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:
- Identifying gaps where children's voices are absent
- 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.
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| Ideas for The Treehouse from children with Kathy, Sharynne and Tamara listening |
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.
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| 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 (KPIs) 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 (see below).
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| Lorraine, Tamara, Sharynne, Kathy and Carolyn |
Voice of the Child Toolkit (MCRI) and Voice of the Child Framework (Australian Government/Griffith Uni)
In the middle of the day, we joined the Murdoch Children's Research Institute (MCRI) webinar who launched the Voice of the Child Toolkit:
One of the speakers was Janaya Cox who spoke about the Voice of the Child Framework launched by the Federal goverment.Wednesday: Kathy, Tamara and Sharynne
We continued our planing and discussions with two sets of visitors during our day. First Dr Emmaline Lear from the Research Office and second PVCR Indigenous Prof Tony Dreise and Nicole Simone.
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| Lorraine Bennet, Sharynne McLeod, A/Prof Tamara Cumming, A/Prof Kathy Cologon, Prof Tony Dreise, and Nicole Simone |
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| Dr Emmaline Lear, A/Prof Tamara Cumming, Prof Sharynne McLeod, A/Prof Kathy Cologon |
Throughout our planing week we continued work to build The Treehouse as the physical centre of the Children's Voices Centre to support our resaerch with children. We received a $30K philanthropic grant to support this transformation and appreciated the work already completed with this money - planning the next steps.
We celebrated the achievements we have made to date with our CVC key performance indicators for 2025. To date our CVC affiliates have 101 unique entries in CRO (125 entries) including: published 2 books, 4 chapters, 51 journal articles, and 2 theses.
The following collaborative research 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).
1 CVC editor and 9 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)
3 CVC editors and 10 CVC affiliates are chapter authors on 10 chapters. - BOOK: Early Childhood Educators' Emotional Labour (Editors: Tamara Cumming & Mari Saha. Publisher: Routledge)
1 CVC editor. - SPECIAL ISSUE: Child Language Teaching and Therapy (Q1) (Editors: Sharynne McLeod and Holly McAlister). SPECIAL ISSUE: Child Language Teaching and Therapy (Q1) (Editors: Sharynne McLeod and Holly McAlister). 2 CVC editors, 17 CVC affiliates have submitted 5 papers and 8 CVC affiliates have reviewed papers.
- SPECIAL ISSUE: Language, Speech, and Hearing Services in Schools (Q1) (Editors: Sharynne McLeod, Kathy Cologon, Helen L. Blake)
3 CVC editors. Submissions close in October. - RESEARCH PROJECT: Children Draw Talking. 15 CVC affiliates involved
**McLeod, S., Gregoric, C., Davies, J., Dealtry, L., Delli-Pizzi, L., Downey, B., Elwick, S., Hopf, S. C., Ivory, N., McAlister, H., Murray, E., Rahman, A., Sikder, S., Tran, V. H., & Zischke, C. (2025). Children draw talking around the world. Language, Speech, and Hearing Services in Schools, https://doi.org/10.1044/2025_LSHSS-23-00190 - RESEARCH PROJECT: Children Draw Playing. Team: Carolyn Gregoric, Sharynne McLeod, Belinda Downey
- RESEARCH PROJECT: Children Draw Health (to inform WHO)
- 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 and Kathy Cologon - 21 CVC affiliates signed up
- RESEARCH PROJECT: Scoping Review: Children's Experiences of Healthcare (to inform WHO). Lead: Kate Freire
- RESEARCH PROJECT: Arts-based research (to inform WHO): Children's Experiences of Healthcare. Lead: Tamara Cumming
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
