Intelligibility in 3- and 5-year-olds born with cleft lip and/or palate: Reference data on Intelligibility in Context Scale scores

The following paper has just been published. It was commenced during my Benjamin Meaker Visiting Distinguished Professorship at the University of Bristol.

Davies, A., McLeod, S. & Wren, Y. (2026). Intelligibility in 3- and 5-year-olds born with cleft lip and/or palate: Reference data on Intelligibility in Context Scale scores. The Cleft Palate Craniofacial Journal. https://doi.org/10.1177/10556656261456526

Here is the abstract:

Objective
(a) Provide reference data for the Intelligibility in Context Scale (ICS) for children born with cleft lip and/or palate and (b) compare ICS scores: between cleft types; with typically developing and normative samples; and across ages 3- and 5-year-old children.
Design
Longitudinal prospective cohort study.
Setting
Questionnaire data from the Cleft Collective.
Participants
Three-year-old (n = 928) and 5-year-old children (n = 795) born with cleft lip and/or palate.
Main Outcome Measure(s)
ICS – parent-reported measure using a 5-point Likert scale to indicate how intelligible their child is with seven different communication partners.
Results
Median scores for children born with cleft lip only were higher (4.14, 95% CI = 4.00–4.14 for 3-year-olds; 5.00, 95% CI = 4.29–5.00 for 5-year-olds) than those born with any form of cleft palate (3.71, 95% CI = 3.57–3.86 for 3-year-olds; 4.14, 95% CI = 4.14–4.29 for 5-year-olds). Scores for children born with cleft lip only aligned with studies comprising typically developing children and normative samples, whereas those born with any form of cleft palate did not. Children born with cleft palate and a diagnosed syndrome scored lower than those born with non-syndromic cleft palate. For children who had data at both ages, 75.4% showed improvement over time, 14.3% stayed the same and 10.3% scored lower at age 5.
Conclusion
Reference data are now available for children with the major cleft subtypes which can be used for comparison in clinical settings. These data show how children born with cleft compare with the non-cleft population and change over time.

Survey of the speech intelligibility in children with speech sound disorders in Northern Vietnam

The following article has been published in Vietnamese. It is based on the Masters' thesis of Mrs Hang, supervised by Dr. Ben Pham and myself a few years ago.

Nguyễn Thị Hằng, Phạm Thị Bền, Sharynne McLeod, & Phạm Thị Vấn (2026). Khảo sát tính dễ hiểu lời nói của trẻ có rối loạn âm lời nói ở miền bắc Việt Nam [Survey of the speech intelligibility in children with speech sound disorders in Northern Vietnam]. Tạp chí Y học Việt Nam (Vietnam Medical Journal), 558, số 1/2026, 84-88. https://tapchiyhocvietnam.vn/index.php/vmj/article/view/16928

Here is the English abstract

Objective: This study investigated the speech intelligibility of children aged 4–5 years with speech sound disorders (SSD) in Northern Vietnam, using the Vietnamese Intelligibility in Context Scale (ICS-VN). Methods: A total of 51 children were evaluated through caregiver questionnaires and direct assessments, including the ICS-VN, hearing screening, oromotor assessment (OMA), and the Vietnamese Speech Assessment (VSA). Results & Conclusion: The mean ICS-VN score was 3.6 (SD = 0.6). Familiar listeners rated the children’s speech as more intelligible than unfamiliar listeners. ICS-VN scores were negatively correlated with the age at which the child produced their first meaningful word (r = –0.49, p < 0.001).

 

Translations of the ICS and SPAA-C

This week we have just uploaded a Nepalese translation of the Intelligibility in Context Scale https://www.csu.edu.au/research/multilingual-speech/speech-assessments/ics to the Multilingual children's Speech website.

We also have been contacted by people across the world to translate the SPAA-C into Chinese (Traditional and Simplified) and the ICS into several Indian languages:

Assamese
Bengali
Bodo
Dogri
Kannada
Kashmiri
Konkani
Maithili
Malayalam
Manipuri
Marathi
Odia
Sanskrit
Telugu
Urdu

Our first data have arrived for our research with Catholic Education Tasmania

Today was an exciting day that we have worked for >1 year to achieve. We received the first set of data from Catholic Education Tasmania from 561 4-to-5-year-old children. Hooray! Now we can begin to analyse the data to co-create new pathways to support children with speech sound disorders.

 

Catholic Education Tasmania population study of speech sound disorder

We meet weekly with the Catholic Education Tasmania team (Felicity, Lisa and Udari) regarding our population study of speech sound disorders (SSD). We looked at de-identified data of the Intelligibility in Context Scale from 1,133 4-to 5-year-olds today. 27 control (typically developing) children and many children with suspected SSD have received a DEAP assessment. This is a large and important study. 

Creation of the Intelligibility in Context Scale - Child

This morning Jane McCormack and I met - and created a child version of the Intelligibility in Context Scale by considering all of the work we have done together on the ICS, SPAA-C, Children Draw Talking, and other research listening to children. We will pilot it before using it in research. We have been discussing this for a long time - but this morning we worked out exactly what it should look like :)

Speech and language therapists' insights into severity of speech sound disorders in children for developing the Speech Sound Disorder Severity Construct

Congratulations to Anniek Van Doornik, my PhD student at Utrecht University in The Netherlands, who has just had this paper from her PhD accepted for publication:

Van Doornik, A., Welbie, M., McLeod, S., & Gerrits, E., Terband, H. (2025, in press). Speech and language therapists' insights into severity of speech sound disorders in children for developing the Speech Sound Disorder Severity Construct. International Journal of Language and Communication Disorders.

Abstract
Background: Children with speech sound disorders (SSD) are at higher risk of communication breakdown, but the impact of having an SSD may vary from child to child. Determining severity of SSD helps SLTs to recognise the extent of the problem and to identify and prioritise children who require intervention.
Aims: This study aimed to identify severity factors for SSD in order to develop a multifactorial Speech Sound Disorder Severity Construct (SSDSC) using speech-language therapists’ (SLTs’) views and the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF).
Method: In an explorative five-staged qualitative study, the research question was answered: “How do SLTs determine the severity of speech sound disorders in children?”. A total of 91 SLTs from the Netherlands participated in data collection and analysis. The iterative process included three different qualitative research methodologies (thematic analysis, constructivist grounded theory and content analysis) to ensure validation of the results by means of method triangulation.
Results: SLTs considered 9 themes: intelligibility, speech accuracy, persistence, the child’s perception, impact, communicative participation, concomitant factors, professional point of view, and environmental factors. The themes were summarised in three main severity factors: (I) Speech accuracy, (II) The child’s perception of the impact of their speech, and (III) Intelligibility in communication. Other severity factors were concomitant factors and impact. Expertise and support were identified as facilitators or barriers that may worsen or relieve the severity of SSD.
Conclusions: This study highlights the need for SLTs to rethink how they think about severity as a simplistic construct reflecting only speech accuracy. It is recommended that a broader holistic approach to measuring severity is adopted.

What this paper adds:
What is already known on the subject
Although there are several proposals aiming to define the severity of SSD, the extent to which these align with clinical practice is not well understood. In recent years, speech accuracy and other factors such as intelligibility have been suggested as possible indicators of SSD severity. Flipsen et al (2005) concluded that experienced clinicians evaluated the number, type and consistency of speech errors as well as intelligibility, considering articulatory competence at both the segmental and whole word level when determining severity. Enderby and John (2015) developed ICF-based Therapy Outcome Measures (TOMs), including a TOM for phonological disorder. Although there is evidence in the literature that multiple factors should be considered when determining severity, there is still no clear guidance on this. In this discussion, the perspective of SLTs is an important contribution to the development of a measure of severity, but is lacking in the known literature.  

What this paper adds to existing knowledge
As a first step, this study examines SLT’s perspectives on how they define and measure severity of SSD, and determines how those views align with the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF) in order to develop a severity construct that can be further tested and validated. Using the views of SLTs and the ICF, this qualitative study resulted in the multifactorial Speech Sound Disorder Severity Construct (SSDSC).

What are the potential or actual clinical implications of this work?
The practical experience of SLTs, combined with what is known from the literature, provides insight into the different factors that may contribute to severity of SSD. These factors may be considered in developing a measure of SSD severity in the future.

Tasmanian research planning

It is such a pleasure to collaborate with the team from Catholic Education Tasmania. They are rigorous, responsive, and care for the children in Tasmania. We are planning for our research this year - and are getting closer to finalising the procedures and protocols.

Impact - Intelligibility in Context Scale

The Intelligibility in Context Scale has been used as an outcome measure for the International Consortium of Health Outcomes Measurement (ICHOM) for patients with a cleft lip and/or palate. 

Here is their latest publication: 

Ombashi, S., Kurniawan, M. S., Allori, A., Sharif-Askary, B., Rogers-Vizena, C., Koudstaal, M., Franken, M.-C., Molen, A. B. M. v. d., Mathijssen, I., Klassen, A., & Versnel, S. L. (2023). What is the optimal assessment of speech? A multicentre, international evaluation of speech assessment in 2500 patients with a cleft. BMJ Open, 13(12), e071571. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2023-071571

The analysis of ICS data is really interesting:

• "Moderate correlations were found between PCC and ICS in patients with CP (r=0.64) and in patients with CL(A)P (r=0.5). VPC and ICS had a (negative) weak correlation in patients with CP (r=−0.49) and CL(A)P (r=−0.43)." (p. 4) 
• "All correlations between PROMs were moderate, except for the strong correlation of the SFunction with both the SDistress and the ICS in patients with a CP. The fact that the correlation between the SFunction and SDistress is stronger in patients with CP than in patients with CL(A)P suggests that the visibly different appearance in patients with CL(A)P plays a significant role in SDistress as well; in a social context, looking differently may cause additional or more distress besides having speech problems. This is supported by our finding that the ICS correlated moderately with SFunction, but weakly with SDistress in the CL(A)P group. Parent- reported speech intelligibility correlated higher to children’s self report of their speech function than it did to the speech distress the children themselves experience. In the latter, distress about appearance could be included. This finding suggests that the ICS can give an indication of ‘patient- reported’ SFunction in young children who cannot complete a PROM themselves yet (7 years and younger)." (p. 5)
• "A ceiling effect in ICS outcomes of patients with CP, without clear differences between average scores in patients with CP and CL(A)P, suggests that the group with CP contains a diverse population and severity of the speech problems vary widely. Furthermore, since ICS is not specifically developed for a population with CP±L, it is debatable whether this tool captures the information necessary to point out all relevant speech problems in the patient group.However, exclusion of ICS could mean that a large part of the speech problems in the population with CP would remain undetected. Assessment at 5 and 12 years in patients with both cleft types, which is the current timing in the ICHOM Standard Set, appears therefore appropriate despite the ceiling effect." (pp. 7-8)

West Contra Costa Unified School District K-12 Speech Department webinar

This morning (7-9am) I presented a 2-hour webinar to staff from the West Contra Costa Unified School District K-12 Speech Department titled “Children’s Speech Development”. It was wonderful to speak with such an engaged and informed audience. I am very grateful to Romelda "Dang" Famorcan, MS, CCC-SLP, MHPEd who organised the event. The SLP team at West Contra Costa Unified School District have rich language resources - with team members speaking Spanish, Italian, Swedish, Arabic, Tagalog/Filipino, Punjabi, Urdu and a range of other languages.

Romelda "Dang" Famorcan, MS, CCC-SLP, MHPEd and Sharynne McLeod

Dang invited attendees to write one word in the chat to summarize the session. Here is what they wrote (thank you!)

Engaging, Resourceful, thought-provoking, helpful, wow, Surprising!!, Affirming, informative, Fascinating, enlightening!, Informative!!, illuminating, respectful, impactful, Informative, Engaging speaker, relevant, important!!, Thank you so much!!, Amazing!, spectacular, fascinating, informative, very informative and very culturally-sensitive and responsive

Intelligibility in Context Scale - New research being published across the world

The Intelligibility in Context Scale (ICS) was developed during my ARC Future Fellowship. It has been remarkable to see the number of languages it has been translated into (>60) and the research that has been undertaken across the world. Here are a few recent papers:

• Soriano, J. U., Mahr, T. J., Rathouz, P. J., & Hustad, K. C. (2023). Intelligibility in Context Scale: Growth curves for typically developing English-speaking children between ages 2;6 and 9;11. American Journal of Speech-Language Pathology, 32(5), 2021-2039. https://doi.org/10.1044/2023_AJSLP-22-00392
• Abdulkader, D. M., Washington, K. N., Kokotek, L. E., Al-tuwairqi, A., & Al-tamimi, A. (2023). Intelligibility in Context Scale: Psychometric evidence and implications for Saudi Arabic-English-speaking preschoolers. International Journal of Speech-Language Pathology, Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1080/17549507.2023.2240040 
• Ozbič, M. (2023). Ocenjevalna lestvica razumljivosti otrok kot pripomoček za hitro in zanesljivo oceno otrokove govorne učinkovitosti [Intelligibility in Context Scale as a tool for a quick and reliable assessment of children‘s speech efficiency]. Slovenska pediatrija, 30(2), 66-73. 
• Apon, I., van Leeuwen, N., Allori, A. C., Rogers-Vizena, C. R., Koudstaal, M. J., Wolvius, E. B., Cano, S. J., Klassen, A. F., & Versnel, S. L. (2021). Rasch analysis of patient- and parent-reported outcome measures in the International Consortium for Health Outcomes Measurement Standard Set for Cleft Lip and Palate. Value in Health, 24(3), 404-412. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jval.2020.10.019
• Sakash, A., Mahr, T., & Hustad, K. C. (2021). Validity of parent ratings of speech intelligibility for children with cerebral palsy. Developmental Neurorehabilitation, 24(2), 98-106. https://doi.org/10.1080/17518423.2020.1830447

Figure 3. from Soriano et al. (2023) showing ICS scores by age and question.

 

2022 publications using the Intelligibility in Context Scale

Norming and/or validation of the ICS 

INDONESIA – Natalia, C., Pratomo, H. T. A., & Sarwanto, A. (2022). Speech intelligibility In preschoolers using Indonesian Intelligibility In Context Scale. Jurnal Keterapian Fisik, 7(2), 95–104. https://doi.org/10.37341/jkf.v0i0.373 

 IRAN (PERSIAN/FARSI)– Aghaz, A., Kazemi, Y., Hemmati, E., & Zarifian, T. (2022). Psychometric properties of Persian version of Intelligibility Context Scale in Persian-speaking children. The Scientific Journal of Rehabilitation Medicine, 10(6), 1270-1283. https://doi.org/10.32598/sjrm.10.6.22 

TURKEY – Şanlı, N., & Evci, M. (2022). Bağlam içi anlaşılırlık ölçeğini: iç tutarlılık ve geçerlilik [Intelligibility in Context Scale: Internal consistency and validity]. Dil, Konuşma ve Yutma Araştırmaları Dergisi, 5(1), 1-22. 

VIETNAM – Le, X. T. T., McLeod, S., & Phạm, B. (2022). Consonant accuracy and intelligibility of Southern Vietnamese children. Speech, Language and Hearing, 25(3), 315-324. https://doi.org/10.1080/2050571X.2021.1888195 

ICS with children with speech sound disorders 

HONG KONG (SAR CHINA) – To, C. K. S., McLeod, S., Sam, K. L & Law, T. (2022). To, C. K. S., McLeod, S., Sam, K. L., & Law, T. (2022). Predicting which children will normalize without intervention for speech sound disorders. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, 65(5), 1724-1741. https://doi.org/10.1044/2022_JSLHR-21-00444

ICS with children with childhood apraxia of speech 

ITALY – Bombonato, C., Casalini, C., Pecini, C., Angelucci, G., Vicari, S., Podda, I., Cipriani, P., Chilosi, A. M., & Menghini, D. (2022). Implicit learning in children with childhood apraxia of speech. Research in Developmental Disabilities, 122, 104170. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ridd.2021.104170 

ICS with children with VPI 

Hashemi Hosseinabad, H., Washington, K. N., Boyce, S. E., Silbert, N., & Kummer, A. (2022). Agreements of intelligibility in children with velopharyngeal insufficiency: The relationship between Intelligibility in Context Scale and experimental measures. Folia Phoniatrica et Logopaedica, 74, 17-28. https://doi.org/10.1159/000516537

Predicting which children will normalize without intervention for speech sound disorders

The following manuscript has been accepted for publication:

To, C. K. S., McLeod, S., Sam, K. L & Law, T. (2022, in press). Predicting which children will normalize without intervention for speech sound disorders. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research.

During peer review we received the following very positive comments:

Editor: 

• “We are all enthusiastic about this rigorously conducted work and believe that the topic has important clinical implications and will be of substantial interest to the JSLHR readership” 

Reviewers: 

• “This is one of the most clinically significant and important papers I have read in a while. My impression of this paper is highly positive…”
• “The paper was prepared … with exceptional clarity, as well as a rigorous statistical and quantitative methods.” 
  
• “...this is the nicest paper with the clearest set of impactful results that I have seen in a while. I think it has potential to "make a splash" in the field, and I hope it gets read a lot.” 
• “This is a standout study in terms of quantitative rigor and clinical usefulness and value. The study design is careful and overall very clear. The authors executed the research design carefully and prepared the paper with exceptional clarity, as well as used rigorous statistical and quantitative methods. I am pleased to endorse this paper toward publication in JSLHR.”

Here is the abstract:

Purpose: The speech of some children does not follow a typical normalization trajectory and they develop speech sound disorders (SSD). The current study investigated predictive correlates of speech sound normalization in children who were at risk of SSD. 

Method: A prospective population cohort study of 845 Cantonese-speaking preschoolers was conducted over 2.5 years to examine children (a) who resolved non-adult realizations of consonants (normalized) and (b) those who had persisting speech sound difficulties (did not normalize). From these 845, a sample of 82 participants characterized as having SSD (1.25 SD below the mean in a standardized speech assessment, with a delay in initial consonant acquisition, or with one or more atypical errors) were followed for 2 years at six-month intervals or until the completion of their initial consonant inventory. Data from 43 children who did not receive speech-language pathology services were analysed with survival analysis to model time-to-normalization while controlling for covariates. The target event (outcome) was completion of their initial consonant inventory. 

Results: Under the no-intervention condition, the estimated median time-to-normalization was 6.59 years of age. Children who were more likely to normalize or normalized in a shorter time were stimulable to all errors and more intelligible as rated by caregivers using the Intelligibility in Context Scale. Those who showed atypical error patterns did not necessarily take longer to normalize. Similarly, expressive language ability was not significantly associated with speech normalization. 

Conclusion: Stimulability and intelligibility were more useful prognostic factors of speech normalization when compared to (a)typicality of error patterns and expressive language ability. Children with low intelligibility and poor stimulability and should be prioritized for speech-language pathology services given that their speech errors are less likely to resolve naturally.

Gold standard validation of the Intelligibility in Context Scale

This week an important paper has been published by authors in the US who have validated the Intelligibility in Context Scale (McLeod, Harrison & McCormack, 2012) with the gold standard measure of transcription intelligibility scores. Here is the article and abstract: https://www.mdpi.com/2076-3425/11/11/1540

Soriano, J. U., Olivieri, A., & Hustad, K. C. (2021). Utility of the Intelligibility in Context Scale for predicting speech intelligibility of children with cerebral palsy. Brain Sciences, 11(11), 1540. https://www.mdpi.com/2076-3425/11/11/1540 

The Intelligibility in Context Scale (ICS) is a widely used, efficient tool for describing a child’s speech intelligibility. Few studies have explored the relationship between ICS scores and transcription intelligibility scores, which are the gold standard for clinical measurement. This study examined how well ICS composite scores predicted transcription intelligibility scores among children with cerebral palsy (CP), how well individual questions from the ICS differentially predicted transcription intelligibility scores, and how well the ICS composite scores differentiated between children with and without speech motor impairment. Parents of 48 children with CP, who were approximately 13 years of age, completed the ICS. Ninety-six adult naïve listeners provided orthographic transcriptions of children’s speech. Transcription intelligibility scores were regressed on ICS composite scores and individual item scores. Dysarthria status was regressed on ICS composite scores. Results indicated that ICS composite scores were moderately strong predictors of transcription intelligibility scores. One individual ICS item differentially predicted transcription intelligibility scores, and dysarthria severity influenced how well ICS composite scores differentiated between children with and without speech motor impairment. Findings suggest that the ICS has potential clinical utility for children with CP, especially when used with other objective measures of speech intelligibility.

Intelligibility in 3-year-olds with cleft lip and/or palate using the Intelligibility in Context Scale

The following manuscript has been accepted for publication. 

Seifert, M., Davies, A., Harding, S., McLeod, S., & Wren, Y. (2020, in press December). Intelligibility in 3-year-olds with cleft lip and/or palate using the Intelligibility in Context Scale: Findings from the Cleft Collective Cohort Study. The Cleft Palate-Craniofacial Journal. 

Here is the abstract: 

Objective: To provide comparison data on the Intelligibility in Context Scale (ICS) for a sample of 3-year-old English-speaking children born with any cleft type. 

Design: Questionnaire data from the Cleft Collective Cohort Study were used. Descriptive and inferential statistics were carried out to determine difference according to children’s cleft type and syndromic status. 

Participants: 412 children born with cleft lip and/or palate whose mothers had completed the ICS when their child was 3-years-old. 

Main Outcome Measure(s): Mothers’ rating of their children’s intelligibility using the ICS.

Results: The average ICS score for the total sample was 3.75 (sometimes-usually intelligible) (SD=0.76, 95% CIs=3.68-3.83) out of a possible score of 5 (always intelligible). Children’s speech was reported to be most intelligible to their mothers (M=4.33, SD=0.61, 95% CIs=4.27-4.39) and least intelligible to strangers (M=3.36, SD=1.00, 95% CIs=3.26-3.45). There was strong evidence (p < 0.001) for a difference in intelligibility between children with cleft lip only (n=104, M=4.13, SD=0.62, 95% CIs=4.01-4.25) and children with any form of cleft palate (n=308, M=3.63, SD=0.76, 95% CIs=3.52-3.71). Children born with cleft palate with or without cleft lip and an identified syndrome were rated as less intelligible (n=63, M=3.28, SD=0.85, 95% CIs=3.06-3.49) compared to children who did not have a syndrome (n=245, M=3.72, SD= 0.71, 95% CIs=3.63-3.81). 

Conclusions: These results provide preliminary comparative data for clinical services using the outcome measures recommended by the International Consortium for Health Outcomes Measurement.

2020 UTS Speech Pathology Online SEER Research Symposium

Today I presented an invited speech at the 2020 UTS Speech Pathology Online SEER Research Symposium. My topic was "Children’s Communication Competence Prior to School Entry: Insights from Three Cross-Linguistic "

Here is the official description of the event:

The Inaugural UTS Speech Pathology Research Symposium features 25 short papers about our current research and practice program in the UTS Discipline of Speech Pathology, Master of Speech Pathology course, and PhD Speech and Language Sciences at the Graduate School of Health at UTS, including talks from our clinical industry partners in private practice. This open, online event is free to attend. It's our way of saying "thankyou" to our community of clinicians and research partners, and helping to disseminate the findings of research and practice to the wider community. The program really does provide something for everyone. Come along for as much or as little of the day as you like, but you will need to register to get the link!

 

Multilingual Children's Speech page views in June 2020

The Multilingual Children's Speech website continues to be a resource for the world.
In June 2020 there were 4,857 page views (3,781 unique page views):

• Intelligibility in Context Scale was the most popular (1,869  page views)
• Speech acquisition page the next most popular (997 page views)
• Speech assessments page was next (577 page views)
• Speech Participation  and Activity Assessment  of Children (SPAA-C) the next (364 page views)

Some interesting images from the Google analytics reports are below:

The German Intelligibility in Context Scale: First ICF-CY based assessment of intelligibility in children with speech-sound disorder in Germany

The following paper has just been published:

Neumann, S., Schäuble, L., & McLeod, S. (2020). Skala zur Verständlichkeit im Kontext (ICS-G) - Erstes deutsches ICF-CY-basiertes Assessment zur Verständlichkeit von Kindern mit Aussprachestörungen [The German Intelligibility in Context Scale (ICS-G) - First ICF-CY based assessment of intelligibility in children with speech-sound disorder in Germany]. Forum Logopädie, 34(4), 24-28.

https://www.dbl-ev.de/service/zeitschrift-forum-logopaedie/aktuelle-ausgabe/

Here is the abstract in German and English:

Zusammenfassung
Die Implementierung der ICF-CY nimmt kontinuierlichen Einzug in die sprachtherapeutische Forschung und Praxis. In diesem Rahmen werden ICF-CY-basierte Diagnostikmaterialien und Therapiekonzepte benötigt. Für Kinder mit Aussprachestörungen spielt dabei insbesondere die Einschätzung deren Verständlichkeit eine wichtige Rolle, da diese in direktem Zusammenhang mit erfolgreicher Interaktion sowie kommunikativer Partizipation steht. Die ins Deutsche übersetzte Skala zur Verständlichkeit im Kontext (ICS-G) ist ein Fragebogen für Sorgeberechtigte, der die Verständlichkeit von Kindern mit Aussprachestörungen im sozial-interaktiven Kontext im Kindergarten- bzw. Vorschulalter einzuschätzen vermag. Der vorliegende Beitrag stellt die autorisiert übersetzte und validierte deutsche Version ICS-G ausführlich dar.

Summary
The ICF-CY is implemented more and more in speech and language research and therapy. In this framework, ICF-CY based diagnostic tools and therapy concepts are needed. Especially the assessment of intelligibility is very important regarding children with speech-sound disorder (SSD) given that it is directly associated with successful interaction and communicative participation. The German Intelligibility in Context Scale (ICS-G) is a proxy report questionnaire for caregivers rating the intelligibility in context of preschool children with SSD. The present paper presents the authorized translated and validated German version of the ICS in a detailed manner.

 

Vietnamese Masters students' thesis proposals

Congratulations to all of the 14 Masters students at HO CHI MINH CITY MEDICINE AND PHARMACY UNIVERSITY who submitted their thesis proposals today. Dr. Ben Phạm and I have been supervising Ms Vấn and Ms Hằng. Their thesis titles are as follows:

• Phạm Thị Vấn: Speech Sound Characteristics of Children With Speech Sound Disorders in Northern Vietnam
• Nguyễn Thị Hằng: Speech Intelligibility of Children with Speech Sound Disorders in Northern Vietnam

Next week they will have 15 minutes to present their proposal orally and 30 - 45 minutes to receive feedback from the committee. Then they will be able to begin the research.

First articles of the decade in two journals

I am very pleased to announce that my PhD students' papers have been published as the first papers of the decade (first pages in issue 1) in two different journals:

• Blake, H. L., McLeod, S., & Verdon, S. (2020). Intelligibility Enhancement Assessment and Intervention: A single-case experimental design with two multilingual university students. Clinical Linguistics and Phonetics, 34(1-2), 1-20. https://doi.org/10.1080/02699206.2019.1608470 
• 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

I have had another paper published in 2020 as well:

• McLeod, S. (2020). Intelligibility in Context Scale: Cross-linguistic use, validity, and reliability. Speech, Language and Hearing, 23(1), 9-16. https://doi.org/10.1080/2050571X.2020.1718837