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
