Carolyn Gregoric shared this today from the CSU Research workshop:

Impact (or benefit) is defined as the “demonstrable contribution that research makes…beyond contributions to academia”. Impact is typically categorised, and researchers are often asked to address one or more impact categories in funding applications. Widely recognised impact categories include economic, societal, cultural, environmental, public policy, knowledge, and health, with others identified by organisations in accordance with their specific priorities/goals.  Translating academic research to impact/s is important because it:
·         Optimises the use of public funds that support most research activities.
·         Is rewarding and beneficial for individual researchers.
·         Builds institutional profiles, reputations, rankings and income.

Children's Voices Centre - Strategic Planning Week

This week we are spending three days in a strategic planing meeting for the Children's Voices Centre focusing on research with, for, and about children.

Monday: Kathy, Tamara, Sharynne 

We began with an acknowledgment of country from Kathy's children on Darkinjung Country thinking of the green and blue of the land and the sky. At the end of the day six kangaroos on Wiradjuri Country bounded past the window of The Treehouse! 

We focused on two drivers for our research:

1. Identifying gaps where children's voices are absent
2. Working with CVC affiliates to grow research, and create opportunities for collaboration, mentoring, and learning together  

We discussed past, current and future research projects, publications (books, special issues), and grants. 

Children's Voices 

Throughout the day we were able to chat with children presenting their vision for the world. They exhorted us to "be more careful with small things" and discussed topics such as homelessness, biodiversity, technology (AI, holograms etc.), and respecting Aboriginal people. Dreams for the future included "Everyone is kind. You can't get sick or hurt. Magic is real. If you get lost you can teleport to your family. You can eat paper." They outlined examples where "the progress we have made throughout history is astonishing" (clean water, roads, respect for people), giving us hope for future progress. 

The children also gave us great ideas for names for sections of The Treehouse that are currently unnamed (we currently have The Billabong, The Nest, The Beehive, The Flowerpatch). Ideas included The Canopy. The Saplings. We need more tadpoles.

Ideas for The Treehouse from children with Kathy, Sharynne and Tamara listening

CSU Advancement

We met with Carly Evans and Justin Williams from CSU Advancement who are profiling the Children's Voices Centre and garnering support for our research and vision. They proposed a high profile event called UNHEARD with key speakers from the CSU alumni. They also identified a number of funding possibilities and key people to connect with.

Justin Williams, Sharynne, Tamara, Kathy, Carly Evans

Tuesday: Lorraine, Carolyn, Tamara, Kathy, Sharynne 

Our whole CVC staff group went through the 12 key performance indicators set for the CVC in our Business Plan and worked through our gains over the past 6 months and what we need to do in the next six months. 

Lorraine, Tamara, Sharynne, Kathy and Carolyn

The following projects are currently underway at The Children's Voices Centre for CVC affiliates and adjuncts to collaborate as editors, authors, reviewers, data analysts, etc.:

• BOOK: The Oxford Handbook of Speech Development in Languages of the World (Editor: Sharynne  McLeod. Publisher: Oxford University Press). Nine CVC affiliates are chapter authors on 11 chapters.
• BOOK: Multilingual Aspects of Children's Speech Sounds (Editors: Helen L. Blake, Sharynne McLeod, Kate Margetson & Brian Goldstein. Publisher: Multilingual Matters)
• BOOK: Early Childhood Educators' Emotional Labour (Editors: Tamara Cumming, Mari Saha. Publisher: Routledge)
• SPECIAL ISSUE: Child Language Teaching and Therapy (Q1) (Editors: Sharynne McLeod and Holly McAlister)
• SPECIAL ISSUE: Language, Speech, and Hearing Services in Schools (Q1) (Editors: Sharynne  McLeod, Kathy Cologon, Helen L. Blake)
• RESEARCH PROJECT: Children Draw Talking
• RESEARCH PROJECT: Children Draw Playing
• RESEARCH PROJECT: Children Draw Health
• RESEARCH PROJECT: Children's Insights into the Sustainable Development Goals: Team: Carolyn Gregoric, Sharynne McLeod, Belinda Downey 
• RESEARCH PROJECT: Children's Participation in Research: Carolyn Gregoric  
• RESEARCH PROJECT: Scoping Review: Children's Experiences of Healthcare. Lead: Kate Freire

We are building The Treehouse as the physical centre of the Children's Voices Centre.

We have a program of visiting scholars where two scholars come and collaborate with our affiliates. Here are our 2025 scholars:

• Dr Red Ruby Scarlett
• Prof Lynn Williams

We have had a number of international PhD students visit, and look forward to welcoming more:

• Ida Wiik Sætherskar, Nord University, Norway 
• Lucy Rogers, City University London, UK funded by the Wellcome Trust
• Camilla Porsanger

 

Creation of the Intelligibility in Context Scale - Child

This morning Jane McCormack and I met - and created a child version of the Intelligibility in Context Scale by considering all of the work we have done together on the ICS, SPAA-C, Children Draw Talking, and other research listening to children. We will pilot it before using it in research. We have been discussing this for a long time - but this morning we worked out exactly what it should look like :)

Parent-reported speech and language in early childhood is an early indicator of Indigenous Australian children's literacy and numeracy outcomes

The following important article has just been published: 

McLeod, S., Harrison, L. J., McMahon, C., Wang, C., & Evans, J. R. (2025). Parent-reported speech and language in early childhood is an early indicator of Indigenous Australian children's literacy and numeracy outcomes. Language, Speech, and Hearing Services in Schools, 56(3), 730-746. https://doi.org/10.1044/2025_LSHSS-23-00200 

Here is the abstract 

Purpose:
The aim of this study was to longitudinally investigate parent-reported children's speech and language in early childhood as an early indicator of Indigenous Australians' school-age educational outcomes.
Method:
Participants were 1,534 children from the Longitudinal Study of Indigenous Children (LSIC) whose parents reported on expressive and receptive speech and language concern (SLC) at 3–5 years using the Parents' Evaluation of Developmental Status. A total of 467 children (30.4%) were identified as having SLC, of whom 308 had only expressive SLC, 65 had only receptive SLC, and 81 had both expressive and receptive SLC. Educational outcomes included (a) National Assessment Program–Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN) tests (Grade 3, 8–9 years), (b) teacher-reported literacy and numeracy on the Academic Rating Scale (ARS; 8–9, 9–10 years), and (c) research officer–administered Progressive Achievement Tests in Reading (PAT-Reading; 6–7, 7–8, 8–9, 9–10 years) and Progressive Achievement Tests in Mathematics (PAT-Maths; 8–9, 9–10 years).
Results:
After controlling for covariates (child age, sex, having hearing problems, having a disability, speaking an Indigenous language, parent education, family life events, community socioeconomic status, and remoteness), SLC was associated with significantly lower scores on all NAPLAN subtests (Reading, Writing, Spelling, Grammar, Numeracy), teacher-rated ARS for Language and Literacy (9–10 years), and PAT-Reading (6–7 years) and PAT-Maths (9–10 years). Subgroup comparisons indicated that children with both expressive and receptive SLC had the poorest outcomes on NAPLAN and ARS subtests.
Conclusion:
Parental reporting of Indigenous Australian children's SLC in early childhood is an important early indicator of education outcomes at school, indicating the importance of families throughout a child's trajectory of learning and development.

Koffee with Kathy

A/Prof Kathy Cologon is having Koffee with Kathy sessions to meet each of the Children's Voices Centre affiliates in her role as Associate Director. This morning I had a wonderful Koffee with Kathy session where we were able to update one another about all the work we have been doing for the CVC.

 

 

Working on the second edition of Children's Speech

This evening Prof Elise Baker and I continued our work on the second edition of our book Children's Speech. This edition will be published by Oxford University Press. So much has happened since the first edition was published in 2017 - there is a lot to update.

Children Draw Playing data analysis

At the Children's Voices Centre we have a number of research opportunities where CVC affiliates to collaborate. Dr Carolyn Gregoric is leading the analysis of the Children Draw Playing data presented at the ECV2024 conference and available online in the Children Draw Playing Global Online Galleries:  https://earlychildhoodresearch.csu.domains/early-childhood-voices-conference-2024/children-draw-playing/

We have four teams who are spending 20-30 minutes per drawing to answer 60+ questions to create the data for analysis. Today our team worked for 1.5 hours and analysed three drawings from the Mongolian dataset. We had rich discussions and were impressed by what the children could convey in their drawings.

Congratulations to Belinda Downey and her team (Mehdi, Arifa, Van and Katrina G) who have already completed their analyses.

Happy Foundation Day Charles Sturt University

Today was Charles Sturt University's Foundation Day. Each year staff are invited to come together for coffee and cupcakes. It is a great time to chat with key people

Distinguished Professor Sharynne  McLeod, Professor Renée Leon (Vice Chancellor), Bruce Andrews (CSU Media), Professor Zahid Islam, (Associate Dean (Research), Faculty of Business, Justice & Behavioural Sciences), and Dr Sharon Schoenmaker (Chief of Staff, Office of the Vice-Chancellor)

Orange cupcakes

Congratulations to Cathie Matthews - nearly finished

This morning Cathie Matthews and I discussed her examiners' feedback for her Masters of Philosophy. She is close to finalising her thesis for resubmission. Congratulations Cathie.

 

Conversations with Prof Lynn Williams

This morning I enjoyed meeting with Prof Lynn Williams from East Tennessee State University (ETSU). She introduced me to her intern, Anna Hill, who will be applying for grad school soon. Anna has been working with Lynn on some of our current research projects.

We also discussed Lynn's visit to Charles Sturt University later this year. It will be wonderful to welcome Lynn back to Bathurst after she was here in 2007. 

Asia Pacific Hub for the Community-Based Global Learning Collaborative

Today Charles Sturt University launched the Asia Pacific Hub for the Community-Based Global Learning Collaborative. 

 

SACHL - creation of an online course

We are working with Adam Lavelle from CSU to create an online course for the Speech Assessment of Children's Home Language(s) (SACHL)

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

Today we spent time focusing on partners to head towards the SPRINT process in August.

 

Sustainable Development Goals - Speech Pathology Australia podcast

Sustainable Development Goals - Speech Pathology Australia podcast

The Speech Pathology Australia Sustainable Development Goals podcast has been released: https://soundcloud.com/speechpathologyaustralia/rebroadcast-un-sustainable-development-goals-s7e19?si=cee835ba2d994b928d6381f9823712b8&utm_source=clipboard&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=social_sharing 

Resources:

• IJSLP Issue on Communication, Swallowing, and the Sustainable Development Goals (Open-Access): https://www.tandfonline.com/toc/iasl20/25/1  
• SPA introduction to the special issue of the IJSLP: https://www.speechpathologyaustralia.org.au/SPAweb/whats_on/Speak_Up_for_Communication_Rights/Special_edition__Communication_Swallowing/SPAweb/What_s_On/Speak_Up_for_Communication_Rights/Table_of_contents_Swallowing.aspx?hkey=4159a312-eca2-4070-88cc-ec4fc98e2f4e  
• United Nations Sustainable Development Goals: https://sdgs.un.org/goals  

Children's perspectives of health

I have had a wonderful week on leave with my young friends (aka members of our Australian advisory panel). As well as exploring the beach and playing games,  one of our activities this week has been to complete the Children Draw Health activity for the Children's Voices Centre.

The children created pictures that answered the following questions:

1. “What makes you healthy?”
2. “Who helps you be healthy?”
3. “Where do you go to get healthier?”
4. “What would your ideal hospital or health service look like?

Submissions and details here:  https://csu.submittable.com/submit/b5678c57-814b-493e-8579-cc4ddc2df88c/children-draw-health 

Finalising our project with OAMS

After 18 months our research project with OAMS has ended. This week we said farewell to Emily-Jane Woodhead as our amazing research assistant (0.4FTE) and wrapped up our research.

 Throughout the project we purchased books and toys to use with the children during the research. Now we are able to donate them to OAMS for future children and families to use them. The books were donated to four Little Libraries as well as to some of the elders and families who participated. 

The toys were donated to the Allied Health Assistant (Katrina) and the Early Years Program team. The maps were donated to sit above each of the Little Libraries as well as to one of the elders whose idea it was to add them to the Little Library display.

 

 

Charles Sturt Foundation profile of the Children's Voices Centre

This year, the Charles Sturt Foundation are profiling the Children's Voices Centre as a focus for philanthropic donations to advance research and deliver meaningful change across our communities. Page 27-28 of the 2024 Donor Impact Report provides details: https://issuu.com/csu4/docs/2024_donor_impact_report_-_charles_sturt_foundatio

Recently, the Children's Voices Centre received a $30K donation to support the development of The Treehouse as the site for the Children's Voices Centre. Justin Williams from CSU Advancement was instrumental in coordinating this. We are extremely grateful for this generous donation that has enabled us to make the building (1451 on the Bathurst campus) safe and fun for children, families, staff and visitors to the Children's Voices Centre. 

 

Building The Treehouse for the Children's Voices Centre

We are now up to the fun part of building The Treehouse. The rug and lounge have arrived for our Billabong room.

Sarah's family data collection is finishing this week

Sarah Bartlett has been working hard running Hanen language groups with three groups of children and families in Sydney and the Central West. This week the data collection finishes. She has worked so well with the families - and it was a pleasure to discuss their gains during her PhD meeting today.

Welcome A/Prof Kathy Cologon as Associate Director, Children's Voices Centre

The day finally has arrived! We are so excited to welcome A/Prof Kathy Cologon as Associate Director and our colleague in the Children’s Voices Centre. We  look forward to all of the wonderful things we will do together to make a difference in children’s lives around the world. Welcome!

Sharynne, Kathy, Tamara and Lorraine at The Treehouse

The billabong rug arrived while Kathy was visiting The Treehouse this week

Kate Margetson concludes her postdoc (in Greece)

Kate Margetson has worked with me 2 days a week for 18 months on her postdoc - which concludes now. Her postdoc was funded by a Commonwealth grant to the Rural Health Research Institute.

It has been a VERY productive time focusing on supporting speech-language pathologists to work with multilingual children in unfamiliar languages.

The end of Kate's postdoc coincided with the International Clinical Phonetics and Linguistics Association (ICPLA) conference in Patras, Greece. Kate presented two papers from her PhD and postdoc and had so many opportunities to network and plan the next steps of her research journey. 

It has been such a privilege to work with Kate and learn from her. I am glad she has a continuing position as a lecturer in the speech pathology course at Charles Sturt University so that we can continue to collaborate as colleagues.

Kate presenting work from her postdoc at ICPLA

Kate and Sharynne in Corinth on the way home from ICPLA

Helen Blake, Sharynne  and Kate Margetson at the ICPLA conference dinner

Kate Margetson discussed the SACHL with the President of the International Phonetics Association (IPA)

PhD meeting with Anneik van Doornik

While in Patras at the ICPLA conference, I was able to have a PhD meeting with Anneik van Doornik. Anniek is studying through Utrecht University, and I am her co-supervisor. She had done a huge amount of work - and will finish soon. Her presentation at ICPLA provided an excellent summary of her work. Here are her publications so far:

• Van Doornik, A., Gerrits, E., McLeod, S., & Terband, H. (2018). Impact of communication partner familiarity and speech accuracy on parents’ ratings of their child for the Intelligibility in Context Scale: Dutch. International Journal of Speech-Language Pathology, 20(3), 350–360. https://doi.org/10.1080/17549507.2018.1472808
• van Doornik, A., Welbie, M., McLeod, S., Gerrits, E., & Terband, H. (2025). Speech and language therapists' insights into severity of speech sound disorders in children for developing the speech sound disorder severity construct. International Journal of Language & Communication Disorders, 60(3), e70022. https://doi.org/10.1111/1460-6984.70022 

Launch of the Oxford Handbook of Speech Development in Languages of the World

The Oxford Handbook of Speech Development in Languages of the World edited by Charles Sturt University Distinguished Professor Sharynne McLeod presents a transformative approach to overcome traditional English- and Western-centric biases by respecting and acknowledging longstanding traditions of research, theories, and knowledge from a wide range of countries and cultures – including knowledge not previously translated into English. Languages spoken by First Nations people and traditionally marginalized groups are given equivalent status to majority languages, and the language maps, resources, and pronunciation guides have been created using a rights-based, social justice approach, acknowledging the impact of colonization. 

This remarkable book was written by 173 authors from across the globe. It contains 1008 pages and 80 chapters covering 49 languages and 27 dialects with companion audio recordings of children and adults. A Charles Sturt YouTube channel presents a free summary of each chapter in English and the target language (https://www.csu.edu.au/research/multilingual-speech/speech-acquisition/multilingual-childrens-speech-development). 

The Handbook was launched at the International Clinical Phonetics and Linguistics Association (ICPLA) conference in Patras, Greece on Thursday 26th June 2025. The CSU authors in the book are: Prof Sharynne McLeod , Dr Helen L. Blake, Dr Suzanne C. Hopf, A/Prof Sarah Verdon, Dr Kate Margetson, Holly McAlister. CSU Adjunct  staff authors are: A/Prof Kate Crowe, Dr Van H. Tran, A/Prof Ben Pham.

This volume presents a paradigm shift in the world’s knowledge about children’s speech development. Each of the chapters follows the same structure, facilitating comparison across languages and dialects. Researchers and students can identify relationships between common and unique elements of children’s speech to develop new theories and enhance understanding. Crucially, the curated data in the chapters can be used by communication specialists to collaborate with families and communities, in order to support children’s home language maintenance and speech development. 

More information: https://global.oup.com/academic/product/the-oxford-handbook-of-speech-development-in-languages-of-the-world-9780192868862
 

Chapter authors presenting in our 3-hour seminar based on the book's content

No one wanted to "eat the children" until we asked some children who were attending with their parents for permission!

International Clinical Phonetics and Linguistics Association (ICPLA) 20th conference, Patras, Greece

This week the 20th conference of the International Clinical Phonetics and Linguistics Association (ICPLA) is held from the 24th to 27th of June 2025 at the University of Patras, Conference and Cultural Centre, Greece, hosted by Dr Eleftheria Geronikou https://logoth.upatras.gr/en/icpla2025/

There are four of us representing Charles Sturt University: Dr Helen L. Blake, Dr Suzanne Hopf and Dr Kate Margetson - everyone has multiple roles during the conference. Here are the presentations I am involved in:

1.  McLeod, S. & Blake, H. L. (2025, June). Children’s speech development around the world: A transformative paradigm shift. [3-hour symposium presentation]. International Clinical Phonetics and Linguistics Association Conference, Patras, Greece.
2. Blake, H. L. & McLeod, S. (2025, June). Children’s speech development around the world in 170+ recordings. [Oral presentation]. International Clinical Phonetics and Linguistics Association Conference, Patras, Greece.
3. Margetson, K. & McLeod, S. (2025, June). Developing a clinical protocol for assessing speech in languages that you do not speak: The Speech Assessment of Children’s Home Language(s) (SACHL). [Oral presentation]. International Clinical Phonetics and Linguistics Association Conference, Patras, Greece.
4. Davies, A., Wren, Y., & McLeod, S. (2025, June). Understanding intelligibility in children born with cleft lip and/or palate: Findings from the Cleft Collective Cohort Study. [Oral presentation]. International Clinical Phonetics and Linguistics Association Conference, Patras, Greece.

I am the President of ICPLA so have a busy week of duties. 

• Tuesday - I am chairing the International Expert Panel on Multilingual Children's Speech and opening the conference
• Wednesday - I am chairing sessions, co-presenting a paper with Kate Margetson and Yvonne Wren, and I am receiving an honorary doctorate from the University of Patras.
• Thursday -  I am launching The Oxford Handbook of Speech Development in Languages of the World, co-chairing and presenting in a session with 16 presentations from around the world on multilingual children's speech (1:30-6:15pm), chairing the business meeting, and attending the conference dinner
• Friday -  I am co-presenting a paper with Helen Blake, presenting at the awards ceremony and farewell ceremony.

Sharynne  with conference chair Eleftheria Geronikou

CSU attendees: Dr Kate Margetson, Dr Helen L. Blake, Dr Suzanne Hopf, Prof Sharynne McLeod

Sharynne  opening the conference as ICPLA President

Sharynne with ICPLA founders: Martin J. Ball and Nicole Muller

Keynote speaker: George

Kate and Karla with a conference fan and hat to keep us cool since it was 40oC on one of the days!

Sharynne with Annette Fox-Boyer's current and ex-PhD students from Germany

Presidents

HDR students from Edinburgh and Sydney

Helen Blake presenting one of our papers

Conference dinner with keynote speaker Frank Guenther

Kristian Kristofferson (Norway) at the poster session

ICPLA colleagues at the conference dinner

Colleagures from Poland: Agetha and Paulina

ICPLA conference organising committee and students

Last day: Helen, Kate, Sharynne  and Anniek

Spanish/USA contingent: Chelsea Sommer, Angela, Tania Flores