Congratulations Dr Lucy Rodgers

This evening I had a lovely time catching up with the new Dr Lucy Rodgers - who passed her PhD last month and will graduate in July. She was a visiting PhD scholar at the Children's Voices Centre in early 2025 as part of her Wellcome funded clinical PhD fellowship. She undertook her PhD at City St Georges, University of London, UK.. It is exciting to be working on postdoctoral grant applications with Lucy.

 Here is my blog post about her 2025 visit: https://speakingmylanguages.blogspot.com/2025/04/visitor-to-cvc-lucy-rodgers-wellcome.html

Italian book chapter has been published - Speech sound disorders: Evidenze scientifiche e buone prassi riabilitative

 I am very pleased to see that our invited chapter has been published (in Italian) in the following book:

Margetson, K., McLeod, S., & Blake, H. L. (2025). Gli Speech Sound Disorders nei bambini plurilingue [Speech sound disorders in multilingual children]. In S. Piazzalunga, R. Salvadorini, N. Pizzorni, F. Todaro, & A. Schindler (Eds.). Speech sound disorders: Evidenze scientifiche e buone prassi riabilitative [Scientific evidence and best rehabilitative practices] (pp. 415-432). Erickson University & Research. https://www.erickson.it/it/speech-sound-disorders

It is exciting to see that this book will be used across Italy. Congratulations to the editors on the compilation of this important book.

 Here is the email we received from the editors:

Dear Colleagues,

First of all, we would like to wish you all a very happy New Year.

We are pleased to let you know that the Italian book on Speech Sound Disorders has finally been published: https://www.erickson.it/it/speech-sound-disorders

... Thank you for this wonderful achievement. We hope that this volume will become a reference textbook for Italian undergraduate and postgraduate Speech and Language Therapy programmes. The book will also be officially presented at the Italian Congress of Phoniatrics and Speech and Language Therapy in the coming months.

Thank you once again, and best wishes from all of us.

Silvia, Renata, Francesca, Nicole and Antonio

Silvia Piazzalunga, PhD
Speech-Language Pathologist, Adjunct Professor
Department of Biomedical and Clinical Sciences "L. Sacco"
"L. Sacco" Hospital
University of Milano, Italy

 

Three papers published in the latest issue of LSHSS!

A colleague at the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association Convention alerted me to the fact that our team has had THREE papers published in the latest issue of ASHA's Q1 journal - Language, Speech, and Hearing Services in Schools. Congratulations CVC team!

McLeod, S., Gregoric, C., Davies, J., Dealtry, L., Delli-Pizzi, L., Downey, B., Elwick, S., Hopf, S. C., Ivory, N., McAlister, H., Murray, E., Rahman, A., Sikder, S., Tran, V. H., & Zischke, C. (2025). Children Draw Talking Around the World. Language, Speech, and Hearing Services in Schools, 56(4), 1088-1109. https://doi.org/10.1044/2025_LSHSS-23-00190 

Margetson, K., McLeod, S., & Verdon, S. (2025). Cross-Linguistic Transfer in Vietnamese–English Speech. Language, Speech, and Hearing Services in Schools, 56(4), 1192-1216. https://doi.org/10.1044/2025_LSHSS-25-00046 

Doornik, A. v., Franken, M.-C., McLeod, S., Terband, H., & Gerrits, E. (2025). Children's, Parents', and Experts' Perception of Speech and Communication. Language, Speech, and Hearing Services in Schools, 56(4), 1042-1053. https://doi.org/10.1044/2025_LSHSS-24-00140 

CeTasSSD - Meeting with Kate Crowe on her timezone while in Geneva

Working with people across the world can be a challenge - since someone is always a little sleepy in meetings due to the timezone challenge. Today, I enjoyed meeting with Kate Crowe on almost the same timezone (Iceland-Geneva) to discuss our Catholic Education Tasmania Speech Sound Disorder research grant - including the excellent data from 2025 and finessing our plans for 2026.

 

Bright Ideas Media - Live and online presentations

We were invited to present a Speech Sound Disorders Series for Bright Ideas Media in the US. 

 

https://www.bethebrightest.com/en/events/speech-sound-disorders-series

This morning Dr. Kelly Farquharson and I presented a live 90 minute session to over 100 speech-language pathologists across the United States. Our presentation was titled: "Clinical Use of Speech Sound Acquisition Data"

Ω

"Don't ask when should a child say /s/ - instead ask what sound is the child making instead of /s/"

Dr Helen L. Blake and Dr Kate Margetson and I were invited to present a 2-hour online session titled "Multilingual Children’s Speech Assessment: A Contemporary Global Update"

 Here is a description of the while series from the website https://www.bethebrightest.com/en/events/speech-sound-disorders-series:

Welcome to the Speech Sound Disorders Series for 2025—a fresh look at how we treat speech sound disorders, grounded in what we know now. This year, we’re placing a strong focus on updated, evidence-based practices that reflect the evolving landscape of our field.

Joining the series are international experts Drs. Kelly Farquharson and Sharynne McLeod, bringing global insights and current research to deepen our understanding. From the nuances of treating R to conducting effective multilingual assessments, they’ll guide us through practical strategies that are informed, inclusive, and responsive to today’s clinical challenges.

The series includes:
* The 90-min live session, and the replay, co-presented by Drs. Sharynne McLeod and Kelly Farquharson: "Clinical Use of Speech Sound Acquisition Data"
* A 60-min on-demand course by Dr. Farquharson: "/ɹ/ you frustrated by working on /ɹ/? Try facilitative contexts!"
* An 120-min on-demand course by Drs. McLeod, Kate Margetson, and Helen Blake: "Multilingual Children’s Speech Assessment: A Contemporary Global Update"

This year's series is designed to challenge outdated assumptions and provide clear answers to common questions.

Our presenters are passionate about helping clinicians grow in confidence and competence. With their support—and expertise —you’ll walk away with sharper tools, broader perspective, and renewed clarity in how you treat speech sound disorders today.

Both on-demand courses will be available after the live event on Oct. 8 at 8:30 p.m. ET. 

 

Bright Ideas Media presentation

We have been working on our presentations for speech-language pathologists in the USA as part of the Speech Sound Disorders Series https://www.bethebrightest.com/en/events/speech-sound-disorders-series 

The series includes a 90-minute live offering, along with pre-recorded, on-demand content. This year's series is designed to challenge outdated assumptions and provide clear answers to common questions.

Here is information from the website: 

Welcome to the Speech Sound Disorders Series for 2025—a fresh look at how we treat speech sound disorders, grounded in what we know now. This year, we’re placing a strong focus on updated, evidence-based practices that reflect the evolving landscape of our field. Joining the series are international experts Drs. Kelly Farquharson and Sharynne McLeod, bringing global insights and current research to deepen our understanding. From the nuances of treating R to conducting effective multilingual assessments, they’ll guide us through practical strategies that are informed, inclusive, and responsive to today’s clinical challenges. 

The series includes: * The 90-min live session, and the replay, co-presented by Drs. Sharynne McLeod and Kelly Farquharson: "Clinical Use of Speech Sound Acquisition Data" * A 60-min on-demand course by Dr. Farquharson: "/ɹ/ you frustrated by working on /ɹ/? Try facilitative contexts!" * An 120-min on-demand course by Drs. McLeod, Kate Margetson, and Helen Blake: "Multilingual Children’s Speech Assessment: A Contemporary Global Update" 

This year's series is designed to challenge outdated assumptions and provide clear answers to common questions. Our presenters are passionate about helping clinicians grow in confidence and competence. With their support—and expertise —you’ll walk away with sharper tools, broader perspective, and renewed clarity in how you treat speech sound disorders today.  

 Here is some more information about our pre-recorded presentation

Multilingual Children’s Speech Assessment: A Contemporary Global Update Distinguished Professor Sharynne McLeod, Ph.D. Dr Helen L. Blake, Ph.D., Dr. Kate Margetson, Ph.D. Children’s Voices Centre, Charles Sturt University, Australia Learn how to identify multilingual children with speech sound disorders using the latest evidence from 130 languages. This course covers children’s speech development, assessment, analysis, and differential diagnosis, including practical application of the Speech Assessment of Children’s Home Language(s) (SACHL). https://www.bethebrightest.com/en/courses/multilingual-children-s-speech-assessment-a-contemporary-global-update

 

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.

 

Thinking in Action: Strengthening Clinical Reasoning to Deliver High-Impact, Individualized Interventions

Today our Children's Voices Centre Visiting Scholar - Professor Lynn Williams  - presented a whole day workshop titled "Thinking in Action: Strengthening Clinical Reasoning to Deliver High-Impact, Individualized Interventions".

We had 16 people attend in person in Bathurst, 65 people attend session 1 online, 96 people attend session 2 online, and 62 people attend session 3 online!   

9:30-11:30 | Session 1: Thinking in Action: Strengthening Clinical Reasoning to Deliver High-Impact, Individualized Interventions (2 hours)
11:30-12:00 | COFFEE BREAK
12:00-1:00 | Session 2: The Evolution of the Multiple Oppositions Approach: From Theory to Global Practice (1 hour)
1:00-2:00 | LUNCH (Own expense at CSU café or BYO) 
2:00-3:00 | Session 3: Thinking in Action (1 hour)

Professor A. Lynn Williams, PhD, CCC-SLP 
A. Lynn Williams is Professor in the Department of Audiology and Speech-Language Pathology at East Tennessee State University (ETSU), USA. She was founding Dean of ETSU’s College of Health Sciences, and 2021 President of the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA). An internationally recognized expert in speech sound disorders, she has led innovative interprofessional education initiatives and currently serves as Vice President of the National Academies of Practice, advancing collaboration to improve education, research, and patient care.

Sessions 1 and 3: 
Thinking in Action: Strengthening Clinical Reasoning to Deliver High-Impact, Individualized Interventions
Clinical reasoning is the bridge between research and real-world practice that allows clinicians to honour evidence-based interventions while adapting to each client’s needs. These interactive sessions will explore how clinical reasoning guides moment-to-moment decision-making during intervention, particularly in modifying teaching moments such as cues and feedback, and how clinicians may “tailor it, mix it, or wing it.” Using case examples, we will unpack the critical differences between tailoring, hybrid methods, and eclecticism, and their impact on treatment fidelity and outcomes. Attendees will gain practical strategies to strengthen their clinical reasoning skills, maintain intervention fidelity, and elevate confidence in delivering effective, individualized care.

Session 2: 
The Evolution of the Multiple Oppositions Approach: From Theory to Global Practice
First described in Williams (2000), the Multiple Oppositions approach offers a contrastive intervention for children with severe speech sound disorders. Grounded in systemic phonology, it targets multiple error sounds simultaneously to maximize change in a child’s speech system. This one-hour presentation will chart its development over 25 years from theoretical origins to adoption across languages. Participants will gain practical insights into applying the approach to improve intelligibility and participation for children.
Williams, A. L. (2000). Multiple oppositions: Theoretical foundations for an alternative contrastive intervention approach. American Journal of Speech-Language Pathology, 9, 282–288. https://doi.org/10.1044/1058-0360.0904.282

Some of the online audience

Speech-language pathologists brought along their books for Lynn to sign

Updating Children's Speech (2nd edition) - Effectiveness of orofacial myofunctional therapy for speech sound disorders in children: A systematic review

I was interested to read this paper as it informs what we write in the intervention chapters of the second edition of our Children's Speech book (McLeod & Baker)

Merkel-Walsh, R., Carey, D., Burnside, A., Grime, D., Turkich, D., Tseng, R. J., & Smart, S. (2025). Effectiveness of orofacial myofunctional therapy for speech sound disorders in children: A systematic review. International Journal of Orofacial Myology and Myofunctional Therapy, 51(1), 4. https://www.mdpi.com/2694-2526/51/1/4 

Here is the key takeaway "Findings from high quality studies showed no improvement to speech that could be directly attributed to OMT, and lower quality studies yielded mixed results. This review found no conclusive evidence supporting the use of OMT as a standalone treatment for the effective remediation of SSDs."

Here is the full abstract

Orofacial myofunctional therapy (OMT) is an intervention approach used to remediate orofacial myofunctional disorders (OMDs). OMDs are abnormal patterns involving the oral and orofacial musculature that can subsequently interfere with the normal growth, development, or function of orofacial structures, including speech production. Historically, articulation therapy is used to remediate speech sound disorders (SSDs). Currently, there is a dearth of literature on the use of OMT to treat non-developmental (organic) SSDs in children. The aim of this systematic review is to examine the effectiveness of OMT in treating organic SSDs in children and adolescents between 4 and 18 years of age. A search of five electronic databases (ProQuest, Scopus, Ovid, CINAHL, and Embase) was conducted, including backward (identifying and reviewing references from earlier studies from sources) and forward searching (reviewing newer studies that have cited a source). Only primary research including OMT with post-treatment outcome measures for speech production were included. Thirteen studies were reviewed, including a total of 397 participants between 4 and 17 years of age. A range of study designs, diagnoses, and intervention approaches were discussed. Studies yielded mixed results on the effectiveness of OMT to treat organic SSDs. OMT alone, and in combination with articulation therapy, was not found to be more effective than articulation therapy alone. The methodological quality of the studies ranged from limited to strong. Findings from high quality studies showed no improvement to speech that could be directly attributed to OMT, and lower quality studies yielded mixed results. This review found no conclusive evidence supporting the use of OMT as a standalone treatment for the effective remediation of SSDs. This is attributed to significant variability in speech outcomes, small sample sizes, limited comparison groups, diverse participant diagnoses, and inconsistent methodologies and treatment protocols, yielding mixed results. In addition, while the term OMT was used in the papers to designate treatment methodology, an analysis of the exercise descriptions revealed that some reported OMT exercises were non-speech oral motor exercises (NSOMEs) and oral motor therapies. Overall, many of the techniques utilized across studies did not provide speech-like movements in their therapeutic interventions based on their description. Finally, traditional articulation therapy, including speech drills to work on articulation disorders, was not included in many of the included studies. SLPs using OMT as a modality would typically combine this with articulation practice to treat the SSD. This study highlights the need for robust future studies including prospective cohort studies to compare OMT, combined OMT and articulation therapy, and articulation therapy alone to provide clearer guidance for future clinical practice.

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. 

Reviews for the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association convention are complete

 I am on the Speech Sound Disorders in Children Committee for the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association convention. Today I completed all of my reviews of the abstracts submitted for consideration to be presented at the conference in November.

Just published

van Doornik, A., Welbie, M., McLeod, S., Gerrits, E., & Terband, H. (2025). 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 & Communication Disorders, 60, e70022. https://doi.org/10.1111/1460-6984.70022 

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/1460-6984.70022

Congratulations Anniek!

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.

Invitation - ASHA Speech Sound Disorders in Children Topic Committee

I have been invited to be part of the 2025 American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA) Convention Planning Committee as a member of the Speech Sound Disorders in Children Topic Committee by Dr. Carol Koch and Dr. Amy Graham. The 2025 ASHA Convention will be held in Washington, DC. 

Here is what they wrote:

The ASHA Convention is the largest continuing education experience each year attended by over 15,000 clinicians, researchers, students, and related professionals. We are extending an invitation to you to be part of the 2025 ASHA Convention Planning Committee as a member of the Speech Sound Disorders in Children Topic Committee.  
 
Agreeing to serve in this volunteer role means that you will participate in the peer-review process for convention submissions from April 24th to May 13th, 2025. As part of this process, you will review and score approximately 10-12 narrative submissions for oral seminars, technical sessions, and poster presentations. Your review will help determine the inclusion of each submission in the 2025 ASHA Convention Program... This topic committee will also provide input on invited presentations/topics...

I have accepted their invitation. It is an honour to serve ASHA in this way. I have had the pleasure of serving on committees such as these since 2003.

Preparing to present in Hong Kong

Kate Margetson and I have been invited to present a workshop in Hong Kong titled: Children's speech assessment and intervention: What works? What's new? What's the evidence?

It is exciting to begin to develop the content with our colleagues Dr Thomas Law in Hong Kong.

 https://speechearing.org/en/products/speech-sound-disorder 

Just published: Diagnosing speech sound disorder in bilingual Vietnamese-English-speaking children: Are English-only assessments sufficient?

The following book chapter from Kate Margetson's PhD has just been published. Congratulations Kate on this important research. (P. S. Unsurprisingly, the answer to the question posed in the title is "no" - but the evidence is fascinating)

Margetson, K., McLeod, S., & Verdon, S. (2024). Diagnosing speech sound disorder in bilingual Vietnamese-English-speaking children: Are English-only assessments sufficient? In E. Babatsouli (Ed.). Multilingual acquisition and learning: A ecosystemic view to diversity. (pp. 217-245). John Benjamins Publishing. https://doi.org/10.1075/sibil.67.08mar 

Here is the abstract

Multilingual children suspected of having speech sound disorders (SSD) are often only assessed in English due to challenges facing speech-language pathologists (SLPs) such as inadequate resources, lack of access to multilingual SLPs or interpreters, and limited SLP knowledge and skill in assessing unfamiliar lanquages. This paper describes the speech profiles and diagnostic decision-making for four bilingual Vietnamese-English speaking children aged 4-6 years. When using English-only assessment all children were diagnosed with SSD. When assessed in English and Vietnamese, only two children were diagnosed with SSD. Many mismatches could be explained by cross-linguistic transfer and ambient phonology. These different diagnostic outcomes demonstrate that direct speech assessment in home language(s) and English is essential for accurate diagnosis of SSD in multilingual children.

Vale Lawrence D. Shriberg

I am so sad to hear that my mentor and friend Larry Shriberg has passed away. He has had such a profound influence on my work, and on children with speech sound disorders (SSD) throughout the world. I was to be his PhD student at the University of Wisconsin Madison; however, grant funding fell through the year I was to study with him - so I was unable to move to the USA. Larry had an ongoing interest in my work and we met up at each ASHA convention. 

Sharynne, Larry Shriberg and Helen Blake - ASHA 2017

Larry Shriberg, Greg Lof, Sharynne McLeod, Peter Flipsen - ASHA 2014

 

A few of his influential papers include:

1. Shriberg, L., & Kwiatkowski, J. (1980). Natural process analysis. John Wiley. 
2. Shriberg, L. D., & Kwiatkowski, J. (1982a). Phonological disorders I: A diagnostic classification system. Journal of Speech and Hearing Disorders, 47, 226–241.
3. Shriberg, L. D., & Kwiatkowski, J. (1982b). Phonological disorders II: A conceptual framework of management. Journal of Speech and Hearing Disorders, 42, 242–256.
4. Shriberg, L. D., & Kwiatkowski, J. (1982c). Phonological disorders III: A procedure for assessing severity of involvement. Journal of Speech and Hearing Disorders, 47, 256–270.
5. Shriberg, L. D., & Kwiatkowski, J. (1990). Self-monitoring and generalization in preschool speech-delayed children. Language, Speech, and Hearing Services in Schools, 21, 157–170.
6. Shriberg, L. D., Kwiatkowski, J., Best, S., Hengst, J., & Terselic-Weber, B. (1986). Characteristics of children with phonologic disorders of unknown origin. Journal of Speech and Hearing Disorders, 51, 140–161.
7. Shriberg, L. D., Kwiatkowski, J., & Hoffman, K. (1984). A procedure for phonetic transcription  by consensus. Journal of Speech and Hearing Research, 27, 456–465.
8. Shriberg, L. D., Kwiatkowski, J., & Snyder, T. (1986). Articulation testing by microcomputer. Journal of Speech and Hearing Disorders, 51, 309–324.
9. Shriberg, L. D., & Lof, G. L. (1991). Reliability studies in broad and narrow phonetic transcription. Clinical Linguistics & Phonetics, 5(3), 225-279. https://doi.org/10.3109/02699209108986113
10. Shriberg, L. D., Strand, E. A., Jakielski, K. J., & Mabie, H. L. (2019). Estimates of the prevalence of speech and motor speech disorders in persons with complex neurodevelopmental disorders. Clinical Linguistics & Phonetics, 33(8), 707–736. https://doi.org/10.1080/02699206.2019.1595732
11. Shriberg, L. D., Tomblin, J. B., & McSweeny, J. L. (1999). Prevalence of speech delay in 6-year-old children and comorbidity with language impairment. Journal of Speech Language & Hearing Research, 42(6), 1461–1481. https://doi.org/10.1044/jslhr.4206.1461
12. Shriberg, L. D., & Wren, Y. E. (2019). A frequent acoustic sign of speech motor delay (SMD). Clinical Linguistics & Phonetics. https://doi.org/10.1080/02699206.2019.1595734
13. Shriberg, L. D., Austin, D., Lewis, B. A., McSweeny, J. L., & Wilson, D. L. (1997a). The percentage of consonants correct (PCC) metric: Extensions and reliability data. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, 40, 708–722. https://doi.org/10.1044/jslhr.4004.708 
14. Shriberg, L. D., Austin, D., Lewis, B. A., McSweeny, J. L., & Wilson, D. L. (1997b). The speech disorders classification system (SDCS): Extensions and lifespan reference data. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, 40, 723–740. 
15. Shriberg, L. D., Aram, D. M., & Kwiatkowski, J. (1997). Developmental apraxia of speech: I. Descriptive and theoretical perspectives. Journal of Speech Language, and Hearing Research, 40(2), 273–285. 

Larry in his office in Madison, 2006

Prof Yvonne Wren acknowledging Prof Shriberg's international contributions at the Bristol Speech and Language Therapy Research Unit Annual Lecture - 30 April 2024

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.

ARC Linkage Infrastructure, Equipment and Facilities (LIEF) scheme

Today I met with colleagues across Australia to discuss the potential development of an application for the ARC Linkage Infrastructure, Equipment and Facilities (LIEF) scheme.

The LIEF scheme enables higher education researchers to participate in cooperative initiatives so that expensive infrastructure, equipment and facilities can be shared between higher education organisations and also with industry. The scheme also fosters collaboration through its support of the cooperative use of international or national research facilities. The LIEF scheme objectives are to: support excellent basic and applied research and research training through the acquisition of research equipment and infrastructure and access to national and international research facilities; and encourage Eligible Organisations to develop collaborative arrangements with other Eligible Organisations and/or Partner Organisations for the acquisition and use of research equipment and infrastructure or access to national and international facilities. The intended outcomes of the LIEF scheme are: enhanced scale and focus of research in areas of existing and/or emerging research strength; and research infrastructure for the broader research community. (from ARC website)