Recording a podcast for Speech Pathology Australia

Today I recorded a podcast for Speech Pathology Australia week. The theme is "Speak Up for Communication Rights" so they interviewed me about speaking at the United Nations (https://speakingmylanguages.blogspot.com/2019/06/presentation-at-united-nations-in-ny.html)

It was an honour to be interviewed by Anneke Flinn from SPA and to relive the wonderful opportunity I had in 2018 to edit a special issue of the International Journal of Speech-Language Pathology on communication rights then to speak at the United Nations in 2019.

 

My paper in the special issue of IJSLP that was titled "Communication rights: Fundamental human rights for all" has been downloaded over 25,000 times! https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/17549507.2018.1428687

Here are some links about communication rights:

• Speech Pathology Australia: https://www.speechpathologyaustralia.org.au/SpeakUp
• Special issue of IJSLP: https://www.tandfonline.com/toc/iasl20/20/1
  
• International Communication Project: https://internationalcommunicationproject.com/2019/05/international-communication-project-event-united-nations/

Presenting at the United Nations in 2019

Recently, the International Communication Project submitted comments about the impact of communication disability on employment to a United Nations (UN) committee that monitors the implementation of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities 

https://internationalcommunicationproject.com/2021/05/icp-submits-comments-to-un-committee/

Ethics approval received to start research with "Say Bananas"

Last week we received ethics approval from Charles Sturt Universtity to commence our research to share the Say Bananas app with children in rural NSW. Grace Kelly gave a presentation about the research to speech pathologists in non-government settings in Orange. Now we have our first participant ready to begin.

Grace Kelly presenting to the speech pathologists in Orange

For more information email gkelly@csu.edu.au, and information about the research project about Say66 and the Say Bananas app is available on social media: 

• YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Unh1uKJWwA&t=5s 
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/UCanSay66 
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ucansay66/ 
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/say66

Preparing for my keynote address to the Philippine Association of Speech Pathologists’ Virtual Convention

Today I had an informative meeting with the organising committee of the Philippine Association of Speech Pathologists’ Virtual Convention in order to prepare for my address. I met with Susie Pascual (President), Mike Valdez (Vice President) and Ken Dizon (Conference Chair).

I am looking forward to the opportunity to speaking to the PASP members on 24th July as they celebrate their 30th anniversary at their third convention.

Here is the link to information about the Virtual Convention: http://www.pasp.org.ph/event-4213305

Problems with the Australian Government's categories of disability

The Australian Government has four categories of disability that are based on the Disability Discrimination Act (1992) and the Disabililty Standards for Education (2005) are used in the NCCD census across schools https://www.nccd.edu.au/wider-support-materials/definitions-disability-and-nccd-categories 

• Physical 
• Cognitive 
• Sensory 
• Social/Emotional 

This is a really problematic grouping since most students with communication disability do not fit easily into these categories.

https://www.nccd.edu.au/wider-support-materials/definitions-disability-and-nccd-categories

 

We wrote about this issue over a decade ago: 

McLeod, S., Press, F., & Phelan, C. (2010). The (in)visibility of children with communication impairment in Australian health, education, and disability legislation and policies. Asia Pacific Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing, 13(1), 67-75. 

Here is a paper that outlines the impact of having a communication disability on the support required in schools:

McLeod, S., & McKinnon, D. H. (2010). Support required for primary and secondary students with communication disorders and/or other learning needs. Child Language Teaching and Therapy, 26(2), 123-143. https://doi.org/10.1177/0265659010368754

Expert Panel Meeting 3: Students with Disability Loading Settings Review

Today was the third (of 5) Expert Panel Meeting for the Australian Government's Department of Education, Skills and Employment Students with Disability Loading Settings Review. It has been an honour to contribute to this expert panel.

Just published: our next VietSpeech journal article

Wang, C., Verdon, S., McLeod, S., & Tran, V. H. (2021). Profiles of linguistic multicompetence in Vietnamese-English speakers. American Journal of Speech-Language Pathology. Advance online publication https://doi.org/doi:10.1044/2021_AJSLP-20-00296

ICPLA 2021

This week is the International Clinical Phonetics and Linguistics Association conference. It was meant to be held in Glasgow in 2020, but was postponed due to COVID restrictions. The 2021 conference is entirely online. There are over 200 delegates, 140 posters and ~ 40 oral presentations.

Our team are presenting the following papers (live - so the timezone differences between Glasgow (listed below) and Bathurst are fun to navigate): 

1. Transcribing Multilingual Children’s and Adults’ Speech (June 23, 2021, 11:30 a.m. - 11:50 a.m. [~ 8:30pm Bathurst time]) 
2. Evidence of the Emergence Approach to Speech Acquisition in Bilingual Vietnamese-English children (June 23, 2021, 11:50 a.m. - 12:10 p.m. [~ 9pm Bathurst time]) 
3. Parents' ratings of intelligibility in 3-year-olds with cleft lip and/or palate using the Intelligibility in Context Scale: Findings from the Cleft Collective Cohort Studies (June 23, 2021, 2:20 p.m. - 2:40 p.m. [~ 11:20pm Bathurst time]) 
4. Children's acquisition of consonants, vowels and tones in Northern Vietnam (June 24, 2021, noon - 12:20 p.m. [~ 9pm Bathurst time])

The conference is being hosted on the Whova app and Gathertown for posters and social events.

Conference chair: A/Prof Joanne Cleland, University of Strathclyde, Glasgow

ICPLA President: Prof Vesna Mildner, Croatia

Kate Margetson gave the first ICPLA oral presentation after the first keynote - there was a lot of interest in applying her results to other languages

The conference has used Whova as the presentation app and Gathertown for posters and networking. 

 I just listened to the Red Hot Chilli Pipers (!) in the Student Union. 

Gathertown uses avatars to network, present posters, and enjoy Scotland!

 

Congratulations Van Tran - 3MT People's Choice Award Winner for CSU!

Congratulations to Dr Van Tran 3MT People's Choice Award Winner for the whole of Charles Sturt University. Her presentation was titled "Imagine losing your heart language".

Van was the only finalist from the Faculty of Arts and Education and competed against 5 other PhD students from across the whole of Charles Sturt University in Wagga Wagga. The judges' comments about Van's presentation included the words "spine tingling", "thought provoking", and "left us with a challeng and huge impact re: what would our society be if it didn't have a huge mix of languages?"

Congratulations again! We are so proud of you.

Dr Van Tran winning the People's Choice award

Here is Dr Van Tran's article in the CSU Research Bulletin about competing in the 3MT: https://mailchi.mp/2d08fe7fcfb1/july-bulletin?fbclid=IwAR12RsTq0XVJI57J2twM0AGs8vew7cYBn7WEmtNd6NzVS6Q91mu4C6GjIfU#mctoc15 

3MT recording of the event: https://research.csu.edu.au/research-support/promo/3-minute-thesis 

3MT recording of the event: https://vimeo.com/566509064/0aa76cebe4

VietSpeech transcription, data entry and analysis meeting

Tonight our VietSpeech research assistants met to discuss our transcription, data entry and analysis for Study 4. Transcription of data in two languages (English and Vietnamese) is complex and requires extensive checking and protocols to ensure accuracy. We have a fantastic team who are very rigorous  - ensuring a high level of confidence in our findings.

Katherine White, Sharynne McLeod, Lily To, Van Tran

Anniek's PhD is going well

Tonight we discussed the next draft of one of Anniek Van Doornik's PhD papers. I really enjoy collaborating with her supervisory team in The Netherlands: Prof Ellen Gerrits, Hayo Terband and Marlies Welbie.

Waiting for Speech Pathology website

The Waiting for Speech Pathology website has new pages: 

• Stuttering 
• Voice 
• Paediatric Feeding 

The original pages addressed: 

• Children's Speech 
• Language 
• Literacy 
• Visiting a Speech Pathologist 

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

Congratulations Emily Davis, Katrina Rohr and team. It is so exciting to see the evolution of this website from our NSW Health grant and Nicole McGill's PhD

Van's penultimate draft of her second PhD

This week we will read the penutimate draft of Dr Van Tran's second PhD. She has been undertaking her PhD with us as part of our VietSpeech ARC Discovery Grant. It is a wonderful thesis and we look forward to her submission in the next month or so.

Discussing qualitative vs quantiative research

Marie Ireland has begun her PhD journey at Charles Sturt University. She is working on a PhD by prior publication supervised by Dr Sarah Verdon, Dr Kate Crowe and myself.

This evening (starting at 9pm Australian time/7am US time) we were discussing qualitative research and how there are many truths in qualitative research; whereas, quantitative research aims to find the one truth. We were pondering this when we realised that a perfect question to illustrate "many truths" was "Is it currently night or day?" At the time, it was 10:50pm for Sarah and myself and 8:50am for Marie. It was summertime for Marie and wintertime for Sharynne and Sarah. Whose truth was correct? Both.

Marie, Sharynne and Sarah

Sarah pondering...

Congratulations Dr Nicole McGill on your PhD graduation and Holly McAlister on your first class honours

Today, Nicole McGill graduated with her PhD at the Charles Sturt University graduation ceremony in Wagga Wagga. Dr Kate Crowe, Dr Suzanne Hopf and I were proud supervisors. She was meant to have graduated at the same ceremony as Dr Anna Cronin - but could not attend due to COVID restrictions in her state.

I was delighted that Nicole graduated at the same ceremony as Holly McAlister who graduated with first class honours. It was such a pleasure to be Holly's associate supervisor with Dr Suzanne Hopf being her primary supervisor. 

It was a really special day for Suzanne Hopf who supervised both of these wonderful researchers' theses. Suzanne was in Fiji and unable to travel due to COVID restrictions - but was able to watch the graduation online in real time. 

It was wonderful to celebrate the occasion with Nicole and Holly's families, some of the speech pathology graduates from Albury, and the other happy graduates.

Dr Nicole McGill, Prof Sharynne McLeod, Holly McAlister

CSU Speech pathology graduates from the Bachelors and Masters program with Dean of Science Megan Smith, Head of Speech Pathology Dr Sarah Verdon, and Prof Sharynne McLeod

Dr Nicole McGill celebrating with her family

Another useful supervision meeting with our Masters' students in Vietnam

Podcast interview

Today I was interviewed for the Up & Coming Speechies podcast:
https://podcasts.apple.com/au/podcast/up-coming-speechies/id1528880071

It was a pleasure to discuss my career trajectory with Sienna and Hannah

WHO Caregiver Skills Training Programme review

I have just completed my review of the World Health Organization Caregiver Skills Training Programme for Families of Children with Developmental Delays and Disabilities. I was invited in my role as Deputy Chair of the Child Speech Committee of the International Association of Communication Sciences (IALP)

Snow!

 Today was a lovely snow day. This is rare in my part of Australia.

Snow on the gum trees

Annual Editorial Board meeting for Child Language Teaching and Therapy

Tonight (starting at 11pm ~ early afternoon in London) I attended the annual Editorial Board meeting for the journal Child Language Teaching and Therapy. There is lot of exciting work happening with the journal. In 2020 there were 106,755 full text downloads! 

Australian authors were well represented in the most downloaded and most cited articles. Congratulations to CSU authors Anna Glover, Jane McCormack, and Michelle Smith-Tamaray who were in the top 10 most downloaded papers (1,217 downloads) for "Collaboration between teachers and speech and language therapists: Services for primary school children with speech, language and communication needs"

We also learned about changes to the 2020 and 2021 impact factors from Clarivate: 

• The 2020 Impact Factor (published in June 2021) will use the online publication date rather than the print publication date to calculate citations to a journal in 2020. This means that the next Impact Factor will only see changes in the numerator of the Impact Factor equation for journals that publish OnlineFirst. This is likely to lead to some inflation in Impact Factors and rankings across the majority of journals. Journals with very large backlogs might see even greater inflation. 

• The 2021 Impact Factor (published in June 2022) will use the online publication date for both the citing (numerator) and cited articles (denominator) data, not the printed issue date. 2021 will likely see a universal drop in all Impact Factors compared to 2020 as a result.

Good Practice Schools Framework

I am an invited member of the Students With Disability Loading Review Expert Panel coordinated by PricewaterhouseCoopers on behalf of the Australian Government. We met today to discuss the draft Good Practice Schools Framework and Cost Framework. It is an honour to have an input into this work, and to hear of the importance of speech pathologists in schools from across the sector nationally.

Congratulations Dr Sarah Masso - Humboldt Scholar

This month, Dr Sarah Masso begins as a Humboldt Scholar to work with Prof. Dr. Annette Baumgärtner in the Medizinische Fakultät, Universität zu Lübeck, Lübeck, Germany. Congratulations Sarah!

Future research collaborations

Last week I met with Prof Julian Grant, Dr Tamara Cumming and Dr Sarah Verdion to plan our future resarch collaborations. It was a productive and inspiring meeting.

Sarah, Julian, Sharynne and Tamara

Congratulations Dr Anna Cronin on your graduation and Dr Sarah Verdon on your Young Alumnus award

On Thursday, Anna Cronin graduated with her PhD at the Charles Sturt University graduation ceremony in Bathurst. She received the Higher Degree Research medal for the Faculty of Arts and Education and was invited to speak on behalf of all of the graduates. Dr Sarah Verdon and I were proud supervisors.

Dr Anna Cronin

Dr Nicole McGill was supposed to have received her PhD at the ceremony as well; however, she was unable to attend due to the COVID-19 lockdown restrictions in Victoria. We are hoping to celebrate with Nicole at another ceremony in a few weeks' time.

Prof Sharynne McLeod, Dr Anna Cronin and Dr Sarah Verdon
(Dr Nicole McGill on the phone)

Also at the ceremony Dr Sarah Verdon received the CSU Young Alumnus Award. As a result, she was asked to be the graduation speaker. She presented an inspiring speech to the graduates.

Dr Sarah Verdon - CSU Young Alumnus

We had a virtual graduation ceremony last December: https://speakingmylanguages.blogspot.com/2020/12/today-our-charles-sturt-university.html so it was lovely to celebrate in person.

Graduation celebrations in the Faculty of Arts and Education

This week, Charles Sturt University is hosting graduation celebrations for our students who officially graduated in 2020, but were unable to attend their ceremonies due to COVID restrictions. 

Wednesday 2nd June was the first School of Teacher Education graduation ceremony and Dr Kelly Tribolet, one of our colleagues graduated. I had played a small role in supporting her PhD completion in my role on as chair of the SOTE Research Committee, so it was wonderful to celebrate this special day with her and her supervisors (Prof Linda Harrison, Dr Loraine Fordham and Dr Deb Clarke). Congratulations Kelly!

Dr Kelly Tribolet, Prof Linda Harrison, Prof Sharynne McLeod

Thursday 3rd June saw the graduation of a number of the Faculty of Arts and Education doctorates including Dr Roslyn Cox, Dr Anna Cronin, Dr Graham Lupp, and Dr Lucia Wuersch. 

Faculty of Arts and Education graduates and staff

Dr Lucia Wuersch