Sustainable Development Goals - Speech Pathology Australia podcast

Today Julie Marshall and I received an email from Nadia Marussinszky, Professional Education Senior Officer and Speak Up Podcast producer at Speech Pathology Australia. She wrote:

"From time to time Speech Pathology Australia will re-broadcast an episode, and to add a different angle to this we ask speech pathologists to select a previous episode to re-run, and then to share a brief, introductory reflection. I wanted to let you know that one of the members of our conference planning committee for 2025 has chosen the episode you recorded about the UN Sustainable Development Goals, and recorded a reflection to introduce the episode. We will rebroadcast this in June this year...Once the episode has been re-broadcast we will send over a copy of the social media image SPA are using to promote the episode and link to the episode...

I also thought you might like to know that the episode has been streamed 3,946 times since publication! The information and guidance you shared has reached a lot of people, thank you for sharing it!"

Here are some of the resources that Speech Pathology Australia will share with the podcast: 

• IJSLP Issue on Communication, Swallowing, and the Sustainable Development Goals: https://www.tandfonline.com/toc/iasl20/25/1  
• SPA introduction to the special issue of the IJSLP: https://www.speechpathologyaustralia.org.au/Members/News-and-publications/Publications/Speak-Out-Articles/Latest/Communication-swallowing-S-D-G.aspx 
• United Nations Sustainable Development Goals: https://sdgs.un.org/goals 

Population data - The importance of working with key data managers

Today I was able to meet with "Data Debbie" from Catholic Education Tasmania. She is overseeing our data entry once our project is signed off and ready to officially begin with CET. We discussed the importance of demographic data, understanding missing data, and also the possibility of scanning data into Excel straight from the ICS forms! Thanks Debbie, Lisa and Udari!

 

IALP Honoured Member Award

I have just received this welcome news that I will receive the IALP Honoured Member Award from the International Association of Communication Sciences and Disorders (IALP https://ialp-org.com/) – the international association of professionals and scientists in communication, voice, speech language pathology, audiology and swallowing.

IALP fosters professional knowledge and exchange of science and services across 55 affiliated societies in 35 countries around the world. The affiliated societies of the IALP are in North and South America, Asia, Africa, Australia and Europe and represent more than 300,000 members. IALP is a Non-State Actor in Official Relations with the World Health Organization (WHO) https://ialp-org.com/who/.

Over the past 100 years (since 1924 when IALP began) there have only been 22 honoured members and none from Australia or New Zealand (https://ialp-org.com/individual-members/)

1. Prof. Harm Schutte
2. Rev. Sr Marie Montfort de Supple
3. Prof. Dr Nasser Kotby
4. Prof. Dolores Battle
5. Prof. Ewa Sonderpalm
6. Prof. Tanya Gallagher
7. Prof. Gary Weismer
8. Prof. Frantisek Sram
9. Prof. Kyoko Iitaka
10. Prof. Helen Grech
11. Prof. Dr Katherine G. Butler
12. Prof. Bjorn Fritzell
13. Prof. P. Helbert Damste
14. Dr. Andre Muller
15. Prof. Ikuichiro Hiroto
16. Dr. Walter Eltsner
17. Prof. Dr. Herman F.M Peters
18. Dr. Henry C. Jr Jason
19. Dr. Britta Hammarberg
20. Prof. Lilly Cheng
21. Prof. Pamela Enderby
22. Dr. Fernanda Dreux

The Award will be presented in Malta in August.

Congratulations Dr Jenny Dwyer

Sharynne  and Jenny

Shukla, Alam, Arifa and Jenny

Congratulations to my colleague who has just learned that her PhD has been accepted and that she will graduate as Dr Jenny Dwyer soon. Jenny was a co-editor on our book Early Childhood Voices: Children, Families, Professionals - and I have enjoyed learning about the progress of her PhD over the past few years.

Oceania and Global Indigenous Research Hub Info Session

This morning I attended the first information session for the Oceania and Global Indigenous Research Hub at Charles Sturt University. What a fabulous initiative lead by A/Prof Holly Randall-Moon and Dr Nick Ruddell from the School of Indigenous Australian Studies (SIAS). They are bringing together researchers across CSU focusing on profile raising, HDR global exchange, grant capture/research, and consultancy (policy advice/sector influence). The Hub will be using FOR code 4519 for research.

Nord University presentation - Children Draw Talking

This afternoon I presented a paper to Nord University colleagues about our Children Draw Talking Global Online Gallery. Here are the resources I shared: • Early Childhood Voices Global Online Gallery: https://earlychildhoodresearch.csu.domains/early-childhood-voices-conference-2022/children-draw-talking-gallery-1-the-world/ • Sound Effects Study Drawing Protocol (McCormack et al., 2022). Language, Speech, and Hearing Services in Schools, 53(3), 713-731. https://doi.org/10.1044/2021_LSHSS-21-00140 • Children’s voices communication rights advocacy with the United Nations https://www.ohchr.org/sites/default/files/documents/issues/youth/hr75/submissions/subm-views-youth-led-cso-early-childhood-interdisciplinary-resear.pdf Books • Mahony, L., McLeod, S., Salamon, A., & Dwyer, J. (Eds.). (2024). Early childhood voices: Children, families, professionals. Springer. • Roulstone, S., & McLeod, S. (Eds.). (2011). Listening to children and young people with speech, language and communication needs. J&R Press.

Children's Voices Centre - welcome to new members

We had a wonderful meeting welcoming new affiliates to the Children's Voices Centre (CVC). We now have over 60 people from Charles Sturt University who have joined the CVC and we are adding their names to our website and CRO pages:

• https://www.csu.edu.au/research/childrens-voices-centre/our-team
• https://researchoutput.csu.edu.au/en/organisations/children-voices-centre/persons/

What a fabulous interdisciplinary team of researchers have joined the centre. The insights from so many different people, disciplines, cultures, and perspectives will ensure that our research is

Impact - ContinuEd is offering textbook training using our book

We just received the following email from our publishers - Paul H. Brookes.

"ContinuEd, an online continuing education unit (CEU) platform, is planning to offer a Textbook training for Interventions for Speech Sound Disorders in Children, Second Edition on speechpathology.com. Speech-langauge pathology (SLP) subscribers will take a 10-question test on the book and earn American Speech-Lanuage-Hearing Association (ASHA) CEUs if they pass."

Visitor to CVC - Lucy Rodgers - Wellcome funded clinical PhD fellowship

This week we have welcomed Lucy Rodgers to the Children's Voices Centre. Lucy's visit is supported by her Wellcome funded clinical PhD fellowship. She is studying her PhD at City St Georges, University of London, UK. Here is her bio

Lucy is a Speech and Language Therapist who has been working in the UK National Health Service for 18 years. In 2021, she was awarded a National Institute of Health Research pre-doctoral clinical academic fellowship. In 2022, she commenced her Wellcome funded ‘health advances in under-represented populations and diseases’ (HARP) clinical PhD fellowship at City St Georges, University of London. In her PhD work, Lucy is developing a novel intervention for pre-school children with co-occurring features of a SSD and DLD. As well as her subject-specific interests in SSD and DLD, Lucy is passionate about co-design, patient and public involvement (PPI), and supporting healthcare access in under-served groups.

Sharynne  and Lucy standing on Waluu (Mt Panorama) looking over Bathurst

 

Lucy's seminar for the CVC team was titled: Developing a novel, complex intervention for pre-school children with co-occurring features of speech sound disorder (SSD) and developmental language disorder (DLD). 

A/Prof Tamara Cumming, Prof Sharynne  McLeod, Lucy Rodgers

Here is the abstract

Approximately 40% of 4 year olds with a speech sound disorder (SSD) also have features of a developmental language disorder (DLD) (Eadie et al., 2015). This co-occurring profile is associated with later negative outcomes relating to communication, literacy and quality of life (Lewis et al., 2015; Wren et al., 2016; Hayiou-Thomas et al., 2017). Yet, there are few interventions to date which have been developed to meet the specific needs of this clinical group. The aim is to develop a novel, complex intervention for pre-school children with co-occurring features of SSD and DLD.
Methods: Methods were informed by the Medical Research Council (MRC) guidance for developing  and evaluating complex interventions (Skivington et al., 2021).
•    Phase 1- systematic review to explore similarities and differences between intervention techniques for SSD/DLD and relate to underlying theory.
•    Phase 2- online survey of current clinical practice (108 UK SLTs).
•    Phase 3- two round e-Delphi with 35 UK based expert SLTs to gain consensus on core intervention elements, based on the findings from phases 1 and 2.
•    Phase 4a- refinements to the intervention in response to feedback from 6 parents from low SES and/or non English speaking backgrounds.
•    Phase 4b (current)- six NHS SLTs reviewing the intervention protocol to optimise operationalisation within clinical services.
A mixed steering group of people with lived experience (an adult with DLD, a parent of a child with SSD/DLD) and professionals (3 speech and language therapists, a bilingual education support worker, a specialist teacher) have overseen all project phases.
Results and conclusions: Following the 4 study phases, we now have a draft intervention protocol which has been mapped on to the Template for Intervention Description and Replication (TIDieR) framework (Hoffmann et al., 2014). We also have a corresponding ‘Theory of Change’, which outlines how different intervention components (relating to linguistic and behaviour change theory, and implementation science) are anticipated to interact with each other. The face validity of the intervention has been strengthened by the involvement of a diverse range of relevant professionals and people with lived experience within the intervention development process. However, further refinements may be made to the intervention in response to initial trialling.
Conclusions & Implications: The results suggest that ECE teachers are moderately accurate in judging children’s language skills, while also showing tendencies for judgment inaccuracies. Furthermore, their assessments alone may not suffice for identifying language delays. Combining multiple sources of information is essential. Future research should report detailed teacher and child characteristics to enhance meta-analytic synthesis.

 

Here is Lucy's acknowledgment of country at the beginning of her presentation

As a British citizen I acknowledge the legacy of UK’s colonial history. I acknowledge that I am a visitor to the land of the Wiradjuri people. We acknowledge and pay our respects to the traditional custodians of the lands on which we meet today. We also pay respect to past, present and emerging elders and extend that respect to other Indigenous people who are present.  I would like to encourage everyone to please share the Nation you are joining from today in the chat.

 

Breakfast Club and books!

We received this email from our research partners

"We posted the following text on our socials with the attached photos."

Breakfast Club and books!  

Our young mob were given the opportunity to read, choose and take books home to read for keeps as a thank you from our CSU Research Project team (who visited Breakfast Club and exchanged opinions on books late last year). Marang Gunya will soon have it's own Little Library for the kids to access every week.

Speech pathology screening clinic at OAMS

Today, as part of our RHRI research, Sarah Bartlett, Emily-Jane Woodhead and I (3 speech pathologists) worked alongside Katrina and Tegan from OAMS to run a speech pathology screening clinic for Indigenous families to drop in and yarn about their children's speech, language and communication. We learned a lot and enjoyed yarning with the families and children.

Research productivity

What a joy it is to work closely with Dr Helen Blake. We are so productive on so many different aspects of our research. Thank you Helen.

SACHL focus group

Thank you so much to the informative and knowledgeable members of our focus group who have provided helpful advice about the development of the SACHL - phase 2 of our implementation science research. They agreed to have their photo take after tonight's session (session 3).

 

Rotary eClub of Brindabella

Last night I spoke to members of the Rotary eClub of Brindabella at the invitation of president, Dr Travis Holland. (https://rotarye-clubofbrindabella.org.au/)

 Communication is a human right for ALL:
Let’s ensure we support children’s communication

Communication is a human right for all; including children with speech, language, and communication needs and those who speak/sign non-dominant languages (McLeod, 2018). Aligning with the Convention on the Rights of the Child (United Nations, 1989) the Charles Sturt University Children’s Voices Centre have given attention to the “voice” of children. We have creatively engaged in child-friendly methods to provide children with the “right to freedom of expression… regardless of frontiers” as outlined in Article 13. We have the power to support children’s voice and to assist others to listen. How can we support children’s participation within democratic processes in their families, schools, communities, and society?

Children’s Voices Centre  - https://www.csu.edu.au/research/childrens-voices-centre/home

Just published

van Doornik, A., Welbie, M., McLeod, S., Gerrits, E., & Terband, H. (2025). 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 & Communication Disorders, 60, e70022. https://doi.org/10.1111/1460-6984.70022 

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/1460-6984.70022

Congratulations Anniek!

UN Youth forum at CSU

This morning I had the privilege of welcoming the UN Youth forum to Bathurst to speak with high school students across the region. I had the opportunity to engage with the 85 attendees registered from schools across the region, CSU communication and media staff and students, and the following people:

• Ms Satara Uthayakumaran, Australian Youth Representative to the United Nations 2025
• Mr Max Spencer-Tighe, Human Resources Director UN Youth
• Ms Jessica Luu, NSW President UN Youth
• Mr Benjamin Fry, Deputy Mayor of Bathurst
• Ms Kate Hook, Independent Candidate for the seat of Calare
• Ms Julie Cunningham, Labor Candidate for the seat of Calare

Review of children's perspectives of health and healthcare

This morning our team met with the CSU librarian Claudio Dionigi to plan our search strategy for our systematic/scoping review for our project invited by the WHO to consider children's perspectives of health and healthcare.

Sharynne  McLeod, Kate Freire, Kate Crowe, Claudio Dionigi, Suzanne Hopf, Cyrena Hunt-Madden

 

Preparing for our SACHL shortcourse

Today Kate Margetson and I met with the DLT team to discuss the development of our SACHL shortcourse. Nik Chalkaranje and Adam Lavelle were enthusiastic and helpful. 

Editorial board membership

It is my pleasure to be on the editorial board of the following journals:

• International Journal of Speech-Language Pathology [Q1]
• Clinical Linguistics and Phonetics [Q1]
• Child Language Teaching and Therapy [Q1]
• Speech, Language and Hearing [Q1]
• Journal of Monolingual and Bilingual Speech [Q2]
• Advances in Communication and Swallowing

In 2025 I am co-editing a special issue of Child Language Teaching and Therapy and have been invited to be co-editor of some special issues in the future.

Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia - Panel D Fellowship Committee meeting

Today was my first meeting on the Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia (ASSA) - Panel D Fellowship Committee meeting. We considered carefully the impressive contributions of the nominees to become Fellows of ASSA. What a privilege to spend time with esteemed colleagues discussing the research of notable Australians.