Thesis revisions

I had a lovely meeting with Cathie Matthews today finalising her thesis revisions after examination. One famous examiner from USA recommended no changes! Her thesis is titled "Supporting 2-year-olds’ communication: Collaborations between caregivers, early childhood educators, and health professionals in rural Australia". Congratulations Cathie - nearly there!

Speech Pathology Australia National Conference

Our team is in Perth this week for the Speech Pathology Australia National Conference. Here are our presentations:

1. How can I assess children’s speech in a language I do not speak? Insights from VietSpeech research - Kate Margetson and Sharynne McLeod
2. Assessing the language skills of multilingual Vietnamese-Australian children - Sarah Faulks, Sarah Verdon and Sharynne McLeod
3. Caregivers’ insights into supporting late talkers using Target Word™ Hanen Program® for parents  - Sarah Bartlett and Sharynne McLeod
4. Supporting 2-yearold’s communication: Collaborations between rural health professionals and early childhood education services - Cathie Matthews, Sharynne McLeod, et al.
5. Children Draw Talking: Insights from 200 children from 24 countries - Sharynne McLeod, Carolyn Gregoric, Jessamy Davies, Lysa Dealtry, Laura Delli-Pizzi, Belinda Downey, Sheena Elwick, Suzanne C. Hopf, Nicola Ivory, Holly McAlister, Elizabeth Murray, Azizur Rahman, Shukla Sikder, Van H. Tran, Cherie Zischke, Julian Grant
6. International Association of Communication Sciences and Disorders (IALP): Making global and professional connections - Brian B. Shulman, Sharynne McLeod and Emily Hunt
   

Sharynne presenting Cathie Matthews' research

SLM team at SPA2024 - Sarah F, Kate M, Sharynne, Sarah B, Emily-Jane

Sarah Faulks presenting her honours research

Sarah Bartlett

Kate Margetson introducing the SACHL

Some attendees at the IALP session

IALP president Brian Shulman, Emily Hunt, Sharynne McLeod

Kate Margetson

Sharynne presenting about the Children Draw Talking research

Prosiect Pengwin

Prosiect Pengwin is a large research project being led by Prof Yvonne Wren at Cardiff Metropolitan University and BSLTRU funded by the Welsh Government to create tools to screen children's speech and language development across Wales.  

Here is some information from the Welsh Government written in English: https://www.earlyyears.wales/en/news/prosiect-pengwin-early-years-co-design-panel and Welsh: https://www.earlyyears.wales/cy/newyddion/prosiect-pengwin-panel-cyd-gynhyrchu-blynyddoedd-cynnar 

The Prosiect Pengwin research group is working on behalf of Welsh Government to develop tools and resources that will support health, education and childcare practitioners to identify and support speech, language and communication skills in the early years. The first stage of the project involves creating questionnaires and activities for use by health and early years practitioners to monitor the development of children's speech, language and communication skills and identify when extra help is needed. The aim is to ensure that children who have or are at risk of speech and language disorders are identified and supported well before they reach school.

This morning I attended (virtually) a meeting with 13 members of the team across Wales and England. This is an impressive team of very skilled researchers. The ELIM team https://research.ncl.ac.uk/elim-i/elim-i/elim-itrainingandhandbooks/ (Prof Cristina McKean, Dr Jenna Charlton, Christine Jack) is part of this Prosiect Pengwin team. Cathie Matthews has just trialed the ELIM in Australia as part of her Masters' research with me - and we will present this work at the Speech Pathology Australia National Conference in a few weeks' time.