Thank you Professor Yvonne Wren and the Bristol Dental School who have sponsored my Bristol Benjamin Meaker Visiting Distinguished Professorship over the past 5 weeks. I have worked with Prof Yvonne Wren and her team to support their research, capacity building endeavours, and to write up research from the Cleft Collective Cohort. I have enjoyed learning from Yvonne and her teams and to contributing to the research and life of the University of Bristol. We have forged many new research agendas and I look forward to returning. It has been an inspirational and productive visit.
As Bristol Benjamin Meaker Visiting Distinguished Professor, Sharynne McLeod collaborated with colleagues in the Bristol Dental School, the Faculty of Health Sciences, and the wider University of Bristol community to advocate for communication for all, acknowledging the untapped potential of those who are underrepresented in society's conversations. Prof. McLeod was hosted by Prof. Yvonne Wren, who leads the Cleft Collective Cohort Study, a national longitudinal cohort study with over 11,000 participants from over 4000 families in the United Kingdom. The Cleft Collective uses the Intelligibility in Context Scale (ICS), an outcome measure developed by Prof. McLeod and team, that is also recommended in the International Consortium of Health Outcome Measures (ICHOM) Set of Patient-Centered Outcome Measures for Cleft Lip & Palate. During this visit, Prof McLeod worked with the Cleft Collective team to generate reference data at ages 3 and 5 years and found significant differences based on cleft type and whether a syndrome was present. Despite being available in over 70 languages, this is the first time the ICS has been studied longitudinally. In addition to her well-received lectures, Prof. McLeod undertook capacity building workshops and mentoring to support students and staff across the wider University of Bristol community.
https://www.bristol.ac.uk/international-research-development/visiting-researchers/visitors-for-202324/sharynne_mcleod/
Here are Yvonne's current roles that I have participated in during my visit:
- Professor of Speech and Communication, University of Bristol
- Professor of Speech and Language Therapy, Cardiff Metropolitan University
- Director, Bristol Speech and Language Therapy Research Unit, North Bristol NHS Trust www.speech-therapy.org.uk
- Chief Investigator – Cleft@18-23, NIHR Programme Grant, Bristol Dental School, University of Bristol
- Chief Investigator - The Cleft Collective, Bristol Dental School, University of Bristol, www.cleftcollective.org.uk
- Chief Investigator - MISLToe-SSD, North Bristol NHS Trust, MISLToe SSD | North Bristol NHS Trust (nbt.nhs.uk)
I have provided the following lectures as part of the visit:
1. Open Lecture at Southmead Hospital: Communicating with Children and Families in a Multilingual World
https://www.nbt.nhs.uk/bristol-speech-language-therapy-research-unit/about-bsltru/bsltru-events
https://www.tickettailor.com/events/northbristolnhstrust/1140990
https://speakingmylanguages.blogspot.com/2024/05/invited-lecture-all-children-should-be.html
2. Bristol Dental School seminar: Speech, Language and Communication: An Overview for Dentists
Recent evidence-based techniques will enable dentists to be better equipped to work with individuals with speech, language and communication needs including those with oral structural alterations (tongue tie and cleft palate)
https://www.bristol.ac.uk/international-research-development/diary/2024/dental-school-talk-by-professor-sharynne-mcleod.html
https://speakingmylanguages.blogspot.com/2024/04/invited-lecture-speech-language-and.html
3. Faculty of Health Sciences lecture: Multilingual Children’s Speech
Aimed at students and staff in the Faculty of Health Sciences. Presentation of the benefits of multilingualism and insights from an international research program into how monolingual professionals can successfully work with multilingual children and families.
https://www.bristol.ac.uk/international-research-development/diary/2024/health-sciences-talk-by-professor-sharynne-mcleod.html
https://speakingmylanguages.blogspot.com/2024/05/university-of-bristol-health-sciences.html
I also provided the following lectures and workshops:
4. Communicating with children and families in a multilingual world - Cardiff Metropolitan University Centre of Hearing, Language and Communication Research Lecture Series
5. Communication rights and social justice: Enhancing communicative participation for children with speech, language and communication needs - University of Cambridge Faculty of Education
6. Communication professionals need to advocate for communication rights and the Sustainable Development Goals - Cylch Ieithyddiaeth/Bangor Linguistics Circle, Bangor University
7. Research wellness retreat - Cardiff Metropolitan University Centre of Hearing, Language and Communication Research Lecture Series
https://speakingmylanguages.blogspot.com/2024/05/writing-research-papers-in-bristol.html
