Writing grants, theses, chapters, articles, conference abstracts and books

September/October is a very busy time for writing grants, theses, chapters, articles, conference abstracts and books. It's head down for us all. I have 4 students who will submit their theses/major reports in October - so they are busy finalising drafts. An exciting time of pulling together years of work.

Sarah F and Sarah B submit their theses in October

Indigenous Literacy Foundation

UNESCO has declared 2022-2032 the Decade of Indigenous Languages. The Indigenous Literacy Foundation publishes children's books in Indigenous Australian languages https://shop.ilf.org.au/collections/all. The Charles Sturt University Libraries held a fundraising campaign earlier this month to support this important cause: https://library-blog.csu.edu.au/2023/09/14/great-book-swap-2023/

Partners’ Briefing ahead of the 74th session of the WHO Regional Committee for the Western Pacific

Today I attended the Partners’ Briefing ahead of the 74th session of the WHO Regional Committee for the Western Pacific, convened from 16-20 October 2023 in Manila, Philippines. I am representing the Executive Board and membership of the International Association of Communication Sciences and Disorders (IALP). This year's topics include:

• Panel discussion 
• 10.Investing in health and universal health coverage 
• Policies, programmes and priorities for the future 
• 11. Health security 
• 12. Health innovation 
• 13. Communication for Health 
• 14. Health workforce 
• 15. Progress reports on technical programmes 
• 15.1 Thematic priority: Health security, including COVID-19 and antimicrobial resistance 
• 15.2 Thematic priority: Noncommunicable diseases and ageing 
• 15.3 Thematic priority: Climate change, the environment and health 
• 15.4 Thematic priority: Reaching the unreached 
• 15.5 Cross-cutting progress report: Advancing the For the Future vision

ECIR Children Draw Talking - Last official meeting

This afternoon was the last official meeting of the ECIR Children Draw Talking team before we submit our manuscript at the ECIR Research Retreat on 9th October. 

This research was undertaken by members of the Early Childhood Interdisciplinary Research Group funded by the Charles Sturt University Sturt Scheme. The following people contributed to the research and analysed the data: Jessamy Davies, Lysa Dealtry, Laura Delli-Pizzi, Belinda Downey, Sheena Elwick, Julian Grant, Carolyn Gregoric, Suzanne C. Hopf, Nicola Ivory, Holly McAlister, Sharynne McLeod, Elizabeth Murray, Azizur Rahman, Shukla Sikder, Van H. Tran, and Cherie Zischke. The Children Draw Talking Around the World Global Online Gallery was profiled at the Early Childhood Voices Conference 2022 (ECV2022) https://earlychildhoodresearch.csu.domains/early-childhood-voices-conference-2022/children-draw-talking-gallery-1-the-world/.

Carolyn Gregoric, Sharynne McLeod, Cherie Zischke, Suzanne Hopf, Nicola Ivory, Jessamy Davis, Libbey Murray, Belinda Downey, and Van Tran

Here is how we will reference our journal article once we submnit it: McLeod, S., Gregoric, C., Davies, J., Dealtry, L., Delli-Pizzi, L., Downey, B., Elwick, S., Hopf, S. C., Ivory, N., McAlister, H., Murray, E., Rahman, A., Sikder, S., Tran, V. H., Zischke, C., & Grant, J. (2023). Children draw talking around the world [Manuscript submitted for publication]. Early Childhood Interdisciplinary Research Group, Charles Sturt University.

Strengthening creative thinking: A presentation by Dr Ross Anderson from the Creative Engagement Lab

I really enjoyed this online presentation this morning by Dr Ross Anderson who talked about the recent research projects of the Creative Engagement Lab. Dr Anderson is currently assisting and consulting in a project with the Curriculum & Pedagogy Research Group and the Education Course Directors in the Faculty of Arts & Education. The website for the Creative Engagement Lab has the following introduction:

Creative Engagement Lab is dedicated to revealing and strengthening the creative capacities of people and organizations.We passionately believe in the power of creative work as a tool for connecting people, transforming organizations, expanding perspectives, and furthering social justice imperatives. The experiences we design are responsive to the unique social environments and needs of each client. We rely on insights from the international field of creativity research, including our own research into arts integrated practice for learning and wellbeing. Our intention is always to help individuals and groups identify, cultivate and apply their unique creative resources. https://creativeengagementlab.com/

 

International keynote addresses

It is a privilege to speak with an international audience. Recent international keynote addresses include:

1. Marshall, J. & McLeod, S., (2023, September). Communication and swallowing disability and the United Nations' Agenda 2030: Meeting the challenges of the next seven years [Invited keynote]. XXXIII Congreso Internacional AELFA-IF Santander, Spain. 
2. McLeod, S. (2023, May). Enhancing children’s speech using international evidence-based resources [Invited keynote]. III International Congress of the Portuguese Society of Speech Therapy in Lisboa/Lisbon, Portugal (online). 
3. McLeod, S. (2023, June). Cross-linguistic perspectives on children’s speech development [Invited keynote]. International Symposium on Bilingualism, Sydney, Australia. 
4. McLeod, S. (2022, November). Children's speech development: An update [Invited keynote]. American Speech-Language-Hearing Association Convention, New Orleans, LA. 
5. McLeod, S. (2022, November). Building research to close the science-practice gap in communication sciences and disorders: A global perspective [Invited keynote]. American Speech-Language-Hearing Association Convention, New Orleans, LA. 
6. McLeod, S. (2022, May). Children's speech: The future is now [Invited keynote]. European Speech and Language Therapy Association (ESLA) Congress in Salzburg, Austria (online).
7. McLeod, S. (2021, December). The association between children’s communication skills and academic performance. [invited keynote]. 2nd International Conference on Innovation in Learning Instruction and Teacher Education at the Hanoi National University of Education, Viet Nam (online) http://ilite.hnue.edu.vn/en/2021/02/02/2nd-international-conference-on-innovation-in-learning-instruction-and-teacher-education/ 
8. McLeod, S. (2021, Nov 15-22). Evidence-based resources for working with children with speech sound disorders [Invited 1-hour oral presentation]. American Speech-Language-Hearing Association Convention, Washington D.C., USA [hybrid]. https://convention.asha.org/Schedule-and-Program/ 
9. McLeod, S. (2021, September). Making a difference in children’s ability to communicate and participate [invited keynote]. Craniofacial Society of Great Britain and Ireland Annual Scientific Conference, Cardiff, Wales, UK (online). 
10. McLeod, S. (2021, July). EBP approaches to assessment and intervention of children’s speech [invited keynote] Philippine Association of Speech Pathologists Virtual Convention (online).

Carillon student

I have been studying the carillon. This weekend I achieved the milestone of being able to transition from playing the practice clavier to being able to climb the tower to play the carillon so that the residents of Bathurst can hear. What an exciting milestone! I am grateful to my teacher Lyn Fuller OAM, Head Carillonist at the National Carillon in Canberra.

Information about the Bathurst carillon (one of three in Australia): https://www.bathurstregion.com.au/contact-the-visitor-information-centre/in-the-news/discover-the-bathurst-carillon/

ECIR planning

 It is exciting to plan the ECIR Research Retreat looking to focus our productive team's research for the remainder of 2023 and 2024.

Carolyn Gregoric and Sharynne planning the ECIR Research Retreat

West Contra Costa Unified School District K-12 Speech Department webinar

This morning (7-9am) I presented a 2-hour webinar to staff from the West Contra Costa Unified School District K-12 Speech Department titled “Children’s Speech Development”. It was wonderful to speak with such an engaged and informed audience. I am very grateful to Romelda "Dang" Famorcan, MS, CCC-SLP, MHPEd who organised the event. The SLP team at West Contra Costa Unified School District have rich language resources - with team members speaking Spanish, Italian, Swedish, Arabic, Tagalog/Filipino, Punjabi, Urdu and a range of other languages.

Romelda "Dang" Famorcan, MS, CCC-SLP, MHPEd and Sharynne McLeod

Dang invited attendees to write one word in the chat to summarize the session. Here is what they wrote (thank you!)

Engaging, Resourceful, thought-provoking, helpful, wow, Surprising!!, Affirming, informative, Fascinating, enlightening!, Informative!!, illuminating, respectful, impactful, Informative, Engaging speaker, relevant, important!!, Thank you so much!!, Amazing!, spectacular, fascinating, informative, very informative and very culturally-sensitive and responsive

Continued discussions about The Treehouse

Today I met with Elizabeth Sulley, Space Planning Officer, Facilities Management, CSU about their assessment of Building 1451 as a possible venue for The Treehouse - a space for communication, research and policy discussions with children. The initial assessment has been positive showing that there are no competing strategic needs. The next phase is to have a DDA analysis.

Royal Society of NSW and Learned Academies Forum at Government House

I have been invited to present at the Royal Society of NSW and Learned Academies Forum at Government House, Sydney on 02 November 2023. The theme for the day is Our 21st Century Brain.

I have been invited to speak on the topic of The Developing Mind along with the following esteemed researchers:

• Professor Anne Castles FRSN FASSA (Macquarie University)
• Professor Adam Guastella (The University of Sydney)
• Associate Professor Kate Highfield (University of Canberra) 

The session will be moderated by Professor Penny Van Bergen (University of Wollongong) and we had a briefing session today.

Here is the announcement about the event:

The brain is our most complex organ. It underpins our basic instincts and needs and our behavioural responses to the world around us. Our brain mediates the compassion, reason and imagination that are reflected in great works of the arts and sciences. Yet our brain is also the source of distress, dysfunction and malice. Despite centuries of recurring impacts of tribalism, racism, dehumanisation and exclusion of ‘outsiders’, we continue to inflict suffering on others.
At the same time, the 21st century brings new challenges that extend well beyond immediate threats to very complex societal challenges such as global security, climate change, massive demographic shifts, resource management, information overload, artificial intelligence. Have we reached the edge of our human capacity to respond effectively as either individuals or collective groups?
The context and demands on our brains have been transformed by the very tools we have created, including new information technology platforms, and rapidly developing and deployed forms of artificial intelligence. Diseases of the brain are increasingly prevalent for our ageing population, as are the increasing mental health challenges evident across the lifespan.
Considerable progress across the sciences and humanities has deepened our understanding of genetic, environmental and social factors that underpin brain development and function, yet the rising demands on our capacity to respond appropriately to globalised threats bring an urgent need for novel, just and sustainable solutions.
This year’s Royal Society of New South Wales and Learned Academies Forum focusses on recent progress in unravelling the workings of the brain and opportunities to use our emerging understanding to promote human wellbeing well beyond the 21st Century.
The Forum is held under the auspices of Her Excellency the Honourable Margaret Beazley AC KC, Governor of New South Wales. The Royal Society of New South Wales acknowledge the generous support by Her Excellency, the Academies, the Office of the NSW Chief Scientist and Engineer and Haus Holdings.

Unconscious bias workshop

This morning I participated in an unconscious bias workshop held by CSU for members of this year’s Academic Promotions committees. Here are some papers that I shared with people at the workshop: 

HEARING - USING MICROPHONES AT UNIVERSITY 

• Van Den Heuij, K. M. L., Neijenhuis, K., & Coene, M. (2018). Acoustic environments that support equally accessible oral higher education as a human right. International Journal of Speech-Language Pathology, 20(1), 108-114. https://doi.org/10.1080/17549507.2017.1413136 

 IMPACT OF COVID LOCKDOWNS (esp. on women) 

• Pebdani, R. N., Zeidan, A., Low, L.-F., & Baillie, A. (2023). Pandemic productivity in academia: using ecological momentary assessment to explore the impact of COVID-19 on research productivity. Higher Education Research & Development, 42(4), 937-953. https://doi.org/10.1080/07294360.2022.2128075 

"The impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on academic mothers has many long-term implications on career progression and alleviating this gendered impact should be a priority for adminstrators worldwide." (Pebdani et al., 2023, p. 937)

• Squazzoni, F., Bravo, G., Grimaldo, F., García-Costa, D., Farjam, M., & Mehmani, B. (2021). Gender gap in journal submissions and peer review during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic. A study on 2329 Elsevier journals. PLOS ONE, 16(10), e0257919. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0257919

Congratulations to Emeritus Professor Lindy McAllister AM

Congratulations to Emeritus Professor Lindy McAllister who has been appointed as a Member of the Order of Australia (AM) at Government House in Brisbane today for her outstanding achievements and contributions to speech pathology in Australia and Vietnam.

Intelligibility in Context Scale - New research being published across the world

The Intelligibility in Context Scale (ICS) was developed during my ARC Future Fellowship. It has been remarkable to see the number of languages it has been translated into (>60) and the research that has been undertaken across the world. Here are a few recent papers:

• Soriano, J. U., Mahr, T. J., Rathouz, P. J., & Hustad, K. C. (2023). Intelligibility in Context Scale: Growth curves for typically developing English-speaking children between ages 2;6 and 9;11. American Journal of Speech-Language Pathology, 32(5), 2021-2039. https://doi.org/10.1044/2023_AJSLP-22-00392
• Abdulkader, D. M., Washington, K. N., Kokotek, L. E., Al-tuwairqi, A., & Al-tamimi, A. (2023). Intelligibility in Context Scale: Psychometric evidence and implications for Saudi Arabic-English-speaking preschoolers. International Journal of Speech-Language Pathology, Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1080/17549507.2023.2240040 
• Ozbič, M. (2023). Ocenjevalna lestvica razumljivosti otrok kot pripomoček za hitro in zanesljivo oceno otrokove govorne učinkovitosti [Intelligibility in Context Scale as a tool for a quick and reliable assessment of children‘s speech efficiency]. Slovenska pediatrija, 30(2), 66-73. 
• Apon, I., van Leeuwen, N., Allori, A. C., Rogers-Vizena, C. R., Koudstaal, M. J., Wolvius, E. B., Cano, S. J., Klassen, A. F., & Versnel, S. L. (2021). Rasch analysis of patient- and parent-reported outcome measures in the International Consortium for Health Outcomes Measurement Standard Set for Cleft Lip and Palate. Value in Health, 24(3), 404-412. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jval.2020.10.019
• Sakash, A., Mahr, T., & Hustad, K. C. (2021). Validity of parent ratings of speech intelligibility for children with cerebral palsy. Developmental Neurorehabilitation, 24(2), 98-106. https://doi.org/10.1080/17518423.2020.1830447

Figure 3. from Soriano et al. (2023) showing ICS scores by age and question.

 

Honours research - the last month before submission

Sarah Faulks has been working with A/Prof Sarah Verdon and myself on her honours research. She has one month before submission and is completely on track. Congratulations Sarah and best wishes for the final stretch before you finish your degree.

Early childhood research conversations

Today I had lunch with Dr Tamara Cumming, who is currently at Macquarie University. Tamara and I worked together to establish the Early Childhood Research Group a number of years ago. It was great to reconnect and dream about future collaborations.

Mentoring conversations

I have really enjoyed meeting with Dr Kerry Ttofari-Eecen from Australian Catholic University over the past year. We have had regular mentoring conversations that have encompassed many areas and have opened up opportunities for research and collaborations with colleagues in Greece and Cyprus.

Diagnosing speech sound disorder in bilingual Vietnamese-English-speaking children: Are English-only assessments sufficient?

The following chapter has been accepted for publication and forms part of Kate Margetson's PhD: 

Margetson, K., McLeod, S., & Verdon, S. (2023, in press). Diagnosing speech sound disorder in bilingual Vietnamese-English-speaking children: Are English-only assessments sufficient? In E. Babatsouli (Ed.). Multilingual acquisition and learning: Towards an eco-systemic view of diversity. John Benjamins Publishing. 

Here is the abstract: 

Multilingual children suspected of having speech sound disorders (SSD) are often only assessed in English due to challenges facing speech-language pathologists (SLPs) such as inadequate resources, lack of access to multilingual SLPs or interpreters, and limited SLP knowledge and skill in assessing unfamiliar languages. This tutorial describes the speech profiles and diagnostic decision-making for four bilingual Vietnamese-English speaking children aged 4-6 years. When using English-only assessment all children were diagnosed with SSD. When assessed in English and Vietnamese, only two children were diagnosed with SSD. Many mismatches could be explained by cross-linguistic transfer and ambient phonology. These different diagnostic outcomes demonstrate that direct speech assessment in home language(s) and English is essential for accurate diagnosis of SSD in multilingual children.

Presentation to the Western NSW Health Research Network

Congratulations to Cathie Matthews who presented her Masters' research to the Western NSW Health Research Network (WNRN) Symposium in Dubbo Monday 11 and Tuesday 12 September 2023 (https://whrnnetwork.wordpress.com/) 

The title of her presentation was "Advancing rural children’s communication, partnering with parents, early educators and child and family health nurses". 

Cathie Matthews is undertaking her Masters research at CSU supervised by Julian Grant, Sharynne McLeod, Libbey Murray. She is also undertaking a Health Education and Training Institute (HETI) Grant supervised by Kerith Duncanson (HETI) and  Georgina Luscombe from The University of Sydney.

ECIR report 2022-2023

Here is a summary of the outputs of the ECIR team in mid 2022-mid 2023 

• Grants: $5.7million awarded 
• 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 
• Conference proceedings: 1 published

• High level of community engagement: 3 events hosted/training delivered, 22 media coverages, 4 media contributions, social media profile, 5 public lectures/presentations, 19 community consultations. 
• Members well recognised for their achievements: 3 individual and 1 group awards, leadership/membership of professional associations and editorial boards, invited working party and advisory participants. 
• 2 PhD completions and 2 PhD submissions by ECIR members, HDR support to 17 students.

Research support for grant writing

Grant writing is a complex task requiring many different processes. Thanks to everyone including the CSU Grant Development Team (https://research.csu.edu.au/our-profile/our-people/staff) for enabling me to write grants at the moment so that we can support children to thrive. 

Sharon Geltch from CSU Research Grant Development Team

Visiting Orange Aboriginal Medical Service (OAMS)

Today Prof Julian Grant (Associate Dean Research, Faculty of Science and Health) and I were invited to visit the Orange Aboriginal Medical Service (OAMS) by Jamie and his team.

Jamie, Julian, Sharynne

I have been invited to visit OAMS on a few occasions now and each time have been warmly welcomed and impressed with the team and their work. This visit continued our conversations about improving the well-being and development of children in Orange. It was a fantastic visit that included a tour of the excellent health and medical resources available to the community.  We are excited about the next steps to support children's speech and language skills.

Sharynne, Fiona, Debra, Julian, Ebony

 

Policy/advocacy discussion with Speech Pathology Australia

This afternoon I had a long discussion with Dr Nicole McGill, from Speech Pathology Australia about policy/advocacy to support children's communication and solutions for long waiting lists and fragmented services across health/education/disability/private practice. 

Here is some of the evidence that we discussed:

• McLeod, S., Davis, E., Rohr, K., McGill, N., Miller, K., Roberts, A., Thornton, S., Ahio, N., & Ivory, N. (2020). Waiting for speech-language pathology services: A randomised controlled trial comparing therapy, advice and device. International Journal of Speech-Language Pathology, 22(3), 372–386. https://doi.org/10.1080/17549507.2020.1731600 
• McLeod, S., Harrison, L. J., & Wang, C. (2019). A longitudinal population study of literacy and numeracy outcomes for children identified with speech, language, and communication needs in early childhood. Early Childhood Research Quarterly, 47, 507–517. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecresq.2018.07.004 
• Rvachew, S., & Rafaat, S. (2014). Report on benchmark wait times for pediatric speech sound disorders [Rapport sur les temps d’attente repères pour l’orthophonie pédiatrique]. Canadian Journal of Speech-Language Pathology and Audiology, 38, 82–96. 
• CSU Provocations Blog: https://provocations.csu.edu.au/communication-is-a-human-right-but-not-everyone-can-communicate-effectively/ 
• CSU Provocations Public Lecture: https://research.csu.edu.au/engage-with-us/provocations; https://youtu.be/pnMRyU5BSOQ?feature=shared
• McLeod, S. (2018). Communication rights: Fundamental human rights for all. International Journal of Speech-Language Pathology, 20(1), 3–11. https://doi.org/10.1080/17549507.2018.1428687 
• McLeod, S., & Marshall, J. (2023). Communication for all and the Sustainable Development Goals. International Journal of Speech-Language Pathology, 25(1), 1-8. https://doi.org/10.1080/17549507.2022.2160494

Fulbright application conversations

I have had a number of wonderful conversations with Dr Chelsea Sommer about her Fulbright Scholarship application to come to visit our team at Charles Sturt University. She is an amazing scholar with expertise in Spanish and children with cleft palate. Her project fits so well into our multilingual children's speech research. I hope her application is successful. We really want her to visit!

Sharynne and Chelsea in NZ at the IALP congress in August 2023

Sharynne and Chelsea in US and Australia on Zoom

UPDATE - 15th September - APPLICATION SUBMITTED! 

Best wishes Chelsea - we really want you to come to CSU as a Fulbright Future Postdoctoral Scholar (funded by The Kinghorn Foundation) in 2025

 

Children on campus - ECIR rapid review

Today we worked on our rapid review to consider how children are included (or not) on university campuses. Claudio Dionigi has undertaken the literature search and first phase of inclusion/exclusion. Carolyn and Suzanne are going to undertake the next phase of inclusion/exclusion coding, then I will work on pulling it together. This will inform our co-design of The Treehouse for the International Children's Communication and Research Centre.