CeTasSSD Speech Census wrap up

This week our CeTasSSD Speech Census team met to celebrate meeting so many wonderful 4- to 5-year-olds during our research. We also reflected on what went well and what can be changed in the future.

Here are our statistics so far:  

• 1207 Kinder students in the state
• 981 consent forms returned (226 not returned)
• 945 consent forms provided consent (36 did not provide consent)
• 874 assessments attempted (45+ more not yet entered into the spreadsheet)
• 14 children did not give assent and 8 could not be assessed (e.g., due to disability)
• 859 (+45) children have completed the International Speech Screener (ISS)

Thanks so much to the children and schools (especially the SSCs and TAs). Thanks to our wonderful CeTasSSD research team. Hooray team!

Helen Blake, Sharynne McLeod, Felicity Laurence, Emma Scanlon, Ally Barrett met for 2 hours to debrief, summarise, and plan

Team members not pictured: Sarah Verdon, Kate Crowe, Lisa Johnson 

Thank you Tasmania

I have had a lovely time in Tasmania meeting a LOT of 4 year olds, teaching assistants (TAs), school support coordinators (SSC), teachers, principals, speech pathologists and others - as well as experiencing the food, history, and scenery of the island. Thanks Felicity and Lisa and CET and Tassie.

Catholic Education Tasmania workshop: Speech Difficulties in EALD Leamers: The role of speech pathology

Today I presented a workshop run by Catholic Education Tasmania titled "Speech Difficulties in EALD Leamers: The role of speech pathology"  (11am - 5pm). It was wonderful to share our research and the rich and informative resources that we have made available on the Multilingual Children's Speech website to speech pathologists from across Tasmania. The food was delicious too!

Catholic Education Tasmania grant meeting

We had an excellent meeting today to work on plans for 2026 for our data collection. Dr Kate Crowe joined us from Canada (better timezone than Iceland) and it was great to have Nicola back with us.

 

Tasmanian research planning

It is such a pleasure to collaborate with the team from Catholic Education Tasmania. They are rigorous, responsive, and care for the children in Tasmania. We are planning for our research this year - and are getting closer to finalising the procedures and protocols.

Catholic Education Tasmania - Prevalence and screening pathway project

This week A/Prof Sarah Verdon, Dr Nicola Ivory, A/Prof Kate Crowe and I are working on the ethics, and finalisation of the Catholic Education Tasmania - Prevalence and screening pathway project. It is a privilege to work on this to set up a robust screening pathway for Tasmania.

Monday - Sarah, Nicola and Sharynne at CSU

Monday evening-Kate C (in Iceland) and Sharynne

Tuesday - Sarah, Nicola and Sharynne at CSU

Tuesday afternoon - Lisa, Felicity at CET, Sharynne, Sarah, Nicola at CSU

Thursday afternoon - Felicity, Lisa, Sharyne, Nicola, Udari

Reconnecting with Lynelle

Today I had the opportunity to reconnect with Lynelle Wyllie-Smith who was my honours student a number of years ago. She now is a speech pathologist in Tasmania - and I really enjoyed reconnecting with her. Here is her publication from her honours research.

Wyllie-Smith, L., McLeod, S., & Ball, M. J. (2006). Typically developing and speech-impaired children's adherence to the sonority hypothesis. Clinical Linguistics and Phonetics, 20(4), 271–291. https://doi.org/10.1080/02699200400016497

Preparing our new research with Tasmania

Today Dr Nicola Ivory and I spent time working on our invited research proposal with an education department in Tasmania. It is such an exciting project.

Rural and remote Tasmania

I enjoyed visiting beautiful rural and remote Tasmania after the SPA conference.

Speech Pathology Australia National Conference in Hobart

It has been really exciting to attend the Speech Pathology Australia National Conference in Hobart. I have attended SPA conferences from 1989 - 2019, it was cancelled in 2020, then I attended online in 2021 and 2022. It has been wonderful to see old friends and make new ones.

The venue at Consitution Dock (Grand Chancellor Hotel) is a gorgeous backdrop for inspiring conversations.

Here are the presentations of our team:

• Plenary launch of the IJSLP special issue "Communication, Swallowing and the Sustainable Development Goals"
  
• T4A | Workshop: Sustainable Development Goals, speech pathologists, and people who experience communication and/or swallowing disability - Sharynne McLeod and Julie Marshall
  
• T3C | Panel: What you’ve always wanted to ask about speech sound disorders: A Q&A panel discussion 
• W3F | Children's speech development, assessment and intervention in 50 languages - Sharynne McLeod
  
• W3F | Oral presentations: Non-English sounds in English speech assessment: Patterns of cross-linguistic transfer in Vietnamese-Australian children’s speech - Kate Margetson, Sharynne McLeod and Sarah Verdon
  
• W3E | Oral presentations: Working with adults with communication support needs - Intelligibility Enhancement with a multilingual Spanish-English university staff member - Helen L. Blake and Sharynne McLeod

 

Children's speech development, assessment and intervention in 50 languages - Sharynne McLeod

Non-English sounds in English speech assessment: Patterns of cross-linguistic transfer in Vietnamese-Australian children’s speech - Kate Margetson

Members of the SSD Panel

Additionally, on Wednesday morning I have been invited to launch the IJSLP Sustainable Development Goals special issue on Communication and Swallowing prior to the keynote address.

Sharynne with Dr Suzanne Hopf at the AGM

Grand Chancellor Hotel - conference venue

Opening plenary

Rebecca brought her book for me to sign!