Spring has sprung

 It is lovely to be in Bathurst at the moment. Springtime is gorgeous!

Multilingual Children's Speech website - Updates and new pages

Today the CSU webteam (Alex Moore and Lindsey Ting) launched new pages and updates on the Multilingual Children's Speech website.

Dr Helen Blake and I have been updating information and creating new pages based on research undertaken by authors of The Oxford Handbook of Speech Development in Languages of the World. There are completely new pages - and the other pages are being updated with hundreds of new entries! Here are some of the new pages that we have launched (more to come):

• Multilingual speech interventions - https://www.csu.edu.au/research/multilingual-speech/speech-interventions (this is a completely new page)
  
• Multilingual Speech Playlist - https://research.csu.edu.au/multilingual-speech-playlist

Dr Helen L. Blake and Sharynne working on the
Multilingual Children's Speech website

 

"What's got us talking" - University of Technology Sydney podcast

Today I was interviewed by Laura Carolina Corrigan for the University of Technology Sydney podcast called "What's got us talking". She was interested in learning more about The Oxford Handbook of Speech Development in Languages of the World and the work of our team regarding multilingual children's speech. Here are some links to our research that I shared:

• Multilingual Children’s Speech YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLRXcSAl_dA7arRMrE0qdxLuzGChY1LgY2
• Multilingual Children’s Speech website: https://www.csu.edu.au/research/multilingual-speech
• Key paper: McLeod, S., & Crowe, K. (2018). Children’s consonant acquisition in 27 languages: A cross-linguistic review. American Journal of Speech-Language Pathology, 27(4), 1546–1571. https://doi.org/10.1044/2018_AJSLP-17-0100
• Free posters: https://www.csu.edu.au/research/multilingual-speech/speech-acquisition/learning-english-consonants

Planning an extension of Marie's research

Tonight I met with Dr Marie Ireland, A/Prof Kate Crowe, and LaVae Hoffman to plan an extension of the research undertaken during Marie's PhD where she identified nine tensions in eligibility decision-making in schools in the United States. 

It will expand on the knowledge from this paper:

Ireland, M. C., McLeod, S. L., & Verdon, S. (2024). Eligibility determinations for speech and language services in United States public schools: Experiences and tensions. Language, Speech, and Hearing Services in Schools, 55(1), 181-198. https://doi.org/10.1044/2023_LSHSS-23-00039

Marie, Sharynne, LaVae, Kate meeting in the USA/Iceland/Australia

WHO RCM75 Partners’ Briefing

This afternoon I attended the WHO RCM75 Partners’ Briefing. I am representing the International Association of Communication Sciences and Disorders (IALP) at the Seventy-fifth session of the World Health Organization Regional Committee for the Western Pacific in Manila, the Philippines in two weeks' time.

WHO documents: https://www.who.int/westernpacific/about/governance/regional-committee/session-75/documents

Data analysis for our Indigenous children's communication research

Today Emily-Jane Woodhead, Sarah Bartlett and I had a wonderful day analysing data from our Indigenous children's communication research and preparing for more data collection with children, families and staff next week. It was serendipitous that we were joined by early childhood education researchers Prof Linda Harrison (Macquarie University) and Dr Leanne Gibbs (CSU) for a short while to plan how to share the resources with the Indigenous children at their school holiday program next week.

Emily-Jane, Sarah and I celebrated our birthdays too :)

ASHA Research Roundtable Invitation - "Engaging in International Research Collaborations"

The American Speech-Language-Hearing Association Academic Affairs & Research Education Team have invited me  to host a table on “Engaging in International Research Collaborations” at the Research Roundtables during the 2024 ASHA Convention (Friday, December 6, 2024). They have invited Dr. Giang Pham from San Diego State University to co-host the table with me and Dr Helen L. Blake and Dr Kate Margetson to attend as my collaborators. I have enjoyed this role a few years ago at an ASHA convention - so look forward to participating again.

Here is their description:

The Research Roundtables offer researchers, including students interested in research careers, postdoctoral fellows, and junior faculty, the opportunity to meet and learn from experienced researchers and funding agency staff. We hope you will be able to host a Research Roundtable. Your willingness to share your experience and knowledge is greatly appreciated by researchers in our professions.

More visitors to help us plan The Treehouse rennovations

This week I have hosted more visitors to help us plan The Treehouse renovations. Emma McCormick and members of the Hassal team visited The Treehouse after our 2-hour Bathurst Campus Development Planning meeting then members of the Early Childhood Interdisciplinary Research Group visited.

Sharynne, Emily-Jane Woodhead, Arifa, Sarah Bartlett

ASHA Convention session chosen to be broadcast live

We just received this welcome news about our presentation at the American Speech-Langauge-Hearing Association (ASHA) Convention

Your In-Person Session Has Been Selected for the ASHA Convention Virtual Program

Congratulations! Your in-person, 1-hour oral seminar (listed below) has been selected by the 2024 ASHA Convention Co-Chairs to be live-broadcast as part of the Virtual Program. During the submission process you indicated that you would agree to have your slides and audio broadcast to the virtual platform in real-time if selected. Only 77 sessions were chosen to be broadcast live, with consideration given to the overall strength and value to virtual-only participants and alignment with our 2024 theme, ELEVATE!...The live broadcast is a real-time feed of your presentation onsite in Seattle. Your session will not be recorded and will not be available as an on-demand Virtual Program session after it concludes.

• Topic Area: Global Issues and Practices
• Session Number: 1168
• Title: Culturally Appropriate Assessment in International Contexts: Assessing Children's Speech in Their Home Language(s)
• Session Format: 1-Hour Seminar (In-Person)
• Day: Thursday, December 5, 2024
• Time: 4:00 PM - 5:00 PM
• Author(s): Sharynne McLeod, Helen Blake, Kate Margetson

Voice of Children Framework consultation

I was invited by Prof Fran Press, Dr Jenny Cartmel and colleagues at Griffith University to be part of the consultation on the Voice of Children Framework. 

It was an important meeting with key people across Australia. I was able to add insights to their analysis paper including our work about listening to children whose voices are often marginalized including:

• Children with diverse abilities, including communication disabilities
• Children who speak non-dominant languages, including multilingual children
  
• Children who live in rural and remote locations 

Our new Children's Voices Centre will focus on listening to children and will draw on the previous work of the Early Childhood Interdisciplinary Research Group. For example

• ECV2022 Children Draw Talking Global Online Gallery included drawings from 200 children from 24 countries- https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLRXcSAl_dA7YoGpVsg-oyKe3et80WnfVl. 
• These children’s insights were shared with the United Nations: https://www.ohchr.org/sites/default/files/documents/issues/youth/hr75/submissions/subm-views-youth-led-cso-early-childhood-interdisciplinary-resear.pdf

Here is a selection of the work we have published to listen to children:

Books

• Mahony, L., McLeod, S., Salamon, A., & Dwyer, J. (Eds.). (2024). Early childhood voices: Children, families, professionals. Springer. https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-031-56484-0 
• Roulstone, S., & McLeod, S. (Eds.). (2011). Listening to children and young people with speech, language and communication needs. J&R Press. http://www.jr-press.co.uk/communication-needs.html 
  

Communication rights for all

• 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
• Mahony, L., McLeod, S., Salamon, A., Dwyer, J. (2024). Why the voices of young children matter. In L. Mahony, S. McLeod, A. Salamon, & J. Dwyer (Eds.) Early childhood voices: Children, families, professionals.  Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-56484-0_1  
• McLeod, S., Gregoric, C., Cumming, T., Downey, B. (2024). Refusing to silence early childhood voices: The establishment of the Early Childhood Voices Conference. In L. Mahony, S. McLeod, A. Salamon, & J. Dwyer (Eds.) Early childhood voices: Children, families, professionals.  Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-56484-0_18
• Sumsion, J., Harrison, L. J., Press, F., McLeod, S., Goodfellow, J., & Bradley, B. S. (2011). Researching infants' experiences of early childhood education and care. In D. Harcourt, B. Perry, & T. Waller (Eds.), Researching Young Children's Perspectives: Debating the Ethics and Dilemmas of Educational Research with Children (pp. 113–127). Routledge. 
  

Children with communication disability

• McCormack, J., McLeod, S., Harrison, L. J., & Holliday, E. L. (2022). Drawing talking: Listening to children with speech sound disorders. Language, Speech, and Hearing Services in Schools, 53(3), 713-731. https://doi.org/10.1044/2021_LSHSS-21-00140 
• McLeod, S. (2011). Listening to children and young people with speech, language and communication needs: Who, why and how? In S. Roulstone & S. McLeod (Eds.), Listening to children and young people with speech, language and communication needs. (pp. 23–40). J&R Press.
• McCormack, J., McLeod, S., McAllister, L., & Harrison, L. J. (2010). My speech problem, your listening problem, and my frustration: The experience of living with childhood speech impairment. Language, Speech, and Hearing Services in Schools, 41(4), 379–392. https://doi.org/10.1044/0161-1461(2009/08-0129)
  
• McLeod, S., Daniel, G., & Barr, J. (2013). “When he's around his brothers … he's not so quiet”: The private and public worlds of school-aged children with speech sound disorder. Journal of Communication Disorders, 46(1), 70-83. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jcomdis.2012.08.006 
• McLeod, S., Kelly, G., Ahmed, B., & Ballard, K. J. (2023). Equitable access to speech practice for rural Australian children using the SayBananas! mobile game. International Journal of Speech-Language Pathology, 25(3), 388-402. https://doi.org/10.1080/17549507.2023.2205057  
  

Children who speak languages other than English

• McLeod, S., Verdon, S., & Theobald, M. (2015). Becoming bilingual: Children’s insights about making friends in bilingual settings. International Journal of Early Childhood, 47(3), 385–402. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13158-015-0148-7
•  Washington, K. N., Wright Karem, R., Macaluso, C., Schwartz, C., & McLeod, S. (2024). Jamaican Children’s drawings of talking in Jamaican creole and English. In L. Mahony, S. McLeod, A. Salamon, & J. Dwyer (Eds.), Early childhood voices: Children, families, professionals (pp. 117–133). Springer.

Children with disabilities and their families

• Barr, J., & McLeod, S. (2010). They never see how hard it is to be me: Siblings' observations of strangers, peers and family. International Journal of Speech-Language Pathology, 12(2), 162–171. https://doi.org/10.3109/17549500903434133
• Barr, J., McLeod, S., & Daniel, G. (2008). Siblings of children with speech impairment: Cavalry on the hill. Language, Speech, and Hearing Service in Schools, 39(1), 21–32. https://doi.org/10.1044/0161-1461(2008/003)

Methods of listening to children

• The Speech Participation and Activity Assessment of Children (SPAA-C): https://www.csu.edu.au/research/multilingual-speech/speech-assessments/spaa-c
  
• Children Draw Talking: McCormack, J., McLeod, S., Harrison, L. J., & Holliday, E. L. (2022). Drawing talking: Listening to children with speech sound disorders. Language, Speech, and Hearing Services in Schools, 53(3), 713-731. https://doi.org/10.1044/2021_LSHSS-21-00140 
• McLeod, S., McCormack, J., McAllister, L., Harrison, L. J., & Holliday, E. L. (2011). Listening to 4- to 5-year-old children with speech impairment using drawings, interviews and questionnaires. In S. Roulstone & S. McLeod (Eds.), Listening to children and young people with speech, language and communication needs. (pp. 179–186). J&R Press. http://www.jr-press.co.uk/communication-needs.html
• Mosaic Approach: Press, F., Bradley, B. S., Goodfellow, J., Harrison, L. J., McLeod, S., Sumsion, J., Elwick, S., & Stratigos, T. (2011). Listening to infants about what life is like in childcare: A mosaic approach. In S. Roulstone & S. McLeod (Eds.), Listening to children and young people with speech, language and communication needs. (pp. 241–250). J&R Press. http://www.jr-press.co.uk/communication-needs.html
• BabyCam  Sumsion, J., Bradley, B., Stratigos, T., & Elwick, S. (2014). 'Baby cam' and participatory research with infants: A case study of critical reflexivity. In M. Fleer & A. E. Ridgway (Eds.), Visual methodologies and digital tools for researching with young children: Transforming visuality (pp. 169–191). Springer-Verlag.
  

Navigating the Scholarly Forest: Crafting a 5-year research plan

This afternoon I attended the School of Education Research Workshop, by Dr Leanne Gibbs titled:
"Navigating the Scholarly Forest: Crafting a 5-year research plan"

Do you love dreaming up great research projects but feel like you’re wandering through the scholarly forest without a map? Join this interactive session and find your direction! We’ll explore a structured approach to crafting a 5-year research plan where you’ll map out your aims, methodology, ethics applications, outputs, and impact, all while weaving the golden thread of research through your work to ensure coherence and purpose. This approach might not be for everyone, but who can resist a few tips?

ECV2024 statistics

• 680 registrations from 47+ countries
  
• 4 keynotes
• 72 abstracts accepted for presentation in the general stream + the Multilingual Children's Speech stream
  
• 155 children's drawings (including 100 from Mongolia) - the deadline has been
  

The ECV2024 Cvent website is https://cvent.csu.edu.au/event/0d591439-4c54-4f18-8620-1f37f00582f4/summary

Thank you to our amazing ECV2024 conference secretary Dr Carolyn Gregoric