Higher Degree Research (HDR) students

Higher degree research students (HDR) are wonderful colleagues who bring their experiences and contexts to undertake quality impactful real-world research.

• Congratulations to Cathie Matthews who has completed all of the requirements to graduate with an MPhil this week!

What a joy it is to learn from and give ideas to PhD students. This week has been a wonderful time of discussion with the following PhD students:

• Sarah Bartlett (CSU PhD student supervised by myself and Dr Carolyn Gregoric)
• Anniek van Doornik (UUtrecht PhD student co-supervised by myself) 
• Arifa Rahman (CSU PhD student supervised by Dr Shukla Sikder) 
• Felicity Laurence (2026 PhD student supervised by myself and A/Prof Sarah Verdon)
• Nikki Simone (QUT PhD student visiting CVC and The Treehouse)
• Camilla Porsanger (Nord University PhD student visiting CVC and The Treehouse) 

Sarah B, Sharynne, Carolyn

 

Sharynne, Camilla and Tamara enjoying the Australian sunshine and blue sky

Arifa Rahman

Tamara, Nikki, Sharynne  and Camilla

Anniek and Sharynne looking at CSU PhD students' final chapters

Congratulations to Cathie Matthews - nearly finished

This morning Cathie Matthews and I discussed her examiners' feedback for her Masters of Philosophy. She is close to finalising her thesis for resubmission. Congratulations Cathie.

 

Congratulations Cathie

This afternoon Cathie Matthews received great feedback from her MPhil examiners for her thesis titled "Supporting 2-year-olds’ communication: Collaborations between caregivers, early childhood educators, and health professionals in rural Australia". Congratulations Cathie! I hope you enjoy celebrating this weekend.

 

Congratulations Cathie Matthews

Congratulations Cathie Matthews who submitted her Masters of Philosophy thesis today. Her thesis is titled "Supporting 2-year-olds’ communication : Collaborations between caregivers, early childhood educators, and health professionals in rural Australia". What a huge achievement! Cathie's research was supervised by myself, Julian Grant and Libbey Murray.

Early identification of communication delay by health and education professionals in rural Australia

Over the past two days Cathie Matthews has been in Bathurst working with me on her Masters research. She has undertaken important research about early identification of communication delay by health and education professionals in rural Australia. I have really enjoyed working with her to write up her data collected from early childhood educators, child and family health nurses, caregivers and 2-year-old children.

Congratulations Caitlin on the submission of your DClinDent thesis

Congratulations to Caitlin Hurley who is submitting her thesis titled "The impact of maxillary incisor extractions on children's speech" for her Doctorate of Clinical Dentistry (Paediatric Dentistry)(DClinDent) at the University of Western Australia tomorrow. She will be sharing her work with the following examiners: Prof Nicola Innes (Cardiff), Prof Nigel King (Hong Kong Kong, SAR China), and AProf John Winters (Perth Childrens Hospital, WA). It has a pleasure to be her associate supervisor and to support her important research. 

Congratulations Cathie Matthews - submission of HETI Report

Congratulations to Cathie Matthews who submitted her HETI Report last week. Cathie has been enrolled in the Rural Research Capacity Building Program (RRCBP) https://www.heti.nsw.gov.au/education-and-training/courses-and-programs/rural-research-capacity-building-program 

Her report was titled: Rural health professionals and early childhood education services working together to support 2-year-olds’ communication development in rural New South Wales. 

Here is the abstract: 

Children with speech and language difficulties are at risk for poorer outcomes in literacy, academic success, social-emotional wellbeing, and employment outcomes. Nearly 20% of children are regarded as late talkers. Early identification and intervention are important to increase the likelihood of children communicating successfully now and in the future. The Early Language Identification Measure-Shortened (ELIM-S) has recently been developed and validated in the United Kingdom to support the earlier identification of those at risk of communication delays. The current mixed methods study sought to assess the feasibility and acceptability of use of this early communication tool by caregivers, early childhood staff and speech pathologists with 2-year-old children attending early childhood education centres or child and family health nursing services in one rural city in the Western NSW Local Health District (WNSWLHD). This feasibility study demonstrated that the Early Communication Measure successfully initiated dialogue around 2-year-old’s communication development between caregivers and staff working in early childhood settings in a rural metropolitan city in NSW. Early educators, child and family health nurses and caregivers found the Early Communication Measure to be feasible and acceptable to monitor 2-year-old children’s communication development. It was found to offer better outcomes and detail for staff compared to standard monitoring practices, with a positive outlook for its future use particularly by caregivers and educators. Furthermore, it promoted early and appropriate referrals for speech pathology assessments. This research will inform interdisciplinary collaborative practices across WNSWLHD for supporting young children’s early communication development. Furthermore, results from this pilot study may inform the development of a validation study of this communication tool in Australia.

Cathie's research also forms part of her Masters research at Charles Sturt University and is a pilot work for our collaboration with the Orange Aboriginal Medical Service.

During her research Cathie has been supported by the following institutions and people: 

• Charles Sturt University: Sharynne McLeod, Julian Grant, Libbey Murray
• The University of Sydney School of Rural Health: Georgina Luscombe
• NSW Health Education and Training Institute: Kerith Duncanson

Congratulations Cathie from your proud supervisors!

Speech and teeth: Working with Caitlin in three countries

I am co-supervising Caitlin Hurley's research for her Doctorate of Clinical Dentistry that she is undertaking at the University of Western Australia. Over the past two months we have worked together in three countries: Australia, Austria and New Zealand.

Analysing speech data at The University of Auckland, NZ

Congratulations Caitlin Hurley - Morita Prize for research - 29th International Association of Paediatric Dentistry congress

Congratulations to Caitlin Hurley who was awarded the Morita Prize for research at the 29th International Association of Paediatric Dentistry congress in Maastricht. Her research is quite uniqe as she used her professional expertise in both dentistry and speech pathology by undertaking speech assessments with the children - then extracting their teeth! Here is Caitlin's response to receiving the award:

It was such a surprise to receive the Morita Prize for research at the 29th IAPD congress in Maastricht yesterday. The congress is the largest meeting of paediatric dentistry and was attended by over 1200 delegates representing over 78 countries! They had received over 500 abstracts, and so I was already honoured to have my poster selected to be one of around 30 to be considered for this prize. During the presentation the judges were very interested in the IPA transcription on the poster, and also asked me what's next... we will see! This award really does mean a lot to me, and I know that without yourself and Robert this would not have been possible. I've attached a photo from the opening ceremony, and another with Prof Figen Seymen, the incoming president of the association who presented the award.

(I am intrigued by the trombones and sousaphone at the opening ceremony!)

Planning future research

I was privileged to spend time with DVC-Research Mark Evans, Emeritus Professor Robert Clancy, and Sarah Bartlett yesterday. We spent a number of hours thinking about how to support children and families in rural and regional Australia (as well as non-metropolitan areas around the world), how to undertake high quality research, how to support future researchers (including HDR students) and how to translate research into policy and practice. What an inspiring day.

DVC(Research) Prof Mark Evans, Sarah Bartlett, Emeritus Professor Robert Clancy, Prof Sharynne McLeod