Congratulations Belinda on the acceptance of your article from you PhD
Downey, B., Gibbs, L., Letts, W., & McLeod, S. (2025). Cultivating collaborative practice to sustain and retain early childhood educators. Education Sciences, [Manuscript accepted for publication].
During WHO RCM76 we met and made many friends. Here are some:
*Representatives of non-state actors
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| Sharynne with Dr Dora Katal, Papua New Guinea |
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| Holly McAlister, Latu Hurrell (WPRO) and Dr Helen L. Blake |
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| with Pauline McNeil (Solomon Islands) and Dr Dora Katel (PNG) |
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| with Dr Chandrashekhar Meshram, Brain and Mind Institute, India |
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| Ki Dong Park, WPRO |
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| Eloise Adsett, WHO |
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| Eleanor T. Cabrera, Chief Strategy Officer, Commonwealth Healthcare Corporation, Mariana Islands (Saipan, USA Territory) |
https://www.who.int/westernpacific/about/governance/regional-committee/session-76
The Western Pacific Region includes 2.2 billion people - a quarter of the world's population - and includes the world's largest and smallest nations.
Dr Helen L. Blake, Holly McAlister and I attended as representatives of the International Association of Communication Sciences and Disorders (IALP). We submitted three statements addressing the agenda items (oral health, mental health, and tobacco control) and one was selected for presentation on the floor.
Children across the world were invited to create and describe an artwork to present their perspectives about health and healthcare by considering the following prompts: What makes you healthy? Who helps you be healthy? Where do you go to get healthier? What would your ideal hospital or health service look like? A children’s advisory group considered 126 drawings by children from 18 countries to create this summary document. The views of children with disability are featured. The brochure is available here: https://www.csu.edu.au/research/childrens-voices-centre/home
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| Dr Helen L. Blake, Holly McAlister, Dr Saia Ma’u Piukala (WHO Regional Director for the Western Pacific), Distinguished Professor Sharynne McLeod |
Our statement to the floor included the following:
"I am speaking as the representative of the International Association of Communication Sciences and Disorders (IALP, https://ialpglobal.org/about-us/), a worldwide organization of over 300,000 professionals and scientists from 55 affiliated societies in 35 countries. My name is Distinguished Professor Sharynne McLeod, speaking with Dr Helen L. Blake and Holly McAlister from the Children’s Voices Centre at Charles Sturt University in Australia. We are speech-language pathologists...
Communication specialists, including speech-language pathologists, have significant evidence-based strategies to support swallowing and communication...Members of IALP stand with the World Health Organization ... – particularly for those with swallowing and communication disability to support and enhance their participation in society. We encourage the WHO to work on disability and rehabilitation initiatives that include communication specialists such as speech-language pathologists and we encourage WPRO to consider holding a side event at RCM77 focused on advancing health equity for people with disability."
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| Holly McAlister, Distinguished Professor Sharynne McLeod, Dr Helen L. Blake ready to make a statement to the floor of the 76th Regional Committee Meeting |
The meeting was opened by Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus Director-General, World Health Organization
Regional Director: Dr Saia Ma’u Piukala is the Regional Director for the Western Pacific. His theme is “Weaving health for all” focusing on equity and health resilience.
Here are some quotes from the Regional Director’s speeches
HealthSome countries were celebrated for eliminating trachoma (preventable blindness), measles and rubella. 25 years ago Western Pacific was polio free.
“Health remains the thread that defines dignity and hope”
“Health is not a luxury, but a right”
Teamwork
“Weaving health is not about perfect threads – it’s about the strength of the weave. Let us continue this journey together”
“If you want to go fast – go alone. If you want to go far – go together”
Leadership
“Leadership is not about being in charge, but taking care of those in your charge”
“Thank you to our chair for steering us through our acronyms…”
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| Distinguished Professor Sharynne McLeod (CSU), Dr Mark Jacobs WHO Representative to the South Pacific, Dr Helen L. Blake (CSU), Honourable Vainetutai Rose Toki-Brown, Chairperson at the 75th Session of the WHO Regional Committee for the Western Pacific, Holly McAlister (CSU) |
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| Distinguished Professor Sharynne McLeod (CSU), Dr Helen L. Blake, Holly McAlister |
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| Regional Director's dinner |
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| Regional Director's dinner |
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| Regional Director's dinner |
Many important topics have been discussed this week including climate change, tobacco and alcohol consumption. “Harm falls primarily on – youth, women, Indigenous, economically disadvantaged… Progress is too slow and uneven… We require collaboration across sectors to ensure our younger generation is safeguarded... We require collective action to create a healthier society for all.”
The Children Draw Health Global Online Galleries are now on Charles Sturt University's YouTube channel
They are also available on the Children's Voices Centre website: https://www.csu.edu.au/research/childrens-voices-centre/research/childrens-health
Here is our summary document: https://cdn.csu.edu.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0010/4506148/CVC-Children-draw-health-2025-Fiji-submission.pdf
Thanks to the children from 18 countries who submitted 126 drawings to be included, the CVC Children's Advisory Groups, Dr Carolyn Gregoric, Dr Belinda Downey, Patrick McKenzie and the CSU Brand and webteams for their work to put this together.
A/Prof Jane McCormack and I meet on a semi-regular basis to share and collaborate between Australian Catholic University and Charles Sturt University. We have such a rich and long-term partnership.
Today we met to discuss the scoping review we are undertaking to consider the perspectives of children with disabilities about healthcare
Lots of people like to pop in and visit The Treehouse. Today I hosted two visitors who used to work at the CSU Library. They were visiting Pulse, the CSU shop - and we got chatting about the synergies between their interests and ours. They may become Friends of CVC.
Today A/Prof Tamara Cumming, Dr Carolyn Gregoric and I met with Lilium Burrow and team from the Bathurst Regional Art Gallery
Here are the plans so far:
BRAG Forecourt Summer Exhibition - Presentation of the Children Draw Health Global Online Galleries.
The ABC has selected the work of A/Prof Kathy Cologon to profile for National Children’s Week (18-26 October). Congratulations Kathy!
National Children’s Week celebrates the rights, voices, and contributions of children. It’s a reminder to pause and truly listen to what children are telling us – about inclusion, belonging, and what it means to be seen and valued. In this powerful reflection, contributing author, Associate Professor Kathy Cologon, shares insights from research that centres children’s voices and experiences. Through art and conversation, children speak to the importance of being included, the strength of diversity, and the simple but profound truth that difference is not a deficit.
What an amazing team we have at CVC. Each Tuesday team meeting is a celebration of achievements, joint planning and problem solving, and supportive teamwork. Thanks team!
Dr Carolyn Gregoric, Dr Belinda Downey and I have been doing a lot of work to prepare for presenting the Children Draw Health research at the World Health Organization meeting next week. Here are the finalised pull-up banners:
This morning Dr Kate Margetson, Dr Helen L. Blake and I were invited to present a 3-hour live session to the Canadian Speech and Stuttering Institute (SSI) (https://ssitraininghub.ca/) and speech-language pathologists across Canada and the USA (n = 25). Our presentation was titled "Multilingual Children's Speech Acquisition and Therapy".
Children learn to communicate in one or more of the world’s 7000 languages. Assessment and intervention for multilingual children’s speech can be challenging, especially if children do not speak languages that are familiar to speech-language pathologists (S-LPs). This workshop will provide a cross-linguistic account of monolingual and multilingual and children’s speech development.
Part 1 of the workshop, will begin with an overview of (mostly free) resources that are available to support children’s speech acquisition, assessment, and intervention in over 130 of the world’s languages and dialects on the Multilingual Children’s Speech website https://www.csu.edu.au/research/multilingual-speech/home
Part 2 of the workshop will present the Speech Assessment of Children’s Home Language(s) (SACHL), a practical evidence-based protocol for assessing children’s speech in unfamiliar languages. The step-by-step protocol includes: comparing languages with English; identifying and using SLPs’ existing skills; identifying areas requiring support from families/interpreters; locating and using assessments in a range of languages; taking a collaborative approach to transcribing and analyzing multilingual speech; considering reasons children’s speech may not match standard targets; and implications for diagnosis of speech sound disorder.
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| SSI organisers and presenters |
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| Kate presenting part 2 |
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| One attendee sharing her "favourite book" |
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| We reported on the VietSpeech research in part 2 |
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| Padlet answers |