Children Draw Talking - Panel presentation at the ASHA convention in Seattle

At the ASHA convention in Seattle I chaired an exciting panel titled Children Draw Talking: Understanding Children's Functioning with Arts-Based Methods.

Here are the presentations

1. Communication rights, listening to children, and arts-based methods

Sharynne McLeod – Australia

2. Children draw talking across the world: Insights from the Early Childhood Voices Global Online Gallery

Sharynne McLeod, Carolyn Gregoric, Suzanne C. Hopf, Van H. Tran, and Holly McAlister et al. – 24 countries

3. Children draw talking in Jamaica: Insights from children with and without communication disorders

Karla N. Washington, Nicole Bazzocchi, Lauren Choi, and Katarina Miletic – Canada and Jamaica

4. Children draw talking in Canada: Insights from children about their multilingualism

Andrea A.N. MacLeod and Jessica A. Harasym – Canada

5. Drawing together: Enabling families to talk with children about intervention experiences

Marie Ireland, Jane McCormack, Anna Cronin, Sharynne McLeod, and Cen Wang – USA and Australia

6. Children’s participation: Children draw talking is the first step

Holly McAlister, Suzanne C. Hopf, and Sharynne McLeod – Australia and Fiji

Congratulations Dr. Karla Washington - Canada Research Chair

Congratulations to my colleague Dr. Karla Washington at the Universitiy of Toronto who has been named as a Canada Research Chair in Monolingual and Multilingual Paediatric Speech-Language Pathology (Tier 2). Here is a description about her work and appointment:

Speech sound disorder (SSD) and developmental language disorder (DLD) present significant barriers to academic and social participation, with the potential to negatively impact the speech and language development of children globally. Dr. Washington’s overarching research goal is to support children’s human right to effective communication by improving diagnosis and treatment of these disorders. Her research addresses misdiagnosis of SSD and DLD in multilingual preschoolers in an understudied context (Jamaican Creole-English) through diversification of theoretical and empirical approaches. She also aims to characterize the neural basis of DLD, with the goal of better understanding memory-language mechanisms underlying grammar learning and impairment.

Jamaican children's speech and language

In 2013 I accompanied Dr. Karla Washington to Jamaica to support her first phase of data collection regarding children's speech and language (see blog posts here). Dr. Washington has gone from strength to strength - and recently has been awarded an NIH Grant to continue this work. Here is a news release from her university about her ongoing work and accomplishments: https://www.uc.edu/news/articles/2019/09/n20857796.html Congratulations Karla!

Dr Karla Washington and Sharynne in Jamaica in 2013

Children draw talking in Jamaica

This morning I met with Dr. Karla Washington and her team of very enthusiastic students from the University of Cincinnati to discuss their analysis of 231 Jamaican children's drawings of talking. The data are very interesting and mirror some of our findings from Australia. They are about to head to Jamaica to collect more data soon.

Rachel Wright, Kylee Loebick, Corrine Deutenberg, and Dr. Karla Washington

Children drawing talking in Jamaica

This morning I had a video conference with Dr Karla Washington and Corrine Dutenberg from the University of Cincinnati. Corrine has received a summer scholarship to work with Karla to analyze over 200 drawings from Jamaican preschool children. The children were asked to draw themselves talking to someone. They were also asked to complete the Speech Participation and Activity Assessment - Children (SPAA-C, McLeod, 2004). Their research will be informed by Articles 12 and 13 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. I look forward to seeing the results from their research.

Corrine Dutenberg and Dr Karla Washington

Speech and language acquisition of Jamaican children

Dr Karla Washington is currently in Jamaica continuing her research to document speech and language acquisition of Jamaican children. She is from the University of Cincinnati and they have published a media release about her work here: http://healthnews.uc.edu/news/?/28669/
The media release also describes our recent publication in the American Journal of Speech-Language Pathology about using the Intelligibility in Context Scale in Jamaica. Congratulations Karla and all the members of your team who are undertaking this important work with children in Jamaica.
One of my blog posts from my visit to Jamaica with Karla is here.

Validation of the Intelligibility in Context Scale for Jamaican Creole-speaking preschoolers

The following article has just been accepted for publication:
Washington, K. N., McDonald, M. M., McLeod, S., Crowe, K., Devonish, H. (2016, in press November). Validation of the Intelligibility in Context Scale for Jamaican Creole-speaking preschoolers. American Journal of Speech-Language Pathology.

Within the acceptance letter, the editor wrote: "I am quite excited to see manuscripts on languages such as this being submitted (and published) in AJSLP because these illustrate the beauty of language variation but also the challenges that such variation presents for practicing clinicians.  I believe that this contribution will be of great interest to the readership."
Here is the abstract

Purpose: To describe validation of the Intelligibility in Context Scale (ICS; McLeod et al., 2012a) and ICS-Jamaican Creole (ICS-JC; McLeod et al., 2012b; Washington & Devonish Trans.) in a sample of typically-developing 3-to-6-year-old Jamaicans.
Method: One-hundred and forty-five preschooler-parent dyads participated. Parents completed the 7-item ICS (n=145) and ICS-JC (n=98) to rate children’s speech intelligibility (5-point scale) across communication-partners (parents, immediate-family, extended-family, friends, acquaintances, strangers). Preschoolers completed the Diagnostic Evaluation of Articulation and Phonology (DEAP; Dodd et al., 2006) in English and JC to establish speech-sound competency. For this sample, we examined validity and reliability (inter-rater, test-rest, internal-consistency) evidence using measures of speech-sound production: (1) percentage-of-consonants-correct (PCC); (2) percentage-of-vowels-correct (PVC); and (3) percentage-of-phonemes-correct (PPC).
Results: ICS and ICS-JC ratings showed preschoolers were always-(5) to usually-(4) understood across communication-partners (ICS-mean=4.43; ICS-JC mean=4.50). Both tools demonstrated excellent internal consistency (α=.91), high inter-rater and test-retest reliability. Significant correlations between the two tools and between each measure and language-specific PCC, PVC, and PPC provided/demonstrated criterion-validity evidence. A positive correlation between the ICS and age further strengthened validity evidence for that measure.
Conclusions: Both tools show promising evidence of reliability and validity in describing functional speech-intelligibility for this group of typically-developing Jamaican preschoolers.

Validation of the Intelligibility in Context Scale for Jamaican Creole-speaking preschoolers

The following article has just been accepted for publication:
Washington, K. N., McDonald, M. M., McLeod, S., Crowe, K., & Devonish, H. (2016, in press November). Validation of the Intelligibility in Context Scale for Jamaican Creole-speaking preschoolers. American Journal of Speech-Language Pathology.

Within the acceptance letter, the editor wrote: "I am quite excited to see manuscripts on languages such as this being submitted (and published) in AJSLP because these illustrate the beauty of language variation but also the challenges that such variation presents for practicing clinicians.  I believe that this contribution will be of great interest to the readership."
Here is the abstract

Purpose: To describe validation of the Intelligibility in Context Scale (ICS; McLeod et al., 2012a) and ICS-Jamaican Creole (ICS-JC; McLeod et al., 2012b; Washington & Devonish Trans.) in a sample of typically-developing 3-to-6-year-old Jamaicans.
Method: One-hundred and forty-five preschooler-parent dyads participated. Parents completed the 7-item ICS (n=145) and ICS-JC (n=98) to rate children’s speech intelligibility (5-point scale) across communication-partners (parents, immediate-family, extended-family, friends, acquaintances, strangers). Preschoolers completed the Diagnostic Evaluation of Articulation and Phonology (DEAP; Dodd et al., 2006) in English and JC to establish speech-sound competency. For this sample, we examined validity and reliability (inter-rater, test-rest, internal-consistency) evidence using measures of speech-sound production: (1) percentage-of-consonants-correct (PCC); (2) percentage-of-vowels-correct (PVC); and (3) percentage-of-phonemes-correct (PPC).
Results: ICS and ICS-JC ratings showed preschoolers were always-(5) to usually-(4) understood across communication-partners (ICS-mean=4.43; ICS-JC mean=4.50). Both tools demonstrated excellent internal consistency (α=.91), high inter-rater and test-retest reliability. Significant correlations between the two tools and between each measure and language-specific PCC, PVC, and PPC provided/demonstrated criterion-validity evidence. A positive correlation between the ICS and age further strengthened validity evidence for that measure.
Conclusions: Both tools show promising evidence of reliability and validity in describing functional speech-intelligibility for this group of typically-developing Jamaican preschoolers.

Presentations at the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association convention in Denver, CO

This year I am not attending the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association convention in Denver, CO and it is the first year for many years I am not going. I was the topic co-chair for the Cultural and Linguistic Considerations Across the Discipline Committee so I have a good idea of a number of excellent sessions that will be presented over the next few days. I am involved in  two oral presentations and one poster presentation:

• Assessment and Analysis of Polysyllables in Children With Speech Sound Disorders: Sarah Masso, Sharynne McLeod, Elise Baker, Jane McCormack Polysyllables may unlock the relationship between speech, language, literacy and phonological processing. Ninety-three preschool children with speech sound disorders were assessed using the Polysyllable Preschool Test. Seven categories of polysyllable error were identified: (1) substitutions, (2) deletions, (3) distortions, (4)additions, (5) alterations in timing, (6)alterations in phonotactics, (7)alterations in sequence.

• Validation of the Intelligibility in Context Scale as a Subjective Measure for Jamaican Creole- Speaking Preschoolers: Megan McDonald, KarlaWashington, Sharynne McLeod, Kathryn Crowe, and Hubert Devonish Ninety-eight children aged 3-to-6-years, who use Jamaican Creole and Standard Jamaican English, participated in a study to establish the validity and reliability of the Intelligibility in Context Scale-Jamaican Creole (ICS-JC). The ICS-JC demonstrated good psychometric properties for construct and criterion validity and reliability (internal consistency, test-retest, inter-rater).

• Cultural and Diagnostic Appropriateness of Standardized Language Assessments for Bilingual-Speakers: Considering Jamaican Creole- Speaking Preschoolers: Lauren Mikhail, Maggie Gilmore, Karla Washington, Sharynne McLeod, Hubert Devonish, Maureen Samms-Vaughan

Jamaican children's speech and language research continues

At the ASHA convention, I co-authored two presentations about our research in Jamaica

• Washington, K. N., McLeod, S., McFarland, A., Weisbarth, J. (2014).  Jamaican Creole-speaking children’s expressive language, emergent literacy & communicative-participation: SLP, parent, and teacher evaluations. Technical paper.
• Weisbath, J., Washington, K. N., McLeod, S., Samms-Vaughan, M., & Devonish, H. (2014, November). Print concept development in English: Comparing Jamaican preschoolers to US ELL and monolingual English-speaking preschoolers. Poster. 

 After the ASHA convention, Karla Washington and I met to plan grants, papers, and data analysis.

Sharynne, Karla Washington and Jamie Weisbath

Karla and Sharynne meeting after the ASHA convention

Congratulations Karla

Dr Karla Washington has been awarded the Excellence in Research Award for the College of Allied Health Sciences at the University of Cincinnati for her research into children's language and literacy. I have been fortunate to work with Karla in her research program with Jamaican children.

International Clinical Phonetics and Linguistics Association conference - Stockholm, Sweden

The International Clinical Phonetics and Linguistics Association conference is in Stockholm, Sweden this week. There are 271 delegates from 33 countries. 235 abstracts were submitted with 66 oral presentations and 115 posters accepted.

Dr Ann Harding-Bell (UK), Sarah Masso (Aus), Dr Karla Washington (US), Dr Jane Speake (UK), Prof Nancy Scherer (US),  Prof Sharynne McLeod (Aus) at the Karolinska Institute, Stockholm

ICPLA opening session

Children's speech assessment panel:
Sarah Masso, Dr Karla Washington, Sarah Verdon, Sharynne, Suzanne Hopf

My students (Sarah Verdon, Sarah Masso, and Suzanne Hopf), colleagues, and I are presenting the following papers:

1. McLeod, S. (chair) Children’s speech assessment: Cross-cultural considerations. 90 minute panel.
2. Verdon, S., McLeod, S., & Wong, S. International approaches to the assessment of children with speech sound disorders. Paper presented in the 90 minute panel on Children’s speech assessment: Cross-cultural considerations.
3. Masso, S., Baker, E., McLeod, S. &  McCormack, J. Phonological processing assessments in English for young children with speech sound disorders. Paper presented in the 90 minute panel on Children’s speech assessment: Cross-cultural considerations.
4. McLeod, S., Washington, K., Devonish, H., Samms-Vaughan, M., & Creaghead, N. Code switching in the speech of young Jamaican children.  Paper presented in the 90 minute panel on Children’s speech assessment: Cross-cultural considerations.
5. Hopf, S., C., & McLeod, S. Cross-cultural considerations when assessing the speech of young children from Fiji. Paper presented in the 90 minute panel on Children’s speech assessment: Cross-cultural considerations.
6. Ng, K., To, C. K. S., & McLeod, S. Intelligibility in Context Scale validation for Cantonese-speaking children in Hong Kong. Paper presented in the 90 minute panel on Children’s speech assessment: Cross-cultural considerations.
7. Washington, K., McLeod, S., Samms-Vaughan, M., Devonish, H., & Creaghead, N. Code switching in the language of young Jamaican children.  Paper.
8. Verdon, S., McLeod, S., & Winsler, A.  Facilitating home language maintenance in an English dominant context. Paper.
9. McLeod, S., Crowe, K., Masso, S., Baker, E., McCormack, J., Wren, Y., Roulstone, S. Talking and making speech sounds is of greater concern for parents and teachers of 4- to 5-year-old children than other aspects of development. Poster.

   

   Sharynne, Suzanne Hopf, Sarah Masso, Karla Washington, and Suzanne's family in Stockholm

   

   The Esses in Stockholm, Sweden (i.e., my PhD students!):
   Sarah Masso, Sarah Verdon, Sharynne McLeod and Suzanne Hopf

   
   

Working on Jamaican data in Italy

After the IALP conference in Turino, Karla Washington (from University of Cincinnati) and I headed to Firenze to work on data analysis protocols for data we collected in Jamaica during January. We prepared conference abstracts and began writing two journal articles. It was a productive 3 days.

Sharynne and Karla working on the terrace in Florence

Congratulations Karla

Dr Karla Washington, my colleague (and previous post-doctoral student), has been named as one of six recipients of the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association Advancing Academic-Research Career Awards for 2013. This award includes $5000 to work with mentors to advance her career in communication sciences and disorders. Congratulations Karla!

Jamaican data collection continues

During March, Dr Karla Washington, Dr Nancy Creaghead, and a team of students from the University of Cincinnati went to Jamaica to continue data collection for our study of Jamaican children's speech and language acquisition. In total, we have worked with 60 children to assess their speech and language skills in Jamaican and English. We are now analyzing the data, and look forward to presenting our findings later in the year.
Here is some more information about Dr Washington's work on this project

Images of Jamaica

What a pleasure it has been to visit Jamaica. Here are some images of this colourful island nation. I have enjoyed meeting the people of Jamaica, and exploring its beauty.

Dunn's River Falls

Boats at Port Royal

Seven Mile Beach

Jamaican boys aged 4 and 6 (used with permission)

Invited lecture: The importance of supporting children’s speech and language development

Today I presented an invited lecture titled: "The importance of supporting children's speech and language development" to the pediatricians and registrars in the Faculty of Medicine at the University of the West Indies, Mona Campus, Kingston, Jamaica. During the lecture I covered the prevalence, risk, and impact of speech and language impairment within the framework of the International Classification of Functioning Disability and Health (World Health Organization, 2001, 2007). I also described the research we were undertaking in Jamaica, and summarized what is known about multilingual speech and language acquisition.

Professors and paediatric registrars at the lecture

Learning from the children of Jamaica

Karla and Sharynne

The main purpose of our visit to Jamaica has been to document young Jamaican children's speech and language skills. Dr Karla Washington (University of Cincinnati, USA) and I have been assessing 3- to 6-year-old children's speech and language skills. During the two hour assessments the children complete activities with Karla in Jamaican Patois (Jamiekan) and with me in English. One of the research aims is to document these young children's ability to code-switch between the two languages. We have used the International Classification of Functioning Disability and Health as the framework for our research so are also incorporating measures to consider the whole child. The children arrive at school at 7:30am and although school finishes at 1:30pm, some do not leave until after 4pm when their parents are finished work, so we have been able to work with the children throughout the day. It has been such a pleasure to spend time with and learn from these wonderful children.

A language assessment in Jamaican

A speech assessment in English

The children drew themselves talking

Supporting Jamaican children's early development

Dr Karla Washington and I have had the pleasure of working with Professor Maureen Samms-Vaughan while in Jamaica. Professor Samms-Vaughan is the Professor of Child Health, Child Development and Behaviour at the University of the West Indies. She is also the chairman of the board of the Early Childhood Commission. She is a strong advocate of supporting children in early childhood, and also supporting their speech and language acquisition. She has been conducting large scale longitudinal studies of Jamaican children for many years. Her second birth cohort study began in 2011 (see photo). She is also conducting important research into the identification of autism in Jamaican children. We attended a lecture at the University of the West Indies presented by Professor Samms-Vaughan and her colleagues.

Dr Karla Washington, Professor Maureen Samms-Vaughan, and Sharynne

Considerations when testing Jamaican children's speech

Over the next few weeks Dr Karla Washington and I will be testing Jamaican children's speech and language. We have been talking with Professor Hubert Devonish and other Jamaican people about the suitability of different commercially available tests for Jamaican children. We plan to use the Diagnostic Evaluation of Articulation and Phonology (DEAP, Dodd et al., 2006) as a speech assessment. Here are a few of the items that may not be known by Jamaican children:

• Thumb = Big finger
• Leg = Foot
• Sock = One foot a sock OR a socks (whereas socks = socks)
• Gloves = Who needs gloves in Jamaica - you swim at the beach in winter!
• Apple = Jamaican apples are red and shaped like pears (not round green ones like in the DEAP)
• Orange = May not be known because oranges have greenish skins (while orange inside)
• Strawberry = May not be known

Words and images that are better known are pictured below

Breadfruit and ackee

Fried fish, festival, and bammy (Jamaican fish and chips)

One style of Jamaican house (a little more colourful than the DEAP picture!)

A further consideration is the dress code when visiting schools.Below is a notice from one of the schools in Jamaica about the appropriate dress code for visitors. I have found that in many countries that I have visited I have been asked to wear "church clothes" when working in schools and universities (e.g., dresses with sleeves and shoes with closed toes).