Welcome to 2025 - Orientation week at CSU

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

 

We learned a lot from Max and Damien at UN Youth

SACHL micro-credential/short course

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

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.

Learning about Arts Out West's capacity building - including with people with disabilities

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
https://artsoutwest.org.au/pf/viv/
https://www.thebeautifulandusefulstudio.com/
 
STRAY
https://artsoutwest.org.au/pf/dog-puppet/
 
VISUAL ARTS IN HOSPITALS
https://artsoutwest.org.au/pf/hospital-work-2023/
 
YAGANDA BULABUL
https://artsoutwest.org.au/pf/yaganda-bulabul-art-project/
 
BREWING BALLADS
https://artsoutwest.org.au/pf/brewing-ballads/

Sharynne, Kylie Shead, Kate Smith, Steven Cavanagh, Tamara Cumming

 

Arts Out West Strategic Plan - https://artsoutwest.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/ARTS-OUTWEST-Strategic-Plan-2025-2028.pdf

OAMS Elders Morning Tea to discuss the Little Libraries

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

International Mother Tongue Day - meeting with colleagues from Cyprus

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".

Maria Vasilopoulou, Sharynne, Kakia Petinou, Kerry Ttofari

 

Children Draw Playing - Meeting 1

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.

 

Visiting PhD student: Ida Wiik Sætherskar

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.

 

WHO meeting

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.

University medalist!

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!

Speech and language therapists' insights into severity of speech sound disorders in children for developing the Speech Sound Disorder Severity Construct

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 in the news

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

https://news.csu.edu.au/in-brief/amplifying-young-voices-new-book-highlights-diversity-and-cultures-of-young-children

 

Important meetings to establish the Children's Voices Centre

 The Children's Voices Centre began in January 2025 with the appointment of the first group of staff:

• Director: Sharynne  McLeod
• Associate Director Workforce and Policy: Tamara Cumming
• Research Manager: Carolyn Gregoric.

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. 

Carolyn, Tamara, Sharynne meeting with Jason White from the Research Office

Multilingual Aspects of Children's Speech Sounds

 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. 

Helen, Sharynne  and Kate holding the first edition

Help! How can I support multilingual children? Speech assessment of children’s home language(s) (SACHL)

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.

Karen Trengove (Learn2Communicate), Dr Kate Margetson (CSU), Prof Sharynne McLeod (CSU), Dr Rebecca Sutherland (The University of Sydney)

Dr Kate Margetson describing data from our research

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 B

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".

Sarah celebrating with her supervisors - Sharynne  and Carolyn Gregoric

 

Tasmanian research planning

It is such a pleasure to collaborate with the team from Catholic Education Tasmania. They are rigorous, responsive, and care for the children in Tasmania. We are planning for our research this year - and are getting closer to finalising the procedures and protocols.

Discussing research with colleagues in northern Norway

 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.

Future collaborations

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. 

 Here are some of the things we have published together: 

• Williams, A. L., McLeod, S., & McCauley, R. J. (Eds.). (2010). Interventions for speech sound disorders in children. Paul H. Brookes Publishing. 
• Williams, A. L., McLeod, S., & McCauley, R. J. (Eds.). (2021). Interventions for speech sound disorders in children (2nd ed.). Paul H. Brookes Publishing. 
• Baker, E., McCauley, R. J., Williams, A. L., & McLeod, S. (2020). Elements in phonological intervention: A comparison of three approaches using the Phonological Intervention Taxonomy. In E. Babatsouli & M. J. Ball (Eds.), On under-reported monolingual child phonology (pp. 375-399). Multilingual Matters. http://www.multilingual-matters.com/display.asp?isb=9781788928946 
• Baker, E., Williams, A. L., McLeod, S., & McCauley, R. (2018). Elements of phonological interventions for children with speech sound disorders: The development of a taxonomy. American Journal of Speech-Language Pathology, 27(3), 906–935. https://doi.org/10.1044/2018_AJSLP-17-0127 

Collaboration with the Bathurst Regional Art Gallery (BRAG)

 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.

Sharynne, Tamara and Lilium

Fellows and Members Assessment Committee of the Royal Society of New South Wales

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:

• Committee Members: Professor Sean Brawley (FMAC Chair), Trevor Danos AM (FMAC Secretary), Pamela Griffith OAM, Professor Sharynne McLeod, Professor George Paxinos AO, Professor Lisa Jackson Pulver AM, Professor Peter Shergold AC, Professor Ian H Sloan AO, Professor Donald Hector AM
  
• Ex Officio Committee Members: RSNSW President, RSNSW Secretary 

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."

BOOK - Multilingual Aspects of Children's Speech Sounds (2nd edition)

We are delighted that we have received 17 chapters for our new book: Multilingual Aspects of Children's Speech Sounds (2nd edition) to be published by Multilingul Matters. I'm excited to begin reviewing the chapters with my co-editors Helen Blake, Kate Margetson and Brian Goldstein.