A/Prof Jane McCormack is the head of the speech pathology program at the Australian Catholic University. I am currently an Honorary Professor at ACU and am enjoying collaborating with Jane and her staff. I popped into visit Jane this week after a medical appointment. We had the opportunity to discuss the MANY projects we have together. We have enjoyed working together for over 20 years - and when we get together our brainstorming is exciting.
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| Sharynne and Jane at ACU North Sydney |
Tonight I have been reviewing abstracts for the 2023 Speech Pathology Australia Conference. It is exciting to see research before everyone else does.
This year we have three presentations at the Asia Pacific Society of Speech, Language and Hearing Online Symposium. https://sites.google.com/view/apsslhsym2022/home
The symposium is presented in association with the Hong Kong Association of Speech Therapists (HKAST) and Thai Speech-Language and Hearing Association (TSHA).
Presentation 1: VietSpeech: Learning about bilingual speech acquisition and language maintenance from a large-scale Australian study
Sharynne McLeod, Sarah Verdon, Kate Margetson, Van Tran, Cen Wang, Ben Pham
Presentation 2: Considering dialect for speech sound disorder diagnosis: A Fiji English case study
Holly McAlister, Suzanne C. Hopf, Sharynne McLeod
Presentation 3: Predicting who will normalize without intervention for speech sound disorders.
Carol K. S. To, Sharynne McLeod, Sam Ka Lam Sam, Thomas Law
I prepared an intervention about Agenda Item 14 Reaching the unreached at the 73rd session of the World Health Organization Regional Committee for the Western Pacific.
The intervention was on behalf of International Association of Communication Sciences and Disorders (IALP).
Here is the link to my recorded version
Here is my speech
Honourable Chair, Distinguished Delegates of States Parties, and Civil Society
My name is Professor Sharynne McLeod from Charles Sturt University in Australia. I am a speech-language pathologist and am speaking as the representative of the International Association of Communication Sciences and Disorders (IALP).
The mission of the IALP is to improve the quality of life of individuals with disorders of communication, speech, language, voice, hearing, and swallowing.
Communication disability is an invisible disability. However, there is a high prevalence. • 7.6% of children start school with a developmental language disorder. A further 2% start school with language disorder associated with another condition such as speech sound disorder, cerebral palsy or autism. • 5% of individuals will stutter sometime in their life. 1% will stutter most of their lives. • 33% of those who have a stroke will have long-term difficulty with communicating and some will have difficulty swallowing. • More than 50% of people with neurological difficulties (e.g., multiple sclerosis, Parkinson's disease) are likely to become unintelligible which is often mistaken as being drunk and restricts many aspects of life.
The International Association of Communication Sciences and Disorders is committed to the World Health Organization’s goal of reaching the unreached. In fact, to celebrate its 100th anniversary, IALP has published a book titled “The Unserved – Addressing the needs of those with communication disorders”. This 142-page book is free on the IALP website (https://ialpasoc.info/publication/)
“Many of the unserved and underserved have disorders of speech, language, voice, hearing and communication. They include those in low- and middle-income countries who lack essential health and education services as well as migrants, refugees and others … in high-income countries.” (Levey & Enderby, 2022, p. 5)
The book “The Unserved” offers strategies to address communication and swallowing disability that affects many areas of everyday life and which are exacerbated by lack of adequate health, education and social services. The book includes examples from across the world for supporting people with communication and swallowing disabilities, including from countries in the Western Pacific (Vietnam, Fiji, China, USA, and Australia).
Members of IALP stand with the World Health Organization in Agenda Item 14 - Reaching the unreached – particularly for those with communication and swallowing disability in order to support and enhance their participation in society.
Today CSU News published a story about our request for children to draw talking
Children from across the world are invited to “draw a picture of you talking to someone” and answer a few quick questions Drawings will be displayed at the Early Childhood Voices 2022 Global Online Gallery Submit by 7 Nov 2022: https://earlychildhoodresearch.csu.domains/go/22-drawing
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I am guest editing a special issue of the International Journal of Speech-Language Pathology with Prof Julie Marshall. The issue is titled "Communication, swallowing and the Sustainable Development Goals".
I am very pleased to have accepted an invited commentary by Prof Graeme Clark and his team -- inventors of the cochlear implant. Their manuscript is titled "Restoration of the senses and human communication: Sustainable Development Goals 3 and 9". I recently met with co-author, Prof David Nisbet, to finalise the manuscript and to let him know of the esteem in which I hold their team for the significant contribution they have made to so many people's lives.
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| Prof David Nisbet and Sharynne |
Tonight I finally managed to get zeros in my workflow so the special issue is now in the latter stages:
I have seven page proofs to upload - and more to come. It is going to be a fantastic special issue!
Today the Early Childhood Interdisciplinary Research team were invited to give a 30 minute presentation to the Charles Sturt University Research Office (~ 30 people online). It was such an honour to be able to share our work and vision for capacity building of staff, students, colleagues, children, families and professionals.
This week I am attending the 73rd session of the World Health Organization Regional Committee for the Western Pacific (24 to 28 October 2022) convened in the Philippines and online.
I am the only representative from the International Association of Communication Sciences and Disorders (IALP) and therefore, I may be the only speech-language pathologist at this meeting. It is a great honour.
Topics discussed of specific interest to IALP/speech-language pathology include:
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| WHO Director General's address |
Some of the topics that were discussed repeatedly included the response of the Western Pacific to COVID-19 (low numbers of deaths compared with the rest of the world), climate change, emergencies (floods, Tonga volcano), emergency preparedness, food security.
I was pleased to hear discussion of employing the Pacific notion of Talanoa in the meetings.
The following manuscript has been accepted and forms part of Van Tran's PhD. The data are from our ARC Discovery Grant - VietSpeech. Congratulations Van.
Tran, V. H., Verdon, S., & McLeod, S. (2022, in press October). Consistent and persistent: Successful home language maintenance among Vietnamese-Australian families. Journal of Home Language Research.
Abstract: Informed by Spolsky’s language policy theory, this study explores Vietnamese-Australian families’ experience of successful home language maintenance in three aspects: language practices, language ideologies, and language management. Seven parents from five families whose children achieved high bilingual proficiency scores in the speech and language assessment of the VietSpeech research program were invited to participate in a focus group to discuss successful strategies for home language maintenance. The discussion was undertaken in Vietnamese. Thematic analysis of the bilingual transcription revealed four themes: motivations, challenges, practices, and recommendations for home language maintenance support. The parents’ motivations for home language maintenance included communication with grandparents and relatives, maintenance of cultural identity, parents’ need to speak their home language, and the cognitive and emotional benefits. The challenges faced by the families were related to children starting school and growing older, parents’ lack of time and persistence, and insufficient support in terms of formal Vietnamese education, resources, and teacher quality. The families’ strategies for successful language maintenance included speaking Vietnamese all the time, teaching Vietnamese directly using textbooks and indirectly through regular activities including book reading, daily interactions, and watching Vietnamese TV. The parents’ recommendations focused on changes in language education policy and advocacy, better resources, and raising awareness of the benefits of home language maintenance. This study provides insights into the successful experience of home language maintenance of Vietnamese-Australian families and can be used by multilingual families, educators, policy makers, speech-language pathologists and other professionals to support home language maintenance.
The following manuscript has just been accepted and forms part of Kate Margetson's PhD. The data are from our ARC Discovery Grant - VietSpeech. Congratulations Kate.
Margetson, K., McLeod, S., & Verdon, S. (2022, in press October). Cross-linguistic transfer and ambient phonology: Impact on diagnosis of speech sound disorders in a longitudinal bilingual case study. Journal of Monolingual and Bilingual Speech.
Abstract: For speech-language pathologists (SLPs) working with multilingual children, differential diagnosis between typical development and speech sound disorder may be complex. This paper presents a longitudinal case study of a bilingual Vietnamese-Australian child (PE) between the ages of 3 years;10 months (3;10) and 6;10, to explore the impact of cross-linguistic transfer and ambient phonology on speech acquisition. PE completed speech assessments as a participant in the VietSpeech Study: the Vietnamese Speech Assessment and the Diagnostic Evaluation of Articulation and Phonology in English. Differential diagnosis based on English speech assessment alone indicated speech sound disorder; yet differential diagnosis based on speech assessment in both languages revealed developmental, cross-linguistic transfer, and ambient phonological influences to be the primary reasons for mismatches. Independent and relational analyses at 3;10 revealed age-appropriate phonetic inventories in Vietnamese and English and bi-directional cross-linguistic transfer: segmental transfer of non-shared consonants, non-shared phonological patterns, and a preference for palatal and retroflex consonants. Contrastive analysis with family members demonstrated the impact of ambient phonology on PE’s speech. Over the three years her speech accuracy improved and mismatches reduced. By 6;10 her English speech was age appropriate and some cross-linguistic transfer was still evident in Vietnamese. Evidence is presented for how dual phonological systems can interact over time until they stabilise. During differential diagnosis, SLPs need to consider the influence of cross-linguistic transfer and ambient phonology on bilingual speech acquisition.
Today I ran a Research Wellness Retreat with the speech pathology staff in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane at the Australian Catholic University in my role as Honorary Professor (Adjunct).
I used the concept of a wellness retreat to enable the staff to have timeout to think about/pamper/work on themselves and their research. So often we respond to emails, students, teaching demands, minutae that we forget about the big picture. We began with asking ourselves: "What are we most proud of?" in order to revise our bios and CVs.
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| ACU speech pathology team |
It is my utmost pleasure to invite you for a 45-minute talk at Third Iranian conference on DLD which will be held on 13th and 20th October. We started awareness about DLD since 2020 and now it is our third year that we celebrate awareness day. The theme of this year is "DLD: How to connect research findings to practice?" and it would and it would be much appreciated if you accept my invite.
یک کودک از هر 14 کودک دچار مشکلی پنهان به نام اختلال تکاملی زبان است. برای اطلاعات بیشتر، به سایت روبرو مراجعه کنید: www.radld.org
It had to be a pre-recorded lecture due to the current political situation in Iran.
Today we were invited to present about ECV2022 at the CSU Faculty of Arts and Education Forum
Early Childhood Voices Conference 2022
Please register and ask one child to draw talking
Our work is coming up for different journals as the most read/most cited. It is great to see that people are reading and using our work to support people with communication disability around the world.
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| JSLHR most read - To, McLeod, Sam, Law (2022) |
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| IJSLP most cited in past 3 years - McGill, Crowe & McLeod (2020) |
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| IJSLP most cited #1-McGill, Crowe & McLeod (2020) #4 McLeod et al (2020) |
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| IJSLP most read #3 McLeod (2018) |
Thanks to CSU's Mark Filmer for his wonderful copyediting support in some of my current big projects:
Today our VietSpeech team presented the CSU School of Education Research Seminar. Our title was: “Working with Multilingual Families: Insights from VietSpeech (ARC Discovery Grant)” Presenters: Professor Sharynne McLeod, A/Prof Sarah Verdon, Kate Margetson, Dr Van Tran and supported by Dr Audrey Wang and Dr Ben Pham.
Here is the recording of our presentation:https://charlessturt.zoom.us/rec/share/e5QhLac3mruLQjUz26YXWt1UmXcQOqwhhnOlG2-udO0BWzaqUBOg9geiplnMlRMj.iBwuo8tqd2Pu3MnN
More information about the project can be found here: https://www.csu.edu.au/research/vietspeech/overview.
Thanks Dr Kate Smithers and Dr Andi Salamon for organising this session.
Nicole McGill and I presented the Autumn Lecture for the journal Advances in Communication and Swallowing based on our program of work about waiting for speech pathology.
Title: Waiting list management in speech and language therapy services: Perspectives and innovations
Presenters: Dr Nicole McGill1 & Prof Sharynne McLeod1
Additional team members: Kathryn Crowe1,2, Suzanne C. Hopf1, Audrey Wang1, Nicola Ivory1, Emily Davis3, Katrina Rohr3, Angela Roberts3, Katherine Miller3, Sally Thornton3, & Nina Ahio3
Abstract: Waiting lists for speech and language therapy exist when supply does not meet demand. Waiting for services reduces service users’ access to early intervention and poses practical and ethical challenges for professionals to manage. This presentation will provide an overview of an extensive programme of research that explored: (a) perspectives of service users and professionals regarding speech and language therapy waiting lists; (b) speech and language therapists’ waiting list management practices throughout the world; (c) the design and development of an evidence-based website; and (d) the evaluation of the Waiting for Speech Pathology website in two community-based randomised controlled trials. Innovative management strategies will be presented. This research about waiting for speech and language therapy was published in the inaugural issue of Advances in Communication and Swallowing (Waiting list management: Professionals’ perspectives and innovations) and in other journals across the world. Free resources are available on the Waiting for Speech Pathology website: https://wnswlhd.health.nsw.gov.au/our-services/speech-pathology/
Acknowledgments: New South Wales Health Translational Research Grant and Charles Sturt University, Australia
Link to the recording:https://www.iospress.com/catalog/journals/advances-in-communication-and-swallowing#extra
YouTube link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m8FO1t1Rrfs
Eventbrite link: https://www.eventbrite.ie/e/advances-in-communication-and-swallowing-autumn-2022-online-lecture-event-tickets-412156781027
Online handout: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1cZ08ZqPbz8Je1A50FhQaghAa1SjZax8G?usp=sharing
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| McGill, Crowe & McLeod (2020) was the most cited article in IJSLP in the past 3 years |
Today was our first official meeting with Cathie Matthews as she is finalising her paperwork to undertake a Masters of Philosophy at Charles Sturt University. She will be supervised by Prof Julian Grant, Dr Libbey Murray and myself. Cathie and I have been working together throughout the year preparing a reserach project as part of NSW Health - she will now be supported in her research via the Masters program. Welcome Cathie!
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| Prof Julian Grant, Cathie Matthews, Libbey Murray and Sharynne McLeod |
Today I prepared and recorded or presented the following presentations:
I had fun recording some of these presentations at the CSU television studio - I must remember not to wear green when recording with green screens in the future!
We announced the Children Draw Talking Global Online Gallery today. http://earlychildhoodresearch.csu.domains/go/22-drawings
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| Carolyn Gregoric, Sharynne McLeod, Shukla Sikder - and friends |
We are sending many emails, had so many meetings, and are working hard on abstracts, publicity, graphics, websites, content, etc. etc.
We have finished sending the authors the outcomes of their abstract submissions:
Accept – 34 (29%)
Revise – 66 (56%)
Reject – 19 (16%)
TOTAL = 119
We announced the Children Draw Talking Global Online Gallery today. http://earlychildhoodresearch.csu.domains/go/22-drawings
Prof Julie Marshall and I continue to work on the IJSLP Sustainable Development Goals special issue. We have accepted ~10 manuscripts and are working on revisions of another ~20 manuscripts. It is going to be a fantastic special issue.
The editorial team met on Thursday 13 October to discuss the issue - and our plans for promoting the content of the issue across the world.
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| Julie Marshall, Sharynne McLeod, Libby Cardell, Natalie Munro |
Sarah Faulks is undertaking her honours degree and is analysing some of the data from our VietSpeech ARC Discovery Grant. Her supervisors are A/Prof Sharynne McLeod, Dr Van Tran and myself. She is almost finished scoring the children's English data from the Renfrew Action Picture Test (RAPT). We had a great discussion about scoring the Vietnamese Language Scale (VLS) since a number of the children were code mixing their responses in Vietnamese and English.
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| A/Prof Sarah Verdon, Prof Sharynne McLeod, Sarah Faulks, Dr Van Tran |
Today was the Faculty of Arts and Education Faculty Board (1-3pm). The agenda was 338 pages (!) - and included the Faculty's Research Report that outlined lots of great work from our Early Childhood Interdisciplinary Research team.
This morning I met Lucy Cannon, a "speech pathologist to be" (SP2B), while shopping in Ethik (my favourite store in Jervis Bay - https://ethik.com.au/). We had a great chat about the reason why she chose the course and her aspirations for the future. I'm looking forward to keeping in touch with Lucy.
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| Sharynne and Lucy |
A year ago I booked a beach holiday (5-9 Oct). However, due to ECV2022 conference abstract results being due back to authors - I am pleased it is raining. As co-chair of the conference and chair of the scientific review committee, I have had a bit to do responding to the 119 submissions from 25 countries.
The past week has been a blur of fantastic collaboration amongst so many people working on ECV2022.
I just recieved an official thank you from Speech Pathology Australia for my role (over 2+ years) on the working party to revise the "Working in a culturally and linguistically diverse society – revision of Position Statement and Practice Guide". It was an extensive role - that was capably led by my colleague A/Prof Sarah Verdon. The new documents are innovative and extend beyond the thinking for most (if not all) other professional associations.
Over the past 2 years I have been an invited member of the Expert Panel for the Federal Government's Disability Loading Review run by PwC. This is our 5th meeting - and each meeting has been rigorous and extensive lasting many hours. Today the final results were presented based on the data collection (e.g., regression approach that considered data from 14,196 students). The data were really compelling. We have confidentiality agreements - so are unable to discuss/share the findings. I really hope that the government takes these findings seriously.
On the weekend I was able to meet with Professor Linda Harrison to discuss her keynote speech for our Early Childhood Voices 2022 conference. She is going to be speaking about learning from children by asking them to draw. I'm looking forward to her presentation.
I was so excited to receive your email this evening:
"Exciting update ... first participant recruited! ...
I’m excited we’re going to get this started... 😊
This is so exciting! Caitlin Hurley is about to begin her data collection for her doctoral research. I’m really looking forward to delving into the results and discovering new knowledge<23072662 student.uwa.edu.au="">
