Today begins my annual leave and I will be on holidays until 18th January.
What a year it has been. Now it is time for a rest and time with our families.
Best wishes for the holiday season and 2021.
December 23, 2020
December 22, 2020
VietSLP - A new website developed by Dr Giang Pham from San Diego
Dr Giang Pham has just announced an excellent new website for supporting speech-langauge pathologists who work with bilingual Vietnamese-English speaking children and families:
VietSLP: https://vietslp.sdsu.edu/
Introducing a new website with online resources for supporting Vietnamese children! On our website, you can find:
✓ Learning Modules on how to work with Vietnamese American children
✓ Assessment Tools for the Vietnamese language
Please visit our website at vietslp.sdsu.edu!
VietSpeech wrap up
At our VietSpeech wrap up meeting this year we celebrated so many successes for 2020.
Firstly, we have finished data collection (apart from 1 family who will be assessed in January).
Secondly, we have found so many solutions to the challenges that we have been faced with over 2020.
Thirdly, we have grown as a team and as families. We enjoy working together and have really made a difference in the lives of many Vietnamese families in Australia.
Fourthly, we have been able to tell the world about our VietSpeech research at a number of conferences and have many papers in press, under review, and in draft form.
We are proud of all we have been able to achieve in this most unusual of years for the world.
December 19, 2020
End of year celebrations and 2021 planning
Over the past few weeks I have had the opportunity to celebrate colleagues' achievements and plan with others for 2021:
- Michelle Brown's achievements during her postdoc
- Branka Krivokapic-Skoko's promotion to professor
- Julie Marshall's promotion to professor
- Lucia Wuersch's PhD graduation
- James Brann's PhD examination results
- Andi Salamon's research plans for 2021
Dr Lucia Wuersch's graduation
 |
| Planning 2021 research with Dr Andi Salamon |
December 18, 2020
Congratulations Dr Nicole McGill, Dr Anna Cronin and Holly McAlister on your graduation
Today our Charles Sturt University Speech-Language-Multilingualism team held a virtual/simulation graduation for
- Dr Nicole McGill (PhD)
- Dr Anna Cronin (PhD)
- Holly McAlister (BSpLangPath)(Hons)
from Shepparton, Brisbane, Young, Culcairn, Bathurst, Newcastle, Sydney, Fiji, and Iceland.
Here is the official CSU list of graduands: https://www.csu.edu.au/current-students/your-course/graduation/graduations-2020
Additionally, Dr Anna Cronin was awarded the Charles Sturt University Higher Degree by Research University Medal for the Faculty of Arts and Education!
We are so proud of you all. It has been an honour and privilege to be your supervisors:
- Dr Nicole McGill (PhD) - Prof Sharynne McLeod, Dr Kate Crowe, Dr Suzanne Hopf
- Dr Anna Cronin (PhD) - Prof Sharynne McLeod, Dr Sarah Verdon
- Holly McAlister (BSpLangPath)(Hons) - Dr Suzanne Hopf, Prof Sharynne McLeod
Best wishes as your research changes the world and you begin the next phase of your careers.
 |
| The graduation ceremony (complete with as many hats as possible) |
 |
| Dr Nicole McGill |
 |
| Dr Anna Cronin |
 |
| Holly McAlister (BSpLangPath)(Hons) |
 |
| Dr Sarah Verdon made a CSU gold "mace" for the ceremony |
Congratulations Dr Anna Cronin - Higher Degree by Research University Medal
Congratulations to Dr Anna Cronin who recently learned that she has been awarded the Charles Sturt University Higher Degree by Research University Medal for the whole of the Faculty of Arts and Education!
December 15, 2020
Australian Linguistic Society Conference (ALS2020)
The Australian Linguistic Society Conference (ALS2020) is an online conference 14-15 December 2020. Our VietSpeech team presented papers within a symposium co-chaired by Sarah Verdon and Paola Escudero titled "Building bridges for multilingual speakers in Australia".
Here are our papers:
- Bilingual speech development in a three generation Vietnamese-Australian family Sharynne McLeod, Kate Margetson, Ben Pham, Van Tran, Cen Wang, Sarah Verdon
- Home language maintenance among Vietnamese-Australian families Van Tran, Sharynne McLeod, Sarah Verdon, Cen Wang
- Intelligibility of spoken English among university students and its impact upon participation in Australian life Helen L. Blake, Sarah Verdon & Sharynne McLeod
 |
| PANEL: Building bridges for multilingual speakers in Australia |
 |
| Dr Helen Blake |
 |
| Dr Van H. Tran |
 |
| Dr Sarah Masso |
December 14, 2020
CSU's committment to the Sustainable Development Goals
CSU has just submitted their report on the Sustainable Development Goals.
Congratulations to everyone at CSU for their broad-ranging work to promote sustainability and social justice. The work of our team is featured on:
- SDG3 - page 10 - Waiting for Speech Pathology website
- SDG10 - page 19 - CSU expert advocates at the UN for communication right
CSU ranked very well in 2020 - so I hope we do as well or better in the 2021 announcement from THE: https://speakingmylanguages.blogspot.com/2020/05/charles-sturt-universitys-results-in.html
2021 - International Year of the Health and Care Workers
The recent World Health Assembly decided to designate 2021 as the International Year of the Health and Care Workers.
Further information: Health workforce policy and management in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic response: https://www.who.int/publications/i/item/health-workforce-policy-and-management-in-the-context-of-the-covid-19-pandemic-response
ICF Illustration Library
WOW! Tonight at my meeting with Dr Sandra Neumann I learned about the ICF Illustration Library: http://www.icfillustration.com/top_e.html
It can be searched in English, Spanish and Japanese.
We may be able to use these images for the child version of the ICS.
CSU Town Hall - 14 Dec 2020
A feature of 2020 has been CSU's Town Hall meetings to update all staff. This morning's meeting had over 800 participants to listen to the Acting Vice Chancellor, the DVCs and VCLT updating the staff then ask questions receive answers. Some topics that were discussed: VC Andy Vann has retired after 9 years at CSU and his contribution to CSU was acknowledged, including developing the Port Macquarie campus and the introduction of the medicine degree at CSU. 6000 students are graduating this year. CSU is the #1 university for graduate employment. 29 staff were promoted (13 women) in 2020. We ahve some good news about additional funding for students and research in 2021.
What a year!
December 12, 2020
Intelligibility in 3-year-olds with cleft lip and/or palate using the Intelligibility in Context Scale
The following manuscript has been accepted for publication.
Seifert, M., Davies, A., Harding, S., McLeod, S., & Wren, Y. (2020, in press December). Intelligibility in 3-year-olds with cleft lip and/or palate using the Intelligibility in Context Scale: Findings from the Cleft Collective Cohort Study. The Cleft Palate-Craniofacial Journal.
Here is the abstract:
Objective: To provide comparison data on the Intelligibility in Context Scale (ICS) for a sample of 3-year-old English-speaking children born with any cleft type.
Design: Questionnaire data from the Cleft Collective Cohort Study were used. Descriptive and inferential statistics were carried out to determine difference according to children’s cleft type and syndromic status.
Participants: 412 children born with cleft lip and/or palate whose mothers had completed the ICS when their child was 3-years-old.
Main Outcome Measure(s): Mothers’ rating of their children’s intelligibility using the ICS.
Results: The average ICS score for the total sample was 3.75 (sometimes-usually intelligible) (SD=0.76, 95% CIs=3.68-3.83) out of a possible score of 5 (always intelligible). Children’s speech was reported to be most intelligible to their mothers (M=4.33, SD=0.61, 95% CIs=4.27-4.39) and least intelligible to strangers (M=3.36, SD=1.00, 95% CIs=3.26-3.45). There was strong evidence (p < 0.001) for a difference in intelligibility between children with cleft lip only (n=104, M=4.13, SD=0.62, 95% CIs=4.01-4.25) and children with any form of cleft palate (n=308, M=3.63, SD=0.76, 95% CIs=3.52-3.71). Children born with cleft palate with or without cleft lip and an identified syndrome were rated as less intelligible (n=63, M=3.28, SD=0.85, 95% CIs=3.06-3.49) compared to children who did not have a syndrome (n=245, M=3.72, SD= 0.71, 95% CIs=3.63-3.81).
Conclusions: These results provide preliminary comparative data for clinical services using the outcome measures recommended by the International Consortium for Health Outcomes Measurement.
December 9, 2020
Faculty Research Groups Symposium
Today the Faculty of Arts and Education held a Research Groups Symposium to profile the work of the six research groups https://arts-ed.csu.edu.au/research/research-groups:
- Critical Research in Indigenous Studies Research Group
- Environmental and Social Justice Research Group
- STEM Education Research Group
- Libraries Research Group
- Early Childhood Research Group
- Professional Practice, Learning and Education Group
The day began with presentations from Executive Dean John McDonald and Associate Dean Philip Hider. Karen Bell and I presented about the Sustainable Development Goals. Then each group presented their work.
Feedback from an attendee “I felt this was a milestone in the Faculty- I have not felt such a sense of common purposes and mutual, respectful, interested engagement in either the research or the learning and teaching space since Education and Arts joined together in 2016.”
December 8, 2020
Speech acquisition within a 3-generation Vietnamese-English family
The following article has been accepted for publication:
McLeod, S., Margetson, K., Wang, C., Tran, V. T., Verdon, S., White, K., & Phạm, B. (2020, in press December). Speech acquisition within a 3-generation Vietnamese-English family: The influence of maturation and ambient phonology. Clinical Linguistics and Phonetics.
Here is the abstract:
The emergence approach to speech acquisition (Davis & Bedore, 2013) theorises the influence of intrinsic capabilities (e.g. maturation), interactional capabilities, and extrinsic contexts (e.g. ambient phonology). Intrinsic and extrinsic influences were examined via a case study of a 3-generation Vietnamese-English family with two brothers (C1 aged 5;6 and C2 aged 3;10), their mother (M), grandfather (GF) and grandmother (GM). Their speech was assessed using the Diagnostic Evaluation of Articulation and Phonology (DEAP, Dodd et al., 2002) and the Vietnamese Speech Assessment (VSA, Phạm et al., 2016). Standard Australian English/Standard Vietnamese productions were defined as ‘correct’, even though the adults spoke different Vietnamese dialects. Their percentage of standard consonants correct (PSCC) was: C1 (English:92.27%, Vietnamese:89.05%), C2 (E:86.47%, VN:86.13%), M (E:90.34%, VN:96.35%), GF (E:82.61%, VN:97.81%), GM (VN:99.27%). Percentages were higher when dialectal variants were included. C1 and C2 had more pronunciation matches with English (86.96%) than Vietnamese (79.56%). C1’s pronunciation matched: M (E:85.02%, VN:83.94%), GF (E:79.23%, VN:77.37%), GM (VN:73.72%) and C2’s pronunciation matched: M (E:79.23%, VN:73.72%), GF (E:73.91%, VN:75.18%), GM (VN:72.26%). There was evidence of ambient phonology influences and cross-linguistic transfer. For example, in Vietnamese ‘r’ is produced as /ʐ/ or /r/, but was produced by C1 as [ɹ] (English approximant) and by C2 [w] (age-appropriate /ɹ/ substitution). The children demonstrated maturation influences for late-occurring English consonants (e.g. English /θ/→[f]). This study found evidence for the emergence approach and recommends knowledge of the ambient phonology augments traditional child-focused understandings of children’s speech acquisition.
December 7, 2020
ICPLA 2021 and ISSDC
This evening I had a lovely time catching up with my colleague Dr Joanne Cleland from the University of Strathclyde. She is the convenor of ICPLA 2020 - which was postponed to 2021, and now will be held online. We shared ideas about the ECV2020 conference and how to run a conference across the world's timezones.
Earlier today, my copy of Interventions for Speech Sound Disorders in Children (2nd ed) arrived. Joanne co-authored chapter 22 on Biofeedback interventions - so it was great to share this with her.
Thank you Audrey
Dr Cen (Audrey) Wang has been such an important part of our VietSpeech team. She has worked with us 1 day per week to support our data analysis and writing. Today was her last day for 2020 before she went on leave. We look forward to continuing to work with her into the future. We currently have 6 papers in submission and under review, so are hoping that 2021 will have many accepted papers. In 2019 we published the following papers together:
-
McLeod, S., Verdon, S., Wang, C., & Tran, V. H. (2019). Language proficiency, use, and maintenance among people with Vietnamese heritage living in Australia. Journal of Monolingual and Bilingual Speech, 1(1), 55–79. https://doi.org/10.1558/jmbs.10973
- Hopf, S. C., McDonagh, S. H., Wang, C., & McLeod, S. (2019, published online 2018). English language and literacy proficiency of students in an urban Fiji primary school. Language, Culture and Curriculum, 32(2), 223-238. doi: 10.1080/07908318.2018.1541999
- McLeod, S., Harrison, L. J., & Wang, C. (2019). A longitudinal population study of literacy and numeracy outcomes for children identified with communication impairment in early childhood. Early Childhood Research Quarterly, 47, 507-517. doi:10.1016/j.ecresq.2018.07.004
 |
| Discussing VietSpeech data analysis with Audry |
Dr McGill and Dr Cronin are offically DR
Dr Nicole McGill and Dr Anna Cronin are now officially DRs! We are having a virtual celebration on 18th December 2020.
 |
| Dr McGill |
Virtual Christmas party
The School of Teacher Education Christmas party was virtual this year (of course). It was lovely to see everyone, reflect on the year, farewell Helen Logan and Kay Owens and to play COVID Bingo!
December 4, 2020
Attending 13th session of the Conference of States Parties to the CRPD at the United Nations
I have been sponsored by Speech Pathology Australia and accepted by the United Nations to attend the 13th session of the Conference of States Parties to the CRPD https://www.un.org/development/desa/disabilities/conference-of-states-parties-to-the-convention-on-the-rights-of-persons-with-disabilities-2/cosp13.html
Last year I attended in person at the United Nations in New York. This year, it is held online: http://webtv.un.org/
I attended the following session: Round Table 3: Promoting inclusive environments for the full implementation of the CRPD (Virtual - 3 December 2020 – 10.00 am to 12.00 pm (EST, 2am Sydney time).
Here is the background reading: http://undocs.org/CRPD/CSP/2020/4
There were 6 panellists and Santiago Velasquez is representing Australia. The other panellists are from Poland, Ecuador, USA, India and Malawi. Here are the bios of the Co-chairs and panelists https://www.un.org/development/desa/disabilities/wp-content/uploads/sites/15/2020/12/RTB-3-Short-Bios.pdf
COSP13's theme and sub-themes:
Over-arching theme: A decade of action and delivery for inclusive sustainable development: implementing the CRPD and the 2030 Agenda for all persons with disabilities.
Sub-themes for the three round tables
Cross-cutting theme: Strengthening capacity-building to fully implement the CRPD and the SDGs for persons with disabilities, in particular women and girls with disabilities. (Addressing the Beijing+ 25th and other relevant commemorations of the historical benchmarks in the global agenda this year).
- Disability and business: realizing the right to work in open, inclusive and accessible environments for persons with disabilities.
- Addressing the rights and needs of older persons with disabilities: ageing and demographic trends (co-chair by Liberia and CSO)
- Promoting inclusive environments for the full implementation of the CRPD (co-chair by Finland and CSO)
 |
| Santiago Velasquez represented Australia at COSP13 |
December 3, 2020
Video: The Lifelong Effects Of Speaking Multiple Languages
Enjoy and share this video "The Lifelong Effects Of Speaking Multiple Languages" created by Charles Sturt University profiling our Speech-Language-Multilingualism team's research (@DrKateCrowe @SV_SLP @VanTranTH @KateMargetson @helenlblake )
Multilingualism is a superpower!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wBrXmRW7lwg
https://www.facebook.com/28431613915/posts/10160630198933916/
February 2021 update from our colleague from Western Sydney University: https://theconversation.com/dont-be-afraid-to-pass-your-first-language-and-accent-to-your-kids-it-could-be-their-superpower-143093
Our final VietSpeech SuperSpeech session
This evening was our eighth and final VietSpeech SuperSpeech session with the Australian Vietnamese children and families. This week we learned about friendly sounds (consonant clusters) and also about goal setting to support home language maintenance. Each family talked about what they had learned from the program. It was a very special session. We will miss seeing these families each week. They have learned so much - and taught us a lot as well.
 |
| FINISHED! |
ICF Australia Interest Group Meeting
This afternoon I attended the ICF Australia Interest Group Meeting. Topics discussed included:
- Updates from annual WHO-FIC meeting October 2020 (Richard Madden and Catherine Sykes). They discussed the moves to bring together ICD-11, ICF and ICHI onto a common platform (ICAT) and provided a
- National Disability Data Asset and disability definition (Louise York, AIHW).
- NSW is running a pilot on early childhood education (one of five national case studies)
- ICF and outcome measures in rehabilitation trials (Prof Cathie Sherrington)
- Updates from ICF Australia Interest Group Members (including NDIS Independent Assessment Framework and its use of ICF by Ros Madden)
- Tu SW, Nyulas CI, Tudorache T, Musen MA, Martinuzzi A, van Gool C, della Mea V, Chute, CG, Frattura L, Hardiker N, ten Napel H, Madden RC, Almborg A-H, Ginige JA, Sykes CR, Celik C, Jakob R. (2020) Toward a Harmonized WHO Family of International Classifications Content Model. In L.B. Pape-Haugaard et al. (Eds.) Digital Personalized Health and Medicine. European Federation for Medical Informatics (EFMI) and IOS Press. p1409-1410. doi:10.3233/SHTI200466. http://ebooks.iospress.nl/publication/54468
Mentoring discussions
This week I have had some fantastic mentoring discussions with inspirational women in my school and faculty. What a joyful part of my job.
I've also recently learned that two people I have had mentoring discussions with have recently been promoted to professor. Congratulations
Here is a recent video interview with Prof Marshall: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D3F2xAoJpn8
December 2, 2020
COVID-19 and Charles Sturt University - back on campus in 2021
Today the Acting Vice Chancellor wrote the following email:
As the New South Wales Government eases restrictions, we have reviewed our Campus Alert levels in line with Government advice and have reduced our rating to Alert Level 1... Actions for students remain largely unchanged with preparations underway for a return to on campus study for session 2020130. Information is published on the Student Portal. COVID-19 key principles remain
- Maintain good hand hygiene and cough etiquette
- Practice physical distancing of 1.5m
- Stay home if you are unwell
- Anyone with respiratory symptoms or unexplained fever should be tested for COVID-19 – remember to report a confirmed or suspected case
- We encourage you to download the COVIDSafe app.
Early Childhood Research Group - Celebration Meeting - Dec 2020
This afternoon the Early Childhood Research Group met for the final time this year. We discussed how we exceeded our expectations for this year - and really lived our philosophy, particularly through our ECV2020 conference.
 | |
| Faculty of Arts and Education Research Groups' narrative |
2020 UTS Speech Pathology Online SEER Research Symposium
Today I presented an invited speech at the 2020 UTS Speech Pathology Online SEER Research Symposium. My topic was "Children’s Communication Competence Prior to School Entry: Insights from Three Cross-Linguistic "
Here is the official description of the event:
The Inaugural UTS Speech Pathology Research Symposium features 25 short papers about our current research and practice program in the UTS Discipline of Speech Pathology, Master of Speech Pathology course, and PhD Speech and Language Sciences at the Graduate School of Health at UTS, including talks from our clinical industry partners in private practice. This open, online event is free to attend. It's our way of saying "thankyou" to our community of clinicians and research partners, and helping to disseminate the findings of research and practice to the wider community. The program really does provide something for everyone. Come along for as much or as little of the day as you like, but you will need to register to get the link!
Launch of Interventions for Speech Sound Disorders in Children (2nd edition)
This morning I met online with my co-editors - Prof Lynn Williams and Prof Rebecca McCauley - and the publishers from Paul H. Brookes - Liz Gildea, Tess Hoffman, Astrid Zuckerman - to celebrate the launch of Interventions for Speech Sound Disorders in Children (2nd edition) (ISSDC 2e). We were meant to launch the book at the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association Convention in San Diego in November; however this conference was cancelled due to COVID-19. Our virtual celebration was wonderful.
Here is the link to the book's website and videos: https://brookespublishing.com/interventions-speech-sound-disorders-children-second-edition/
December 1, 2020
CSU Vice Chancellor's Forum - Invited Presentation
Today I presented to the Charles Sturt University Vice Chancellor's Forum. This 2-day program is attended by approx. 120 leaders at CSU. This year, it was online. My presentation profiled the research of our Speech-Language-Multilingualism team and the support from many people across CSU.
Congratulations to CSU who is the top university in Australia for full time employment for undergraduate students in their first 4 months after graduation. CSU has been the top university in this category for 5 years in a row!
 |
| The DVC Research highlighted my recognition from The Australian in her report |
 |
| Prof Geoff Gurr was also invited to present his research |
ECV2020 final statistics (16-20 November 2020)
Wow! ECV2020 had a global reach well beyond our expectations!
Registrations
- 2847 people registered from 70 countries
- 8 keynote presentations with 9 invited speakers
- 89 oral presentations
- During the week of the conference there were 9,806 pageviews and 5,736 sessions
- The top 10 countries were Australia, US, UK, New Zealand, Canada, Malaysia, Iceland, Finland, Norway, The Netherlands
- The majority of traffic came from Facebook and Twitter, followed by CSU News
- People mostly viewed the website from their desktops (54%) or mobiles (43%)
- During the week of the conference there were over 11,500 views of the presentations, and 938 hours of watch time
- 98.2% of the total traffic to CSU’s YouTube channel in November 2020 was generated by ECV2020.
Here's my blogpost with all of the relevant links:
https://speakingmylanguages.blogspot.com/2020/11/early-childhood-voices-conference-2020.html
Here are the other blogposts about ECV2020:
https://speakingmylanguages.blogspot.com/search/label/ECV2020
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)