September 30, 2020

SOTE PhD students

We currently have 23 PhD students in the School of Teacher Education, with three more due to begin in 2021. We have 20 domestic students. Nine are part time and 14 are full time. 

Congratulations to the students who have their dissertations under examination or who are due to graduate this year (including Nicole McGill and Anna Cronin). (Information from Dr Tamara Cumming, HDR Coordinator, SOTE School Board, 30 Sept 2020)

ECV2020: The latest statistics

 Since 30th August we have had

  • 2580 page views of our website with the top countries being (in order):  Australia, UK, Vietnam, US, NZ, Japan, Ireland, Finland, Netherlands, Brazil
  • 490 registrations from 29 countries: Australia, Bangladesh, Belgium, Canada, China, Denmark, Fiji, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Malta, Myanmar, Netherlands, Nigeria, Norway, Oman, Pakistan, Peru, Turkey, UAE, UK, US, Vietnam, Zambia
  • Everyone who submitted the 93 abstracts will be informed of the outcome of their submission by today.

The marketting campaign for our second edition has begun

Now that I have finished proofing the entire book, the marketting campaign has begun for Interventions for Speech Sound Disorders in Children - Second Edition edited by A. Lynn Williams, Sharynne McLeod and Rebecca J. McCauley. It's exciting to think that people will soon be using our book to support children's communication across the world.

September 23, 2020

Australia's Field Leader in Audiology, Speech & Language Pathology (2018, 2019, 2020)

I am very honoured to learn that I am Australia's Research Field Leader in Audiology, Speech & Language Pathology for the third year in a row: 2018, 2019, 2020: https://specialreports.theaustralian.com.au/1540291/18/

This is wonderful confirmation of the impact of collaborative research with my Speech-Language-Multilingualism Team, since during 2018-2019 my personal research productivity was diminshed due to my cancer treatments. 

Here are our accomplishments in The Australian Research Rankings since they began:

  • 2018: Australia's Field Leader in Audiology, Speech & Language Pathology - Sharynne McLeod, CSU
  • 2018: Australia's Lead Institution in Audiology, Speech & Language Pathology - Charles Sturt Univeristy
  • 2019: World Leader in Audiology, Speech & Language Pathology - Sharynne McLeod, CSU
  • 2019: Australia's Field Leader in Audiology, Speech & Language Pathology - Sharynne McLeod, CSU
  • 2019: Australia's Lead Institution in Audiology, Speech & Language Pathology - Charles Sturt Univeristy
  • 2020: Australia's Field Leader in Audiology, Speech & Language Pathology - Sharynne McLeod, CSU
  • 2020: Australia's Lead Institution in Audiology, Speech & Language Pathology - University of Queensland

I am pleased that three CSU professors were named in 2020:

  • 2020: Australia's Field Leader in Insects and Arthropods - Geoff Gurr, CSU
  • 2020: Australia's Field Leader in Strategic Management - Morgan Miles, CSU
  • 2020: Australia's Field Leader in Audiology, Speech & Language Pathology - Sharynne McLeod, CSU 

CSU wrote a news release about the recognition: https://news.csu.edu.au/latest-news/three-charles-sturt-researchers-named-australian-leaders-in-their-fields

Here is how each ranking is calculated:

  • World Leader: "No other researcher in the world has a higher number of citations from papers published in the last five years in the top 20 journals in that particular field"
    (The Australian - Research, p. 10, September 23, 2020).
  • Field Leader: "In each of the 255 fields we name the Australian-based researcher whose papers published in the top 20 journals in their field in the past five years have had the most citations by other researchers" (The Australian - Research, p. 9, September 23, 2020).  
  • Lead Institution: "The top institution is the one which has the most citations from research published in the top 20 journals in that particular field in the last five years"  (The Australian - Research, p. 9, September 23, 2020).  


Finding out the news while on leave and celebrating with
lavendar and lemon scones straight from the oven!

Here are some news stories and my blog posts about our recognition in previous years:

SUMMARY: In 2018, 2019 and 2020 I was named Australia’s Research Field Leader in Audiology, Speech and Language Pathology and in 2019 was named the “best in the world based on the quality, volume and impact of work” by The Australian Newspaper who also named Charles Sturt University the Lead Institution in Audiology, Speech and Language Pathology in 2018 and 2019.
https://scholar.google.com/citations?view_op=top_venues&hl=en&vq=med_audiologyspeechlanguagepathology

 

September 18, 2020

Page proofing is finished for Interventions for Speech Sound Disorders in Children - Second Edition

I have finally finished copyediting and pageproofing every one of the 652 pages in Interventions for Speech Sound Disorders in Children - Second Edition edited by A. Lynn Williams, Sharynne McLeod and Rebecca J. McCauley. The first edition, published in 2010 was a rich resource of interventions with chapters written by the creators of the intervention approaches (in almost every instance).  The second edition has 24 chapters and videos (some new and the rest are extensively updated). We are very proud of it. 

Dr. Caroline Bowen was very generous in her Foreword too: 

If the award existed, my vote for International SLP/SLT Book of the Decade, 2020–2029, would go, unreservedly, to ISSDC 2e. And if you’re there at the glittering awards ceremony and you want to spot me in the crowd, I’m the rowdy woman cheering the loudest. (p. xxix)

 




September 17, 2020

SLP2B 2020: Communicating with Confidence - 1,020 video views

This afternoon I received the following email. It was a priviledge to be invited as a keynote speaker.

As the SLP2B 2020: Communicating with Confidence comes to a close on the 17 September, the SPA Student Reps would like to thank you again for sharing your knowledge and expertise with all our members. The uptake of the inaugural online version of this event has exceeded our expectations. The valuable resources you contributed to have been well received by students and clinicians within Victoria as well as across Australia and the globe. The website has had over 1,143 visits and over 1,020 video views. Without your valuable contribution, this event would not have been possible. Thank you. 

Kindest regards Bridget, Bronte, Danielle, Kathleen, Maddison, Nicole, Wendy 

SPA Victorian Branch Student Representatives

The details of the conference are here: https://speakingmylanguages.blogspot.com/2020/08/invited-presentations-at-slp2b-2020.html


September 15, 2020

ECV2020 abstract submission has closed


NUMBERS at 17th September 2020
260 registrations (even though registrations opened only 6 days ago)
2,002 page views of our website (since 1st September 2020)
93 abstracts submitted from 17 countries

I am so excited that we have had 93 abstracts submitted for the ECV2020 conference from: 

  1. Argentina
  2. Australia 
  3. Belgium 
  4. Bosnia and Herzegovina 
  5. Brazil 
  6. Canada 
  7. Denmark
  8. Finland 
  9. Iceland 
  10. Iran 
  11. Italy 
  12. Japan 
  13. New Zealand
  14. The Netherlands 
  15. UK (England, Scotland)
  16. USA 
  17. Vietnam 

I am thrilled to be working with Belinda Downey, the Deputy Chair of the ECV2020 Scientific Review Committee and the whole team. We have had to co-opt a few more members to ensure all abstracts receive 2+ reviews. Here are the committee members: Sharynne McLeod, Belinda Downey, Linda Mahony, Sarah Verdon, Laura McFarland, Suzanne C. Hopf, Michelle I. Brown, Van Tran, Helen Logan, Nicole McGill, Kate Margetson, Cen (Audrey) Wang, Andi Salamon, Mandy Cooke, Anna Cronin, Kathryn Crowe, Lena Danaia, James Deehan, Jenny Dwyer, Jessica McLeod, Libbey Murray.

More details about the conference are here https://earlychildhoodresearch.csu.domains/early-childhood-voices-conference-2020/

 

VietSpeech SuperSpeech recruitment (Study 4)

We have been overwhelmed by the response to our VietSpeech SuperSpeech program and now have a waiting list. We have begun the pre-assessment phase. The SuperSpeech program will begin on 15th October.

Refugee Health Translation Grant

Congratulations to Emily Davis and Katrina Rohr from the Bathurst Community Health Centre who were awarded a Refugee Health Translation Grant to have two of our handouts from the Waiting for Speech Pathology website translated into:

  • Arabic
  • Burmese
  • Dari
  • Farsi
  • Nepali
  • Swahili
  • Tamil
Learning about books and print (Burmese)

https://wnswlhd.health.nsw.gov.au/our-services/speech-pathology/childrens-literacy

Visiting a speech pathologist: What to expect? (Dari)
https://wnswlhd.health.nsw.gov.au/our-services/speech-pathology/more-information

New Faculty CV Writing Workshop Group

Today I started a new CV writing workshop group with another group of colleagues from the Faculty of Arts and Education. What collegial discussions we have had. The group voted to continue meeting regularly and had a list of topics to discuss. I'm looking forward to our next meeting.

September 10, 2020

CSU research pathways for students

 The following courses will be available at Charles Sturt University from 2021: 

These courses are available for online study:

R U OK day

Today, on R U OK day, the Faculty of Arts and Education hosted a wellbeing workshop led by the Dean, John McDonald, with presentations by Rod Esdaile (Health, Safety and Wellbeing), Kim Copeland (Student Safety and Wellbeing) and Prof Sue Green (School of Indigenous Australian Studies). Over 100 people attended online.

We were reminded of the following websites: 



September 8, 2020

Meeting with Ben and Xuan in Vietnam regarding operationalisation of the Vietnamese Speech Assessment

Recently Dr Ben Pham has received a grant from the Vietnamese Ministry of Education to undertake additional research to operationalise  the Vietnamese Speech Assessment by assessing 80 children from the North, Center and South of Viet Nam (n = 240). Today I was able to meet with Ben and Ms Xuan Le to discuss our Vietnamese Speech Assessment operationalisation. Eventually we will combine the data from all of our studies within the VSA manual:

  1. Study 1 - Ben's PhD - data from Northern Vietnam (n = 195)
  2. Study 2 - Xuan's data collection - data from Southern Vietnam (n = 132)
  3. Study 3 - Sharynne's VietSpeech - data from bilingual children in Australia (n = 61 children and 77 adults)
  4. Study 4 - Ben's Vietnamese Ministry of Education grant - data from Northern, Central and Southern Vietnam (n = 240)
  5. We may even collect more data before we finalise the VSA manual!

Recruitment for VietSpeech Study 4: Super Speech

Today we have begun our recruitment for VietSpeech Study 4: Super Speech. We are finalising the program and children's workbooks at the moment. It's going to be FUN!


 

Supporting and Understanding Speech Sound Disorder (SuSSD) has been launched

Supporting and Understanding Speech Sound Disorder (SuSSD) has been launched this week: https://www.ulster.ac.uk/research/topic/nursing-and-health/intellectual-and-developmental-disabilities/projects/ssd/about-this-website.

It was a pleasure to be Natalie Hegarty's co-supervisor for her PhD and to work with Dr Jill Titterington and Dr Laurence Taggart at Ulster University (Northern Ireland, UK) on the research that lead to the creation of the SuSSD.

"This resource was developed to support SLTs [speech and language therapists] to use research in practice when working with children with phonological impairment. This resource was produced through Natalie Hegarty's PhD Studentship in Ulster University, Northern Ireland, funded by the Department for Employment and Learning (DEL). This resource was informed by the evidence-base and was co-produced with speech and language therapists from each of the Health and Social Care Trust’s in Northern Ireland. The research team were: Natalie Hegarty, Jill Titterington (Ulster University), Sharynne McLeod (Charles Sturt University) and Laurence Taggart (Ulster University)."

September 7, 2020

Understanding the nuances of Zoom - Toddler style

During 2020, many parents have had children on their laps during Zoom meetings. I am constantly impressed by members of our SLM team and how they are able to incorporate their children and their work.

Sadie is particularly adept at understanding the nuances of Zoom meetings, despite her age. The moment we start to wind up a meeting (even when we are not fully aware that that is what we are doing) Sadie will blow us all kisses. I have permission to share this photo that captured the moment during a meeting today!



September 3, 2020

Meeting with a giant in our field

This week A/Prof Elise Baker and I were honoured to meet with Professor Emeritus John Bernthal, University of Nebraska via Zoom. He is currently editing the 9th edition of his popular text. Here are the details of the 8th edition:

Bernthal, J. E., Bankson, N. W., & Flipsen, P. (2017). Articulation and phonological disorders: Speech sound disorders in chilldren (8th ed.). Pearson. 

We had a lot to discuss, including that I have been invited to update my chapter on speech acquisition for the 9th edition, and submitted it a short time ago.

We also lamented that we will not be able to see one another at the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association convention this year in San Diego since the ASHA conference has been cancelled for the first time since World War II.

September 2, 2020

ECV2020 committee meeting

Today the Early Childhood Voices Conference 2020 committees met for the first time. It was a meeting filled with enthusiasm and willingness to support this exciting endeavour. 

Our subcommittees are the organising committee, scientific committee and the promotions committee.

We have four wonderful keynote speakers (more to come) and lot of abstracts coming in.

At our meeting we said farewell to Dr Nicola Ivory as she is leaving CSU this week. She has had an amazing impact on the development of the resources for this conference.

More details about ECV2020 are here: https://earlychildhoodresearch.csu.domains/early-childhood-voices-conference-2020/