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

Friends at the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association Convention, Boston, MA, USA

One of the best things about traveling half way across the world to attend the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association Convention in Boston is to see friends and colleagues from across the world. Here are a few

Chelsea Sommer (US), Brian Goldstein (US), Sharynne

Sharynne, Kate Margetson, Brandon, Leah Fabiano, Brian Goldstein (US)

Sharynne, Haydée Fiszbein Wertzner (Brazil), Jon Preston (US), Françoise Brosseau Lapré (US), Aravind Namasivayam (Canada)

Sharynne, Dalia (Saudi Arabia)

Patricia (USA), Sharynne

ASHA Special Interest Group 17 executive: Global issues

Giang Pham (US/Vietnam), Sharynne

Lemmietta McNeilly

ASHA Convention Changemaker Session: One of 117 selected from 3400+ submissions

What an honour for three people from CSU to have received this accolade (Kathryn Crowe, Sharynne McLeod, Kate Margetson). 

Surprise, and congratulations! We are delighted to inform you that your 2023 ASHA Convention presentation titled, "Methods for Accurate Differential Diagnosis of Speech Sound Disorder in Multilingual Children", has been designated as an ASHA Convention Changemaker Session. This special designation was developed specifically for the 2023 ASHA Convention, in keeping with our theme of Igniting Innovation, and specifically recognizes presentations that are exceptional and promote or demonstrate innovation in one the following ways: • Potential to make an important or significant positive change at the patient, systemic, or discipline level. • Strong evidence that the work being presented has had a significant impact, or has the potential to provoke important change, at the individual, systemic, or discipline level. • Transformative research or clinical work that has dramatically changed the practices or future research (e.g., Contributes to new best practices). There were many sessions that embraced the theme and were quite strong, highlighting great examples of innovation in practice. Your submission, however, is one of just 117 specifically selected out of more than 3400 submissions. Each Topic Committee had the choice of recommending only three top-rated sessions that merited this special Changemaker recognition, across any session format, any member or affiliation type, and across both submission categories of professional education and research. Your presentation was assessed as exceptional and worthy of this special recognition.

ASHA Convention Changemaker Sessions will be highlighted in the Program Planner/Mobile App, the ASHA Convention Virtual Extra, and/or in the printed Pocket Planner. Additionally, we will create a special recognition certificate that will be emailed to you in September.

Please highlight this achievement on your CV by listing it under awards as a selected Changemaker Session, 2023 ASHA Convention. Should you have any questions, please email papers@asha.org. Congratulations again, thank you for your work that challenges us, inspires us, and demonstrates the breadth and depth of innovation in our professions. 

Sincerely, Kelly Farquharson 2023 ASHA Convention Co-Chair for Speech-Language Pathology

Jennifer Simpson 2023 ASHA Convention Co-Chair for Audiology

Changemaker session presentation details: 

• Topic Area: Speech Sound Disorders in Children with Normal Hearing 
• Title: Methods for Accurate Differential Diagnosis of Speech Sound Disorder in Multilingual Children 
• Session Format: 1-Hour Seminar (In-Person) 
• Author(s): Karla Washington, Kathryn Crowe, Sharynne McLeod, Kate Margetson, Leslie Kokotek, Pauline van der Straten Waillet, Thora Masdottir, Marc Volhardt 
• Session Code: 1972 
• Day: Saturday, November 18, 2023 
• Time: 1:00 PM - 2:00 PM 

ASHA celebrations

While in Boston at the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association convention I have had the opportunity to celebrate the awards of my colleagues: 

Honors of the Association 

• Lynn Williams, PhD, CCC-SLP, BCS-CL, FASHA, FNAP 
• Catherine J. Crowley, JD, PhD, CCC-SLP, BCS-CL 
• Karla K. McGregor, PhD, CCC-SLP, BCS-CL 

Fellowship of the Association 

• Kelly Farquharson, PhD, CCC-SLP, BCS-CL
• Anna Miles, PhD - New Zealand
  

Anna Miles became the second (ever) ASHA Fellow from New Zealand

I was honoured to be a guest of Lynn Williams at the awards ceremony and give a speech at her celebration following the ceremony. Lynn and I have worked together for 20 years, since we chaired an ASHA convention committee in 2003. Lynn is currently the National Academies of Practice Vice President for Professional Development and Interim Dean and Professor for the College of Clinical and Rehabilitative Health Sciences, East Tennessee State University.

Here is an excerpt from my letter of recommendation for Lynn to receive ASHA Honors that I read at the celebration party: 

The decision to award Dr. Williams ASHA Honors will be very easy as she is unrivalled in her contribution, capacity, and competence across every aspect of our field: national service (leadership, advocacy), research, teaching, and clinical practice. Words I would use to describe Dr. Williams are that she is genuine, rigorous, knowledgeable, innovative, ethical, practical, collegial, consultative, encouraging, compassionate, respectful and world-leading. I completely concur that her “contributions have been of such excellence that they have enhanced or altered the course of the professions” across the world.

The book that Lynn, Rebecca and I edited was in the exhibit hall listed as a "best seller"!

American Speech-Language-Hearing Association Convention, Boston, MA, USA

It is exciting to be in Boston for the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association Convention. Our team is presenting a number of papers and seminars, including:

1. McLeod, S., Blake, H. L., Crowe, K., Louw, B., Farquharson, K., Bérubé, D., Goldstein, B., Babatsouli, E., Kakia Petinou, Zajdó, K., Washington, K. N., Auza, A, Buntová, D., Oravkinová, Z., & Masdottir, T. (2023, November). Children’s speech development in 70+ languages and dialects. [1-hour oral presentation]. American Speech-Language-Hearing Association Convention, Boston, MA, USA. 

2. Ireland, M., Verdon, S., & McLeod, S. (2023, November). Team decision making for SLPs in schools: Tensions and the impact of rules. [Oral presentation]. American Speech-Language-Hearing Association Convention, Boston, MA, USA. 

3. 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. 

4. Washington, K., Crowe, K., McLeod, S., Margetson, K., Kokotek, L., van der Straten Waillet, P., Masdottir, T., Volhardt, M. (2023, November). Methods for accurate differential diagnosis of speech sound disorder in multilingual children. [1-hour oral presentation]. American Speech-Language-Hearing Association Convention, Boston, MA USA.  

 The final attendance numbers are: 15,904 (1,458 – Virtual Only 14,446 – In Person)

 

Once Upon A Time Foundation meeting in Fort Worth, TX

Today I attended a meeting at the Once Upon A Time Foundation Fort Worth, TX to discuss our grant to consider children's perspectives of speech intervention for childhood apraxia of speech (CAS). It was a very collegial meeting to ensure high quality research is undertaken as part of their large-scale CAS intervention research agenda.

Hello USA

I have just arrived in USA for meetings and the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association Convention. American culture is so familiar due to the movies, TV and other images that are broadcast around the world. Here are a few that I think are quintessentially American:

Pumpkin pie with loads of cream

Cowboy hat in the middle of town in Texas

Longhorn cows and cowboys/cowgirls in Texas