Advances in Communication and Swallowing

Today I accepted an invitation to be an editorial board member of Advances in Communication and Swallowing, the academic journal affiliated with the Irish Association of Speech and Language Therapists (IASLT) to be launched later in 2021. Dr Julie Regan and Dr Irene P.Walsh are the new Editors-in-Chief.

Happy St Patrick's Day

During 2016 I posted a St Patrick's day wish here. Later in 2016 I had the opportunity to visit Ireland and Northern Ireland and experience their generosity and hospitality. Some posts from my adventures and research with my Irish colleagues are here (Ireland) and here (Northern Ireland).
My colleague has now sent the following blessing for 2017:

May the road rise up to meet you,

May the wind be always at your back,

May the sun shine warm upon your face,

The rains fall soft upon your fields.

International Expert Panel meeting in Dublin

A few members of the International Expert Panel on Multilingual Children's Speech were available during the IALP congress in Dublin to continue discussions about writing a tutorial to support SLPs to provide speech intervention for children who do not speak the same languages as them. New ideas were added to the points that were raised at our meeting in Halifax during June. The next step is to collate the excellent suggestions and invite the online panel members to contribute to the discussion.

Dr Carol Westby (US), Dr Mirjam Blumenthal (The Netherlands) and Sharynne

30th World Congress of the International Association of Logopedics and Phoniatrics (IALP)

This week over 1000 participants from 53 countries met in Dublin for the 30th World Congress of IALP.  The congress opened with a fantastic session including a presentation from Declan Murphy, a lecturer at NUI Galway who has Down Syndrome. He explained “speech is my Everest” and stated that “I believe that communication is a human right”. His speech was inspiring and received a standing ovation. Declan’s speech was followed by Move4 Parkinson’s, a choir made up of people with Parkinson’s disease, their friends and family. Their rendition of Roar again had people cheering on their feet.

Declan Murphy presenting his inspiring opening address

There has been an emphasis on the World Health Organization’s initiatives, and I was invited to present the first of eight 30 minute papers on the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health.

Presenters in the WHO sessions on the ICF sponsored by the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association

Over the week, my students, colleagues and I have presented the following papers:

McLeod, S. - Description of the ICF Framework. Invited presentation.

McLeod, S., Verdon, S., & International Expert Panel on Multilingual Children’s Speech -  Recommendations for the assessment of multilingual children’s speech.

McLeod, S., Baker, E., McCormack, J., Wren, Y., Roulstone, S., Crowe, K. & Masso, S. - Sound Start Study: A community-based randomized controlled trial of Phoneme Factory Sound Sorter.

Crowe, K., Cumming, T., McCormack, J., McLeod, S., Masso, S., Baker, E., Wren, Y., Roulstone, S. - Sound Start Study: Early childhood educators' experiences of implementing Phoneme Factory Sound Sorter.

Verdon, S., McLeod, S. & Wong, S. - Six Principles of Culturally Competent Practice: Enhancing families’ engagement in speech and language therapy.

Wylie , K., Hopf, S. C., McAllister, L., Marshall, J., Davidson, B., McLeod, S., McDonagh, S., Amponsah, C., & Ohenewa Bampoe, J. - An exploration of the diversity of self‐ help and help‐seeking practices for communication disability in Ghana and Fiji.

Sound Start Study team members, Yvonne Wren, Jane McCormack and Sharynne with Debbie Sell (UK)

Friends at IALP

Conferences are a great time to reconnect with old friends and meet new ones. Here are a few people I enjoyed talking with this week at the International Association of Logopedics and Phoniatrics conference in Dublin.

Lindy McAllister (Sydney), Sharynne, Jane McCormack (Sheffield, UK)

Gaenor Dixon (President, Speech Pathology Australia), Helen Grech (President, IALP from Malta), Lilly Cheng (President Elect, IALP from USA), and Sharynne

Israeli Speech Hearing and Language Association members

Sharynne with Thomas Law from Hong Kong

Dr Rangasayee Raghunath and Dr Krishna Yerraguntia from India

Some of the Australian delegates at the IALP congress

Speaking Irish in Ireland

The Irish language is spoken throughout Ireland, particularly in areas near Galway (such as South Connemara and the Aran Islands) where I have been visiting over the past week. Throughout Ireland children learn Irish in school and public sign posts are in both Irish and English. However, in these areas near Galway, the signs are only in Irish, Irish is the language of instruction in schools, and people can't build new homes unless they speak Irish. There are a few Irish-speaking speech and language therapists in this area, and two of them (Stephanie Brennan and Íde Ní Chonghaile) translated the Intelligibility in Context Scale (Scála Intuigtheachta i gComhthéacs: Gaeilge) into Irish in 2014. Here is a useful website about Irish: http://www.gaeilge.ie

Signs written in Irish (Gaelige) on Inis Mór, the largest Aran Island

Dr Rena Lyons at the NUI Galway Clinic Theiripe Urlabhra & Teanga
(Speech and Language Therapy Clinic)

The stunning contrasts of Ireland

Aran Island coastline

Heather and gorse

A Connemara pony on the Clifton Sky Road

Visiting NUI Galway

NUI Galway

This week I have had the pleasure of visiting the National University of Ireland (NUI), Galway. During my visit we  discussed research, ideas for writing a book, and the use of our research within their speech and language therapy curriculum. I have enjoyed my discussions with Dr Rena Lyons (head of the department), Dr Mary-Pat O'Malley, Clare Carroll, and summer research scholar Ciara McKay. We also went to the NUI television studio and recorded vodcasts to be used in the masters' teaching program on topics such as multilingualism, ICF, Intelligibility in Context Scale, and working with families. Dr Rena Lyons also took us on a tour of the Connemara, which included a spectacular walk on the Mám Éan trail through the Maumturk Mountains of Connemara.

Clare Carroll, Rena Lyons, Mary-Pat O'Malley, and Sharynne at the NUI TV studio

Sharynne and Ciara McKay discussing SSD definitions and intervention

David, Sharynne and Rena visiting the Connemara

Irish Association of Speech and Language Therapists Study Day

Today I was an invited speaker at the Irish Association of Speech and Language Therapists Study Day in Dublin. There were over 100 speech and language therapists from Ireland in attendance. The order of presentations and presenters were:

• “Multilingual Children with Speech and Language Disorders” by Prof Helen Grech (Malta)
• “Resources for Supporting Multilingual Children” by Prof Sharynne McLeod (Australia)
• “Exposing our talents” by Prof Pamela Enderby (UK)
• “Multilingual Speech and Language Disorders, Assessment Issues” by Prof Lilly Cheng (USA)

During my presentation I provided a hyperlinked handout so that people could click on and explore  resources from the Multilingual Children's Speech website during the presentation. The tweets posted during the presentation suggested that people enjoyed this style.

The IASLT have been so welcoming and generous. They have hosted our IALP meeting, and have ensured we leave with a high regard for Irish food and hospitality. It was also a great chance to catch up with colleagues from Trinity College Dublin, NIU Gallway, and University College Cork.

Anne Healy (IASLT), Helen Grech, Pam Enderby, Sharynne McLeod, Lilly Cheng, Jonathan Linklater (IASLT)

Fiona Gibbon (University College Cork), Clare Carroll (NIU Gallway), Sharynne McLeod, Rena Lyons (NIU Gallway)

Board meeting of the International Association of Logopedics and Phoniatrics

I am in Dublin for a 2 day Board meeting of the International Association of Logopedics and Phoniatrics. IALP has consultative status with UNESCO, UNICEF, WHO, ECOSOC and CIOMS. There is a full agenda, including preparations for the IALP convention to be held in Dublin in 2016 and discussions about the International Communication Project. During the meeting the new IALP website was launched. The most recent IALP News details the election of the board and provides information about the 2013 congress held in Turin.

IALP Board members

Citywest Hotel, Dublin - site of the IALP board meeting and IALP congress in 2016

IALP board meeting

Visiting Trinity College, Dublin

Provost George Salmon

When traveling I enjoy visiting universities, so while in Dublin I had to visit Trinity College. Trinity College was founded over 400 years ago. As well as being an important university, it is famous for the Old Library containing the Book of Kells, a 9th century illustrated manuscript of the four gospels of the Bible. The long room of the Old Library houses over 200,000 books from the 14th-19th century - and at 1pm each day people are able to request and read books from the collection. Trinity College is also famous for some of its alumni including Jonathan Swift, Oscar Wilde, and Samuel Beckett. One story that interested me was that the Provost Professor George Salmon finally agreed to sign a document allowing women to study at Trinity College in 1904. It is said that he signed with his hand, but not with his heart. Later that year, he died, and his grave is near the back entrance of the College, where the women students passed as they entered. Now the women students can enter in the front gate, and make up 62% of the student population.

Books in the Old Library

The Book of Kells (facsimile)

Sharynne in the Long Room of the Old Library