This morning our research team met at the Orange Community Health Centre to plan our speech screening days in April that will be part of our research with Indigenous children. What an informative and useful planning session.
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| Sharynne, Susan Smith, Sarah Bartlett, Katrina, Emily-Jane Woodhead |
The following paper has been accepted for publication:
McLeod, S., Harrison, L. J., McMahon, C., Wang, C., & Evans, J. R. (2025, in press March 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.
Here is a short summary:
This longitudinal study of 1,534 Indigenous Australian children demonstrated that parent report of speech and language concern in early childhood is an important early indicator of education outcomes at school. Families are important knowledge holders throughout a child’s trajectory of learning and development.
Here is the abstract
Purpose: 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 (PEDS). 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), (c) research officer-administered Progressive Achievement Tests (PAT)-Reading (6–7, 7–8, 8–9, 9–10 years) and 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 socio-economic status, and remoteness), SLC was associated with significantly lower scores on all NAPLAN subtests (reading, writing, spelling, grammar, numeracy); teacher-rated ARS: Language and Literacy (9–10 years); and PAT: Reading (6–7 years) and Maths (9–10 years). Sub-group 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 speech and language concern 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.
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| Sharynne, Jane McCormack, Anna Cronin |
We were very pleased to receive approval from the CSU Human Research Ethics Committee today for our research with Catholic Education Tasmania. Now we can begin. Hooray!
Our manuscript titled "Methods of Diagnosing Speech Sound Disorders in Multilingual Children" has just been accepted for publication in the "Changemaker" Special Forum for the Q1 journal Language, Speech, and Hearing Services in Schools. It came about because our session at the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association convention in 2024 was one of the few that was awarded "changemaker" status - so we were invited to write up our submission. Thanks to Karla and Kate for leading this important paper. Here is the reference and abstract:
Washington, K. N., Crowe, K., McLeod, S., Margetson, K., Bazzocchi, N. B. M., Kokotek, L. E., van der Straten Waillet, P., Másdóttir, T., & Volhardt M. D. S., (2025, in press). Methods of diagnosing speech sound disorders in multilingual children. Language, Speech, and Hearing Services in Schools.
Purpose: Identification of speech sound disorder (SSD) in children who are multilingual is challenging for many speech-language pathologists (SLPs). This may be due to a lack of clinical resources to accurately identify SSD in multilingual children as easily as for monolingual children. The purpose of this paper is to describe features of multilingual speech acquisition, identify evidence-based resources for the differential diagnosis of SSD in speakers of under-studied language paradigms, and to demonstrate how culturally responsive practices can be achieved in different linguistic contexts.
Method: Examples of different approaches used to inform accurate diagnosis of SSD in 2- to 8-year-old multilingual children are described. The approaches used included: (a) considering adult speech models, (b) completing validation studies, and (c) streamlining evidence-informed techniques. These methods were applied across four different language paradigms in countries within the Global North and Global South (e.g., Jamaican Creole-English, Jamaica; Vietnamese-English, Australia; French and additional languages, Belgium; Icelandic-Polish, Iceland). The culturally responsive nature of approaches in each cultural/linguistic setting is highlighted as well as the broader applicability of these approaches.
Results: Findings related to dialect specific features, successful validation of tools to describe functional speech intelligibility and production accuracy, and the utility of different techniques applied in the diagnosis of SSD are outlined.
Conclusions: Culturally responsive methods offer a useful framework for guiding SLPs’ diagnostic practices. However, successful application of these practices is best operationalized at a local level in response to the linguistic, cultural, and geographic context.
Our editorial team met again today to discuss the publishers' response to our submission. We have a good plan.
It feels like Christmas! Boxes of children's books written by Indigenous authors have arrived. We will cover them, add identification stickers, and prepare them to distribute to the four Little Libraries at the Orange Aboriginal Medical Service. What a wonderful research project.
Here is the message we have shared with CSU staff and students
Dear CSU Colleagues
The Children’s Voices Centre has begun.
https://www.csu.edu.au/research/childrens-voices-centre/home
We
invite everyone from CSU who undertakes research with children, for
children, and about children to register to be affiliated with the
Children’s Voices Centre: https://forms.office.com/r/Rqz427LtUH. CSU staff, HDR students, and CSU adjuncts are welcome to register.
We are very happy to come and talk to your Faculty, School, or group about Children’s Voices. Contact us at CVC@csu.edu.au
The
Children’s Voices Centre (CVC) is a beacon of innovation and
inclusivity, empowering ALL children to communicate, collaborate, and
create a better future for themselves and the world. Our research
focusses on:
• Children, families, and communities, and
• Workforce and policy.
We
amplify children’s voices and champion children’s communication,
learning, health, and development. We conduct world-leading,
transformative interdisciplinary research with global reach emphasising
inclusivity, diversity, social justice, equity, capacity building, and
innovation.
Our research focusses on the following themes:
• Children’s voices
• Children’s health
• Children’s activities
• Early childhood education and workforce needs
• Multilingual children’s speech
• Children with speech, language, and communication needs
• [We welcome conversations about new areas of research focus]
We collaborate with:
• People: children, families, communities, practitioners, professionals.
•
Disciplines: education (early childhood, primary, inclusive education),
allied health (speech-language pathology, physiotherapy, occupational
therapy, psychology, social work, paramedicine), nursing,
communications, media, data science, and more
• Organisations:
government departments, universities, international and national
organisations including the World Health Organization and the United
Nations.
• Settings: homes, early childhood education and care
centres, schools, health and disability services, community settings,
businesses, civic settings, leisure and recreation settings.
The
United Nations’ Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the Convention
on the Rights of the Child guides our work to ensure children's voices
are heard by those responsible for building an inclusive world for
everyone.
Here are some of the opportunities in 2025 for capacity
building and collaborations available to affiliates of the Children’s
Voices Centre
1. World Health Organization collaboration about children’s perspectives of health and access to healthcare services
2. Children Draw Playing data analysis
3. Publication opportunities
• Special issue: Child Language Teaching and Therapy (Q1)
• Book: Multilingual Aspects of Children’s Speech Sounds
• Book: Early Childhood Voices: Children, families, professionals (2nd ed.)
4. Visiting scholars (e.g., arts-based research with children)
5. Research workshops
• Research wellness retreat
• CVs and track records
• Grant writing
6. Regular research presentations
7. Preparation for Early Childhood Voices Conference 2026 (ECV2026)
Here is a presentation about the work of the Children’s Voices Centre:
CVC-Roadshow.mp4
https://csuprod-my.sharepoint.com/personal/pmckenzie_csu_edu_au/_layouts/15/stream.aspx?id=%2Fpersonal%2Fpmckenzie%5Fcsu%5Fedu%5Fau%2FDocuments%2FShared%2FCVC%2DRoadshow%2Emp4&
We welcome you to join the Children’s Voices Centre.
It is week 1 of the academic calendar for Charles Sturt University. Today we had the opportunity to share the vision of the Children's Voices Centre with:
We also received this email this morning: "I am pleased to say that the occupation and use of Bathurst building 1451 by the Children’s Voices Centre is endorsed by Campus and Space Planning". Hooray - The Treehouse is ours!
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| Sharynne, Matt Winslade (ADR FOAE), Tamara Cumming |
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| Brandon Schranzer (DFM), Sharynne, Therese King (DFM), Tamara Cumming |
This week was orientation week for new students at Charles Sturt University. Emily-Jane Woodhead and I enjoyed meeting the students, staff, and vendors - including Max and Damien from UN Youth
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| We learned a lot from Max and Damien at UN Youth |
Today Dr Kate Margetson and I met with the CSU team led by Nik Ichalkaranje to start the process of the development of a micro-credential and short course for the SACHL
https://www.csu.edu.au/division/learning-teaching/microcredentials-and-short-courses
https://www.csu.edu.au/division/learning-teaching/microcredentials-and-short-courses/design-process
Other members of the team who were present were Amanda Marks, Amber Marks, Jessica Wilkinson, and Diarmuid Kelly.
We are excited about this opportunity
Congratulations Cathie Matthews who submitted her Masters of Philosophy thesis today. Her thesis is titled "Supporting 2-year-olds’ communication : Collaborations between caregivers, early childhood educators, and health professionals in rural Australia". What a huge achievement! Cathie's research was supervised by myself, Julian Grant and Libbey Murray.
Today Tamara Cumming and I had our first meeting with colleagues at Arts Out West. They have many impressive programs - including many to support people with disabilities. We plan to collaborate as part of our research with the World Health Organization. What a wonderful opportunity to learn from the team and the artists. Here are some of their initiatives:
VIV | |
| Sharynne, Kylie Shead, Kate Smith, Steven Cavanagh, Tamara Cumming |
Today Emily-Jane Woodhead and I were honoured to meet with the OAMS Elders for a few hours to discuss our Little Libraries project. They were very enthusiastic about the selected books written by Indigenous authors, and rated by 35 OAMS staff during 2024.
The list of Indigenous children's books is here: https://www.csu.edu.au/research/multilingual-speech/first-nations-resources
They provided many great ideas for using the books with OAMS children and families, as well as within the local schools and community. One wonderful idea was for elders to sit in the waiting rooms where some of the libraries will be housed and read books with children while they are waiting to be seen for medical and dental services.
We hope to learn more from the OAMS elders in the future. It was such a special day (and thanks for allowing us to use this photo).
The site where some of the little libraries will be located
On International Mother Tongue Day (21 February) I had a productive meeting with colleagues from Cyprus and Australia about their chapter addressing cross-linguistic taxonomies of speech sound disorder that they have submitted for inclusion in our book "Multilingual Aspects of Children's Speech Sounds".
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| Maria Vasilopoulou, Sharynne, Kakia Petinou, Kerry Ttofari |
Eighteen colleagues from across CSU have expressed interest to join our new research project to analyse the drawings created by children in our ECV2024 Children Draw Playing Global Online Galleries. https://earlychildhoodresearch.csu.domains/early-childhood-voices-conference-2024/children-draw-playing/
We had a very productive interdisciplinary meeting today lead by Dr Carolyn Gregoric with perspectives shared from education, occupational therapy, education, speech pathology, physiotherapy and nursing. This is going to be a fun and informative project.
It has been a pleasure to host Ida Wiik Sætherskar, a PhD student from Nord University, Norway during this week at the Children's Voices Centre. Ida has met many staff and students at CSU, observed children at the Bathurst Early Childhood Intervention Service (BECIS) and presented a talk attended by 30 people (online and in person).
Ida's presentation was titled "Early Childhood Education Teachers' Judgments of Children's Language Skills". Here is her presentation abstract:
Ida Wiik Sætherskar is a speech and language therapist and a PhD research fellow at the Faculty of Education and Arts, Nord University. Ida´s project is a part of the research project SpedAims Kohort, Centre for Research on Special Needs Education and Inclusive Practice (SpedAims). In her doctoral project, Ida focuses her research on early childhood education (ECE) teachers’ judgments of children’s language skills. Successful early language development is vital to children´s later literacy development, education and well-being outcomes, highlighting the importance of early identification and early intervention for children with language delay or language disorders. ECE teachers are in a prime position to identify and support these children, further emphasizing the need for accuracy in judgments of children’s language skills as a part of their competence in supporting children’s language development. Ida will discuss current knowledge about the efficacy of ECE teachers' judgments of and ability to assess children's language and implications of her findings for further study as well as for practice.
Last night we met with Dr Mel Greaux and Dr Kaloyan Kamenov to present the work we have been doing to prepare our protocols for our research on Children’s insights into health, healthcare, health access.
Huge congratulations to Dr Kate Margetson who just received this email from the Charles Sturt University Office of Governance and Corporate Administration:
It is my pleasure to advise that you have been awarded the Higher Degree by Research University Medal as recognition of your outstanding academic achievement.
Only one graduate per Faculty, per year, may be awarded the Higher Degree by Research University Medal. The University Research Committee determines the eligibility and assessment criteria to award a Higher Degree by Research University Medal. Criteria may include details of publications or presentations given during your candidature, prizes or scholarships won during your candidature or attestations of excellence by your examiners.
Congratulations on this momentous achievement.
Kate's PhD was titled: Moving Beyond Monolingual Practices with Multilingual Children: Learning from Vietnamese-English–Speaking Children, Families, and Professionals
She was supervised by A/Prof Sarah Verdon and myself. Congratulations Kate! We are so proud of you!
Congratulations to Anniek Van Doornik, my PhD student at Utrecht University in The Netherlands, who has just had this paper from her PhD accepted for publication:
Van Doornik, A., Welbie, M., McLeod, S., & Gerrits, E., Terband, H. (2025, in press). 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 and Communication Disorders.
Abstract
Background: Children with speech sound disorders (SSD) are at higher risk of communication breakdown, but the impact of having an SSD may vary from child to child. Determining severity of SSD helps SLTs to recognise the extent of the problem and to identify and prioritise children who require intervention.
Aims: This study aimed to identify severity factors for SSD in order to develop a multifactorial Speech Sound Disorder Severity Construct (SSDSC) using speech-language therapists’ (SLTs’) views and the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF).
Method: In an explorative five-staged qualitative study, the research question was answered: “How do SLTs determine the severity of speech sound disorders in children?”. A total of 91 SLTs from the Netherlands participated in data collection and analysis. The iterative process included three different qualitative research methodologies (thematic analysis, constructivist grounded theory and content analysis) to ensure validation of the results by means of method triangulation.
Results: SLTs considered 9 themes: intelligibility, speech accuracy, persistence, the child’s perception, impact, communicative participation, concomitant factors, professional point of view, and environmental factors. The themes were summarised in three main severity factors: (I) Speech accuracy, (II) The child’s perception of the impact of their speech, and (III) Intelligibility in communication. Other severity factors were concomitant factors and impact. Expertise and support were identified as facilitators or barriers that may worsen or relieve the severity of SSD.
Conclusions: This study highlights the need for SLTs to rethink how they think about severity as a simplistic construct reflecting only speech accuracy. It is recommended that a broader holistic approach to measuring severity is adopted.
What this paper adds:
What is already known on the subject
Although there are several proposals aiming to define the severity of SSD, the extent to which these align with clinical practice is not well understood. In recent years, speech accuracy and other factors such as intelligibility have been suggested as possible indicators of SSD severity. Flipsen et al (2005) concluded that experienced clinicians evaluated the number, type and consistency of speech errors as well as intelligibility, considering articulatory competence at both the segmental and whole word level when determining severity. Enderby and John (2015) developed ICF-based Therapy Outcome Measures (TOMs), including a TOM for phonological disorder. Although there is evidence in the literature that multiple factors should be considered when determining severity, there is still no clear guidance on this. In this discussion, the perspective of SLTs is an important contribution to the development of a measure of severity, but is lacking in the known literature.What this paper adds to existing knowledge
As a first step, this study examines SLT’s perspectives on how they define and measure severity of SSD, and determines how those views align with the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF) in order to develop a severity construct that can be further tested and validated. Using the views of SLTs and the ICF, this qualitative study resulted in the multifactorial Speech Sound Disorder Severity Construct (SSDSC).What are the potential or actual clinical implications of this work?
The practical experience of SLTs, combined with what is known from the literature, provides insight into the different factors that may contribute to severity of SSD. These factors may be considered in developing a measure of SSD severity in the future.
Early Childhood Voices. Our new book highlights the diversity and cultures of young children and ways we can listen to and learn from children.
https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-031-56484-0
Thanks to all of the excellent international authors and to Charles Sturt University media for your news story today
The Children's Voices Centre began in January 2025 with the appointment of the first group of staff:
The next two positions are being advertised.
We are spending the first month or so in meetings with key people across Charles Sturt University including Jason White (Research Office), Pat McKenna and the finance team, buildings and planning, Justin Williams (CSU Advancement), CSU Brand, Institute Directors, and key Faculty staff.
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| Carolyn, Tamara, Sharynne meeting with Jason White from the Research Office |
During January we received most of the chapters for our edited book "Multilingual Aspects of Children's Speech Sounds - Second Edition". Helen Blake, Kate Margetson and I spent most of today working through the chapters, reviewing them and planning feedback to the authors. The content is fantastic - and shows the huge growth of knowledge and resources - as well as the change in professional practice over the decade since the first edition was published.
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| Helen, Sharynne and Kate holding the first edition |
Today Dr Kate Margetson and I presented a 2-hour invited seminar titled "Help! How can I support multilingual children? Speech assessment of children’s home language(s) (SACHL)" at the Central West Speechies' PD Day in Orange.
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| Karen Trengove (Learn2Communicate), Dr Kate Margetson (CSU), Prof Sharynne McLeod (CSU), Dr Rebecca Sutherland (The University of Sydney) |
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| Dr Kate Margetson describing data from our research |
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| Dr Kate Margetson describing the SACHL |
This presentation was a really important day for Kate's postdoctoral research. We have had a 18month grant from the Rural Health Research Institute (RHRI) to consider how speech pathologists can support multilingual children, particularly in rural areas. Kate presented our work on the SACHL:
https://www.csu.edu.au/research/multilingual-speech/speech-assessments/sachl
The attendees both provided a wonderful audience for research translation, but also for providing advice about how to make the SACHL better for all.
Congratulations Sarah Bartlett on passing your PhD endorsement requirements. It is exciting that you are able to finalise your ethics application then start data collection. Sarah's PhD title is: "Implications of Caregiver-implemented Intervention for Underserved Communities".
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| Sarah celebrating with her supervisors - Sharynne and Carolyn Gregoric |
A/Prof Kate Crowe and I have been discussing future research collaborations with colleagues from Nord University for some time on the topic of "Sámi Education Language Assessment Guidelines". We met again for further productive discussions.
This morning I met with my wonderful colleague from the US - Professor Lynn Williams - to discuss future collaborations. Lynn and I have a rich past of very productive and impactful collaborations. It is exciting to now discuss new areas of work.
Today A/Prof Tamara Cumming and I met with Lilium Burrow from the Bathurst Regional Art Gallery (BRAG) about a potential collaboration with our World Health Organization project to consider children's perspectives and experiences of health and access to healthcare.
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| Sharynne, Tamara and Lilium |
It has been an honour to serve on the Fellows and Members Assessment Committee of the Royal Society of New South Wales for 2023 and 2024. The Royal Society of NSW is the oldest learned institution in the Southern Hemisphere. Today was my last meeting on the committee before the 2025 Annual General Meeting (AGM). I have enjoyed the meetings with the committee members:
The minutes of the meeting stated "Today is Professor Sharynne McLeod’s final meeting. Professor Sharynne McLeod was thanked for her strong contributions on the Committee."