American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA) convention

The American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA) convention is held in Seattle this week. At the opening ceremony they announced that there were 13,005 registrations from 58 countries and all 50 states of the US https://convention.asha.org/.

Here are our presentations:

• Culturally Appropriate Assessment in International Contexts: Assessing Children's Speech in Their Home Language(s) (1 hour session)- Sharynne McLeod, Helen L. Blake, Kate Margetson
  
• Services for Children With Pacific Islander Heritage: Practices and Aspirations of Speech-Language Pathologists (30 minute technical session) - Holly McAlister, Suzanne C. Hopf, Sharynne McLeod
  
• Children Draw Talking: Understanding Children's Functioning with Arts-Based Methods (1 hour session)- Sharynne McLeod, Marie Ireland, Jane McCormack, Anna Cronin, Cen Wang, Carolyn Gregoric, Holly McAlister, Suzanne C. Hopf, Van H. Tran, Karla N. Washington, Nicole Bazzocchi, Lauren Choi, Katarina Miletic, Andrea A.N. MacLeod, Jessica A. Harasym
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Our session titled "Culturally Appropriate Assessment in International Contexts: Assessing Children's Speech in Their Home Language(s)" was selected for live-broadcast:

Congratulations! Your in-person, 1-hour oral seminar (listed below) has been selected by the 2024 ASHA Convention Co-Chairs to be live-broadcast as part of the Virtual Program. During the submission process you indicated that you would agree to have your slides and audio broadcast to the virtual platform in real-time if selected. Only 77 sessions were chosen to be broadcast live, with consideration given to the overall strength and value to virtual-only participants and alignment with our 2024 theme, ELEVATE!...The live broadcast is a real-time feed of your presentation onsite in Seattle. Your session will not be recorded and will not be available as an on-demand Virtual Program session after it concludes.

Congratulations to Holly McAlister who is presenting her PhD and attending ASHA for the first time. I am so proud of how well she is networking and making the most of this unique opportunity.

I was also invited to host an ASHA Research Round Table - “Engaging in International Research Collaborations” with Dr. Giang Pham

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

Beautiful Seattle - home of the Coast Salish people, innovation, and fun

I have enjoyed exploring Seattle while getting over jetlag with Holly McAlister, my PhD student and my husband. I have enjoyed and learning more about the traditions of the Coast Salish people - particularly at the Seattle Children's Museum. Seattle has gorgeous scenery and is also the home of many innovative companies including Microsoft, Amazon, Boeing, and Alaska Airlines.

The Fish! Philosophy (https://fishphilosophy.com/what-is-fish/) is also from the Pike Place Fish Market Seattle. The central four ideas are:

• play
• be there
• make their day
• choose your attitude

Note the shadow of the Space Needle -
looking towards the University of Washington

Visiting the Seattle Children's Museum

I continue to get ideas for the Children's Voices Centre and The Treehouse as I travel to different parts of the world. This week I got a lot of ideas from the excellent Seattle Children's Museum (https://seattlechildrensmuseum.org/) as an "unaccompanied adult". I enjoyed sock skating, making a melting snowman, and learning about the Coast Salish people and nature of the Pacific North West.