Index for The Oxford Handbook of Speech Development in Languages of the World

The Oxford Handbook of Speech Development in Languages of the World has 80 chapters and is over 1500 pages. Most of the chapters are structured around a template to support comparisons across languages. Creating an index for the Handbook is a large task requiring attention to detail and a lot of pattern matching. I am so pleased that Wiebke Freese has worked with the template to create the index for chapters 6-80. Wiebke is visiting the Children's Voices Centre during February and is a PhD student at the University of Lubeck (Universität zu Lübeck), Germany. Her supervisor, Prof Annette Fox-Boyer co-authored the chapter on German speech development. Wiebke said she was surprised and impressed that there is so much research about children's speech across the world. Thanks Wiebke for supporting children's speech - you are a superstar!

Wiebke Freese working in The Beehive at CSU

Discussing the index with Dr Helen L. Blake and the CSU copyeditor Dr Mark Filmer

Sarah Masso in Germany

It was really lovely to catch up with Dr Sarah Masso in Germany this week. She is working on her Humbolt Fellowship with Dr Annette Fox-Boyer.

Congratulations Dr Sarah Masso - Humboldt Scholar

This month, Dr Sarah Masso begins as a Humboldt Scholar to work with Prof. Dr. Annette Baumgärtner in the Medizinische Fakultät, Universität zu Lübeck, Lübeck, Germany. Congratulations Sarah!

International Composium on Communication Disorders in Multilingual-Multicultural Populations

Between the 24th and 25th August 2017, the 5th International Composium on Communication Disorders in Multilingual-Multicultural Populations of the International Association of Logopedics and Phoniatrics (IALP) is being held at the City University of Applied Sciences Bremen (HSB) in Bremen, Germany. Helen Blake, Sarah Verdon and Kate Crowe are attending.

Franklin, Sarah, Helen and Kate in Bremen

Their presentations are:

• Blake, H. L., Bennetts-Kneebone, L., & McLeod, S. - Humanitarian Migrants’ English Language Proficiency, Self-sufficiency and Integration 
• Crowe, K., McLeod, S. & Carty, B. - Multilingual Deaf and Hard-of-hearing Learners: Languages, Choices, and Outcomes 
• Verdon, S. - Pathways towards Cultural Competence: The Efficacy of Professional Development Workshops in Creating Positive and Sustained Changes to Practice 
• Verdon, S. & Zeidler, D. - Supporting Indigenous Children’s Early Communication Development through the Co-Creation of Community-Led Services

The German Intelligibility in Context Scale (ICS-G): Reliability and validity evidence

Congratulations to Dr Sandra Neumann and colleagues in Germany who have just had the following article accepted for publication:
Neumann, S., Rietz, C. & Stenneken, P. (2016, in press). The German Intelligibility in Context Scale (ICS-G): Reliability and validity evidence. International Journal of Language and Communication Disorders.
Here is the abstract:

Background: In 2012 the Intelligibility in Context Scale (ICS) was published as a parent-report screening assessment that considers parents’ perceptions of their children’s functional intelligibility with a range of communication partners that differ in levels of authority and familiarity in real life situations. To date, the ICS has been translated into 60 languages (including German).
Aims: The purpose of this study was to evaluate the psychometric properties of the German translation of the ICS, especially its reliability and validity, using four objective measures of speech sound disorder severity: (a), percentage of consonants correct (PCC), (b) percentage of initial consonants correct (PICC), (c) percentage of vowels correct (PVC) and (d) percentage of phonemes correct (PPC).
Methods & Procedures: Children who were typically developing (TD) and children with speech sound disorder (SSD) (N = 181; 90 males, 81 females; mean age 4.18 years, SD = 0.79 years, range 3;0–5;11 years) were recruited through 13 kindergartens and 15 speech-language pathologists (SLPs) in Germany. All children’s parents completed the ICS-G. To get insight into the severity of SSD, children’s speech skills were assessed with the PLAKSS-II (n = 30). For the analysis of test-retest reliability the ICS-G was re-administered with a sub-sample of parents (n = 36) after one week.
Outcomes & Results: The ICS-G had high internal consistency (α = .95, p < .001) and high test-retest-reliability (r = .998, p < .001). The ICS-G total scores and item scores for both samples showed significant correlations, indicating good construct validity. Analyses revealed low but significant correlations with external factors (e.g. age, social class). Criterion validity was established through significant correlations between the ICS-G and scores for PCC (r = .43), PICC (r = .43), PVC (r = .62) and PPC (r = .47). The discriminatory ability of the ICS-G was indicated by significantly higher mean scores for the TD group (M = 4.49, SD = 0.47) than the SSD group (M = 3.97, SD = 0.63).
Conclusions & Implications: The overall good psychometric properties of the ICS-G support its use by SLPs for clinical and research purposes with German-speaking children.

Discussion about future aspriations for the ICS

Skype conversation about the ICS

Last night Anniek van Doornik- van der Zee and Dr Hayo Terband from The Netherlands, Dr Annette Fox-Boyer and Dr Sandra Neumann from Germany and I discussed future aspirations for the Intelligibility in Context Scale (ICS), including research projects undertaken in each of our countries.

German publication about the IEPMCS position paper

The following journal article has just been published
Neumann, S., Meinusch, M., Verdon, S. & McLeod, S. (2016) Mehrsprachige Kinder mit Aussprachestörung: Internationales Positionspapier [Multilingual children with speech sound disorder: International position paper], Logos, – Fachzeitschrift für akademische Sprachtherapie und Logopädie, 3, 164-175 doi: 10.7345/prolog-1603165

It is available here and here.
The paper is a result of the collaboration with colleagues in Germany to describe the development and application of the position paper developed by the International Expert Panel on Multilingual Children’s Speech. Here is the English version of the abstract:

Some children have speech sound disorders (SSD) regardless of whether they speak one, two, or multiple languages. Speech-language pathologists (SLPs) across the world have indicated that they may not have adequate skills and resources to provide appropriate care for multilingual children with speech sound disorders. This paper presents the first international position paper for working with multilingual children with SSD (IEPMCS, 2012). The position paper aims to provide direction and practical strategies for SLPs and related professionals working with children who are multilingual and/ or multicultural, and to inform governments and policy makers in health care systems to provide optimal care internationally. The position paper was developed 2012 in a five-step procedure by the International Expert Panel on Multilingual Children’s Speech/IEPMCS) comprising 57 researchers of speech-language pathology during face-to-face discussion (with 14 members) and additional online-discussions with additional participants. A position paper of 5 pages was published, that incorporates the components of the ICF-CY and reflects the following contents: definitions, objectives in the framework of the ICF-CY (WHO, 2007), identified challenges to provide culturally competent and evidence-based services to multilingual children with speech sound disorders and recommended best practice. The current position paper gives Germany guidance for best practice when working with children with SSD and their parents in a culturally and linguistically appropriate way. To implement the paper in research and practice will be an important goal for the future.

Mehrsprachige Kinder mit Aussprachestörung: Internationales Positionspapier [Multilingual children with speech sound disorder: International position paper]

The following article has been accepted for publication and is a result of collaboration with Dr. Sandra Neumann from the Universität zu Köln (University of Cologne) in Germany.

Neumann, S., Meinusch, M., Verdon, S. & McLeod, S. (2016, in press) Mehrsprachige Kinder mit Aussprachestörung: Internationales Positionspapier [Multilingual children with speech sound disorder: International position paper], Logos. doi: 10.7345/prolog-1602084.

Here is the English version of the abstract:

Some children have speech sound disorders (SSD) regardless of whether they speak one, two, or multiple languages. Speech-language pathologists (SLPs) across the world have indicated that they may not have adequate skills and resources to provide appropriate care for multilingual children with speech sound disorders.

This paper presents the first international position paper for working with multilingual children with SSD (IEPMCS, 2012). The position paper aims to provide direction and practical strategies for SLPs and related professionals working with children who are multilingual and/or multicultural, and to inform governments and policy makers in health care systems to provide optimal care internationally.

The position paper was developed in a five-step procedure by the International Expert Panel on Multilingual Children’s Speech/IEPMCS) comprising 57 researchers of speech-language pathology during face-to-face discussion (with 14 members) and additional online-discussions with additional participants.

A position paper of 5 pages was published, that incorporates the components of the ICF-CY and reflects the following contents: definitions, objectives in the framework of the ICF-CY (WHO, 2007), identified challenges to provide culturally competent and evidence-based services to multilingual children with speech sound disorders and recommended best practice.

The current position paper gives Germany guidance for best practice when working with children with SSD and their parents in a culturally and linguistically appropriate way. To implement the paper in research and practice will be an important goal for the future.