Discussing the future with Kate Crowe in Sydney

How wonderful to meet up with Kate Crowe during her brief visit to Sydney (from Iceland). We had time to catch up on our current work and to dream about the future. Sydney in winter did not disappoint either.

Sharynne and Kate

Thanks for the children's books in Faroese and Icelandic!

ALS Workshop: Home language maintenance: Connecting children, families, and classrooms

We presented the following workshop at the Australian Linguistic Society on 29 November: 

https://als.asn.au/Conference/2023/Workshops2023

Home language maintenance: Connecting children, families, and classrooms 

Paola Escudero, Western Sydney University

Sharynne McLeod, Charles Sturt University

Presenters: Chloé Diskin-Holdaway3, Kate Margetson2, Gloria Pino Escobar1, Van H. Tran2, Sarah Verdon2, Paola Escudero1, Sharynne McLeod2 1 Little Multilingual Minds, The MARCS Institute, Western Sydney University, Australia 2 VietSpeech, Charles Sturt University, Australia 3Little Multilingual Minds, School of Languages and Linguistics, The University of Melbourne, Australia 

During this practical workshop, participants will have the opportunity to learn from two innovative teams of researchers who have developed fun, evidence-based programs for supporting children’s home language maintenance at home and school. 

•  VietSpeech (https://www.csu.edu.au/research/vietspeech). The VietSpeech SuperSpeech program was developed to support families (preschool children, parents, grandparents, etc.) at home. The 8-week online bilingual Vietnamese-English program included: (a) Word Superpower activities addressing target words and sentences; (b) Speech Superpower activities addressing consonants, tones, and syllable structures; and (c) Home Language Maintenance Information for parents. The VietSpeech SuperSpeech program was funded by an Australian Research Council Discovery Grant. 
• Little Multilingual Minds (LMM, https://www.westernsydney.edu.au/marcs/impact/case_studies/little_multilingual_minds) LMM is a research-based multilingual education program for children that supports and extends home language (HL) maintenance and foreign language (L2) learning during the early, formative years, using evidence-based principles, structure and guidelines. LMM, within research-partnership collaborations with education providers, delivers education in any Language Other than English by harnessing recent world-wide research and r findings from our own research on early childhood education and primary education. LMM currently delivers in Spanish ,Vietnamese, Mandarin and French. 

The workshop will commence with an overview of home language maintenance throughout life and factors impacting home language maintenance. Next each team (VietSpeech and LMM) will outline their vision, target group, challenges, and solutions, as well as principles and theoretical frameworks. The practical component of the workshop will be preceded by presentation of the structure and weekly session delivery, themes, session plans and example activities to inspire attendants. Then each team will demonstrate an example of how they have targeted the theme of healthy lifestyles/food and how they have used The Very Hungry Caterpillar to support children’s home language maintenance at home and at school. The workshop will conclude with time for participants to work together to consider how these programs can relate to their own experiences and to develop activities for their own situations. The aim is to show that HL maintenance takes a village and that the community of academics within the language and linguistics discipline should feel part of the village. 

Presenters’ biographies: 

• VietSpeech - https://www.csu.edu.au/research/vietspeech/team 

• Little Multilingual Minds – https://www.westernsydney.edu.au/marcs/impact/case_studies/little_multilingual_minds/team 

Materials available prior to the workshop: 

• VietSpeech - https://www.csu.edu.au/research/vietspeech/info 

• Multilingual Children’s Speech - https://www.csu.edu.au/research/multilingual-speech/home 

• https://www.westernsydney.edu.au/marcs/impact/case_studies/little_multilingual_minds/news_and_faqs 

References: 

• Diskin-Holdaway, C., & Escudero, P. (2021). Don’t be afraid to pass your first language, and accent, to your kids. It could be their superpower. The Conversation. Retrieved 19 March 2023, from https://theconversation.com/dont-be-afraid-to-pass-your-first- language-and-accent-to-your-kids-it-could-be-their-superpower-143093 

• Escudero, P., Jones Diaz, C., Hajek, J., Wigglesworth, G., & Smit, E. A. (2020). Probability of heritage language use at a supportive early childhood setting in Australia. Frontiers in Education, 5, 93. https://doi.org/10.3389/feduc.2020.00093 

• Escudero, P., Diskin-Holdaway, C., Pino Escobar, G., & Hajek, J. (2023) Needs and demands for heritage language support in Australia: results from a nationwide survey. Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development. https://doi.org/10.1080/01434632.2023.2189261 

• Escudero, P., Pino Escobar G, Diskin-Holdaway, C. & Hajek, J. (Forthcoming) Nurturing Australia’s Little Multilingual Minds: Program description and evaluation. 

• McLeod, S., Verdon, S., Tran, V. H., Margetson, K., & Wang, C. (2022). SuperSpeech: Multilingual speech and language maintenance intervention for Vietnamese-Australian children and families via telepractice. Language, Speech, and Hearing Services in Schools, 53(3), 675-697. https://doi.org/10.1044/2021_LSHSS-21-00146 

Here is my pre-recorded presentation:

 https://charlessturt.zoom.us/rec/share/cVjixPvY-J_jPVdWdWAAknHX4lbu13NTa34t6HrpQl6sxRrBd-55xaMF8rjMf8CC.tLFhmS13ofSW80Rz?startTime=1699891251000

ISB14 conference dinner at the NSW Art Gallery

 

Keynote speaker at the International Symposium on Bilingualism (ISB)

I was honoured to be invited to be a keynote speaker at the International Symposium on Bilingualism (ISB) 26-30 June 2023, hosted by Macquarie University, Sydney, Australia (https://www.isb14.com/home). Over 550 people attended in person and online.

My presentation was titled "Cross-linguistic perspectives on children’s speech development" and is available here: https://youtu.be/mbMRPo73ERE

An artist in the audience painted me during my keynote!

International Symposium on Bilingualism (ISB) is a biennial conference on a wide range of issues concerning bi/multilingualism. Since its inaugural conference in 1997 at the University of Newcastle Upon Tyne, ISB has become the most significant conference in the field of bi/multilingualism. ISB has a strong focus on showcasing multidisciplinary research with a representation from a range of disciplines at every conference, including education, linguistics, neuroscience, psychology and sociology. The aim of ISB is to bring together bi/multilingualism researchers from all around the globe to advance the theoretical and applied research in bi/multilingualism, and to support bi/multilingualism practices in the community.

The conference theme of ISB14 is Diversity Now. The United Nations General Assembly has declared the period between 2022 and 2032 as the International Decade of Indigenous Languages to draw attention to the critical status of many Indigenous languages across the world and encourage action for their preservation, revitalisation, and promotion. As we move into this decade, ISB14 encourages work especially involving lesser studied bilingual communities and interdisciplinary work to tackle bilingualism across the life-span, cultures and societies. 

ISB14 Psycholinguistics Cognitive Effects of Bilingualism Neuroscience Interpreting & Translation Speech-Language Pathology Infant and Child Development Sociolinguistics Indigenous Languages Sociology Health Communication Education Phonetics and Phonology  

Dr Nan Xu Rattanasone - conference chair with Sharynne and Holly

Presentation at the World Health Organization symposium on ICF-CY

Today (25th June 2019) Associate Professor Jane McCormack and I had the honour of presenting a paper titled "The application of ICF-CY to inclusion of children and young people with primary communication disability" at the symposium titled "Applications of the ICF and Lessons Learned", held at The University of Sydney.

The following international speakers, influential in the development of the ICF-CY, also presented:

• Rune Simeonsson: ICF/CY and children: Accomplishments and next steps. 
• Mats Granlund: Conceptualizing change with the help of ICF-CY – is it possible? 
• Eva Björck-Akesson: ICF-CY as a basis for collaborative problem solving in early childhood intervention - a focus on inclusion 

Here is the outline of the event:

This symposium is an opportunity for researchers, practitioners and policy makers to hear about diverse applications of the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF) and to discuss, network, and share information. The Symposium includes four sessions, the first three involving 3-4 short presentations followed by a forum discussion. Two brainstorm sessions will also enliven the day. The final session will draw together common themes of the day, and there will be a group discussion of lessons learned and future directions for ICF application – whether for research, education, statistical, clinical or service use. The symposium has been organised to take advantage of three international speakers attending the International Society on Early Intervention Conference. There will be a major (but not exclusive) focus on the ICF and children’s functioning and disability, with a range of speakers from universities, research groups and organisations in Australia and overseas.

A/Prof Jane McCormack, Helen Blake, Rune Simeonsson ("Father of the ICF-CY"),
Prof Sharynne McLeod, A/Prof Bronwyn Hemsley

Presenters and participants at the WHO-ICF-CY symposium

Professor Sharynne McLeod presenting at the symposium

Visiting the Australian Catholic University

Yesterday I had the opportunity to meet with the speech pathology staff at the Australian Catholic University in North Sydney. I presented a seminar titled "Children's consonant acquisition: A cross-linguistic update" to staff in Sydney, Brisbane and Melbourne. I also met with Jane McCormack about a journal article, book chapter and other research we are collaborating on. While there, Jane showed me her latest (excellent) book: Child Development and Learning - published by Oxford University Press - with a 2019 publication date.

Jane McCormack with her latest book

Michelle Donaghy, Jane McCormack, Sharynne, Nisrine El Choueifati

Working from Macquarie University

Over the next month I have the opportunity to work from Macquarie University in Sydney (part time). It will be wonderful to be close to Prof Linda Harrison and to meet with other colleagues within the Department of Educational Studies and the university. Today we were able to discuss the digitisation of the Intelligibility in Context Scale on the Multilingual Children's Speech website with Anniek van Doornik who is visiting from Utrecht University in The Netherlands.

Anniek van Doornik, Sharynne and Linda Harrision

Communication as a human right discussed at the Australian Human Rights Commission

Today I visited the Australian Human Rights Commission with Prof. Kirrie Ballard (editor of International Journal of Speech-Language Pathology) and Gail Mulcair (CEO of Speech Pathology Australia). We met with Ed Santow, Human Rights Commissioner and Alastair McEwan, Disability Discrimination Officer to discuss the special issue of IJSLP on Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights that will be published next year to celebrate the 70th anniversary of the UDHR. I am the guest editor for this special issue and the submissions are currently under review.

Ed Santow, Gail Mulcair, Alastair McEwan, Sharynne McLeod, Kirrie Ballard

We also discussed the International Communication Project and the Universal Declaration of Communication Rights, as well as Speech Pathology Australia's input into the joint submission from Disabled People's Organisations Australia regarding the 18th session on the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disability.

It was a productive and inspirational meeting focused on communication as a human right for all people.

Prof Sharynne McLeod, Prof Kirrie Ballard, Gail Mulcair (CEO, Speech Pathology Australia)

Tweet from the Australian Human Rights Commissioner

Enjoying Sydney

While in Sydney we had the opportunity to enjoy Luna Park during the Speech Pathology Australia Welcome Reception and Vivid.

Gail Mulcair (CEO Speech Pathology Australia), Sharynne, Ben Pham, Pam Williams, Helen Blake

Vivid: Suzanne, Ben, Sharynne, Anniek, Pam, Natasha

Helen Blake at the Opera House during Vivid

Enjoying Sydney

While we were at the Speech Pathology Australia conference we had the opportunity to enjoy Luna Park for the Welcome Reception, Vivid, and the conference dinner.

Suzanne Hopf, Ben Pham, Sharynne, Anniek van Doornik, Pam Williams, Natasha at Vivid

Helen Blake at the Opera House

Gail Mulcair (CEO of Speech Pathology Australia), Sharynne, Ben Pham, Pam Williams, and Helen Blake at Luna Park