Enhancing children’s speech using international evidence-based resources

The following invited article has just been published: 

McLeod, S., Blake, H. L., & Margetson, K. (2024). Enhancing children’s speech using international evidence-based resources. Revista Portuguesa de Terapia da Fala [Portuguese Journal of Speech and Language Therapy], 17, 9-13. https://doi.org/17.21281/rptf.2024.08.03

Available here: https://www.aptf-rptf.com/c%C3%B3pia-carta-ao-editor-16-1
 

 

Brazilian Portuguese speech assessments and resources

While in Brazil I was able to purchase two of Brazilian Portuguese speech assessments and discuss their development and use with the authors:

• ABFW: Teste de Linguagem Infantilm - Prof Haydee Fiszbein Wertzner is the author of the speech subtest - and the "W" in the title acknowledges her contribution. It is important to purchase the complete test because the book and the box of cards are sold separately as well
  
• Complete test - https://www.booktoy.com.br/index.php?route=product/product&path=57&product_id=749
• Manual - https://profono.com.br/produto/abfw-teste-de-linguagem-infantil/
• Stimulus cards - https://profono.com.br/produto/fichario-abfw/
  
• TESF: Teste de Estimulabilidade dos Sons da Fala - https://www.editorabooktoy.com.br/tesf-teste-de-estimulabilidade-dos-sons-da-fala-12276 - Luciana de Oliveira Pagan-Neves, Danira Tavares Francisco, and Haydée Fiszbein Wertzner (other authors are Márcia Mathias de Castro and Tatiane Faria Barrozo). This assessment considers stimulability - and references Glaspey and Stoel-Gammon's work.
  

Authors of TESF Luciana de Oliveira Pagan-Neves, Danira Tavares Francisco, and Haydée Fiszbein Wertzner

Speech assessment component of the ABFW: Teste de Linguagem Infantilm

 Some of the other resources available at the FORL conference from BookToy https://www.booktoy.com.br/

Keynote presentations at the 23rd Congress of the Otolaryngology Foundation in Brazil

I was an invited keynote speaker at the 23rd Congress of the Otolaryngology Foundation FORL https://www.congressoforl.org/. The Congress was held in São Paulo – SP Brazil, at the Frei Caneca Convention Center from 12-14 September (12 a 14 de setembro de 2024).

Here are the titles of my presentations: 

• Communication rights and the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals 
• Multilingual children’s speech development, assessment and interventions 
• Children’s communication, educational, social and participation outcomes: Insights from longitudinal population studies (co-authored with Prof Yvonne Wren)

The conference website indicated "There will be more than 700 speakers from 9 specialties! In addition, we will have 10 outstanding international speakers". 

It was a wonderful interdisciplinary conference - enabling rich and informative presentations and conversations between audiologists, ear nose and throat surgeons, speech-language pathologists, and other disciplines from across Brazil and the world.

I also was impressed by my conversations with the students and staff from the University of Sao Paulo. I have quoted and used much of their research in the past - and look forward to learning more from them in the future.

Prof Sharynne McLeod (Australia), Prof Haydee Fiszbein Wertzner (Brazil), Prof Yvonne Wren (UK),

Presenting one of my three keynote addresses

Dr Marilia Pereira (Brazil), Prof Sharynne McLeod (Australia),
Prof Yvonne Wren (UK), Prof Haydee Fiszbein Wertzner (Brazil)

University of Sao Paulo's fonoaudiologia university staff and students at the FORL congress

 

 

Discussing communication as a human right with Dr Yakubu Karagama,
keynote speaker and ENT surgeon and laryngologist from Kings College University London

Presenting with Marcia Keske-Soares, Universidade Federal de Santa Maria (Marcia co-authored a chapter in The Oxford Handbook of Speech Development in Languages of the World)

Here is the biographical information about me that was written in Portuguese by Dr Luciana Pagan Neves

Sharynne McLeod, Ph.D. é professor ilustre da Charles Sturt University, Austrália, especializada em fala infantil e aquisição da linguagem. Ela possui um legado de defesa dos direitos de comunicação e de liderança de equipes interdisciplinares para realizar pesquisas internacionais impactantes sobre a fala de crianças multilíngues. Ela é membro da Academia de Ciências Sociais da Austrália e atuou como editora-chefe do International Journal of Speech-Language Pathology. Ela recebeu honras da American Speech-Language-Hearing Association e é membro vitalício da Speech Pathology Australia. Ela é presidente da Associação Internacional de Fonética Clínica e Linguística. O jornal australiano frequentemente a lista como Líder de Campo de Pesquisa da Austrália e Melhor do Mundo em Fonoaudiologia com base na “qualidade, volume e impacto” de suas pesquisas.

Luciana Bauru

Gifts received by Yvonne and myself from the conference organisers!

Rio de Janeiro - A colourful and friendly city

This is my first trip to South America. I have loved visiting Rio de Janeiro while get over jetlag. It is such a colourful and friendly city celebrating people of all ages and cultures. 

Barbie Marathon on Copacabana Beach

Walking along Ipanema with Tom Jobim composer of "The Girl from Ipanema" :)

Multilingual Brazil - Portuguese, Spanish, English

An Australian Aboriginal churinga in the Museum of Tomorrow - "to be a bridge between what came before and what is yet to come. A concrete link between our visitors and our ethical pillars of Sustainability and Conviviality. It represents the dream of shared by all of us to build the tomorrows that we desire together"

I now travel to Sao Paulo for the FORL conference (https://www.congressoforl.org/) where I am a keynote speaker. I was invited to visit Brazil as a keynote speaker in 2011, 2020, and 2022, but each time health and family issues have prevented me visiting. Finally, I have made it. I am so pleased to be here.

Invited paper accepted for publication in Portuguese Journal of Speech and Language Therapy

We have just had the following invited paper accepted for publication in the Portuguese Journal of Speech and Language Therapy: 

McLeod, S., Blake, H. L. & Margetson, K. (2024, in press). Enhancing children’s speech using international evidence-based resources. RPTF - Revista Portuguesa de Terapia da Fala [Portuguese Journal of Speech and Language Therapy] https://www.aptf-rptf.com/

 It is wonderful to continue our collaborations with our colleagues in Portugal: https://speakingmylanguages.blogspot.com/search/label/Portuguese

 

European Portuguese speech assessments

It is so helpful to travel to different countries to learn more about the clinical tools used to assess children's speech. Here are some of the European Portuguese speech assessments that I need to add to the Multilingual Children's Speech webpage.   

• Paediatric Automatic Phonological Analysis Tools (APAT): https://acsa.web.ua.pt/FAFA.htm (free)
• Teste Fonético-Fonológico: https://edubox.pt/terapia-da-fala?lang=pt
• Rastreio de Linguagem e Fala (RALF) (screening): https://edubox.pt/terapia-da-fala?lang=pt
  

I was able to purchase one of them for my international collection of speech assessments.

Keynote speaker at XI Workshop on Linguistics, Language Development and Impairment, Lisbon, Portugal

I am the keynote speaker at the XI Workshop on Linguistics, Language Development and Impairment on April, 18 /18 de Abril - 2024 - held at the Faculdade de Letras da Universidade de Lisboa, Lisbon, Portugal. https://www.clul.ulisboa.pt/en/node/2498

I co-authored the presentation with Kate Margetson. Our presentation was titled: "Assessing children's speech in unfamiliar languages: Insights from Vietnamese-English children". Here is the abstract:

There are over 7,000 languages spoken across the world. Communication professionals have the power to enhance everyone’s participation in day-to-day life. However, when working with multilingual children, professionals can focus on their own dominant language, and limit children’s full participation and communication rights to speak home language(s) within families and communities. This presentation provides a clear step-by-step process for how to assess children’s speech in unfamiliar languages using free resources found on the Multilingual Children’s Speech website (https://www.csu.edu.au/research/multilingual-speech/home). The process will be explained using evidence from VietSpeech (https://www.csu.edu.au/research/vietspeech), a 4-year research program working with Vietnamese-English speaking children and families in Australia. Participants will learn how to use the step-by-step process for assessing children in any language and support home language maintenance.

Presenting the Speech Assessment of Children's Home Languages (SACHL) for the first time

Ana Margarida Ramalho, Sharynne McLeod, Maria João Freitas, Marisa Lousada

Other presenters are: 

• JOSÉ FONSECA (FMUL): Micro- and Macrolinguistic Analysis of the Image "Ladrão de Biscoitos" Oral Description / Análise Micro • Macro Linguistica da Descrição Oral da Figura "Ladrão de Biscoitos" 
• ANA RITA VALENTE (IEETA, LASI - UA; ESSLEI; SPEECHCARE), CATARINA OLIVEIRA (IEETA, LASI - UA), LUCIANA ALBUQUERQUE (CINTESIS.UA) & PLÍNIO BARBOSA (UNICAMP): Vocal Aging: Longitudinal Study of Prosodic Changes in Portuguese Public Figures / Envelhecimento Vocal: Estudo Longitudinal de Mudanças Prosódicas em Figuras Públicas Portuguesas. 
• TELMA PEREIRA (ESS/IPS; ACENTUAR), VÂNIA RIBEIRO (ACENTUAR; AUDICEN); ANGELA JESUS (ESS/ IPS) & ANA PAULA MENDES (ESS/IPS; IEETA); ProNAR: Rapid Naming by Portuguese Children with and without Developmental Language Disorder / ProNAR: Nomeação rápida por crianças portuguesas com e sem Perturbação do Desenvolvimento da Linguagem 
• ANA MARGARIDA RAMALHO (ESSA; CLUL) & MARIA JOÃO FREITAS (FLUL, CLUL); On the Impact of Word Length in Phonological Assessement / Sobre o Efeito da Extensão de Palavra na Avaliação do Desenvolvimento Fonologico 
• ALEXANDRINA MARTINS (UAVEIRO; CLUL): Syntactic Complexity in Children with ASD and DLD Complexidade Sintática em Crianças com PEA e PDL CARINA PINTO (ESSLEI; CITECHCARE): Exploring the Impact of Morphological Knowledge in Reading / Explorando o Impacto do Conhecimento Morfológico na Leitura 
• ANA SUCENA, CRISTINA GARRIDO, CATIA MARQUES, MARIANA MATOS & ANA FILIPA SILVA (ESS/IPP): Early Predictors of Reading Success in Portuguese Schools /Preditores Precoces de Sucesso Leitura em Escolas Portuguesas

Invitation RPTF - Revista Portuguesa de Terapia da Fala [Portuguese Journal of Speech and Language Therapy]

 I have been invited to write a paper for RPTF - Revista Portuguesa de Terapia da Fala [Portuguese Journal of Speech and Language Therapy] https://www.aptf-rptf.com/.  I will work with Helen Blake and Kate Margetson and base it on my keynote presentations in Portugal in 2023 and 2024.

Keynote presentation at III International Congress of the Portuguese Society of Speech Therapy

Tonight I was honoured to be the keynote speaker at the III International Congress of the Portuguese Society of Speech Therapy in Lisboa/Lisbon (from Australia). My keynote presentation was titled “Enhancing children’s speech using international evidence-based resources”. I was live tweeting links throughout my presentation @SharynneMcLeod. https://sptf.org.pt/iii-congresso-internacional-sptf/

Here is more information from my blog: https://speakingmylanguages.blogspot.com/2023/05/keynote-presentation-for-iii.html

Keynote presentation for the III International Congress of the Portuguese Society of Speech Therapy

I am very honoured to be invited to present a keynote speech at III International Congress of the Portuguese Society of Speech Therapy. The Congress will be held in Lisbon, Portugal and I will present my speech online on 27th May, 2023 

https://sptf.org.pt/iii-sptf-international-congress/

My presentation is titled "Enhancing children’s speech using international evidence- based resources"

Here is my bio in Portuguese (https://sptf.org.pt/programa/)

Sharynne McLeod, Ph.D., é terapeuta da fala e professora de aquisição da linguagem na Charles Sturt University, Austrália. Recebeu as honras da Associação Americana de Fala e Aprendizagem da Língua (2021) e de Membro vitalício da Speech Pathology Australia (2015). Foi editora-chefe do International Journal of Speech-Language Pathology e ganhou os Prémios Editoriais do Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research (2018), American Journal of Speech-Language Pathology (2019), e Topics in Language Disorders (2020). É membro da Academia das Ciências Sociais da Austrália, da Royal Society of New South Wales, membro certificado do Conselho Americano de Línguas e Distúrbios Linguísticos Infantis, Presidente do Comité da Fala Infantil da International Association of Communication Sciences and Disorders (IALP), e foi Vice-Presidente da Associação Internacional de Linguística Clínica e Fonética. Foi co-autora de 13 livros e mais de 230 artigos de revistas e capítulos de revistas especializadas, centrados principalmente na aquisição da fala das crianças, distúrbios do som da fala, e multilinguismo. Em 2019, apresentou um discurso sobre direitos de comunicação nas Nações Unidas baseado num número especial do International Journal of Speech-Language Pathology, que recebeu mais de 200.000 downloads. O jornal australiano nomeou-a Líder do Campo de Investigação em Audiologia, Terapia da Fala e Linguagem Patológica da Austrália (2018, 2019, 2020, 2022) e Melhor do Mundo com base na “qualidade, volume e impacto” da investigação no campo (2019).

Book chapter for Portuguese audience

"Linguística clínica: Modelos, avaliação e intervenção" edited by Maria João Freitas, Marisa Lousada, Dina Caetano Alves, has just been published. 

We were very honoured to be invited to write the first chapter: 

McLeod, S., Verdon, S., & McGill, N. (2022). Assessment and intervention for children with speech sound disorders. In M. J. Freitas, M. Lousada, & D. C. Alves (Eds.), Linguística clínica: Modelos, avaliação e intervenção (pp. 3-22). Language Science Press. https://doi.org/10.5281.zenodo.7233213

The chapter is available via Google books: https://books.google.com.au/books?id=LRGpEAAAQBAJ&newbks=0&printsec=frontcover&pg=PA3&hl=en&source=newbks_fb&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q&f=false

Portuguese book chapter has just been published

Our latest book chapter has just been published in the following book that is written in Portuguese (except for our chapter).

Freitas, M. J., M. Lousada & D. Caetano Alves (2022) Linguística Clínica: Modelos, Avaliação e Intervenção. Berlim, Language Science Press (https://langsci-press.org/catalog/book/358).

All chapters are available at the link above. Here is our chapter's details

McLeod, S., Verdon, S., & McGill, N. (2022). Assessment and intervention for children with speech sound disorders. In M. J. Freitas, M. Lousada & D. Alves (Eds.) Liguística clínica: Modelos, avaliação e intervenção [Clinical linguistics: Models, assessment and intervention] (pp. 3-22). Language Science Press.