influence of their parents' speech.
Welcome Lily and Kylie and thanks for your contributions to our study.

Dr Van Tran, Kate Margetson, Lily To and Kylie Huynh enjoying lunch between speech assessments

International Journal of Practice-based Learning in Health and Social Care

This evening I spoke to the editor and editorial board for the International Journal of Practice-based Learning in Health and Social Care in the UK and South Africa about how to increase their visibility, citations, and profile. It was a very positive meeting with lots of ideas shared.