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.
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 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) |
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:
The Oxford Handbook of Speech Development in Languages of the World (https://global.oup.com/academic/product/the-oxford-handbook-of-speech-development-in-languages-of-the-world-9780192868862) was launched at the International Clinical Phonetics and Linguistics Association (ICPLA) conference in Patras, Greece on Thursday 26th June. This remarkable book was written by 173 authors from across the globe (including 9 Charles Sturt University staff, students and adjuncts). It contains 1008 pages and 80 chapters covering 49 languages and 27 dialects with companion audio recordings of children and adults. A YouTube channel presents a free summary of each chapter (https://www.csu.edu.au/research/multilingual-speech/speech-acquisition/multilingual-childrens-speech-development)
 |
| 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! |
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:
I am the President of ICPLA so have a busy week of duties.
 |
| 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 |
Today (Wednesday 25th June 2025) I was honoured to be conferred as an Honorary Doctor of the Department of Speech and Language Therapy of the University of Patras, Greece.
https://www.upatras.gr/25-6-2025-teleti-anagorefsis-tis-sharynne-mcleod-distinguished-professor/
 |
| Distinguished Professor Sharynne McLeod with Rector Professor Christos J. Bouras |
 |
| Distinguished Professor Sharynne McLeod with the Rector Professor Christos J. Bouras, Dean of the School of Rehabilitation Sciences Elias M. Tsepis and members of the Speech Therapy Department |
 |
| Dean of the School of Rehabilitation Sciences Elias M. Tsepis, Distinguished Professor Sharynne McLeod, Professor Arhonto Terzi, Rector Professor Christos J. Bouras |
Here is a description of the event from the University of Patras and the photograph below shows the order for the seven speeches:
The ceremony usually includes brief welcome addresses by university and school officials, a short presentation of the honoree, the reading of the official resolution in ancient Greek, and the conferral of the title. This is followed by the dressing of the honored person with the university toga and the presentation of the university medal. The event concludes with the honoree’s lecture, which typically lasts 30 to 60 minutes, depending on their preference.
 |
| Colleagues, friends and family from across the world were present to celebrate together |
It was followed by a dinner with members of the Department of Speech and Language Therapy, my husband, colleagues from Charles Sturt University, and Prof Lynn Williams from USA.
What a very special day.
This morning members of the International Expert Panel on Multilingual Children's Speech met for 3 hours in Patras, Greece to advance our tutorial paper titled "Speech interventions for multilingual children who do not speak the same language(s) as the speech-language pathologist". We began this paper a number of years ago, and we were able to progress the work significantly this morning. Our thoughtful and robust discussions explored ways to work with children and families in different contexts, countries, cultures and languages. We look forward to sending an updated draft to the rest of the panel members in a month's time, so that we can finalise and submit the paper.
 |
Today Helen Blake and I spent the day preparing for ICPLA. We worked on the feedback from the International Expert Panel on Multilingual Children's Speech (IEPMCS) in preparation for tomorrow's meeting, the changes necessary to the 3 hour presentation on multilingual children's speech due to presenters not being able to attend due to the world's conflicts, ordering the cake for the launch of The Oxford Handbook of Speech Development in Languages of the World, networking with colleagues who have arrived at the conference hotel and answering and sending numerous emails. We are almost ready for ICPLA (and have such a wonderful view as our backdrop).
After the ISMBS conference concluded we had the weekend to fly and drive from Chania to Patras via Athens and Corinth. What a special ancient and modern part of the world to spend the weekend!
