CSU News stories

A lot of exciting events have occurred over the past few months - so CSU News has been running a series of stories including:

• International impact by speech-language ‘Changemaker’ https://news.csu.edu.au/latest-news/international-impact-by-speech-language-changemaker
• Speech-language expert advocates at WHO international conference in the Philippines https://news.csu.edu.au/latest-news/speech-language-expert-advocates-at-who-international-conference-in-the-philippines 
• NSW Government House forum focuses on children’s communication https://news.csu.edu.au/latest-news/nsw-government-house-forum-focuses-on-childrens-communication
• Two Charles Sturt research leaders acknowledged among Australia’s best https://news.csu.edu.au/latest-news/two-charles-sturt-research-leaders-acknowledged-among-australias-best
  
  
  

Executive Board Meeting for International Journal of Speech-Language Pathology

Tonight was the Executive Board Meeting for International Journal of Speech-Language Pathology

• Editors: Elizabeth Cardell and Natalie Munro
• Executive Board Members: Sharynne McLeod, Lyndsey Nickels, Mark Onslow, Liz Ward, Suze Leitão, Kirrie Ballard, Anne Whitworth,  Chris Code (UK), Edwin Yiu (HK)  

IJSLP continues to publish high quality impactful papers and our conversations were broad-ranging and included a number of innovations.

A few items on the agenda that related to our team:

• Our special issue about Communication, Swallowing and the Sustainable Development Goals has had 40,703 downloads and a mean citation rate of 2.28
• Most read article in the last year #2: Communication for all and the Sustainable Development Goals (3686 downloads)
•  Top Altmetric score in the last year #1: Communication rights: Fundamental human rights for all (196)
• Top cited article in the last year #2: “Many wasted months”: Stakeholders’ perspectives about waiting for speech-language pathology services
• Top cited article in the last year #6: Waiting for speech-language pathology services: A randomised controlled trial comparing therapy, advice and device
  

Finishing a book: Early Childhood Voices: Children, Families and Professionals

Today I finished everything that needed to be done for the permissions and revised chapters  for our book that will be published by Springer titled "Early Childhood Voices: Children, Families and Professionals"

I haveco-edited the book with Linda Mahony, Andi Salamon and Jenny Dwyer and have co-authored chapters 1, 9, 10, 12, 16, and 18.

1. Why the Voices of Young Children Matter -  Linda Mahony, Sharynne McLeod, Andi Salamon and Jenny Dwyer 
2. Space, Voice, Audience, and Influence: The Lundy Model and Early Childhood - Carmel Ward and Laura Lundy Listening to Children in their Daily Context 
3. Language and Life: Going into Space - Stephen Kemmis and Andi Salamon 
4. Infant Emotional Capital Practices as Voice in Research and Pedagogy - Andi Salamon 
5. Contributing to SDGs through Conceptual PlayWorlds: Changing the STEM Story for Children, Families and Teachers - Anne Suryani, Susan March, Marilyn Fleer and Prabhat Rai 
6. Children’s Mathematical Graphics Illustrating Inner Voices: A Literature Review - Jenny Dwyer, Amy MacDonald and Shukla Sikder 
7. Early Childhood Friendships as a Significant Value of Education for Sustainability: The Voices of Young Children and Educators - Tamara Pribišev Beleslin and Sanja Partalo 
8. “Ears to Listen so I can Hear”: A Holistic Self-Report Tool of Children’s Listening at Preschool - Lysa Dealtry and Laura McFarland 
9. Jamaican Children’s Drawings of Talking in Jamaican Creole and English - Karla Washington, Rachel Wright Karem, Corrine Macaluso, Cecilia Schwartz and Sharynne McLeod 
10. Vietnamese-Australian Families: Children’s Language Competence and Home Language Maintenance - Van H. Tran, Sharynne McLeod, Sarah Verdon, Kate Margetson and Ben Phạm 
11. Many Voices, Many Languages: Listening and Learning from South African Children - Michelle Pascoe, Mikateko Ndhambi, Olebeng Mahura, Nomfundo Peaceful Buthelezi, Nicole Husselmann and Babalwa Ludidi 
12. When are Speech Sounds Learned and Why is this Important for Children to be Heard? - Sharynne McLeod, Kathryn Crowe and Jane McCormack
13. Giving Voice to Young Children Navigating Complex Life Challenges through a Strengths Approach - Linda Mahony and Angela Fenton 
14. After the Disaster: Facilitating Children to Talk of their Feelings and Experiences - Sarah Eagland, Michael Curtin and Tracey Parnell 
15. Peep in the Pandemic: Peep Practitioners Listening to Parents and Families - Hannah Hale, Elspeth McCartney and Muriel MacKenzie Professionals Learning from Listening to Children 
16. Sustainable Leadership Approaches to Retain Early Childhood Educators - Belinda Downey, Will Letts and Sharynne McLeod 
17. Multimodal Analyses of Children’s Voices as a Means for Critical Teachers’ Education - Fernanda Liberali, Emilia Cipriano Sanches and Sandra Cavaletti Toquetão 
18. Refusing to Silence Early Childhood Voices: The Establishment of the Early Childhood Voices Conference - Sharynne McLeod, Carolyn Gregoric, Tamara Cumming and Belinda Downey

Copyediting The Oxford Handbook of Speech Development in Languages of the World

Working with 216 authors from across the world on "The Oxford Handbook of Speech Development in Languages of the World" is a fun - but big task. I am very grateful to the people from Charles Sturt University who are supporting me in this role including:

Dr Mark Filmer - copyediting 

Dr Helen Blake - video files, PowerPoints, website, conferences, publications

Dr Carolyn Gregoric - audio files and maps

As of this morning, Dr Mark Filmer and I have finalised 27 chapters, 15 chapters ready for copyediting, and more being reviewed

Planning to present at Congress of Otorhinolaryngology Foundation in Brazil in 2024

Prof Yvonne Wren and I have been invited to be keynote speaker at the 23rd Congress of Otorhinolaryngology Foundation https://forl.org.br/. The congress will take place in the period September 12th to 14th, 2024, at the Frei Caneca, São Paulo - SP – Brazil (http://www.convencoesfreicaneca.com.br/Localizacao) 

Here are the topics we will present: 

1. Children’s communication, educational, social and participation outcomes: Insights from longitudinal population studies – Prof Yvonne Wren and Prof Sharynne McLeod 
2. Multilingual children’s speech development, assessment and interventions – Prof Sharynne McLeod 
3. Clinical management of speech sound disorder - understanding and expanding the evidence - Prof Yvonne Wren 
4. The Cleft Collective – a resource for the multidisciplinary cleft team to investigate the causes, best treatments and outcomes for children born with cleft - Prof Yvonne Wren 
5. Communication rights and the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals - Prof Sharynne McLeod

We had an excellent planning meeting tonight via Zoom from Brazil, UK and Australia with Profa Dra.Haydée Fiszbein Wertzner, Profa Associada do Departamento de Fisioterapia, Fonoaudiologia e Terapia Ocupacional - FMUSP

 

School of Education Christmas Party

 Tonight was a wonderful time of celebration at the School of Education Christmas Party in Bathurst.

ECV2024: CSU support

Today we had our first meeting with the team from CSU who will support the creation of the website, YouTube channel, media, social media, marketing and other aspects of running the Early Childhood Voices 2024 conference (ECV2024). It is wonderful to have more CSU staff available to support us this time. 

Dr Carolyn Gregoric, Prof Sharynne McLeod, Simone Markham, Dr Belinda Downey, Patrick McKenzie

Early identification of communication delay by health and education professionals in rural Australia

Over the past two days Cathie Matthews has been in Bathurst working with me on her Masters research. She has undertaken important research about early identification of communication delay by health and education professionals in rural Australia. I have really enjoyed working with her to write up her data collected from early childhood educators, child and family health nurses, caregivers and 2-year-old children.

Research communiqué Research news at Charles Sturt Summer 2023

The Summer 2023 edition of Research Communiqué Research news at Charles Sturt was launched today. https://research.csu.edu.au/research-support/communications/bulletins/communique Thank you to Prof Mark Evans, DVC-R and congratulations to all of my amazing colleagues on everything that has been done over the past few months "for the public good". The document is 133 pages long! I have copied pages that mention the research and activities undertaken by myself and our team that were featured in this edition.

Visit to the CSU Rural Health Research Institute in Orange

Today I worked with Dr Hazel Dalton at the CSU Rural Health Research Institute in Orange. 

Hazel is leading the research titled "Evidence-informed practice development in rural Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Services: An action research approach". "This study will deploy action research cycles of planning, review, and implementation by Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Service (ACCHS) staff and research team to develop and test several practice interventions to improve healthcare delivery."

I am leading a complementary project and we spent the day discussing synergies and collaborations.

Presentations about the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in 2023

I have been honoured to provide international presentations about Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) this year promoting our special issue of the Q1 journal: International Journal of Speech-Language Pathology https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/17549507.2022.2160494 and have been pleased to learn that during 2023 the special issue has had 40,703 downloads and has a mean citation rate of 2.28 

Presentations during 2023 have included: 

• McLeod, S. & Marshall, J. E. (2023, November). Speech-language pathologists and the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals. [Oral presentation]. American Speech-Language-Hearing Association Convention, Boston, MA USA. 
• McLeod, S. & Marshall, J. E. (2023, August). Speech-language pathology and its contribution to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals. International Association of Communication Sciences and Disorders (IALP), Auckland, New Zealand. 
• McLeod, S. & Marshall, J. E. (2023, May). Communication, swallowing and the Sustainable Development Goals. Speech Pathology Australia National Conference, Hobart, Australia
• McLeod, S. & Marshall, J. E. (2023, August). International Clinical Phonetics and Linguistics Association (ICPLA), Salzburg, Austria
• Marshall, J. E. & McLeod, S. (2023, September). XXXIII Congreso Internacional AELFA-IF Santande, Spain

ASHA, Boston, MA, USA

 

SPA, Hobart, Australia

IALP, Auckland, New Zealand

IALP, Auckland, New Zealand

I presented the special issue at the World Health Organization in Manila, Philippines in October.

World Health Organization in Manila, Philippines

I have also presented seminars/workshops at

• Manchester Metropolitan University, UK
• University of Iceland, Iceland

In 2024 I have presentations scheduled for 

• University of Bristol, UK
• 23rd Congress of Otorhinolaryngology Foundation, Brazil
  

CSU Townhall - December 2023

Today the Vice Chancellor and the leadership team profiled achievements throughout the year at the final Townhall meeting for the year. An End of Year Celebration morning tea was held after Town Hall. 

Joyce Voerman, Bruce Andrews, Emmaline Lear, Sharynne McLeod, Jess Sears, Kate Smithers, Chris Tome

Dr Shukla Sikder and her team

Sharynne and Sarah Stenson (ECIR member)

Here are some interesting links that were shared: 

• Annual report https://cdn.csu.edu.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0008/4261751/M2341-External-Engagement-Annual-report_FA_FINAL-WEB_3.pdf
• THE Impact Rankings: Top 5% globally, top 1% for Partnerships for the Goals (SDG 17) and top 3% for gender equality (SDG 5).
• Scholarships: https://www.csu.edu.au/scholarships 
• New Sydney campus: https://news.csu.edu.au/latest-news/charles-sturt-to-open-sydney-campus-in-strategic-partnership-with-navitas
• Good Universities Guide: https://www.gooduniversitiesguide.com.au/university-ratings-rankings/2023/undergraduate/overall-experience?keywords=Charles+Sturt+University  

ECV2024 - First meeting

Today members of the Early Childhood Interdisciplinary Research Group met for the first time to begin planning ECV2024. This will be our third conference. ECV2020 and ECV2022 were extremely successful and ECV2024 promises to be even better. ECV2024 will be held from 25-28 November 2024.

Conference chairs: Belinda Downey and Sharynne McLeod Conference secretary: Carolyn Gregoric

 

CSU pink will be the official ECV2024 colour (it was a close vote with CSU orange coming second)

Our first  ECV2024 committee meeting

2023 Charles Sturt Excellence Award winners

WOW! Today our teams were notified about the 2023 Charles Sturt Excellence Awards

From the Vice Chancellor: "I am excited to announce our 2023 Charles Sturt Excellence Award Winners and Highly Commended are now available to view on RED. Congratulations to this year’s winners and highly commended. Your work has had an outstanding impact on our students, research and the community. We recognise and appreciate your exceptional effort and achievements, which contribute to the success of our University, realisation of our Strategy and living our Values." 

**RESEARCH EXCELLENCE AWARD WINNERS: Early Childhood Interdisciplinary Research Group (ECIR) 

Recognises and celebrates outstanding contributions of individuals and teams who engage in research excellence that contributes to the success of Charles Sturt and drives regional outcomes with global impact. 

Research Winners: Early Childhood Interdisciplinary Research Group (ECIR) 

Names: Sharynne McLeod (Team Lead), Belinda Frieze, Kristen Andrews, Kate Margetson, Belinda Downey, Linda Mahony, Kelly-Ann Tribolet, Laura Delli-Pizzi, Michelle Brown, Olebeng Mahura, Kate Freire, Ben Pham, Carmen Huser, Nicola Ivory, Sheena Elwick, Nicole McGill, Jessamy Davies, Laura Hoffman, Shukla Sikder, Roslyn Cox, Marie Ireland, Lysa Dealtry, Anna Cronin, Jenny Dwyer, Leanne Gibbs, Julian Grant, Sarah Verdon, Audrey Wang, Carolyn Gregoric, Azizur Rahman, Robyn Brunton, Suzanne Hopf, Cheree Dean, Van Tran, Holly Mcalister, Andi Salamon, Sarah Stenson, Kate Crowe, Libbey Murray, Cherie Zischke, Graham Daniel 

What the nomination was for: This nomination is for excellence in research capacity building. ECIR provides an internship model where early career researchers are well supported by more experienced researchers in a wide range of research activities including organising conferences, editing books, writing book chapters, running research projects, analysing data, writing journal articles, and applying for promotion and grants. Members work collaboratively on projects such as the hosting of the Early Childhood Voices Conference (ECV2022), recent submission of an edited book arising from ECV2020 presentations, and analysis of children’s drawings from across the globe. These joint projects develop knowledge, skills and experience for members to pursue their own research interests. 

Why it is Excellence Award worthy: Not only have ECIR members been very research active themselves, but they have created capacity building opportunities for other researchers, within and beyond the team. Members willingly share with each other for the benefit of all and to grow knowledge about early childhood and conducting research, particularly from an interdisciplinary perspective. The group brings together Educators, Speech Pathologists, Psychologists, Computer Scientists, Nurses and Physiotherapists who may not usually research together. Achievements over the past year include journal articles (55 accepted + 16 submitted), conference papers( 59 presented/accepted for presentation +18 conference workshops/seminars etc + 4 submitted), book chapters (29 published/in press + 1 submitted), books (3 published/in press + 1 under contract), and conference proceedings (1 published). They also have a high level of community engagement with 3 events hosted/training delivered, 22 media coverages, 4 media contributions, social media profile, 5 public lectures/presentations, 19 community consultations. Members are well recognised for their achievements with 3 individual and 1 group awards, leadership/membership of professional associations and editorial boards, invited working party and advisory participants. They have had 2 PhD completions and 2 PhD submissions by ECIR members and provide HDR support to 17 students.

 

 

**SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY (HIGHLY COMMENDED): Speech Pathology Team 

Recognises and celebrates individuals and teams who engage regionally and globally to drive positive, bold change to deliver resilient people, sustainable environments and flourishing communities, ensuring the delivery of real and impactful benefits for the wider community.

Names: Suzanne Hopf (Team Lead), Linda Wilson, Cyrena Hunt-Madden, Catherine Easton, Alex Spiller, Laura Hoffman, Lisa Brown, Caitlin Slaney, Marijke Denton, Sharynne McLeod, Chris Plant, Sarah Verdon

Nominees selected for collaborating extensively to support various initiatives, including the development of speech pathology services and university programs in low-middle-income countries such as Vietnam, Cambodia, and Fiji. They have facilitated innovative work-integrated learning solutions for global citizenship skills and local community access to speech pathology services. The team has also contributed to HDR enrolments and Australia Awards scholarships for students from Cambodia, Ghana, and Vietnam. Furthermore, they have published professional association position statements and clinical guidelines for culturally responsive speech pathology practice, and their research impact is evident with over 30 publications and presentations in the last two years.

Australian Pasifika Educators Conference

The Australian Pasifika Educators Conference https://www.pasifikaeducators.com.au/apenconf2023 was held on Friday 1 December 2023 at Western Sydney University, Parramatta South Campus. Holly and Suzanne presented the following papers:

• Holly McAlister, Dr Suzanne C Hopf, Professor Sharynne McLeod, Charles Sturt University - Listening to Pasifika children: Applying Pacific research methodologies to child-focused participatory action research 
• Dr Suzanne C Hopf, Kate Daellenbach, Holly McAlister, Prof. Sharynne McLeod, Charles Sturt University - Understanding language socialisation practices of Pacific Island Families in Australia with young children: A preliminary case series. 

Holly and Suzanne also met with my friend Tupou and many other Pasifika educators. 

They also learned about this company in New Zealand: https://www.facebook.com/PacificKidsLearning/

CSU Summer 2023 Research Retreat

Over the past two days I have attended the Summer 2023 Research Retreat hosted by the Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Research) in Orange addressing the following:

1. First Nations Research - Sue Green and Mark Evans

• First Nations Research Retreat Outcomes
• Barriers to implementing the First Nations Retreat Outcomes
• Living Yindyamarra

2. Vice-Chancellor’s Research Excellence Awards

3. Proposal for the Establishment of ARC/NHMRC Bid Accelerators - Mark Evans

4. Research Services Retreat Outcomes - Jason White

5. Implementation of the HDR Review - Sarah O’Shea

Accepting Kate Smithers' ECR award

Some key points about First Nations Research

• "It was agreed that Yindyamarra values could be used to drive First Nations research activity on Wiradjuri, Gundungarra and Ngunnawal/ Ngambri country as the values would not require translation due to clan ties, but the values would need to be translated meaningfully for research on Biripai country."
• "Charles Sturt’s First Nations engagement framework will follow the AIATSIS National Framework with country specific protocols to be developed by Biripai, Ngunnawal/ Ngambri, and Wiradjuri Gateway Groups. The objective of this framework is to provide a comprehensive guide for research practices that respect the values and cultural beliefs of First Nations communities."
• "First Nations IP will include authorship in publications, and remuneration for research participation. These expenses will need to be included in project costings. Data Sovereignty principles will be adopted following the Lowitja model. https://www.lowitja.org.au/icms_docs/328550_data-governance-and-sovereignty.pdf"

Four Principles that will underpin the Wiradyuri Research Gateway

1. Yindyamarra – Respect & Honour - kindness, politeness, gentleness, slowness, and patience
2. Winnanga-gi-gilanna – People & Country - caring for people & Country
3. Ngungillanna – People - sharing resources & knowledge with each other
4. Muldanngilana – Working Together - equality, equity, honesty, and integrity 

Congratulations to my colleagues who won Research Excellence Awards. I was invited to collect the award for Kate Smithers who was awarded the Early Career Researcher Award for the Faculty of Arts and Education.

 

ALS Workshop: Home language maintenance: Connecting children, families, and classrooms

We presented the following workshop at the Australian Linguistic Society on 29 November: 

https://als.asn.au/Conference/2023/Workshops2023

Home language maintenance: Connecting children, families, and classrooms 

Paola Escudero, Western Sydney University

Sharynne McLeod, Charles Sturt University

Presenters: Chloé Diskin-Holdaway3, Kate Margetson2, Gloria Pino Escobar1, Van H. Tran2, Sarah Verdon2, Paola Escudero1, Sharynne McLeod2 1 Little Multilingual Minds, The MARCS Institute, Western Sydney University, Australia 2 VietSpeech, Charles Sturt University, Australia 3Little Multilingual Minds, School of Languages and Linguistics, The University of Melbourne, Australia 

During this practical workshop, participants will have the opportunity to learn from two innovative teams of researchers who have developed fun, evidence-based programs for supporting children’s home language maintenance at home and school. 

•  VietSpeech (https://www.csu.edu.au/research/vietspeech). The VietSpeech SuperSpeech program was developed to support families (preschool children, parents, grandparents, etc.) at home. The 8-week online bilingual Vietnamese-English program included: (a) Word Superpower activities addressing target words and sentences; (b) Speech Superpower activities addressing consonants, tones, and syllable structures; and (c) Home Language Maintenance Information for parents. The VietSpeech SuperSpeech program was funded by an Australian Research Council Discovery Grant. 
• Little Multilingual Minds (LMM, https://www.westernsydney.edu.au/marcs/impact/case_studies/little_multilingual_minds) LMM is a research-based multilingual education program for children that supports and extends home language (HL) maintenance and foreign language (L2) learning during the early, formative years, using evidence-based principles, structure and guidelines. LMM, within research-partnership collaborations with education providers, delivers education in any Language Other than English by harnessing recent world-wide research and r findings from our own research on early childhood education and primary education. LMM currently delivers in Spanish ,Vietnamese, Mandarin and French. 

The workshop will commence with an overview of home language maintenance throughout life and factors impacting home language maintenance. Next each team (VietSpeech and LMM) will outline their vision, target group, challenges, and solutions, as well as principles and theoretical frameworks. The practical component of the workshop will be preceded by presentation of the structure and weekly session delivery, themes, session plans and example activities to inspire attendants. Then each team will demonstrate an example of how they have targeted the theme of healthy lifestyles/food and how they have used The Very Hungry Caterpillar to support children’s home language maintenance at home and at school. The workshop will conclude with time for participants to work together to consider how these programs can relate to their own experiences and to develop activities for their own situations. The aim is to show that HL maintenance takes a village and that the community of academics within the language and linguistics discipline should feel part of the village. 

Presenters’ biographies: 

• VietSpeech - https://www.csu.edu.au/research/vietspeech/team 

• Little Multilingual Minds – https://www.westernsydney.edu.au/marcs/impact/case_studies/little_multilingual_minds/team 

Materials available prior to the workshop: 

• VietSpeech - https://www.csu.edu.au/research/vietspeech/info 

• Multilingual Children’s Speech - https://www.csu.edu.au/research/multilingual-speech/home 

• https://www.westernsydney.edu.au/marcs/impact/case_studies/little_multilingual_minds/news_and_faqs 

References: 

• Diskin-Holdaway, C., & Escudero, P. (2021). Don’t be afraid to pass your first language, and accent, to your kids. It could be their superpower. The Conversation. Retrieved 19 March 2023, from https://theconversation.com/dont-be-afraid-to-pass-your-first- language-and-accent-to-your-kids-it-could-be-their-superpower-143093 

• Escudero, P., Jones Diaz, C., Hajek, J., Wigglesworth, G., & Smit, E. A. (2020). Probability of heritage language use at a supportive early childhood setting in Australia. Frontiers in Education, 5, 93. https://doi.org/10.3389/feduc.2020.00093 

• Escudero, P., Diskin-Holdaway, C., Pino Escobar, G., & Hajek, J. (2023) Needs and demands for heritage language support in Australia: results from a nationwide survey. Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development. https://doi.org/10.1080/01434632.2023.2189261 

• Escudero, P., Pino Escobar G, Diskin-Holdaway, C. & Hajek, J. (Forthcoming) Nurturing Australia’s Little Multilingual Minds: Program description and evaluation. 

• McLeod, S., Verdon, S., Tran, V. H., Margetson, K., & Wang, C. (2022). SuperSpeech: Multilingual speech and language maintenance intervention for Vietnamese-Australian children and families via telepractice. Language, Speech, and Hearing Services in Schools, 53(3), 675-697. https://doi.org/10.1044/2021_LSHSS-21-00146 

Here is my pre-recorded presentation:

 https://charlessturt.zoom.us/rec/share/cVjixPvY-J_jPVdWdWAAknHX4lbu13NTa34t6HrpQl6sxRrBd-55xaMF8rjMf8CC.tLFhmS13ofSW80Rz?startTime=1699891251000

RSNSW Fellows and Members Assessment Committee

It has been an honour to serve on the Royal Society of NSW Fellows and Members Assessment Committee this year. https://royalsoc.org.au/council-members-section/506-rsnsw-fellows-and-members-assessment-committee

In her final letter for the year, the President of the RSNSW has stated This November meeting will be part of the Society’s 1318th Ordinary General Meeting (OGM). One of the agenda items will enable me to announce the names of the newest members of the Society — four Associate Members, six Members, and 14 Fellows. This brings me to thank Sean Brawley FRSN, Chair, Trevor Danos AM FRSN, Secretary, and all members of the Fellows and Members Assessment Committee for their wonderful contributions to the Society this year.

PhD students are a joy and stand on each others' shoulders

I love working with and being inspired by my PhD students. I also love seeing the intersections between the work of my previous and current PhD students - and how each one builds on the next.

Today, in my meetings with 

• Holly McAlister (current student) I quoted Sarah Verdon, Helen Blake and Van Tran's work (previous PhD students)  
• Kate Margetson (current student) I quoted Sarah Masso, Van Tran and Suzanne Hopf's work (previous PhD students)

Suzanne Hopf, Sharynne, Holly McAlister

Australian Association of Research in Education (AARE) Conference

Congratulations to Belinda Downey who presented two papers from her PhD at the Australian Association of Research in Education Conference (AARE), Melbourne, Australia 

1. Downey, B., Letts, W., McLeod, S., & Gibbs, L. (2023, November). Building early childhood educator retention through connections [Oral presentation]. Australian Association of Research in Education (AARE), Melbourne, Australia. 

2. Downey, B., Letts, W., McLeod, S., & Gibbs, L. (2023, November). 2023 HDR Colloquium - Staying in early childhood. [Oral presentation]. Australian Association of Research in Education (AARE), Melbourne, Australia. 

 

Recent highlights

I have had the most amazing few months with my students and colleagues. Here are just a few recent highlights: 

• https://speakingmylanguages.blogspot.com/2023/11/american-speech-language-hearing.html
• https://speakingmylanguages.blogspot.com/2023/11/carillon-debut.html
• https://speakingmylanguages.blogspot.com/2023/11/invited-presentation-our-21st-century.html
• https://speakingmylanguages.blogspot.com/2023/10/world-health-organization-communication.html
• https://speakingmylanguages.blogspot.com/2023/10/ialp-representative-at-74th-session-of.html
• https://speakingmylanguages.blogspot.com/2023/08/32nd-world-congress-of-international.html
• https://speakingmylanguages.blogspot.com/2023/07/president-of-international-clinical.html

Considerations of dialect on the identification of speech sound disorder in Vietnamese-speaking children

The following manuscript has been accepted for publication in a special issue regarding terminology for children with speech sound disorder that was initiated by Prof Yvonne Wren as chair of the Child Speech Committee of the International Association of Logopedics and Phoniatrics. 

Phạm, B. & McLeod, S. (2023, accepted November). Considerations of dialect on the identification of speech sound disorder in Vietnamese-speaking children. International Journal of Language and Communication Disorders. 

Here is the abstract: 

Background. The dialect spoken by children influences diagnostic decision-making regarding identification and severity of speech sound disorder. 

Aims. The primary objective was to review papers that examined the influence of dialect on the identification of speech sound disorder in Vietnamese-speaking children. 

Methods: Five studies of monolingual and multilingual Vietnamese-speaking children living in Vietnam and Australia were reviewed to examine the influence of dialect on assessment and analysis children’s speech. The main Vietnamese dialects (Standard, Northern, Central, Southern) differ in the production of consonants, vowels, and tones. 

Main Contribution. Most speech assessments define correct production using the standard dialect of a language. Insights from recent studies of Vietnamese provide recommendations for also considering dialect in diagnostic decision-making. Firstly, we recommend adding column(s) to the assessment score sheet that includes the dialectal variants spoken by adults in the child’s family or community. Secondly, calculate accuracy of production twice, based on the standard form and dialectal form. Thirdly, report percentage of consonants correct – standard (PCC-S) and percentage of consonants correct – dialect (PCC-D). 

Conclusions. Diagnostic decision-making is influenced by dialectal variation in children’s speech, so speech and language therapists (SLTs) need to compare standard and dialectal productions when undertaking assessments, analysis, and diagnostic decision-making.

ECIR Workshop: Internal Grant Writing

 Today, Dr Emmaline Lear, Manager Research Development, Office of Research Services and Graduate Studies presented a workshop titled "ECIR Internal grant writing" to our Early Childhood Interdisciplinary Research Sturt Scheme team. This complemented the presentations from the ECIR Research Retreat where we also had presentations from the CSU Research Office about External Grant Writing and Research Impact. Thanks Emmaline for your informative session.

CSU News - Radio interview

 CSU News has released the following story titled "Two Charles Sturt research leaders acknowledged among Australia's best"

https://news.csu.edu.au/latest-news/two-charles-sturt-research-leaders-acknowledged-among-australias-best

I was interviewed by 2BS Radio about the news story today. It is a great opportunity to speak publicly about the importance of young children's communication, supporting children to maintain speaking all of their home languages, and also the importance of seeking assistance early if parents are concerned.

The story was to celebrate this announcement by The Australian Newspaper:https://speakingmylanguages.blogspot.com/2023/11/australias-field-leader-audiology.html

Children on campus: ECIR scoping review

Today our Children on campus scoping review team met again - this time to discuss the 953 identified papers (143 included/810 excluded) and the next steps, including importing into COVIDENCE. This work will inform our establishment of The Treehouse.

Dr Carolyn Gregoric, Sharynne, Claudio Dionigi, Dr Suzanne Hopf

Reviews of Early childhood voices: Children, families, professionals

We have just received the very positive reviews from Springer about our new edited book that is in the final stages of publication:

Mahony, L., McLeod, S., Salamon, A., Dwyer, J. (Eds.) (2023, in press). Early childhood voices: Children, families, professionals. Springer. 

Some of the comments included: 

• "Voice has been explored in early childhood before, but the focus of this book from a social justice perspective contextualizes voice work in a powerful way." 
•  "The interdisciplinary nature of the book is to be commended! This not only means the book is of interest to a larger audience but also allows readers to understand the nuanced perspectives on a common topic across the disciplines." 
•  "The definition of voice is broad and encompassing" 
• "The writing is well grounded in key research works. Throughout the chapters, the authors draw on world renowned studies and leading papers in the field. It presents rigor and confidence in the work." 
• "The images of children and drawings by children bring the book to life and are a wonderful addition." "The UNCRC is threaded throughout the book which is valuable because it reduces the tendency to focus only Article 12 and 13 when considering voice work.". 
• "The book also tackles head on the diversity of experience and culture. It moves away from a privileged perspective on voice work and includes many chapters on complexity and challenges in life" 

We are excited about finalising the book, so that it can be published and read throughout the world. 

Book editors meeting via Zoom

Visible versus invisible disabilities: Communication rights moderated through hierarchies of disability and childhood

What an exciting moment - to hold a book that includes a chapter that I have co-authored with my daughter. 

McLeod, S., & McLeod, J. (2023). Communication rights moderated through hierarchies of disability and childhood. In S. Meyers, M. McCloskey, G. Petri (Eds.). The Routledge international handbook of disability human rights hierarchies. Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003410089

I enjoyed the collaboration, conversations, and the task of writing together. I am proud of our thinking, particularly our work on identifying challenges living with visible versus invisible disabilities.

Speech-Language-Multilingualism team at the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association convention

The Charles Sturt University Speech-Language-Multilingualism (and friends) love to meet at conventions (since we live across the world). We enjoyed welcoming Kate Margetson to her first American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA) convention (her presentation was awesome). We enjoyed the many collaborative, fun, and future-planning conversations during our time in Boston.

SLM team members (i.e., current and ex-students) in Boston were Kate Margetson, Helen Blake, Kate Crowe and Marie Ireland - but we have so many friends as well.

Marie Ireland, Karla Washington (Canada), Kate Crowe, Helen Blake

Kate Margetson's first presentation at ASHA

Kate Margetson's audience was taking notes and photos to remember the excellent content

Sharynne, Joanne Cleland (UK), Kate M, Yvonne Wren (UK)

Kate M, Kate C., Helen, Pauline (Belgium), Thora Masdottir (Icelend), Sharynne

SLM friends from Belgium, Canada, UK, US and Australia

Leslie, NIcole, Kate, Chelsea, Helen, Karla, Pauline, Sharynne

Cate Crowley (US) and Kate Margetson

Sharynne and Kate M

Sharynne, Kate C., Thora, Pauline, Helen, Kate M

Helen and Sharynne