International Association of Communication Sciences and Disorders (IALP) Congress in Malta - 24-28 August 2025

I am in Malta to attend the International Association of Communication Sciences and Disorders Congress (IALP https://ialpglobal.org/). IALP is a Non-State Actor in Official Relations with the World Health Organization (WHO) and fosters professional knowledge and exchange of science and services across 55 affiliated societies in 35 countries around the world representing more than 300,000 members.  

During the congress I received the Honoured Member Award from IALP. Over the past 100 years (since 1924 when IALP began) the website lists only 22 Honoured Members and only one from the Southern Hemisphere (Brazil) (https://ialpglobal.org/individual-members-2/). 

The IALP Congress is attended by over 550 people from 58 countries offering 4 keynotes, over 90 sessions (with many papers per session), and 150 posters. One of the keynote speakers at IALP is Dr Antony Duttine, Technical Lead (Rehabilitation), World Health Organization, Switzerland "Telling the Story of Rehabilitation in a Changing World".

 Prof Wiebke Scharff Rethfeldt (IALP Vice President), Dr Antony Duttine (WHO), Prof Sharynne McLeod (CSU)

I have chaired a session and Dr Helen L. Blake and I have presented a paper titled "Unlocking global knowledge γνώση, 认识, إدراك, דַעַת, ज्ञान about children’s speech published by multilingual researchers".  We were honoured to receive this email on acceptance of our paper:

On behalf of the Scientific Committee of the 33rd World Congress of the IALP, we are delighted to inform you that your abstract, titled "Unlocking global knowledge about children’s speech published by multilingual researchers," has been accepted as an Oral Presentation. The Committee would like to commend you on your abstract, which scored among the highest of the abstracts submitted.

I have also attended the IALP Child Speech Committee meeting on Sunday.

IALP Child Speech Committee

The Congress is a fantastic time of networking, learning, and planning new research and opportunities. 

IALP Child Speech Committee meeting - Helen Grech (Malta), Krisztina Zjado (Hungary), Carol To (Hong Kong, SAR China), Joanne Cleland (UK), Sharynne McLeod (Australia)

IALP President, President Elect and Executive Committee Members

Sharynne, Egill (Iceland), Pam Enderby (UK), Carol Westby (USA)

IALP centenary celebrations in Vienna

We were very honoured to have been invited to present a paper at the centenary celebrations of the International Association of Communication Sciences and Disorders (IALP) in Vienna https://ialp-org.com/event/9853/.

"President Dr. Brian Shulman, Past President Prof. Pamela Enderby, Vice-President Prof. Scharff Rethfeldt and CEO Vanessa Ebejer are inviting you to a special event between 27 and 29 June, 2024. IALP will host a Centennial Composium in Vienna, Austria, which is the cradle of logopedics and phoniatrics and the venue where IALP was founded. To celebrate its 100th Anniversary (1924-2024), the International Association of Communication Sciences and Disorders (IALP) is delighted to announce its forthcoming Composium entitled Contemporary Perspectives in Communication Sciences and Disorders... We look forward to celebrating this special anniversary with you!" https://ialp-org.com/event/9853

• Our session is titled: Multilingual Speech Development and Disorders - Helen Grech, Sharynne McLeod, Helen L. Blake, and Kate Margetson.
• Our presentation is titled "A contemporary perspective of children's speech development in languages of the world" - Sharynne McLeod, Helen L. Blake, and Kate Margetson. We are unable to attend - so have submitted a recording.
  

Tweets from IALP during our presentation

My colleague Prof Lindy McAllister sent this photograph from the event in Vienna.

Here is the full program

International Association of Communication Sciences and Disorders (IALP) Child Speech Committee

Tonight we had a meeting of the International Association of Communication Sciences and Disorders (IALP) Child Speech Committee. Members are from Malta, Hungary, Hong Kong SAR China, Iceland, Germany, Canada, Scotland UK, and Australia. I was the Chair of this committee during 2023, and now am a consultant on the committee. Prof Helen Grech is now the Chair. We are continuing the a focus on multilingual children's speech in our presentations and projects as we prepare for the centenary celebrations of IALP. 

https://ialp-org.com/child-speech/

Special issue on Speech Sound Disorders in International Journal of Language & Communication Disorders

Over the past few years in my role on the Child Speech Committee of IALP I have initiated a discussion about terminology surrounding "speech sound disorders". This has resulted in a special issue on speech sound disorders that will soon be published in International Journal of Language & Communication Disorders. Here are the papers that have already been published in early view:

• Considerations of dialect on the identification of speech sound disorder in Vietnamese‐speaking children - Ben Phạm & Sharynne McLeod - https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/1460-6984.12992 
• Speech sound disorder or DLD (phonology)? Towards a consensus agreement on terminology - Helen Stringer, Joanne Cleland, Yvonne Wren, Rachel Rees, Pam Williams - https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/1460-6984.12989
• How differences in anatomy and physiology and other aetiology affect the way we label and describe speech in individuals with cleft lip and palate - Valerie J. Pereira &  Debbie Sell - https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/1460-6984.12946
  

Considerations of dialect on the identification of speech sound disorder in Vietnamese-speaking children

The following manuscript has been accepted for publication in a special issue regarding terminology for children with speech sound disorder that was initiated by Prof Yvonne Wren as chair of the Child Speech Committee of the International Association of Logopedics and Phoniatrics. 

Phạm, B. & McLeod, S. (2023, accepted November). Considerations of dialect on the identification of speech sound disorder in Vietnamese-speaking children. International Journal of Language and Communication Disorders. 

Here is the abstract: 

Background. The dialect spoken by children influences diagnostic decision-making regarding identification and severity of speech sound disorder. 

Aims. The primary objective was to review papers that examined the influence of dialect on the identification of speech sound disorder in Vietnamese-speaking children. 

Methods: Five studies of monolingual and multilingual Vietnamese-speaking children living in Vietnam and Australia were reviewed to examine the influence of dialect on assessment and analysis children’s speech. The main Vietnamese dialects (Standard, Northern, Central, Southern) differ in the production of consonants, vowels, and tones. 

Main Contribution. Most speech assessments define correct production using the standard dialect of a language. Insights from recent studies of Vietnamese provide recommendations for also considering dialect in diagnostic decision-making. Firstly, we recommend adding column(s) to the assessment score sheet that includes the dialectal variants spoken by adults in the child’s family or community. Secondly, calculate accuracy of production twice, based on the standard form and dialectal form. Thirdly, report percentage of consonants correct – standard (PCC-S) and percentage of consonants correct – dialect (PCC-D). 

Conclusions. Diagnostic decision-making is influenced by dialectal variation in children’s speech, so speech and language therapists (SLTs) need to compare standard and dialectal productions when undertaking assessments, analysis, and diagnostic decision-making.

IALP Child Speech session - "Children’s speech development across the world"

At the World Congress of the International Association of Communication Sciences and Disorders (IALP) in Auckland, New Zealand, Helen Blake and I coordinated a wonderful panel titled "Children’s speech development across the world" consisting of 13 presentations (8 live and 5 online). 

1. Children’s speech development in 70+ languages and dialects Sharynne McLeod, Helen L. Blake, Australia 
2. Fiji English children’s speech development Holly McAlister, Australia; Suzanne Hopf, Paul A. Geraghty, Fiji; Sharynne McLeod, Australia 
3. Māori children’s speech development Elaine Ballard, Waimirirangi Andrews, New Zealand 
4. Samoan children’s speech development Elaine Ballard, Ina Toaetolu-Fautua, New Zealand 
5. Vietnamese + English children’s speech development Kate Margetson, Sharynne McLeod, Sarah Verdon, Van H. Tran, Australia; Ben Phạm, Vietnam 
6. Canadian French children’s speech development Susan Rvachew, Andrea MacLeod, Daniel Bérubé, Canada; Francoise Brosseau-Lapré, USA 
7. Hungarian children’s speech development Krisztina Zajdó, Hungary 
8. Peruvian Spanish children’s speech development Chelsea Sommer, USA; Evelyn Cáceres Nano, Peru; Tanya Flores, USA; and Delia Delgado Maldonado, Peru 
9. Kuwaiti Arabic children’s speech development Hadeel Ayyad, Shaima AlQattan, Kuwait; Barbara May Bernhardt, Canada 
10. Cantonese children’s speech development (recording) Carol Kit Sum To, Pamela Cheung, Hong Kong SAR China 
11. Danish children’s speech development (recording) Marit Carolin Clausen, Denmark 
12. Finnish children’s speech development (recording) Sari Kunnari, Tuula Savinainen-Makkonen, Katri Saaristo-Helin, Anna-Leena Martikainen, Finland 
13. Maltese children’s speech development (recording) Helen Grech, Malta

We announced our YouTube channel with recordings of the presentations. This will be systematically updated with an official launch in 2024: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLRXcSAl_dA7arRMrE0qdxLuzGChY1LgY2

Thank you to the amazing authors who presented their languages and research so concisely yet comprehensively and the wonderful collegiality amongst nations.

Maatua Rukingi provided a special Māori welcome and closing to our session

A very special thank you to Maatua Rukingi who conducted the Māori opening and closing of the session facilitated by Waimirirangi Andrews and Elaine Ballard.

Ina Toaetolu-Fautua, Elaine Ballard, Maatua Rukingi, Waimirirangi Andrews, New Zealand

  The audience was invited to consider the following questions:

• What are the common threads you noticed?
• Are there any surprises (AHA! moments)?
• What are general trends across languages? How many languages follow universal trends and what languages go against those trends?
• What will be your takeaway message for families?
• What will be your takeaway message (clinical implications) for SLPs/educators/other professionals?
• What theories does this speak to?

 

 

Packed room - with a very engaged audience

Daniel Bérubé - Canadian French

Dr Chelsea Sommer - Peruvian Spanish

Dr Krisztina Zajdó - Hungarian

Kate Margetson - Vietnamese + English

Holly McAlister - Fiji English

Sharynne and Toby Macrea - NZ English

IALP Executive Board meeting

Today the Exceutive Board of the International Association of Communication Sciences and Disorders (IALP) in Auckland, New Zealand ahead of the congress that will be held all week. It was wonderful to met with colleagues, to represent the Child Speech Committee as Chair, and to discuss many issues relating to  professionals and people who are impacted by speech, language, communication, swallowing disorders.

IALP Executive Board meeting - Saturday

IALP Committee Chairs meeting - Sunday afternoon

IALP Board Members/Committee Chairs were thanked at the Opening Ceremony

Peer review for 32nd World Congress of the IALP 2023

I have just reviewed nine abstracts for the 32nd World Congress of the International Association of Communication Sciences and Disorders (IALP) to be held in Auckland, New Zealand in August 2023. There were some really good abstracts - I look forward to attending these papers in a few months' time.

IALP's new book: Addressing communication disorders in unserved and underserved populations

The following book has just been published to celebrate the centenary of IALP: 

Levey. S. & Enderby, P. (Eds.). Addressing communication disorders in unserved and underserved populations. J&R Press. 

We wrote the following chapters 

Chapter 8: Phạm, B., McLeod, S. & Verdon, S., Margetson, K. & Tran, V. H. (2022). Supporting the communication of underserved children in Vietnam. In S. Levey & P. Enderby & (Eds.). Addressing communication disorders in unserved and underserved populations (pp. 73-83). J&R Press. 

Chapter 10: Grech, H., Wren, Y., Pascoe, M., & McLeod, S. & Hopf, S. (2022). Speech sound disorders in underserved or unserved populations. In S. Levey & P. Enderby & (Eds.). Addressing communication disorders in unserved and underserved populations. J&R Press. 

 

Here is the description of the book on the publisher's website (https://www.jr-press.co.uk/the-unserved.html#):

The International Association of Logopaedics and Phoniatrics (IALP), now called The International Association of Communication Sciences and Disorders, was established in 1924. Its objective is to bring together professionals to promote research and clinical practice to support the needs of those with communication and swallowing disorders who lack health and other basic services. The Unserved, authored by members of the Association, celebrates 100 years of the IALP by presenting ideas to assist all those who work with children and adults who have difficulty in communicating or swallowing in order to improve services for unserved and underserved communities. It offers strategies to address disorders and conditions that affect many areas of everyday life and which are exacerbated by lack of adequate health, education and social services.

IALP Child Speech Committee - Thank you to our outgoing chair

Tonight we held a meeting of the Child Speech Committee of IALP. On the agenda was discussion of 

• the success of the Speech Sound Disorders Panel Series that held in Oct, Dec, Feb and April and the special issue of IJLCD that will profile the presentations
  
• future planning for new Panels addressing SSD and multilingualism
• a new UK study to consider core outcomes and minimal datasets for children with SSD
• committee membership.

We thanked our oustanding chair, A/Prof Yvonne Wren who has lead the committee so capably and has organised excellent projects including the special issue of FPL on Transcription and the SSD Panel Series. 

The committee has proposed that I be the new chair until the IALP convention in New Zealand in 2023, then Helen Grech take over as chair.

IALP Child Speech Committee Online Panel Series - SSD and speech difference in diverse communities

Tonight (11pm - 12:30am) was the final IALP Child Speech Committee Online Panel Series 2021- 2022

Panel 4 - SSD and speech difference in diverse communities 

Available here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7pG8wPr-3Sw

Panel Speakers: 

• Dr Annette Fox Boyer, University of Lubeck 
• Dr Yolanda Holt, East Carolina University 
• Dr Ben Pham, Hanoi National University of Education 

About this panel: For many years we have debated terminology for describing the needs of children with communication impairment across the globe. Researchers, specialists, clinicians, parents and individuals with lived experience of the conditions have contributed to these discussions. The IALP Child Speech Committee have organised a series of panel meetings to discuss the overlap and distinctions between the label ‘Speech Sound Disorder’ and other closely related conditions. We invite you to join these meetings which will consist of short presentations by key figures in the field. You will have an opportunity to submit questions which will be considered by the panel on the day. In this fourth panel, invited speakers Dr Annette Fox-Boyer, Dr Yolanda Holt and Dr Ben Pham will discuss how SSD differs from speech difference - but also how this varies for different communities. For example, what may be considered a disordered feature of speech production for one person may be considered a difference in speech production for another.

IALP Child Speech Committee Online Panel Series3: SSD and Cleft Palate

Tonight, the third IALP Child Speech Committee Online Panel Series 2021-2022 was held online. The topic was: SSD and Cleft Palate - How differences in anatomy and physiology affect the way we label and describe SSD in children? 

There were 176 watching 

The Panel speakers were: 

• Dr Valerie Pereira, Chinese University of Hong Kong 
• Dr Lucy Southby, Cleft.NET.East, Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust & University of Bristol, UK 
• Associate Professor Yvonne Wren, Chair, IALP Child Speech Committee & Bristol Speech and Language Therapy Research Unit 

About this event (from IALP)

For many years we have debated terminology for describing the needs of children with communication impairment across the globe. Researchers, specialists, clinicians, parents and individuals with lived experience of the conditions have contributed to these discussions. The IALP Child Speech Committee have organised a series of panel meetings to discuss the overlap and distinctions between the label ‘Speech Sound Disorder’ and other closely related conditions. These meetings consist of short presentations by key figures in the field.  The meetings  take place virtually in October and December 2021 and February and April 2022. In this third panel meeting, invited speakers Dr Valerie Pereira and Dr Lucy Southby will discuss how differences in anatomy and physiology affect how we label SSD, which in turn affects our management. Twitter #SSDCP @IALP_Global 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZgAleRDG9zs

https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/ialp-child-speech-committee-panel-series-2021-2022-panel-3-ssd-and-cleft-tickets-238335486857

 (I am the Deputy Chair of the  IALP Child Speech Committee)

IALP Child Speech Committee Meeting

Tonight (9pm for me to accommodate everyone's time zones) we held the Child Spech Committee Meeting chaired by Yvonne Wren (UK) (I am the deputy chair of the committee). We discussed the upcoming panel series titled "What's in a name" and the next panel series based on Speech Sound Disorders and Multilingualism.  There will be a special issue of the International Journal of Language and Communication Disorders on Terminology in Speech Sound Disorders following on from these Panels. We also discussed the three chapters our committee has contributed to the book for the Task for on Underservcd and Unserved Populations, the 2023 Conference to be held in New Zealand and the Centenary Year of IALP in 2024.

IALP Child Speech Committee Members are:

• Yvonne Wren (UK): Chair
• Sharynne McLeod (Australia): Deputy Chair
• Carol To: Hong Kong SAR China
• Thora Masdottir: Iceland
• Michelle Pascoe: South Africa
• Aileen Wright: Ireland
• Helen Grech: Malta
• Annette Fox-Boyer: Germany
• Susan Rvachew: Canada
  
• Ben Pham: Vietnam
• Sarah Verdon: Australia
  

IALP Child Speech Committee Meeting

Tonight  will attend the IALP Child Speech Committee Meeting. It is truely an international committee. Here are the timezones for the meeting: 

• Montréal, Canada Mon, 25 Jan 2021 at 06:00 EST 
• London, United Kingdom Mon, 25 Jan 2021 at 11:00 GMT 
• Reykjavik, Iceland Mon, 25 Jan 2021 at 11:00 GMT 
• Cork, Ireland Mon, 25 Jan 2021 at 11:00 GMT 
• Valletta, Malta Mon, 25 Jan 2021 at 12:00 CET 
• Bonn, Germany Mon, 25 Jan 2021 at 12:00 CET 
• Cape Town, South Africa Mon, 25 Jan 2021 at 13:00 SAST 
• Kuwait City, Kuwait Mon, 25 Jan 2021 at 14:00 AST 
• Hanoi, Vietnam Mon, 25 Jan 2021 at 18:00 ICT 
• Hong Kong, Hong Kong Mon, 25 Jan 2021 at 19:00 HKT 
• Sydney, Australia Mon, 25 Jan 2021 at 22:00 AEDT 

One important announcement is that the IALP conference in New Zealand has been moved to 19-24 August 2023.

Book chapter proposal submission "Supporting communication with underserved children: A case study of Viet Nam"

 Today Dr Ben Pham, Dr Sarah Verdon and I wrote a book chapter proposal titled "Supporting communication with underserved children: A case study of Viet Nam" to be considered for submission to a new book being organised by the Task Force on Underserved and Underserved Populations for IALP (International Association of Communication Sciences and Disorders).

Special issue: Transcription of Children's Speech

Over the past couple of years, Yvonne Wren, Sarah Verdon and I have been editing a special issue of Folia Phoniatrica et Logopedia on the topic of "Transcription of Children's Speech". We are pleased to announce it has just been published. It can be found here (https://www.karger.com/Journal/Issue/278480) and includes excellent papers from authors across the world (Canada, South Africa, UK, Ireland, US, Australia, and Vietnam). We undertook this task as part of being on the Child Speech Committee of the International Association of Logopedics and Phoniatrics (IALP).

Special topic issue of Folia Phoniatrica et Logopaedica: Transcription of Children’s Speech

In our roles on the Child Speech Committee of the International Association of Logopedics and Phoniatrics (IALP), Yvonne Wren, Sarah Verdon and I have been guest editors of a special topic issue of Folia Phoniatrica et Logopaedica titled Transcription of Children’s Speech. This week the entire issue has been finalised by the editor-in-chief Mike Robb and is ready for publication.
Here are the titles of the included papers:

1. Phonetic Transcription for Speech-Language Pathology in the 21st Century 
2. An Alternative Approach to Measuring Reliability of Transcription in Children’s Speech Samples: Extending the Concept of Near Functional Equivalence 
3. Transcription of Vietnamese Adults’ and Children’s Consonants by English-Speaking Speech-Language Pathologists 
4. Transcribing and Transforming: Towards Inclusive, Multilingual Child Speech Training for South African Speech-Language Therapy Students 
5. The Impact of Real-Time Articulatory Information on Phonetic Transcription: Ultrasound-Aided Transcription in Cleft Lip and Palate Speech 
6. Use of Transcription when Assessing Children’s Speech: Australian Speech-Language Pathologists’ Practices, Challenges, and Facilitators 
7. Percent Consonant Correct as an Outcome Measure for Cleft Speech in an Intervention Study
8.  Protocol for the Connected Speech Transcription of Children with Speech Disorders: An Example from Childhood Apraxia of Speech

Planning for the 2021 composium on multilingualism and children's speech

Tonight two IALP committees (Multilingualism and Multiculturalism; and Child Speech) had a meeting to plan a combined composium to be held in South Africa in August 2021. It is going to be an exciting event.

Yvonne Wren (UK), Sharon Moonsamy and Michelle Pascoe (South Africa)
and Sharynne McLeod (Australia)

International Association of Logopedics and Phoniatrics (IALP) World Congress in Taiwan

This week (18-22 August, 2019) is the 31st World Congress of the International Association of Logopedics and Phoniatrics (IALP) in Taipei, Taiwan (http://www.ialptaipei2019.org/). IALP is auspiced by the World Health Organization, and most professional associations across the world that are associated with speech, language and hearing attend. The 2019 Congress has been attended by 961 delegates from 46 countries. 2024 will be the 100th anniversary of IALP.

I am the deputy chair of the IALP Child Speech committee. Dr Yvonne Wren, the chair, is unable to attend, so I have chaired our tri-annual meeting, and presented and chaired sessions on behalf of the committee. I also represented Speech Pathology Australia in the voting during the General Assembly.

Our Speech-Language-Multilingualism team are presenting the following papers:

1. Cronin, A., McLeod, S. & Verdon, S. (2019, August). Holistic assessment of young children with cleft lip and palate using the ICF-CY 
2. McLeod, S. (2019) Transcription of adults’ and children’s speech when you don’t speak their language 
3. McLeod, S., Verdon, S., Wang, C., & Tran, V. H. (2019) Factors supporting language maintenance amongst the Vietnamese community in Australia 
4. Pham, B. & McLeod, S. (2019, August) Assessing Vietnamese children's intelligibility and speech sounds 
5. Pham, B. & McLeod, S. (2019, August) Transcription of tone. 
6. Wren, Y. (presented by S. McLeod) Place of automatic speech recognition for assessing speech disorders. 
7. Tran, V. H., Verdon, S., McLeod, S., & Wang, C. (2019, August). Maintaining children’s home languages to support communicative participation (URL below)
8. http://miceposter.com/poster/display_poster/710

IALP group photo (sourced from IALP's Facebook page)
More IALP photos are here: https://www.facebook.com/pg/IALP-Taipei-2019-1378164912312556/photos/?ref=page_internal

The conference venue (left) near the East Gate (right)

IALP Child Speech Committee Meeting (Susan Rvachew, Helen Grech, Sharynne McLeod, Sarah and Sadie Verdon) (unfortunately 8 members of our committee were unable to attend)

Belinda Hill (Vice President, Speech Pathology Australia) bearing the Australian flag at the opening flag ceremony

Australians at IALP in Taiwan

Sadie and Ben Pham