Visiting Emeritus Prof Lindy McAllister and discussing research in Vietnam

While in Brisbane this weekend I had a lovely time catching up with Emeritus Prof Lindy McAllister and discussing our collaboration and research in Vietnam. We also shared stories of our colleague Lucy Shanahan who passed away a few weeks ago.

 

Graduation congratulations

During April/May, some of my research students graduate at Charles Sturt University. I am unable to celebrate with them at the graduation ceremonies, because the graduation dates changed from December 2023-  so coincided with my international travel. I cheered loudly from the other side of the world - and had an opportunity to celebrate Belinda in Bathurst.

Pre-graduation celebration with Dr Belinda Downey

Congratulations Sarah Faulks on your honours graduation in Albury in April.
I am glad A/Prof Sarah Verdon was with you to celebrate

Visiting Early Childhood Interdisciplinary Research (ECIR) Sturt Scheme colleagues in Albury

On Thursday and Friday I had the opportunity to visit Early Childhood Interdisciplinary Research (ECIR) Sturt Scheme colleagues in Albury and discuss research plans for 2023. I spoke with:

• A/Prof Sarah Verdon
• Dr Jessamy Davis
• Dr Lysa Dealtry
• Josephine Bampoe
• Sarah Piper

and drove from Albury to Bathurst with 

• Prof Julian Grant

Sharynne, Jessamy Davis, Lysa Dealtry, Julian Grant

Sharynne, Josephine Bampoe, Lysa Dealtry, Jessamy Davis

Prof Sharynne McLeod, Dr Lysa Dealtry, Prof Stan Grant, Dr Jessamy Davis

 

Sharynne and Sarah Verdon

Welcome Ruby to the Speech-Language-Multilingualism team

I had the great privilege to welcome little Ruby to the Speech-Langauge-Multilingualism team on Thursday in Albury when I was visiting her mum Sarah.

Holly's thesis has been submitted

It is always very exciting when a thesis is due for submission. Today Holly McAlister submitted her honours thesis. I have been honoured be Holly's honours co-supervisor (with Dr Suzanne Hopf as primary supervisor). Her thesis is part of her Bachelor of Speech and Language Pathology (Honours) and her thesis is titled: "Fiji English speech sound acquisition and disorders in Fijian children". Best wishes for finalising your thesis and for a great outcome Holly.

SUBMITTED!

Regional Speech Pathology Forum for Albury Wodonga and North Eastern Health

Today I presented at the Regional Speech Pathology Forum for Albury Wodonga and North Eastern Health (details here: https://www.trybooking.com/book/event?eid=586272&). It was wonderful to share the day with 76 speech pathologists from NSW and Victoria (many who had been my students at The University of Sydney and Charles Sturt University)

• I was invited to speak on the topic of "Communication and Human Rights in Speech Pathology" and presented my speech to the United Nations as well as the background story
• Dr Michelle Brown spoke on "Early Storybook Reading with Babies" summarizing her current postdoc at CSU
• Nicole McGill spoke on "Managing Speech Pathology Waiting Lists" summarizing her PhD that she submitted yesterday

Prof Sharynne McLeod

Dr Michelle Brown

Nicole McGill

Congratulations Nicole on your PhD submission

Today Nicole McGill submitted her PhD. Her thesis is titled: Wait-Lifting: Active waiting for speech and language services by children and families. It was submitted as a series of 6 journal articles and an exegesis. She was cheered on by her supervisory team: myself in Albury (usually in Bathurst), Dr Kate Crowe in Iceland and Dr Suzanne Hopf in Fiji as well as members of the Speech-Language-Multilingualism team, colleagues at CSU, her family and friends. Her PhD scholarship was from the Research Institute of Professional Practice Learning and Education (RIPPLE) at Charles Sturt University. Congratulations Nicole and best wishes for your examination!

Celebrations at the moment of submission

In person: Nicole and Luke McGill, Prof Sharynne McLeod, Dr Sarah Verdon, Dr Cathy Easton, Dr Linda Wilson
Online: Dr Suzanne Hopf (in Fiji), Dr Kate Crowe (in Iceland at 4am), Dr Helen Blake, Anna Cronin

Suzanne celebrating by the pool in Fiji

 Here is the abstract.

Throughout the world, some children with communication and swallowing needs must wait for support, since there are not enough speech and language services to meet demand. While waiting, children miss the benefits of early intervention and their caregivers may feel fearful, stressed, and disempowered. There is limited knowledge about waiting for speech and language services, solutions for managing waiting lists, and provision of support to those who are waiting. Consequently, this doctoral research explored current perspectives, experiences, and solutions regarding waiting for speech and language services across stakeholder groups (e.g., consumers, professionals), client populations, service contexts, and countries. This doctoral research, known as the Wait-Lifting Study, consisted of a four-phase program of research: (1) thematic analysis of stakeholders’ written submissions to a government Senate Inquiry (n = 133); (2) quantitative and qualitative analysis of SLPs’ questionnaire responses (n = 264); (3) a mixed methods study informing the design of an evidence-based active waiting website via an evaluation of existing sites (n = 25), and consultation with members of the public via a questionnaire (n = 119) and focus groups (n = 16); and (4) a randomised controlled trial evaluating active (provision of the website) versus passive waiting (control group) by children and families (n = 97). Two theoretical frameworks were applied: (1) the International Classification of Functioning, Disability, and Health: Children and Youth Version (ICF-CY), and (2) the theory of preparative waiting. This doctoral research was presented as a series of six journal articles and an exegesis in three parts.
Understanding the status quo: SLPs indicated that waiting duration for both assessment and intervention ranged from 0-42 months. Overall, children most often waited for assessments only (referral → wait → assessment → therapy; n = 67, 33.8%) but could follow a multitude of care pathways depending on their needs or the service they are referred to (e.g., referral → triage → assessment → therapy). Although passive strategies were evident, many consumers and professionals engaged in active strategies to address waiting lists and their consequences. Consumer actions included conducting their own research and relocating to a larger city. Professional actions related to service delivery (e.g., parent information, use of technology), workplace processes and policies (e.g., prioritisation policies), and the workforce (e.g., recruiting more SLPs). Young children and children with feeding and stuttering needs were most often high priority for speech and language services. Severity of communication/swallowing disorder and availability of resources (e.g., funding, staff) were considered the most important prioritisation factors.
Designing and evaluating solutions: A waiting for speech-language pathology website was proposed and evidence-based resources about strategies to implement with children, readable information, and simple web architecture were recommended. A randomised controlled trial comparing active waiting (provision of the website) and passive waiting (control group) by children and caregivers found no statistically significant changes between active and passive waiting groups, indicating that those on waiting lists may require more support than can be provided by a website.
Conclusions and contributions: Waiting lists can have significant consequences for consumers, professionals, and society, including physical, psychological, financial, and ethical burdens. Implicit decision-making, variation, and a lack of clear evidence guiding waiting list practices were apparent. Evidence-building in real-world clinical settings may guide professionals regarding effective waiting list management practices, including creation of care pathways. Transparent and collaborative actions at local and systemic levels are needed to reimagine service provision and access, and optimise outcomes for children and their families.

Celebrating in Albury: Dr Michelle Smith-Tamaray, Sharynne McLeod, Nicole McGill, Dr Sarah Verdon

More celebrating in Albury: Sharynne, Nicole and Dr Lisa Brown

 The following papers have been published to date (more to come soon):

1. McGill, N., & McLeod, S. (2019). Aspirations for a website to support families’ active waiting for speech-language pathology. International Journal of Speech-Language Pathology, 21(3), 263-274. https://doi.org/10.1080/17549507.2019.1604802
2. McGill, N., & McLeod, S. (2020). Waiting list management in speech-language pathology: Translating research to practice. Speech, Language and Hearing, 23(1), 2-8. https://doi.org/10.1080/2050571X.2020.1716471 (open access until 31 March 2020)

Teaching students to work with children with speech sound disorders

This semester I am teaching year 2 speech pathology students at Charles Sturt University the subject SPH201: Speech Impairment in Children and Dr Michelle Brown is running the tutorials. Most weeks I am in Bathurst and teach the class via video conference while they are 5.5 hours away in Albury. Today, I spent 5 hours with the class face-to-face in Albury. We covered phonological and motor speech interventions. We drew on chapters 13 and 14 of Children's Speech (McLeod & Baker, 2017) as well as the chapters and videos from Interventions for Speech Sound Disorders in Children (Williams, McLeod & McCauley, 2010). I was so impressed at the interest and committment of the class.

Teaching year 2 students about working with children with speech sound disorders

I have been invited to teach SPH201: Speech Impairment in Children to the year 2 students at Charles Sturt University in Albury due to the illness of their allocated lecturer. They were using the textbook that Elise Baker and I had written titled "Children's Speech", so it seemed sensible that I teach them when the vacancy arose. I met some of the class while I was in Albury last week (they are great!) and will teach them via distance from Bathurst. I look forward to working with them to unpack the evidence underpinning clinical practice for working with children with speech sound disorders.

Visiting Albury

Last week I visited the Albury campus of Charles Sturt University. While there I

• attended Academic Senate as the Professorial Representative, 
• worked with Dr Sarah Verdon on the ethics for our VietSpeech Australian Research Council Grant, 
• gave a public lecture to celebrate 20 years of the speech pathology program at CSU, 
• worked with my PhD student Nicole McGill on data protocols, 
• met with Dr Jane McCormack and discussed our invited journal article on children's perspectives on their speech,
• visited the staff and students in the School of Community Health, 
• and drove 5.5 hours each way between Bathurst and Albury. 

It was a busy but fulfilling few days.

Meeting with Nicole McGill
(before we got our computers out and started typing into spreadsheets!)

Public lecture to celebrate 20 years of speech pathology at Charles Sturt University

I was honoured to be invited to present a public lecture to celebrate 20 years of speech pathology at Charles Sturt University on Wednesday 7th March in Albury. I was a lecturer/senior lecturer in the speech pathology program from 1999-2003, so was involved in the establishment of the program.

The title of my lecture was "Communication as a Human Right: Celebrating the 70th Anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights" and I presented our current work to celebrate communication rights within the special issue of the International Journal of Speech-Language Pathology. The CSU media release about the event is here.

Some of the audience after the public lecture speaking up for communication rights

Meetings with important women in Albury

While in Albury I have had the opportunity to meet with three important women who are my colleagues and either ex- or current students/postdocs:

• Adjunct A/Prof Jane McCormack
• Dr Sarah Verdon
• Nicole McGill (nee Limbrick)

I have been working with them on writing grants and papers. It is always a pleasure to meet face-to-face and catch up on important life and work-related issues.

Nicole McGill and Sharynne

Sharynne and Jane McCormack

Teaching the SPH201 students in Albury about children with speech sound disorders

Today I begged Dr Sarah Verdon to let me teach her SPH201: Speech sound disorders class at Charles Sturt University in Albury. The class is using our Children's Speech textbook, so this was the first time I was able to actually use the material from the textbook with an undergraduate class. The students were enthusiastic and I am looking forward to hearing from Sarah about their learning throughout the semester and their application of the material to children with speech sound disorders in their professional practice. The students also promised to send feedback on the book* (something that Elise and I are very happy to receive from anyone!).

Some of the Charles Sturt University SPH201 students
with Dr Sarah Verdon and Professor Sharynne McLeod
(Photo credit: Allan)

*We did find one error in the Powerpoint slides that accompany the book (a risk/protective factor is "having an older sibling" not "being an older sibiling"

Academic Senate in Albury

I attended Charles Sturt University's Academic Senate today. I am an elected representative of the Professorial Forum. Today also was international women's day, and the contribution of women at CSU was acknowledged. In fact, CSU is leading the sector in terms of the number of women in management roles. CSU has 64% of female governors (9/14) (p. 26 of WomenCount: Australian Universities 2016).

Bob Meyenn Public Lecture - Albury 2015

I was invited to present the 2015 Bob Meyenn Public Lecture in Albury on 9th September. Bob Meyenn was an inspirational and entrepreneurial Dean of the Faculty of Education at Charles Sturt University for many years. He was instrumental in allowing my transfer from Albury to Bathurst in 2003, and has supported my work in the Faculty of Education ever since. It was a great honour to present this lecture. During the lecture I focused on the competence of children across the world as they learn to communicate. It was wonderful to have many friends, colleagues, and ex-students in the audience.

Philip Hider (acting Dean of Education), Sharynne,
and Bob Meyenn (past Dean of Education)