Children's Voices Centre: 2025 Summary report

The Children's Voices Centre (CVC) was launched 1 October 2025. In 2025 CVC staff, affiliates, HDR students and adjuncts produced 242 outputs documented in CRO including 6 books, 9 reports, 3 theses, 15 chapters, 97 journal articles, and 58 conference presentations. In 2025 CVC staff submitted 5 grants, generated $117,000 HERDC income (undertaking research with Worksafe Victoria, Catholic Education Tasmania, Orange Aboriginal Medical Service), and CVC received its first anonymous philanthropic donation of $30,000. Collaborative research with 20+ interdisciplinary affiliates (mostly early career researchers) resulted in Q1 journal articles and conference presentations with more underway. 

The World Health Organization has invited CVC to apply to become a collaborating centre in 2026 following a co-operative research program, official membership WHO Disability Health Equity Network, and presentations at WHO (Geneva, Fiji).  CVC research impact includes with United Nations Foundation (USA), Australian Government (Thriving Kids Inquiry, Disability Discrimination Act), Bathurst Regional Art Gallery (3-month exhibition). Leadership roles in International Clinical Phonetics and Linguistics Association (ICPLA) and European Early Childhood Education Research Association (EECERA). Awards from Patras University (Greece), International Association of Communication Sciences and Disorders (IALP, non-state actor of WHO). One CVC HDR student graduated as a CSU university medallist. Visiting scholars were from: Nord University (Norway), Wellcome Trust visiting scholar (UK), East Tennessee State University (USA).

• Books    6
• Reports    9
• Theses    3
• Chapters    15
• Journal articles    97
• Commentary    3
• Editorial    7
• Book/Film/Article review    2
• Contribution to specialist publication    15
• Conference presentation/poster    58
• Resources/Non-textual outputs    27
• TOTAL    242

 

Global knowledge in 131 languages and dialects about children’s speech development, assessment, and intervention

 The following manuscript has been accepted for publication. I am so proud of this work.

McLeod, S. & Blake, H. L. (2026, in press February) Global knowledge in 131 languages and dialects about children’s speech development, assessment, and intervention. Clinical Linguistics and Phonetics.

Here is the abstract

This paper exhorts communication specialists to look beyond English language knowledge by providing evidence to disrupt the unsubstantiated belief that there are few assessment and intervention resources for supporting multilingual children’s speech. The Multilingual Children’s Speech website https://www.csu.edu.au/research/multilingual-speech/home has curated 1,337 (mostly free) resources for supporting multilingual children’s speech acquisition, assessment, and intervention in 131 of the world’s languages and dialects (86 languages). Specifically, there are 658 speech acquisition studies in 55 languages, 423 speech assessment resources in 77 languages, and 178 speech intervention resources in 21 languages. This free website includes links to assessment tools, intervention manuals, journal articles, books, chapters, theses, and video recordings for 16 of the top 20 most spoken languages in the world and many minority languages, Indigenous languages (e.g., Māori, Samoan, Sesotho, Setswana, Warlpiri, isiXhosa, Zapotec, isiZulu) and languages and dialects impacted by colonization and slavery (e.g., African American English, Fiji English, Jamaican Creole, Tok Pisin). Only 17.95% of the resources are about English, with 51.68% about 39 other Indo-European languages, and 30.37% about 46 languages belonging to 15 non-Indo-European language families. Previous analyses of curated knowledge about children’s development in psychology and linguistics have found a WEIRD bias “Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich, and Democratic societies”; however, only 29.07% of the languages included on the Multilingual Children’s Speech website are WEIRD. While only 1.23% of the 7000 world languages are represented on the website, these assessment and intervention resources will continue to grow due to ongoing work of multilingual communication specialists across the globe. 

Summary of research during 2022

Over the past year the research of Professor Sharynne McLeod and her team received a number of awards and opportunities to share the findings with professionals and families across the world. 

The Australian Newspaper named Professor McLeod as Australia’s Research Field Leader in Audiology, Speech and Language Pathology and “best in the world based on the quality, volume and impact of work”. 

Additionally she was awarded: 

• Fellow of the Academy of the Social Sciences of Australia 
• Fellow of the American Board of Child Language and Language Disorders 
• Charles Sturt University Researcher/Research Team of the Year Award (Faculty of Arts and Education) 
• Charles Sturt University Research Excellence through Partnership Award 

Dr Van Tran (supervised by Prof McLeod and A/prof Sarah Verdon) was awarded Charles Sturt University Higher Degree by Research Thesis of the Year Award 

Professor McLeod gave invited addresses to: 

• American Speech-Language-Hearing Foundation Inaugural International Symposium in New Orleans, USA, 
• European Speech and Language Therapy Association (ESLA) Congress in Salzburg, Austria (online), 
• Third Iranian Conference on Developmental Language Disorder (online), 
• Autumn Lecture for the journal Advances in Communication and Swallowing (online), 
• Vietnamese Speech Therapy Education - Da Nang University of Medical Technology and Pharmacy, Viet Nam (online)(pictured) 

Additionally, she was an invited representative on 

• Federal Government's Education Disability Loading Review Expert Panel 
• 73rd session of the World Health Organization Regional Committee for the Western Pacific on behalf of International Association of Communication Sciences and Disorders (IALP). 

During 2022 the Multilingual Children's Speech website (https://www.csu.edu.au/research/multilingual-speech) was popular with 82,764 views. 

Finally, she co-edited a special issue of the International Journal of Speech-Language Pathology (Q1) with Prof Julie Marshall titled "Communication, swallowing and the Sustainable Development Goals". The special issue included an introduction advocating for Communication for all as SDG 18 an invited paper by Professor Graeme Clark who invented the cochlear implant. 

 

A productive year

Here is a list of the journal articles that I have published with members of our SLM team and other colleagues during 2018. We also have published chapters, encyclopedia entries and have presented papers at national and international conferences. It has been a productive year of undertaking research to support communication across the world.

IN PRESS (underlined = student/postdoctoral scholar)

1.              Blake, H. L., & McLeod, S. (2018, in press December). Speech-language pathologists’ support for multilingual speakers’ English intelligibility and participation informed by the ICF. Journal of Communication Disorders.

2.              Hopf, S. C., McDonagh, S., Wang, C., & McLeod, S. (2018, in press October). English language and literacy proficiency of students in an urban Fiji primary school. Language, Culture, and Curriculum. Advance online publication doi:10.1080/07908318.2018.1541999

3.              Howland, C., Baker, E., Munro, N. & McLeod, S. (2018, in press August). Realisation of grammatical morphemes by children with phonological impairment. Clinical Linguistics and Phonetics.

4.              McLeod, S., Harrison, L. J., & Wang, C. (in press, August). A longitudinal population study of literacy and numeracy outcomes for children identified with communication impairment in early childhood. Early Childhood Research Quarterly.

5.              McLeod, S. & Masso, S. (2018, in press July). Screening children’s speech: The impact of imitated elicitation and word position. Language, Speech, and Hearing Services in Schools. Advance online publication doi:10.1044/2018_LSHSS-17-0141

6.              Baker, E., Williams, A. L., McLeod, S., & McCauley, R. J. (2018, in press January). Elements of phonological interventions for children with speech sound disorders: The development of a taxonomy. American Journal of Speech-Language Pathology. Advance online publication doi:10.1044/2018_AJSLP-17-0127

7.              Blake, H. L., Bennetts Kneebone, L. & McLeod, S. (2017, in press February). The impact of oral English proficiency on humanitarian migrants’ experiences of settling in Australia. International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism. Advance online publication doi:10.1080/13670050.2017.1294557

                                                                                                    

PUBLISHED             

8.              Baker, E., Masso, S., McLeod, S., & Wren, Y. (2018). Pacifiers, thumb sucking, breastfeeding, and bottle use: Oral sucking habits of children with and without phonological impairment. Folia Phoniatrica et Logopedica, 70(3-4), 165–173. doi:10.1159/000492469.

9.              McLeod, S. & Crowe, K. (2018). Children’s consonant acquisition in 27 languages: A cross-linguistic review. American Journal of Speech-Language Pathology. 27(4), 1546-1571. doi:10.1044/2018_AJSLP-17-0100

10.            Blake, H. L. & McLeod, S. (2018). The ICF framework: Considering individuals from a perspective of health and wellness. Perspectives of the ASHA Special Interest Groups (SIG17: Global issues in Communication Sciences and Related Disorders), 3(17), 69-77. doi: 10.1044/persp3.SIG17.69

11.            Hopf, S. C., McLeod, S., McDonagh, S., Wang, C., & Rakanace, E. (2018, published online 2017). Communication disability in Fiji: Community self-help and help-seeking support. International Journal of Speech-Language Pathology, 20(5), 554-568, doi:10.1080/17549507.2017.1337226

12.            Hegarty, N., Titterington, J., McLeod, S., Taggart, L. (2018). Intervention for children with phonological impairment: Knowledge, practices and intervention intensity in the UK. International Journal of Language and Communication Disorders, 53(5), 995-1006. doi:10.1111/1460-6984.12416

13.            McLeod, S., Crowe, K., McCormack, J., White, P., Wren, Y., Baker, E., Masso, S., Roulstone, S. (2018, published online 2017). Preschool children’s communication, motor and social development: What concerns parents and educators? International Journal of Speech-Language Pathology, 20(4), 468-482. doi:10.1080/17549507.2017.1309065

14.            van Doornik, A., Gerrits, E., McLeod, S., & Terband, H. (2018). Impact of communication partner familiarity and speech accuracy on parents’ ratings of their child for the Intelligibility in Context Scale: Dutch. International Journal of Speech-Language Pathology, 20(3), 350-360. doi:10.1080/17549507.2018.1472808

15.            Phạm, B., McLeod, S. & Le, X. T. T. (2018). Xây dựng bộ trắc nghiệm đánh giá lời nói Việt: Nghiên cứu định khung [Development of the Vietnamese Speech Assessment]. Ngôn ngữ [Language], 4(347), 33-45. (translation of Phạm, McLeod, & Le, 2017)

16.            Blake, H. L., McLeod, S., Verdon, S., & Fuller, G. (2018, published online 2016). The relationship between spoken English proficiency and participation in higher education, employment and income from two Australian censuses. International Journal of Speech-Language Pathology, 20(2), 202-215. doi:10.1080/17549507.2016.1229031

17.            McLeod, S. (2018). Communication rights: Fundamental human rights for all. International Journal of Speech-Language Pathology, 20(1), 3-11. doi: 10.1080/17549507.2018.1428687

18.            Wang, C., Harrison, L. J., McLeod, S., Walker, S., & Spilt, J. L. (2018, published online 2017). Can teacher-child relationships support human rights to freedom of opinion and expression, education, and participation? International Journal of Speech-Language Pathology, 20(1), 133-141. doi:10.1080/17549507.2018.1408855

SUMMARY - March - June 2014

AUSTRALIAN RESEARCH COUNCIL FUTURE FELLOWSHIP UPDATE 
‘Speaking my language: International speech acquisition in Australia’  
Written by Kim Woodland, Research Institute for Professional Practice, Learning and Education for the RIPPLE Update

In February, RIPPLE researcher and ARC Future Fellow, Sharynne McLeod, and her colleagues, uploaded seven submissions to the Australian Senate Inquiry into the prevalence of different types of speech, language and communication disorders and speech pathology services in Australia. Their submissions were also highlighted in a recent CSU Media release: Speech pathology services urgently needed. Speech Pathology Australia’s submission to the Inquiry referenced the work Sharynne has undertaken as part of her Future Fellowship, as well as the work her team has completed with ARC Discovery funding.

Sharynne has continued her work with data from Footprints in Time: The Longitudinal Study of Indigenous Children. In March, Sharynne, along with her RIPPLE-sponsored PhD student, Sarah Verdon, presented their work to the Australian Institute for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies (AIATSIS) National Indigenous Studies conference held in Canberra. Their presentation was titled Celebrating Indigenous Australian children’s languages: Diversity, competence and support. Sharynne and Sarah were also asked to write a paper for the Australian Government’s Department of Social Services annual report on the LSIC, on longitudinal patterns of language use, diversity, support and competence. As a result, both researchers have participated in a number of radio and print interviews.

• Click here to listen to Sharynne’s interview by Radio 4MW on the Torres Strait (24 minutes): https://soundcloud.com/tsima-4mw/radio-4mw-english-as-an-eighth  
• Click here to read a feature piece on Sarah Verdon in the Bathurst City Life newspaper: see Research highlights positive in Indigenous language on page 3

In April, Sharynne travelled to Ireland for a two-day board meeting of the International Association of Logopedics and Phoniatrics. She was also an invited speaker at the Irish Association of Speech and Language Therapists Study Day in Dublin, where she spoke on Resources for supporting multilingual children. Sharynne then travelled to Exeter in the UK to give a presentation to the South West Specific Speech Sound Impairment Clinical Excellence Network, entitled Assessing children’s speech: The big picture.

The Speech Pathology Australia National Conference was held in Melbourne during May, and Sharynne, along with three of her PhD students—Sarah Verdon,  Sarah Masso, and Suzanne Hopf—presented a range of papers, focusing on the speech of children with cultural and linguistically diverse backgrounds, particularly within the Asia Pacific region. The team took out two awards: see Awards and Success Stories on p. 3.

In June, Sharynne and her PhD students—Sarah Verdon, Sarah Masso and Suzanne Hopf—travelled to Stockholm, Sweden, to present papers at the International Clinical Phonetics and Linguistics Association conference. While in Stockholm, Sharynne and Sarah Verdon also hosted a meeting of the International Expert Panel of Multilingual Children’s Speech on 11 June. The panel members spoke 16 different languages in a professional capacity and had worked in 25 different countries (including Slovenia, Iceland, Israel, and Jamaica). She then travelled to Iceland in late June to present papers to members of the Icelandic Association of Speech and Language Therapists (Félag talmeinafræðinga á Íslandi), where she focused on multilingual children’s speech acquisition, assessment, and intervention.

Further evidence of the international impact of Sharynne’s research is her invitation to provide feedback on the World Health Organization’s revisions to the International Classification of Diseases—for their eleventh revision which is due to be published in 2017. Sharynne was invited to critique the draft document on developmental speech disorders, and has offered recommendations from the International Expert Panel on Multilingual Children's Speech, as well as from other work she has undertaken.

For further information and regular updates, please visit Sharynne’s blog: Speaking my languages.

Icelandic Association of Speech and Language Therapists (Félag talmeinafræðinga á Íslandi)

September 2013 - February 2014 SUMMARY

AUSTRALIAN RESEARCH COUNCIL FUTURE FELLOWSHIP UPDATE
‘Speaking my language: International speech acquisition in Australia’
Written by Kim Woodland, Research Institute for Professional Practice, Learning and Education for the RIPPLE Update

We now entering our final year of reporting on Sharynne McLeod’s productive and busy ARC Future Fellowship on international speech acquisition in Australia. Sharynne’s blog, Speaking my languages, continues to track her progress so please check in for regular updates.

As Sharynne said in a summary post in December: “The most important test of this work is the difference this makes in the lives of children with speech and language difficulties”. The importance of the work was also reiterated by an international reviewer of one of Sharynne’s papers: “To my mind, two of the most important tasks for the profession of speech-language in this century are the development of assessments for use with multilingual children and children whose first language is not English and fostering clinician’s awareness of them”.

In mid-November 2013, Sharynne, Sarah Verdon and Kate Crowe attended the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association Convention in Chicago, along with 15,000 other delegates, the largest ASHA Convention on record. While at the convention, Sharynne presented 6.5 hours of technical reports and seminars including a 3-hour short course, along with co-presenting papers with Sarah and Kate. Many of the international researchers Sharynne works with and who she has written about on her blog also attended, providing an excellent opportunity to meet and collaborate. 

Sharynne and her team continue to work on this goal and the impact of their work is making a positive and growing difference in the lives of children with speech difficulties and their families. The Multilingual Children’s Speech website which was created as part of the Fellowship had received over 20,000 visits by the end of November 2013 from many countries. New information and resources continue to be added.

A major focus for Sharynne and her team in 2014 is the ARC Sound Start project, which commenced last year. The project is in the data collection phase and by the time the intervention (an innovative program to promote speech and pre-literacy skills in at-risk preschoolers) is over, the participating children will have been assessed twice to determine the outcome of the speech intervention. More children will be included in the project in 2014 and 2015.

After ten years, Sharynne also concludes her position as editor of the International Journal of Speech-Language Pathology, handing over to A/Prof Kirrie Ballard, another ARC Future Fellowship holder.

We look forward to following Sharynne’s work again in 2014.

Output for 2013

As 2013 comes to an end, I have just completed my annual performance management review with my Dean and Head of School. 2013 has been a productive year. This level of productivity has been directly as a result of being able to devote my time to research through my Australian Research Council Future Fellowship. Here is a summary of what I had to report
Research output (full publication list is here)

• 6 book chapters (1 submitted, 3 accepted for publication, 2 published in 2013)
•  25 journal articles (peer review) (7 submitted, 7 accepted for publication, 11 published in 2013)
• 1 journal article (editorial review) (1 accepted for publication)
•  26 conference presentations (5 invited, 21 peer reviewed presentations in 2013) 

Awards

• Charles Sturt University Vice Chancellor’s Research Supervision Excellence Award (individual)
• Speech Pathology Australia Elizabeth Usher Memorial Award 

Research grants

• McLeod, S., Baker, E. M., McCormack, J. M., Wren, Y. E. &  Roulstone, S. E. (2013-2015). A sound start: Innovative technology to promote speech and pre-literacy skills in at-risk preschoolers (DP130102545). Australian Research Council (ARC) Discovery Grant.
•  McLeod, S., Wren, Y., Baker, E., McCormack, J., Crowe, K., Masso, S., & Roulstone, S. (2013-2015). First-phase support for preschool children with speech and phonological awareness difficulties in NSW DEC preschools. New South Wales Department of Education and Communities Grant.
• McLeod, S. (2009-2013). Speaking my language: International speech acquisition in Australia. Australian Research Council (ARC) Future Fellowship (FT0990588)

I have published 6 issues (642 pages) in 2013 in my role as editor of the International Journal of Speech-Language Pathology. I have been editor of IJSLP for 9 years. My role as editor concludes at the end of 2013; however, I will have finalised issues 1-3 for 2014 by the end of my term.

Students and ex-students:

• Jane McCormack came second in international Pursuit Award for best PhD in childhood disability 
• Kate Crowe received an American Speech-Language-Hearing Association Student Research Travel Award 
• Kate Crowe (PhD) and Hannah Wilkin (Hons) are graduating in December
• Sarah Verdon received a RIPPLE travel scholarship
• Sarah Masso received an APA PhD scholarship
• Suzanne Hopf received a CSU PhD scholarship

International e-profile

• Multilingual Children’s Speech website (http://www.csu.edu.au/research/multilingual-speech) (20,391 hits in 12 months)
• Speaking My Languages blog (http://www.speakingmylanguages.blogspot.com) (15,511 hits over lifetime even though it is a private blog)

Thank you to everyone who has collaborated with and inspired me during 2013. The most important test of this work is the difference this makes in the lives of children with speech and language difficulties.

June - August 2013 Summary

AUSTRALIAN RESEARCH COUNCIL FUTURE FELLOWSHIP UPDATE

‘Speaking my language: International speech acquisition in Australia’ 

Written by Kim Woodland, Research Institute for Professional Practice, Learning and Education for the RIPPLE Update

During June, Sharynne volunteered for two weeks at Pham Ngoc Thach Medical University in Vietnam, lecturing in the speech sound disorders class, and delivering a professional development lecture to graduate and student speech therapists. She also took the opportunity to improve her grasp of the complex Vietnamese language and assisted Dr Ly Kha Nguyen, a phonetics and linguistics lecturer at the University, to analyse data of typical Vietnamese speech acquisition in over 1,000 children in Ho Chi Minh City and surrounding areas.

In late June, Sharynne attended the Speech Pathology Australia National Conference, where she co-presented a range of papers with her students and colleagues. She delivered the prestigious Elizabeth Usher Memorial Lecture, and received the Elizabeth Usher Award for 2013 which was presented at the conference.

Sharynne travelled to Vancouver, Canada, in August, to present lessons learned from her Future Fellowship in an invited presentation: Children’s speech development in many languages: Strategies for telling the world what we have learned. She presented to the Knowledge Mobilization for an International Crosslinguistic Study of Children’s Speech Development Meeting at the University of British Columbia. The Meeting brought together 60 people from around the world who have been involved in an international study of children’s speech development.

Next stop was Anadolu University in Turkey, to meet with researchers, deliver an invited presentation, and work with speech-language pathologists to review the Turkish version of the International Speech Screen.

Researchers from the Sound Start research project team headed to the Bristol Speech and Language Therapy Research Unit in the UK in late August to share information about the project, analyse data, plan future data collection, and meet with colleagues.

The team then travelled to Turin, Italy, to attend the International Association of Logopedics and Phoniatrics (IALP) World Congress. Sharynne chaired four sessions and co-presented several papers. During the Congress, the International Journal of Speech-Language Pathology’s (of which Sharynne is Editor) scientific forum on the World Report on Disability was profiled. Sharynne was elected a member of the IALP Board for the next three years.
For more information, please visit Sharynne’s blog: Speaking my languages.

Presenting the Elizabeth Usher Memorial Lecture, June 2013

March - May 2013 Summary

AUSTRALIAN RESEARCH COUNCIL FUTURE FELLOWSHIP UPDATE ‘Speaking my language: International speech acquisition in Australia’ Written by Kim Woodland, Research Institute for Professional Practice, Learning and Education for the May 2013 RIPPLE Update

Sharynne has continued working on her Future Fellowship, participating in CRN-related research, launching the ARC Sound Start study in March, and supervising PhD students.

Back in January, Sharynne travelled to Jamaica with Karla Washington from the University of Cincinnati to study Jamaican children’s speech and language acquisition. Karla and a team from the University of Cincinnati continued the data collection, and 60 children have now had their speech and language skills in Jamaican and English assessed. The researchers are now analysing the data, in readiness for presenting their findings later this year.

In April, Sharynne attended the first meeting of Speech Pathology Australia's Australian Strategic Advisory Group on the International Communication Project. The aim of the intern

ational group is to foreground communication and people with communication disability. To date, five international professional organisations are involved in the discussions, with a focus on hosting events in 2014 and beyond.

Sharynne has also co-authored a manuscript outlining the work of the International Expert Panel on Multilingual Children’s Speech that met in Cork, Ireland in June 2012 and the resulting position paper.

McLeod, S., Verdon, S., Bowen, C., & the International Expert Panel on Multilingual Children’s Speech. (In press). International aspirations for speech-language pathologists’ practice with multilingual children with speech sound disorders: Development of a position paper. Journal of Communication Disorders.

Her journal article publication record for 2013 already looks outstanding: to date she has 6 articles submitted, 6 in press, and 7 published.

For more information, please visit Sharynne’s blog: Speaking my languages.

October 2012 - February 2013 Summary

AUSTRALIAN RESEARCH COUNCIL FUTURE FELLOWSHIP UPDATE

‘Speaking my language: International speech acquisition in Australia’ 

Written by Kim Woodland, Research Institute for Professional Practice, Learning and Education for the February 2013 RIPPLE Update

The transition to 2013 hasn’t slowed Sharynne’s Future Fellowship research. Over the last few months she has travelled to Jamaica, attended conferences, presented lectures, had a book chapter published, and several journal articles have been accepted for publication.

Two important launches occurred in November:

·     The anticipated position paper on Multilingual children with speech sound disorders was released by the International Expert Panel on Multilingual Children’s Speech of which Sharynne is the chair. The paper draws on international understandings of professional practice and outlines best practice recommendations to support children with speech sound disorders.

·     The Multilingual Children’s Speech website, a compilation of resources for speech-language pathologists (and others) who work with multilingual children with speech sound disorders. Within the first two weeks, the Google analytics report for the website showed an impressive 4,363 page views, with the top countries accessing the site being the United States, Slovenia, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom and Japan. The website also won the Speechwoman of the Month website award for December.

During November, Sharynne also spent time, along with RIPPLE PhD scholar Sarah Verdon, working with members of the Australian Government Department of Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs analysing data as part of a national study, Footprints in Time: Longitudinal Study of Indigenous Children (LSIC). In 2013, they plan to submit a journal article about Indigenous children’s speech and language competence from this analysis.

In January, Sharynne and Dr Karla Washington from the University of Cincinnati traveled to Jamaica to work with researchers from the Jamaican Language Unit and the University of the West Indies to study children's speech and language acquisition. They spent a few weeks testing and documenting young Jamaican children’s speech and language skills, as well as meeting with other researchers. While in Jamaica, Sharynne presented an invited lecture, The importance of supporting children’s speech and language development, at the University of the West Indies.

In February, Sharynne presented another lecture, Applying the ICF-CY and the World Report on Disability to supporting children’s communication, via videoconference to students at the University of Cincinnati. Sharynne discussed how she has applied these documents to her research in the LSIC, the ARC-funded Sound Effects study, and her Future Fellowship.

For more information, please visit Sharynne’s blog: Speaking my languages.

Dr Karla Washington and Sharynne working in Jamaica

August - September 2012 Summary

AUSTRALIAN RESEARCH COUNCIL FUTURE FELLOWSHIP UPDATE
‘Speaking my language: International speech acquisition in Australia’
Written by Kim Woodland, Research Institute for Professional Practice, Learning and Education for the October 2012 RIPPLE Update

In early August, Sharynne, along with CRN colleagues and members of the Department of Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs (FAHCSIA), got together to learn more about the Longitudinal Study of Indigenous Children (LSIC). LSIC parallels the Longitudinal Study of Australian Children (LSAC), both Australian Government initiatives and rich sources of data.

Sharynne also spent more time hosting international visitors over the last couple of months than travelling herself; however, she was still kept busy with long-distance Skype and conference calls. During August she hosted a visit from two former students—Lê Thi Thanh Xuân (Xuân) and Lê Khánh Điền (Điền)—from Pham Ngoc Thach University, Hồ Chí Minh City, Việt Nam. The trio met to work on a phonological analysis of Vietnamese children’s speech and to play in some snow that had fallen in the Central Tablelands of NSW (the first time the two students had ever seen snow).

In late August she hosted Dr Elise Baker from the University of Sydney. Sharynne and Elise have been writing chapters for their new book, Children’s speech: An evidence-based approach to assessment and intervention. During the visit, they took photos of mouths at the CSU Dental and Oral Health Clinic, which will be used to demonstrate how speech is produced.

Sharynne has also continued her work with the International Expert Panel on Multilingual Children’s Speech on developing a position paper on multilingual children with speech sound disorders, which has involved extensive international collaboration. Dr Caroline Bowen visited Bathurst in September, and worked with Sharynne and Sarah Verdon to moderate comments on the penultimate version of the draft. The final paper should be ready within a few months and will be made available to children, families, speech-language pathologists and other professionals.

For more information, please visit Sharynne’s blog: Speaking my languages.

Lê Thi Thanh Xuân and Lê Khánh Điền visiting CSU