I have enjoyed being hosted in Bristol by my friend and colleague Prof Yvonne Wren. She and her family have shown us around Bristol. We visited Bristol in 2010 and 2013 - and while many places are similar - there are new places and activities to discover and explore. Combining work and recreation is important when visiting universities around the world - because so much is learned while walking and talking and lifelong friendships are made.
Most of my time at the University of Bristol has had rain and grey skies. It is fascinating to see how the university transforms when the sun is shining. There are many gorgeous areas to sit and enjoy the nature within the boundaries of the university campus right in the middle of the city of Bristol. Even the squirrels love it. "No Mow May" makes it even more picturesque with all of the wildflowers everywhere.
My Benjamin Meaker Visiting Distinguished Professorship involves working with Prof Yvonne Wren and team at the University of Bristol Dental School on the Cleft Collective Cohort Study https://www.bristol.ac.uk/dental/cleft-collective/. We have already published one paper together on this work, and during my visit we have been working on more papers from the outstanding data they have collected with 3- and 5-year-old children with cleft lip and palate.
Here is the paper we wrote earlier Seifert, M., Davies, A., Harding, S., McLeod, S., & Wren, Y. (2021). Intelligibility in 3-year-olds with cleft lip and/or palate using the Intelligibility in Context Scale: Findings from the Cleft Collective Cohort Study. The Cleft Palate-Craniofacial Journal, 58(9), 1178-1189. https://doi.org/10.1177/1055665620985747
It is a joy to work with Yvonne and Amy Davies, the outstanding statistician on the Cleft Collective team: https://www.bristol.ac.uk/dental/cleft-collective/meet-the-team/
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| Amy Davies the amazing statistician with the Cleft Collective |
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| Cleft Collective bake sale |
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| Amy Davies and Sharynne |
Prof Jenny Ingram has developed a number excellent and user-friendly scales for quantifying tongue tie to determine whether or not a child should have a tongue tie clipped to assist with breast feeding. I had a fascinating online meeting with her this week. Here are some of her excellent papers:
Emond, A., Ingram, J., Johnson, D., Blair, P., Whitelaw, A., Copeland, M., & Sutcliffe, A. (2014). Randomised controlled trial of early frenotomy in breastfed infants with mild–moderate tongue-tie. Archives of Disease in Childhood - Fetal and Neonatal Edition, 99(3), F189–F195. https://doi.org/10.1136/archdischild-2013-305031
Ingram, J., Copeland, M., Johnson, D., & Emond, A. (2019). The development and evaluation of a picture tongue assessment tool for tongue-tie in breastfed babies (TABBY). International Breastfeeding Journal, 14(1), 31. https://doi.org/10.1186/s13006-019-0224-y
Ingram, J., Johnson, D., Copeland, M., Churchill, C., Taylor, H., & Emond, A. (2015). The development of a tongue assessment tool to assist with tongue-tie identification. Archives of Disease in Childhood - Fetal and Neonatal Edition, 100(4), F344-F349. https://doi.org/10.1136/archdischild-2014-307503
Today, as part of my role as the Bristol Benjamin Meaker Visiting Distinguished Professor, I presented a guest lecture to the School of Dentistry titled "Speech, Language and Communication: An Overview for Dentists" https://www.bristol.ac.uk/international-research-development/diary/2024/dental-school-talk-by-professor-sharynne-mcleod.html. The lecture was held at the Bristol Dental School, Temple Quay Room
Most speech, language and communication is produced using the mouth. Dentists are frequently asked about the association between oral structures and communication. This presentation will describe how speech is produced using ultrasound and electropalatography images and will demonstrate the impact of oral structural alterations (e.g., tongue tie and cleft palate) on speech. Recent evidence-based techniques will be described to enable dentists to be better equipped to work with individuals with speech, language and communication needs.
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| Prof Sharynne McLeod and Prof Yvonne Wren |
I will the next five weeks at the University of Bristol as the Bristol Benjamin Meaker Visiting Distinguished Professor https://www.bristol.ac.uk/international-research-development/visiting-researchers/visitors-for-202324/sharynne_mcleod/
During my visit to the University of Bristol I will give the following presentations in this role as :
1. Open Lecture at Southmead Hospital: Communicating with Children and Families in a Multilingual World
https://speakingmylanguages.blogspot.com/2024/05/invited-lecture-all-children-should-be.html
2. Departmental seminar: Speech, Language and Communication: An Overview for Dentists
Recent evidence-based techniques will enable dentists to be better
equipped to work with individuals with speech, language and
communication needs including those with oral structural alterations
(tongue tie and cleft palate)
https://speakingmylanguages.blogspot.com/2024/04/invited-lecture-speech-language-and.html
3. Faculty of Health Sciences lecture: Multilingual Children’s Speech.
Aimed at students and staff in the Faculty of Health Sciences. Presentation of the benefits of multilingualism and insights from an international research program into how monolingual professionals can
successfully work with multilingual children and families.
https://speakingmylanguages.blogspot.com/2024/05/university-of-bristol-health-sciences.html
While in Bristol I have been gathering ideas for The Treehouse - our new building for the International Children's Research and Communication Centre
Today began my visit to the University of Bristol as the Bristol Benjamin Meaker Distinguished Visiting Professor (20 April - 26 May 2024). I am based in the Bristol Dental School with Professor Yvonne Wren: https://www.bristol.ac.uk/international-research-development/visiting-researchers/visitors-for-202324/sharynne_mcleod/
I am honoured to be working with Professor Yvonne Wren, PhD, MEd, BSc (Hons), FRCSLT
- Professor of Speech and Communication, University of Bristol
- Professor of Speech and Language Therapy, Cardiff Metropolitan University
- Director, Bristol Speech and Language Therapy Research Unit, North Bristol NHS Trust www.speech-therapy.org.uk
- Chief Investigator – Cleft@18-23, NIHR Programme Grant, Bristol Dental School, University of Bristol
- Chief Investigator - The Cleft Collective, Bristol Dental School, University of Bristol, www.cleftcollective.org.uk
- Chief Investigator - MISLToe-SSD, North Bristol NHS Trust, MISLToe SSD | North Bristol NHS Trust https://www.nbt.nhs.uk/bristol-speech-language-therapy-research-unit/bsltru-research/misltoe-ssd
Here is the project we are working on together:
Children born with cleft palate: Intelligibility and participation
Up to 1 million people in the UK have a communication disability which affects their ability to express themselves or to understand others. Our ability to communicate is impacted by our intelligibility and if we cannot make ourselves understood, then we will struggle to function in society. In particular, the impact on activities and participation, as defined by the World Health Organization can be significantly diminished, leading to social isolation and the potential for an impact on wellbeing and mental health, educational and occupational outcomes. Rarely will a clinician be aware of these difficulties as individuals can become quite adept at hiding their difficulties. Professor McLeod’s work has helped to draw attention to communication rights of all people with communication impairment and the difficulties that children with speech sound disorder in particular face in terms of everyday life as a child. Children born with cleft palate are at particular risk of communication disability as a consequence of problems with intelligibility. Using data from The Cleft Collective, the large-scale national cohort study of over 10,000 participants led by Dr Yvonne Wren at Bristol Dental School, Professor McLeod and Dr Wren will explore intelligibility in affected children using the Intelligibility in Context Scale. The Scale was developed by Professor McLeod and has now been translated in over 60 languages and is used worldwide. The outputs will provide unique reference data for children born with cleft, taking into account additional factors such as cleft subtype and syndromic status. Further analysis will enable us to determine the impact that differences in intelligibility in this population has on children’s levels of activity and participation.
During her visit and through her planned talks, Prof McLeod will raise awareness of communication disability and highlight additional challenges and benefits when working with multilingual individuals. Professor McLeod is hosted by Dr Yvonne Wren from the Bristol Dental School.
Lectures and seminars include:
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| Accommodation at The Principal's House, University of Bristol |
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| Prof Yvonne Wren and Prof Sharynne McLeod at Oakfield House, University of Bristol |
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| Prof Sharynne McLeod and Prof Yvonne Wren celebrating our first day at Lido |
I am looking forward to being the Bristol Benjamin Meaker Distinguished Visiting Professor in April/May 2024. https://www.bristol.ac.uk/international-research-development/visiting-researchers/visitors-for-202324/sharynne_mcleod/
During my visit, I will be presenting a number of lectures in England and Wales, as well as undertaking collaborative research with colleagues at the University of Bristol including:
"...this year’s BSLTRU Underwood Trust Annual lecture is taking place on Tuesday 30th of April. We are thrilled to announce that our guest speaker this year is Professor Sharynne McLeod from Charles Sturt University, Australia who will be speaking on Communicating with Children and Families in a Multilingual World."
I have just learned that I have been awarded a Bristol Benjamin Meaker Distinguished Visiting Professorship (BBMDVP) to visit the University of Bristol for 5 weeks in 2024. I will work with Dr Yvonne Wren and her team on a project titled "Children born with cleft palate: Intelligibility and participation". I had been awarded a BBMDVP in 2020, but had been unable to visit due to COVID-19 restrictions. I am looking forward to visiting in 2024.
http://www.bristol.ac.uk/international-research-partnerships/visiting-researchers/
http://www.bristol.ac.uk/international-research-partnerships/visiting-researchers/visitors/
I have been working with a team of researchers from Bristol University and the Speech and Language Therapy Reserach Unit in Bristol. We have had the following paper accepted for presentation at the 14th International Cleft Congress (Cleft 2022) (https://cleft2022.com/) which is taking place in Edinburgh from 11th-15th July 2022:
Exploring the association between intelligibility and language skills in 3-year-old children born with a cleft palate +/- lip
Authors: Miriam Seifert, Lucy Southby, Amy Davies, Yvonne Wren, Sharynne McLeod
The full program is here: https://cleft2022.com/cleft-2022-programme/
I was delighted to receive the University of Bristol Benjamin Meaker Visiting Professorship in 2019 for travel in 2020 – and at that time we had no idea what the following years would bring. Since 2020, I have been able to have a productive online relationship with Dr Wren and her team that has included:
Today I had to reliquish this Visiting Professorship as it had to be undertaken prior to the end of July 2022, which is not allowed within the current COVID-19 travel arrangements for Charles Sturt University. I look forward to the opportunity visit The University of Bristol and any opportunity to take up elements of the Benjamin Meaker Visiting Professorship in the future.
In 2020 I was supposed to have undertaken a University of Bristol Benjamin Meaker Distinguished Visiting Professorship (BBMDVP); however, it was postponed due to COVID-19 restrictions.
I was really pleased to be invited to attend a University of Bristol Festival of International Research and Partnerships event this evening titled: "Welcome and Introduction to the BBMDVP Showcase". The showcase was launched by Provost Judith Squires. The BBMDVP Showcase has a range of fascinating presentations demonstrating the richness and diversity of this award: http://www.bristol.ac.uk/international-research-partnerships/irp-festival/bristol-benjamin-meaker-distinguished-visiting-professorships-showcase/
I look forward to visiting the University of Bristol to take up my BBMDVP when I am able.
