Caregivers’ insights into supporting their late talkers using a Hanen® Parent Program

Congratulations Sarah Bartlett - whose manuscript from her Graduate Certificate has just been accepted for publication in the International Journal of Speech-Language Pathology.

Here are the details: Bartlett, S. & McLeod, S. (2024, in press). Caregivers’ insights into supporting their late talkers using Target Word™ Hanen® Parent Program.  International Journal of Speech-Language Pathology.

Here is the abstract: 

Purpose. To explore caregivers’ experiences and engagement during the 16-week Target Word™ Hanen Program® for Parents program designed to support late talkers.
Method. Qualitative interpretative description (ID) methodology was used to understand the experience of five caregivers who had completed Target Word™ to support their children (aged 18-36 months). Caregivers attended a focus group to share their perspectives. Transcripts of these focus groups were analysed using reflexive thematic analysis.
Result. Two themes were identified. Firstly, that caregivers described explicit roles for speech-language pathologists (SLPs) to support their engagement over time: in the beginning (clarify expectations), middle (enable caregiver to link changes in their behaviour to positive child outcomes) and final (empowered caregivers) phases of the intervention. Secondly, that caregiver engagement in learning is individual, influenced by (a) individual needs and expectations, (b) active engagement during key learning moments, (c) influence of the broader environment.
Conclusion. Each caregiver participating in Target Word™ experienced unique engagement journeys over the course of the program. SLPs can explicitly facilitate engagement at each phase of Target Word™ to promote active engagement for learning and ultimately caregiver empowerment to support their children’s language growth.

Here is a photo of Sarah and I wearing our academic gowns this week. CSU changed their graduation dates in 2024 - and I was unavailable on the new dates. It was great to celebrate Sarah's graduation and accomplishments in Bathurst.

Congratulations Associate Professor Ben Phạm

Associate Professor Ben Phạm with her family
at the Temple of Literature

I am so proud of my colleague Dr Ben Phạm who was promoted to Associate Professor by the Vietnamese Office of Professorship Council.

In 2024 there were only 27 candidates in Education Sciences who were promoted to Associate Professor across the whole of VietNam. Ben was the only one who specialized in Special Education for children with speech and language disorders. 

She received the certificate from the Vietnamese Government on 29 November 2024 at the 1000 year old Temple of Literature in Ha Noi, Viet Nam, the first University in Vietnam.

Ben and I visited the Temple of Literature together in 2016 and dreamed of this day when she would receive an award there https://speakingmylanguages.blogspot.com/2016/01/the-temple-of-literature-in-ha-noi_2.html

Congratulations Ben.

I am so honoured to continue collaborating with Ben in many ways since she began her PhD with me in 2014. Here is a paper that we wrote together that has just been published 

Phạm, B., & McLeod, S. (2024). Considerations of dialect on the identification of speech sound disorder in Vietnamese-speaking children. International Journal of Language and Communication Disorders, 59(6), 2208-2216. https://doi.org/10.1111/1460-6984.12992

Final email to Early Childhood Interdisciplinary Research Sturt Scheme members

Here is the email that I just sent to the members of the Early Childhood Interdisciplinary Research Sturt Scheme this evening

Early Childhood Voices 2024 (ECV2024)
Thank you for all you have done to ensure that the Early Childhood Voices 2024 conference was a success this week
https://earlychildhoodresearch.csu.domains/early-childhood-voices-conference-2024/
At 6pm on Thursday 1333 people from 54 countries had registered to attend our amazing 4 keynotes, 147 oral presentations and children's voices presentations across three streams, yarning circles, and a workshop

• STREAM 1: Early childhood voices: International interdisciplinary research - https://earlychildhoodresearch.csu.domains/early-childhood-voices-conference-2024/by-topics/
• STREAM 2: Multilingual children's speech development - https://multilingual-childrens-speech-development.csu.domains/
• STREAM 3: Children draw playing global online galleries - https://earlychildhoodresearch.csu.domains/early-childhood-voices-conference-2024/children-draw-playing/

As you know, you can continue to access the conference any time as the website will remain online.
Conference proceedings: https://earlychildhoodresearch.csu.domains/early-childhood-voices-conference-2024/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/ECV2024-BOOK-FINAL.pdf

Make sure you look at the Children’s Press Gallery video summarizing their reporting of the launch (found underneath the Acknowledgment of Country video - https://earlychildhoodresearch.csu.domains/early-childhood-voices-conference-2024/)

A HUGE thank you to Dr Carolyn Gregoric, our conference secretary and Dr Belinda Downey, our conference co-chair,  and to all of you for your roles (large and small) to ensure ECV2024 was a success. As our keynote speaker said – it takes a village to raise a village.

Early Childhood Interdisciplinary Research Sturt Scheme
We have come to the end of the Early Childhood Interdisciplinary Research Sturt Scheme (ECIR). We have achieved so much together. Our final report is attached. Please feel proud of all you have achieved together.

Exciting news: Children’s Voices Centre (CVC)

Yesterday, Vice Chancellor Professor Renée Leon approved the establishment of the Children’s Voices Centre for three years (2025-2027). HOORAY!!! We have just (soft) launched the Children’s Voices Centre website so you can find out more  https://www.csu.edu.au/research/childrens-voices-centre. We will provide more details in February 2025.

We are excited about what the future holds for our team and look forward to future collaborations to make a difference in children’s lives across the world. Thank you and best wishes for the holiday season.

Approval for the establishment of the Children's Voices Centre and collaboration with WHO

I have just received formal approval for the establishment of the Children's Voices Centre at Charles Sturt University (2025-2027). What an amazing moment in my life - and opportunity to make a difference in the lives of children across the world!

https://www.csu.edu.au/research/childrens-voices-centre/home

We also signed off on the Terms of Reference to collaborate with the World Health Organization on a 2-year project.

Invited, keynote, and public lectures in 2024

 2024 has been a busy year (and this list doesn't include the regular conference presentations)!

1. McLeod, S., Blake, H. L., Margetson, K., & Verdon, S. (2024, December). Culturally appropriate assessment in international contexts. [Invited 1-hour session]. American Speech-Language-Hearing Association Convention, Seattle, WA, USA. https://convention.asha.org/ 
2. McLeod, S. & Margetson, K. (2024, Oct 19-20). Children’s speech assessment and intervention: What works? What’s new? What’s the evidence?. [2-day invited workshop]. Chinese University of Hong Kong Speech and Hearing Social Enterprise. Hong Kong, SAR China
3. McLeod, S. & Margetson, K. (2024, Oct 18). Speech Assessment of Children’s Home Language(s) (SACHL). [3-hour invited lecture]. Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, SAR China.
4. McLeod, S. & Wren, Y. (2024, September 12-14). Children’s communication, educational, social and participation outcomes: Insights from longitudinal population studies [Invited keynote]. 23rd Congress of Otorhinolaryngology Foundation [23o Congresso da FORL], Sao Paulo, Brazil. https://www.congressoforl.org/
5. McLeod, S. (2024, September 12-14). Multilingual children’s speech development, assessment and interventions [Invited keynote]. 23rd Congress of Otorhinolaryngology Foundation [23o Congresso da FORL], Sao Paulo, Brazil https://www.congressoforl.org/
6. McLeod, S. (2024, September 12-14). Communication rights and the Sustainable Development Goals [Invited keynote]. 23rd Congress of Otorhinolaryngology Foundation [23o Congresso da FORL], Sao Paulo, Brazil https://www.congressoforl.org/
7. McLeod, S., Blake, H. L. & Margetson, K. (2024, June 27-29). Multilingual speech development and disorders: A contemporary perspective of children’s speech development in languages of the world [Invited presentation]. 100th Anniversary Celebration of the International Association of Communication Sciences and Disorders (IALP), Vienna, Austria (online). https://ialp-org.com/event/9853/
8. McLeod, S. (2024, June). Are we really listening to children? [Invited keynote]. Child Language Teaching and Therapy 2024 Summer Lecture, London, UK (online).
9. McLeod, S. (2024, May 23). Multilingual children’s speech. [Invited lecture]. Bristol Benjamin Meaker Distinguished Visiting Professor Presentation. Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Bristol, Bristol, UK. https://www.bristol.ac.uk/international-research-development/visiting-researchers/visitors-for-202324/sharynne_mcleod/
10. McLeod, S. (2024, May 15). Communication professionals need to advocate for communication rights and the Sustainable Development Goals. [Seminar]. School of Arts, Culture and Language, Bangor University. Bangor, UK. https://www.bangor.ac.uk/arts-culture-language/dlelb
11. McLeod, S. (2024, May 3). Communication rights and social justice: Enhancing communicative participation for children with speech, language and communication needs. [Seminar]. Faculty of Education, University of Cambridge. Cambridge, UK. https://www.educ.cam.ac.uk/
12. McLeod, S. (2024, April 30). All children should be seen AND heard: The importance of communication so children can thrive. [Invited lecture]. Bristol Speech and Language Therapy Research Unit and Underwood Trust Annual Lecture, Bristol, UK. https://www.nbt.nhs.uk/Bristol-Speech-Language-Therapy-Research-Unit
13. McLeod, S. (2024, April 29). Speech, language and communication: An overview for dentists. [Invited lecture]. Bristol Benjamin Meaker Distinguished Visiting Professor Presentation. Bristol Dental School, University of Bristol, Bristol, UK. https://www.bristol.ac.uk/international-research-development/visiting-researchers/visitors-for-202324/sharynne_mcleod/
14. McLeod, S. (2024, April 24). Communicating with children and families in a multilingual world. [Invited lecture]. School of Sport and Health Sciences, Cardiff Metropolitan University Lecture, Llandaff, Wales, UK.
15. McLeod, S. & Margetson, K. (2024, April 18). Assessing children’s speech in unfamiliar languages: Insights from Vietnamese-English children [Invited keynote]. XI LLDI Universidade de Lisboa, Lisbon, Portugal.  
16. McLeod, S. (2024, February). Supporting monolingual and multilingual children’s phonological development. [Invited keynote]. 2024 Nancy McKinley Lecture organised by the American Board of Child Language & Language Disorders (online).  https://www.speechpathology.com/slp-ceus/course/supporting-monolingual-and-multilingual-children-10849

Congratulations Jane Garner

Congratulations to Jane Garner who has just learned she was promoted to Associate Professor. She does such important research with worldwide impact. I was honoured to work with her on her promotion documentation to ensure that her excellent work shone through the words and boxes.

CSU Conscia Mentoring Program - End-of-Program Celebration

This morning was the CSU Conscia Mentoring Program - End-of-Program Celebration. 

I have been a mentor for Belinda Cash, and also a group of colleagues about writing/editing books. It has been a productive year - and I have learned a lot.

CSU had 56 mentors and 83 mentees this year.
Here is the summary of the celebration event:

This program has provided a valuable opportunity to learn from experienced researchers, enhancing your skills in research capabilities, outputs, and leadership, as well as supporting your career development.
This celebration will be a chance to share your experiences, provide feedback, and offer suggestions for future initiatives.
An overview of how this program can enhance your Research Performance Indicator (RPI) will also be provided.
We look forward to celebrating with you!

Cathy LeCerf
on behalf of the Faculty Associate Deans of Research

 

ECV2024 - registrations

At 6pm on Thursday 28th November ECV2024 had 1333 registrations from 54 countries/regions: Afghanistan, Australia, Bangladesh, Benin, Brazil, Bulgaria, Burundi, Canada, China, Colombia, Denmark, Ethiopia, Fiji, Finland, France, Germany, Ghana, Greece, Hong Kong (SAR China), Hungary, Iceland, India, Indonesia, Iran, Ireland, Israel, Jordan, Kosovo, Kuwait, Malaysia, Malta, Morocco, Namibia, Nepal, Netherlands, New Zealand, Nigeria, Norway, Pakistan, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Slovenia, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Uganda, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, USA, Zambia

• Australia    856
• Hong Kong (SAR China)    64
• United Kingdom    54
• United Kingdom (England)    1
• United Kingdom (Scotland)    1
• United Kingdom (Wales)    1
• USA    50
• United States Minor Outlying Islands    4
• South Africa    49
• Ghana    45
• Canada    28
• Nigeria    17
• Ireland    15
• Singapore    12
• Iran    9
• Bangladesh    8
• Brazil    8
• Nepal    8
• China    6
• Fiji    6
• Pakistan    6
• Philippines    6
• Portugal    6
• Israel    5
• Netherlands    5
• New Zealand    5
• Kosovo    4
• Malaysia    4
• India    4
• Spain    3
• Denmark    3
• Indonesia    3
• Germany    3
• Namibia    3
• Burundi    2
• Ethiopia    2
• Hungary    2
• Iceland    2
• Kuwait    2
• Poland    2
• Uganda    2
• Afghanistan    1
• Benin    1
• Bulgaria    1
• Colombia    1
• Finland    1
• France    1
• Greece    1
• Jordan    1
• Malta    1
• Morocco    1
• Norway    1
• Qatar    1
• Saudi Arabia    1
• Slovenia    1
• Sweden    1
• United Arab Emirates    1
• Zambia    1

Map created by Simon McDonald, Spatial Analysis Network, Charles Sturt University
Sources: Esri, TomTom, Garmin, FAO, NOAA, USGS, © OpenStreetMap contributors, and the GIS User Community, Esri, USGS

Conversations with Oxford University Press

Julia Steer, Linguistics Editor for Oxford University Press invited Dr Helen Blake and myself to discuss ideas for increasing OUP's coverage of speech-language pathology/speech and language therapy titles as a new mission and business proposition. We had lots of ideas.

ECV2024 presentations by our team

Here are the presentations from our team at ECV2024 this week

1. Children draw talking: Interdisciplinary insights into drawings from 200 children from 24 countries - Sharynne McLeod, Carolyn Gregoric, Jessamy Davies, Lysa Dealtry, Laura Delli-Pizzi, Belinda Downey, Sheena Elwick, Suzanne C. Hopf, Nicola Ivory, Holly McAlister, Elizabeth Murray, Azizur Rahman, Shukla Sikder, Van H. Tran, Cherie Zischke
2. Building The Treehouse: A physical and virtual children’s research environment co-designed with children, colleagues, community - Sharynne McLeod
3. Indigenous children’s speech, language and communication: Identifying and co-creating resources and services - Sharynne McLeod, Emily-Jane Woodhead, Sarah Bartlett, Ebony Hay, Carolyn Gregoric
4. Using an implementation science framework to co-design and test the Speech Assessment of Children’s Home Language(s) (SACHL) - Kate Margetson and. Sharynne McLeod
5. Voices and visions: Engaging children with childhood apraxia of speech in intervention research- Marie Ireland, Anna Cronin, Jane McCormack, Sharynne McLeod, Cen Wang, Caroline Tiong
6. Adaptation of the Early Childhood Voices Drawing Protocol for collecting children’s experiences of play - Carolyn Gregoric, Shukla Sikder, Suzanne C. Hopf, and Sharynne McLeod
7. “Absolutely cuddled out” – Building personal resources to build retention - Belinda Downey, Will Letts, Leanne Gibbs, and Sharynne McLeod
8. Caregiver implemented intervention for early communication development: A review of evidence for Hanen® programs - Sarah Bartlett and Sharynne McLeod
9. Children on Australian university campuses: A rapid review of internal policies, guidelines, and procedures - Carolyn Gregoric, Sharynne McLeod, Suzanne C. Hopf, and Claudio Dionigi
10. Multilingual children’s speech development - Sharynne McLeod and Helen L. Blake
11. Children’s speech development: English (Australian) - Sharynne McLeod and Helen L. Blake
12. Children’s speech development: English (Fiji) - Holly McAlister, Suzanne C. Hopf, Paul A. Geraghty, Sharynne McLeod
13. Children’s speech development: English + Vietnamese - Kate Margetson, Sharynne McLeod, Van H. Tran, Sarah Verdon, Ben Phạm 
14. Children's speech development: Cantonese - Carol Kit Sum To, Pamela Cheung, Sharynne McLeod
    
15. Children’s speech development: Vietnamese - Ben Phạm, Kate Margetson, Sharynne McLeod, Van H. Tran, Sarah Verdon - https://multilingual-childrens-speech-development.csu.domains/ecv2024-570/

Possibility of mobility visit for PhD student from Nord University

Tonight I had a wonderful conversation with Camilla and her two PhD supervisors from Nord University about the possibility of her visiting CSU for 6 months next year. Camilla has Sami heritage and is studying language maintenance of Sami children in Norway. I hope we are able to welcome her to CSU next year - there are so many areas of overlap between our work.

Close of the Early Childhood Interdisciplinary Research Group Sturt Scheme

In the afternoon after the launch of the Early Childhood Voices 2024 Conference (ECV2024) we had the celebration and closure of the 3-year Early Childhood Interdisciplinary Research Group Sturt Scheme. We have achieved so much over the past three years and are so grateful for the funding to employ Dr Carolyn Gregoric, buy some time for our leadership team, fund a research student, and some scholarly activities.

ECIR members in Bathurst

Dr Carolyn Gregoric, A/Prof Sarah Verdon, Dr Suzanne Hopf,
Dr Libbey Murray, Prof Sharynne McLeod

Most ECIR meetings were conducted via Zoom - so our cake celebrated this!

ECV2024 launch

Today the Early Childhood Voices 2024 Conference (ECV2024) was launched.

https://earlychildhoodresearch.csu.domains/early-childhood-voices-conference-2024/

What a joyful and celebratory occasion. Thank you to EVERYONE who played a role to make it happen. Our keynote speaker, Prof Tony Dreise discussed how it not only takes a village to raise a child - we also have to raise the village. Our ECV2024 launch was living proof of the village raising the village.

Thank you to the students from Assumption Catholic Primary School who provided the music - and also were the press gallery documenting the occasion.

Thank you to Vice Chancellor Renee Leon for launching the event and Professor Tony Dreise for providing the keynote address.

Thank you to Dr Belinda Downey, conference co-chair and Dr Carolyn Gregoric, conference secretary.

ECV2024 launch

ECV2024 launch

Assumption Catholic School Band

Vice Chancellor Renée Leon - Launching ECV2024

 

Prof Tony Dreise - Keynote speaker

Press Gallery - Assumption Primary School

Dr Belinda Downey - Conference co-chair

Dr Carolyn Gregoric - Conference Secretary

Dr Tamara Cumming - Keynote Speaker

Deputy Vice Chancellor-Research Mark Evans with Sharynne

Kevin Ng in the TV studio - livestreaming the event

Prof Sharynne McLeod describing the global reach of the Early Childhood Interdisciplinary Research Group

ECV2024 social media

 Here are the social media links for ECV2024

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/240093224084969
 
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/posts/kate-margetson-43a584212_early-childhood-voices-online-conference-activity-7266691767008137216-iot0?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_desktop
 
X: https://x.com/CSU_ECRG/status/1860913287988494795
 
https://x.com/CSU_ECRG/status/1860915328664191072

ECV2024: Events and opportunities

ECV2024 starts tomorrow.
We are so pleased to welcome you - 1290 people from 55 countries.
 
How to join
To view presentations and the online children’s drawing gallery, from 9am Monday 25th November (AEDT*)

Click here: https://earlychildhoodresearch.csu.domains/early-childhood-voices-conference-2024/

CVENT version: https://cvent.csu.edu.au/hub/events/0d591439-4c54-4f18-8620-1f37f00582f4

To join live sessions click the button below. You will need to modify your registration to include access to the live launch and the six yarning circles.

Register for live events: https://cvent.csu.edu.au/event/0d591439-4c54-4f18-8620-1f37f00582f4/register

 
To participate in ECV2024
View conference presentations by clicking on the following link https://earlychildhoodresearch.csu.domains/early-childhood-voices-conference-2024/

ECV2024 showcases 4 keynotes, 147 oral presentations and children's voices across three streams.
•    STREAM 1: Early childhood voices: International interdisciplinary research
•    STREAM 2: Multilingual children's speech development
•    STREAM 3: Children draw playing global online galleries

Watch the conference launch
Online (livestream), in person, or on demand

Livestream from 10.30am Monday 25th November (AEDT*). This will include a live keynote address by Professor Tony Dreise - Giving voice to ‘villages’, listening to ‘Country’: It’s time to unlock the power of ‘place’
AEDT* (Sydney time zone = 11 hours AHEAD of London = 18 hours AHEAD of Los Angeles – your time zone may be the day earlier than indicated)

View keynote presentations

• Dr Elizabeth Shuey - Developing and retaining a workforce for high-quality early childhood education and care
• Professor Jenny L. Gibson - Neurodiversity-affirming approaches to play: Perspectives from research with autistic children and adults
• Professor Tony Dreise - Giving voice to ‘villages’, listening to ‘Country’: It’s time to unlock the power of ‘place’ (available after launch event)
• Dr Tamara Cumming - Embracing systems thinking to open conditions of possibility for the early childhood education workforce

Immerse yourself in children’s perspectives
Children from around the world have shared their perspectives on play through our Children Draw Playing Global Online  Galleries. What are they saying to you about play? View the gallery here

Ask a child to draw. Submissions to the drawing gallery are open to 30 November. Further details https://earlychildhoodresearch.csu.domains/go/ECV24-ChildrenDrawCreate

Join a yarning circle
Register now on Cvent to join the live yarning circle discussions with other conference participants:

• Communications and multilingual speech yarning circle - Monday 25th November, 7pm (AEDT*)
• Family’s voices yarning circle - Tuesday 26th November, 9am (AEDT*)
• Interdisciplinary approaches to children’s rights and sustainable development outcomes yarning circle - Tuesday 26th November, 5pm (AEDT*)
• Professionals’ voices yarning circle - Wednesday 27th November, 9am (AEDT*)
• Children’s voices - Listening to children in research yarning circle - Wednesday 27th November, 5pm (AEDT*)
• Children's play, drawing and learning yarning circle - Thursday 28th November, 9am (AEDT*)

Note: These sessions will not be recorded.
AEDT* (Sydney time zone = 11 hours AHEAD of London = 18 hours AHEAD of Los Angeles – your time zone may be the day earlier than indicated)
 

Attend the workshop
Register via Cvent to join.

Understanding different communication methods – Wednesday 27th November, 12pm (AEDT*)
AEDT* (Sydney time zone = 11 hours AHEAD of London = 18 hours AHEAD of Los Angeles – your time zone may be the day earlier than indicated)
 

Ideas for how to select which presentations to view:

• Listen to at least some of the keynote speakers, they are highly respected researchers and speakers – you will benefit from listening to any (and all) of them.
• Choose a presentation according to a topic, keyword or SDG (Sustainable Development Goal).
• Registered participants can join to live sessions (Yarning Discussions) between 25–28 November.
• Think about an issue you want to learn more about. Is there a presentation that might inform your understanding of or approach to that issue?
• Think about how presentations could help inform your practice, your approach to documentation, supporting children’s communication, or your service policies.
• Look for names you recognise and you want to hear more about what they are working on now.
• Look for research from a particular area or a particular country.
• Think about what you could learn by watching a presentation from outside your immediate area – whether you come education, nursing, speech pathology, physiotherapy, psychology, libraries, or another area – you will find the others’ perspectives fascinating and useful to your practice.
• Choose something you know nothing about but that seems interesting – you never know what you might learn and what new possibilities it opens!

Reflect
Ideas to prompt group discussion and personal reflection on the presentations:

• What new ideas did the presentation raise for you – about practice, theory or other approaches?
• How might you alter your practice based on what you have learned?
• What’s your one ‘gold nugget’ from this presentation? What difference could this make to you?
• What surprised you?
• What didn’t you understand? How could you find out more?
• What did you learn about that could inform interprofessional work – especially between educators and other professionals?
• What would you like to know more about? How could you follow up on that? Have a look at the websites of the presenters and any links that they provided.
• What ideas or approaches could be applied to your work as a team?
• What short-term goal/s could you develop arising from your learning from the presentation and conference as a whole?
• Watch bilingual presentations in both languages. Did you gain other perspectives from watching both?

Share
Share you experiences and learnings from ECV2024 with peers, colleagues, students and others in your network in person, online or connect on social media.
 

Certificates of participation will be available after the conference.
 

See you there.
It is going to be a great week.
 

ECV2024 Conference team

ECV2024 statistics update

ECV2024 statistics

• Registrations = 1290
• Countries/Regions = 55

Afghanistan, Australia, Bangladesh, Benin, Brazil, Bulgaria, Burundi, Canada, China, Colombia, Denmark, Ethiopia, Fiji, Finland, France, Germany, Ghana, Greece, Hong Kong (SAR China), Hungary, Iceland, India, Indonesia, Iran, Ireland, Israel, Jordan, Kosovo, Kuwait, Malaysia, Malta, Morocco, Namibia, Nepal, Netherlands, New Zealand, Nigeria, Norway, Pakistan, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Slovenia, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Uganda, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, USA, VietNam, Zambia

• CVENT: https://www.csu.edu.au/ecv2024
• ECV2024 website: https://earlychildhoodresearch.csu.domains/early-childhood-voices-conference-2024/
• Multilingual Children's Speech YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLRXcSAl_dA7arRMrE0qdxLuzGChY1LgY2

ECV2024 synchronous events - Launch, Yarning Circles and Workshop

The Early Childhood Voices 2024 Conference is designed to be an asynchronous conference so that anyone can attend regardless of the timezone they live in, and whether they have time during the day, or in the evening.

There are three events that  for conference participants to connect symchronously.

Launch

Conference launch including keynote speaker, Professor Tony Dreise
25/11/24, 10:30 am - 25/11/24, 12:00 pm

Six yarning circles

1. Communication and multilingual speech yarning circle - 25/11/24, 7:00 pm - 25/11/24, 8:00 pm
2. Families’ voices yarning circle - 26/11/24, 9:00 am - 26/11/24, 10:00 am
3. Interdisciplinary approaches to children’s rights and sustainable development outcomes yarning circle - 26/11/24, 5:00 pm - 26/11/24, 6:00 pm
4. Professionals’ voices yarning circle - 27/11/24, 9:00 am - 27/11/24, 10:00 am
5. Children’s voices - Listening to children in research yarning circle - 27/11/24, 5:00 pm - 27/11/24, 6:00 pm
6. Children's play, drawing and learning yarning circle - 28/11/24, 9:00 am - 28/11/24, 10:00 am 

Workshop

Understanding different communication methods - 27/11/24, 12:00 pm - 27/11/24, 1:00 pm

Thanks to Lysa Dealtry and the Yarning Circles Committee for organising this opportunity.

Multilingual children's speech development - Stream 2 of the Early Childhood Voices 2024 Conference (ECV2024)

The videos supporting the Oxford Handbook of Speech Development in Languages of the World will be launched at the Early Childhood Voices 2024 Conference (ECV2024) on Monday.

Here is the conference website: https://earlychildhoodresearch.csu.domains/early-childhood-voices-conference-2024/

ECV2024 conference registration: (free registration to attend the online conference)  https://cvent.csu.edu.au/event/0d591439-4c54-4f18-8620-1f37f00582f4/summary

The videos supporting our Oxford Handbook of Speech Development in Languages of the World are found in Stream 2

STREAM 2: Multilingual children's speech development
Presentations ECV2024-500 to ECV2024-575

• https://multilingual-childrens-speech-development.csu.domains/
• https://www.csu.edu.au/research/multilingual-speech/speech-acquisition/multilingual-childrens-speech-development

You can discover how children learn to speak more than 48 home languages by watching 75 presentations provided by international experts in each language. The experts explain where the language is spoken, the components of the language (vowels, consonants, tones), and the assessments and interventions available to support children learning to speak that language. Once you have listened to the presentations in English, you can listen to the same information presented in the language being spoken about. For example, you can hear how children learn to speak Kurdish in an English presentation and then listen again in Kurdish, or you can listen to a presentation about Jamaican Creole in English and in Jamaican Creole. Currently 27 of the 48 languages that have videos in both the language and English.

We hope you enjoy meeting the chapter authors and learning about multilingual children's speech development across the world.

Here is the presentation that outlines the focus of this stream of ECV2024:

ECV2024-500
Multilingual children’s speech development

Sharynne McLEOD, Charles Sturt University, Australia (smcleod@csu.edu.au)
Helen L. BLAKE, Charles Sturt University, Australia (heblake@csu.edu.au)

There is a long history of research about children’s speech development. While some languages have well established and easily accessible data, assessments, and methods regarding children’s speech development, research in other languages starts with the creation of culturally and linguistically appropriate assessment tools and methods. The research presented in Early Childhood Voices 2024 (ECV2024) Stream 2: Multilingual children's speech development and The Oxford Handbook of Speech Development in Languages of the World (McLeod, 2025) presents a paradigm shift in the world’s knowledge of children’s speech development. It provides a transformative solution for how disciplines can reduce disparities and overcome traditional English- and Western-centric biases. We present research from 172 international authors writing about 49 languages and 26 dialects across six languages (including knowledge not previously translated into English and from traditionally marginalized groups). We provide evidence of the importance of everyone’s right to communicate without distinction of language, the benefits of multilingualism and international collaborations to build diverse interdisciplinary knowledge. The curated data within the presentations and chapters enable identification of common and unique elements of children’s speech development across languages and dialects, assessments, interventions, and terminology. The presentations use a rights-based, transformative social justice approach to support communication specialists to make a difference in children’s lives across the world.

Key words: speech, multilingual, communication, language, children’s development, interdisciplinary, international communities, assessment, intervention

Book chapter
•    McLeod, S. (2025). Children’s speech development around the world: A transformative paradigm shift. In S. McLeod (Ed.). The Oxford handbook of speech development in languages of the world. Oxford University Press.

Presentation
•    McLeod, S. & Blake, H. L. (2024). Multilingual children’s speech development. Charles Sturt University, Australia. https://www.csu.edu.au/research/multilingual-speech/languages

This presentation relates to the following United Nations Sustainable Development Goals:
•    SDG 3: Good Health and Well-being
•    SDG 4: Quality Education
•    SDG 10: Reduced Inequality
•    SDG 17: Partnerships to Achieve the Goals

Preparing for ECV2024 next week

Welcome to Dr Carolyn Gregoric who has flown to Bathurst for ECV2024. It is wonderful to have you on campus. Thank you for your tireless efforts for ECV2024 and ECIR.

This afternoon we are all feeling quite exhausted preparing for ECV2024 next week due to some complexities in the background.

We really appreciated the joyful surprise unicorn outside of The Treehouse this evening. We had requested flowers - but Karl Shead went over and above and provided flowers,  bees, a lady beetle and a unicorn! It was also great to see that the popcorn machine had arrive and and to hear from Brendon and Kevin that the TV studio is ready.

THANK YOU

The TV studio is ready for the children's band at the ECV2024 launch on Monday

Sharynne with the unicorn outside of The Treehouse

Karl Shead, Carolyn Gregoric, Emily-Jane Woodhead

Advances in Communication and Swallowing now published by Sage

Advances in Communication and Swallowing has transitioned from its IOSPress website (https://www.iospress.com/catalog/journals/advances-in-communication-and-swallowing) to the new Sage website (https://journals.sagepub.com/home/cswb). I am on the editorial board.

Early Childhood Voices 2024 (ECV2024) - Three streams

Early Childhood Voices 2024 Conference (ECV2024)

https://earlychildhoodresearch.csu.domains/early-childhood-voices-conference-2024/

Register here – it’s free and asynchronous - https://cvent.csu.edu.au/event/0d591439-4c54-4f18-8620-1f37f00582f4/summary

ECV2024 showcases the work of four outstanding keynote presentations, oral presentations, and children's drawings across three streams.

STREAM 1: Early childhood voices: International interdisciplinary research
Presentations ECV2024-401 to ECV2024-472
https://earlychildhoodresearch.csu.domains/early-childhood-voices-conference-2024/

You can learn about international interdisciplinary research by watching over 70 peer-reviewed presentations from across the world.
 

STREAM 2: Multilingual children's speech development
Presentations ECV2024-500 to ECV2024-575

https://multilingual-childrens-speech-development.csu.domains/

https://www.csu.edu.au/research/multilingual-speech/speech-acquisition/multilingual-childrens-speech-development

You can discover how children learn to speak more than 45 home languages by watching over 70 presentations provided by international experts in each language. The experts explain where the language is spoken, the components of the language (vowels, consonants, tones), and the assessments and interventions available to support children learning to speak that language. Once you have listened to the presentations in English, you can listen to the same information presented in the language being spoken about. For example, you can hear how children learn to speak Kurdish in an English presentation and then listen again in Kurdish, or you can listen to a presentation about Jamaican Creole in English and in Jamaican Creole.
 

STREAM 3: Children draw playing global online gallery
https://earlychildhoodresearch.csu.domains/early-childhood-voices-conference-2024/children-draw-playing/
 

You can "listen" to children from across the world who were invited to “draw (or create) a picture of you playing”, then answer a few quick questions to describe their drawing.

More than 200 drawings, creations and photos from children across the world show us:

WHAT children do when they play
WHO children play with
WHERE children play
HOW children feel about playing
WHY children think playing is good for the world.

Gallery 1: 

Gallery 2: 

Gallery 3:

Our students are our future

Yesterday I had the priviledge of meeting two final year speech pathology students who are in the final week of their final placement. One more exam/assessment task to go, then they are speech pathologists. All the best Bridgette Hardman (UTS) and Wanting Lin (Celia) (UC). Thanks to Cathie Matthews and others like her who mentor students during their clinical placements.

Leadership and retention in early childhood education

Congratulations to Belinda Downey who has just had this paper published from her PhD: 

Downey, B., Letts, W., Gibbs, L., & McLeod, S. (2024). Leadership and retention in early childhood education. Australasian Journal of Early Childhood, 49(4), 343-357. https://doi.org/10.1177/18369391241286935 

Here is the abstract: 

Global early childhood education workforce shortages have highlighted the importance of recruitment and retention. The development of effective leadership has not been a retention policy focus even though effective leadership has been identified as an important driver for improving working conditions and supporting educator retention. The aim of this research was to investigate what factors affect retention focussing on retention challenges for leaders in an under researched context. Participants were 34 early childhood educators in the Northern Territory of Australia. A constructivist grounded theory methodology framed the research and the data analysis, and a constant comparative method was used to generate categories. The lack of learning on leadership, coupled with competing priorities, were identified as critical factors that contribute to increased attrition. However, informal mentoring was found to support both the positional and emerging leaders, increasing the probability of their retention regardless of their access to leadership development.

Collaboration with World Health Organization Sensory Functions, Disability & Rehabilitation (SDR) Unit in the Disability Programme

We have been invited to collaborate with the World Health Organization Sensory Functions, Disability & Rehabilitation (SDR) Unit in the Disability Programme https://www.who.int/teams/noncommunicable-diseases/sensory-functions-disability-and-rehabilitation/disability 

Together we are going “to build evidence on the experiences and perspectives of children and young people with disabilities on health and access to healthcare services”.

We will be working with Dr Mélanie Gréaux and Dr Kaloyan Kamenov from WHO who have co-authored this important paper:

Gréaux, M., Moro, M. F., Kamenov, K., Russell, A. M., Barrett, D., & Cieza, A. (2023). Health equity for persons with disabilities: A global scoping review on barriers and interventions in healthcare services. International Journal for Equity in Health, 22(1), 236. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12939-023-02035-w
 

The WHO Disability Programme has been learning from from adults with disabilities (including women and people in rural areas) as outlined in this video "Persons with disabilities share their experience of accessing health services"

https://www.who.int/teams/noncommunicable-diseases/sensory-functions-disability-and-rehabilitation/persons-with-disabilities-tell-their-stories#

The video concludes with 

"People like me... like me... like me... like me... need to be included in the system that decides on the policy matters over healthcare...
to ensure that can access the quality and inclusive health services that we deserve.
Leave no one behind.
Let's build together a disability inclusive health sector"

We look forward to expanding the world's knowledge about the experiences and perspectives of children and young people with disabilities.

Call for Papers - Child Language Teaching and Therapy Special Issue

Call for Papers - Child Language Teaching and Therapy Special Issue
https://journals.sagepub.com/home/CLT

Listening to children with diverse communication abilities

Editors: Professor Judy Clegg and Professor Victoria Joffe

With Guest Editors: Distinguished Professor Sharynne McLeod and Holly McAlister from Charles Sturt University, Australia

"Child Language Teaching and Therapy is an international peer reviewed journal which aims to be the leading inter-disciplinary journal in the field of intervention and management of children’s speech, language, and communication needs. The journal publishes original research and review articles of high practical relevance, and which emphasise inter-disciplinary collaboration between education and therapies. The readership of the journal consists of academics and practitioners across the disciplines of education, speech and language therapy, psychology, and linguistics."

Child Language Teaching and Therapy is inviting authors to submit to a special issue titled: Listening to children with diverse communication abilities. This special issue supports children’s communication rights and expands on the Child Language Teaching and Therapy summer lecture titled “Do we really listen to children?” presented by Distinguished Professor Sharynne McLeod https://www.csu.edu.au/research/childrens-voices-centre.

You can watch the Child Language Teaching and Therapy summer lecture here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iajSaUyEuOw

Here is the abstract from the summer lecture:

Communication is a human right for all; and ALL includes children with speech, language, and communication needs, including those who speak/sign non-dominant languages (McLeod, 2018). Aligning with the Convention on the Rights of the Child (United Nations, 1989) we have given attention to the “voice” of children. For example, we have creatively engaged in child-friendly arts-based methods to provide children with the “right to freedom of expression… regardless of frontiers” as outlined in Article 13. However, do we REALLY listen to children? As we become more accustomed to including children’s perspectives in our professional practices, it is time to reflect on whether some of our inclusion of children’s voices could be perceived as “tokenistic” (Hart, 1992). As communication specialists, we have the power to support children’s voice and to assist others to listen. How can we mature in our practices to enhance children’s participation within democratic processes in their families, schools, communities, and society?

For this special issue, the editors invite papers that explore:

• Innovations in the identification and support of children and young people with speech, language and communication needs (SLCN) as a result of listening to and learning from children and young people.
• Methods to support children’s voice and to assist others to listen by considering space, voice, audience, and influence (see Lundy, 2007).
• Moving beyond tokenistic inclusion to supporting children’s engagement in research processes where children are lead researchers, or collaborators and co-designers of the research (see Hart, 1992; 2008; Shier, 2019).
• Diverse languages, cultures, modes of communication (sign language, AAC), ages (including infants and toddlers), geographies, abilities, and types of speech, language, and communication needs (SLCN). 

Theoretical, methodological, systematic review and empirical papers are all invited for consideration across the disciplines of education, speech and language therapy, psychology, and linguistics, as well as interdisciplinary and international contributions. Papers must be supported by new evidence and/or evidence-based literature. Papers that include research data must include a statement about ethical approval (including information about parent/guardian consent and child assent). Papers are encouraged from people who live and work in Majority World countries (including low and middle-income countries and small island states) and people who have lived experience of communication and / or swallowing disability.

We aim to publish this special issue of Child Language Teaching and Therapy in early 2026.

Submissions

To be considered for publication, papers must be received using the online submission system by Friday 18th April 2025 (early submissions are encouraged). Please prepare and submit manuscripts according to the guidelines available at https://journals.sagepub.com/author-instructions/CLT. Papers should be between 5,000 and 8,000 words, including all elements (title page, abstract, notes, references, tables, biographical statement, etc.). Papers in excess of 8,000 words will not be sent for review. When submitting your paper, please indicate that the paper is to be considered for the special issue. The manuscript should be submitted to https://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/cltt. All papers will receive a double-blind review, following the usual review process and criteria of Child Language Teaching and Therapy. The special issue is scheduled for publication in early 2026. Accepted papers will be published online first before the issue. Any papers accepted for publication but not included in the special issue due to space constraints will be published later in a regular issue. For further information, please contact the Editors, Judy Clegg (j.clegg@sheffield.ac.uk), Vicky Joffe (v.joffe@essex.ac.uk) and Guest Editors Sharynne McLeod (smcleod@csu.edu.au) and Holly McAlister (hmcalister@csu.edu.au).

References

• Hart, R. A. (1992). Children’s participation: From tokenism to citizenship. United Nations Children’s Fund International Child Development Centre.
• Hart, R. A. (2008). Stepping back from ‘the ladder’: Reflections on a model of participatory work with children. In A. Reid, B. B. Jensen, J. Nikel, & V. Simovska (Eds.), Participation and learning: Perspectives on education and the environment, health and sustainability (pp. 19-31). Springer. https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-1-4020-6416-6
• Lundy, L. (2007). ‘Voice’ is not enough: Conceptualising Article 12 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. British Education Research Journal, 33, 927–942. https://doi.org/10.1080/01411920701657033
• 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
• 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. (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
• 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
• Shier, H. (2019). An analytical tool to help researchers develop partnerships with children and adolescents. In I. Berson, M. Berson, & C. Gray (Eds.), Participatory methodologies to elevate children’s voice and agency (pp. 295–315). Information Age Publishing.
• United Nations (1989). Convention on the rights of the child. https://www.unicef.org/crc/

Nord/ CSU Early Childhood Education Group

Tonight we had a meeting with the Nord/Charles Sturt University Early Childhood Education Group working towards a memorandum of understanding between the universities. 

There are three sub-groups:

• Children's Voices (Leads: Elisabeth Bjornestad)
  
• Online Learning for Early Childhood Education/ITE and Med (Lead: Leanne Gibbs/Martin Per Samuelsson)
• Quality Assurance, Regulation and Qualifications (Leads: Kelly Tribolet/Belinda Downey)

The Children's Voices group shared the following projects and would like to have a seminar where people share their work

• Nord University is working with Malta on a project about children's voices + a philosophical approach regarding children's hut building in Sweden/Norway and New Zealand.
  
• CSU is running the Early Childhood Voices Conference (ECV2024) next week and are working with the World Health Organization on a project about children's voices. 

Children's Voices Group

 

Preparing for the ECV2024 conference launch

This afternoon we did a pre-production walk through of the Charles Sturt University television studio and The Treehouse in preparation for the Early Childhood Voices 2024 (ECV2024) conference next Monday.

Thanks to:

• Kevin Ng, Karl Shead and Simon Fraser (DLT) - Communications, CSU
  
• Brendon McLeod - Assumption School Band conductor

SACHL - Phase 2 information session 2

Today we hosted another information session about Phase 2 of the Speech Assessment of Children’s Home Languages (SACHL, Margetson & McLeod, 2025).

https://www.csu.edu.au/research/multilingual-speech/speech-assessments/sachl

We met with another group of very enthusiastic participants who are keen to collaborate with us to develop resources for multilingual children and families across the world.

We also showed the attendees the Multilingual Children’s Speech website - 1000+ free resources in 100+ languages - https://www.csu.edu.au/research/multilingual-speech/home

One of the attendees said "Languages are a very big part of my identity" 

ECV2024 - CVent and website preparation

The ECV2024 conference is happening next week. We are working around the clock.

Prof Sharynne McLeod, Dr Carolyn Gregoric, Patrick McKenzie, Michelle Egan, Annette Tanish, Dr Belinda Downey, Janelle Egan, Connor Crawford

DTTC research - preparing for conference presentations

This morning our research team met as we finalise the analysis and prepare to present the data at:

• American Speech-Language-Hearing Association convention (Seattle, WA, USA)
• Early Childhood Voices Conference (ECV2024) (online)

Dr Anna Cronin, Prof Sharynne McLeod, Dr Marie Ireland, A/Prof Jane McCormack

SACHL - Phase 2 information session 1

The first SACHL information session for people who want to participate with us in Phase 2 was held tonight. 

 It was great to see how many people came along for a session that was held at 8-9pm on a Monday evening!

We provided the first look at the data from Phase 1 - the need for this tool is compelling

We also showed the attendees the Multilingual Children’s Speech website - 1000+ free resources in 100+ languages - https://www.csu.edu.au/research/multilingual-speech/home