New Grant - Brazil-UK Network on Speech Sound Disorders

We have received the welcome news that we have been successful on the following grant to continue our international collaborations: Fiszbein Wertzner, H., Wren, Y., (McLeod, S.) (2025-2026). Brazil-UK Network on Speech Sound Disorders. Academy of Medical Sciences Networking Grant Scheme (NGR2\1942 )(TOTAL£23,500.00) (CSU £4,367.00) This grant will enable continued collaboration with my colleagues - following on from our trip to Brazil in 2024. Professor Haydee Fiszbein Wertzner - Universidade de Sao Paulo, Brazil Professor Yvonne Wren - Cardiff Metropolitan University, Wales, UK

Thank you Prof Yvonne Wren and Bristol Benjamin Meaker Visiting Distinguished Professor program

Thank you Professor Yvonne Wren and the Bristol Dental School who have sponsored my Bristol Benjamin Meaker Visiting Distinguished Professorship over the past 5 weeks. I have worked with Prof Yvonne Wren and her team to support their research, capacity building endeavours, and to write up research from the Cleft Collective Cohort. I have enjoyed learning from Yvonne and her teams and to contributing to the research and life of the University of Bristol. We have forged many new research agendas and I look forward to returning. It has been an inspirational and productive visit. 

 

Here is the summary of the outcomes from my visit

As Bristol Benjamin Meaker Visiting Distinguished Professor, Sharynne McLeod collaborated with colleagues in the Bristol Dental School, the Faculty of Health Sciences, and the wider University of Bristol community to advocate for communication for all, acknowledging the untapped potential of those who are underrepresented in society's conversations. Prof. McLeod was hosted by Prof. Yvonne Wren, who leads the Cleft Collective Cohort Study, a national longitudinal cohort study with over 11,000 participants from over 4000 families in the United Kingdom. The Cleft Collective uses the Intelligibility in Context Scale (ICS), an outcome measure developed by Prof. McLeod and team, that is also recommended in the International Consortium of Health Outcome Measures (ICHOM) Set of Patient-Centered Outcome Measures for Cleft Lip & Palate. During this visit, Prof McLeod worked with the Cleft Collective team to generate reference data at ages 3 and 5 years and found significant differences based on cleft type and whether a syndrome was present. Despite being available in over 70 languages, this is the first time the ICS has been studied longitudinally. In addition to her well-received lectures, Prof. McLeod undertook capacity building workshops and mentoring to support students and staff across the wider University of Bristol community.

https://www.bristol.ac.uk/international-research-development/visiting-researchers/visitors-for-202324/sharynne_mcleod/

 

Here are Yvonne's current roles that I have participated in during my visit:

• 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 (nbt.nhs.uk)

I have provided the following lectures as part of the visit:

1. Open Lecture at Southmead Hospital: Communicating with Children and Families in a Multilingual World
https://www.nbt.nhs.uk/bristol-speech-language-therapy-research-unit/about-bsltru/bsltru-events
https://www.tickettailor.com/events/northbristolnhstrust/1140990
https://speakingmylanguages.blogspot.com/2024/05/invited-lecture-all-children-should-be.html

2. Bristol Dental School 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://www.bristol.ac.uk/international-research-development/diary/2024/dental-school-talk-by-professor-sharynne-mcleod.html  
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://www.bristol.ac.uk/international-research-development/diary/2024/health-sciences-talk-by-professor-sharynne-mcleod.html
https://speakingmylanguages.blogspot.com/2024/05/university-of-bristol-health-sciences.html

 I also provided the following lectures and workshops:

4. Communicating with children and families in a multilingual world - Cardiff Metropolitan University Centre of Hearing, Language and Communication Research Lecture Series

5. Communication rights and social justice: Enhancing communicative participation for children with speech, language and communication needs - University of Cambridge Faculty of Education

6. Communication professionals need to advocate for communication rights and the Sustainable Development Goals  - Cylch Ieithyddiaeth/Bangor Linguistics Circle, Bangor University

7. Research wellness retreat - Cardiff Metropolitan University Centre of Hearing, Language and Communication Research Lecture Series

https://speakingmylanguages.blogspot.com/2024/05/writing-research-papers-in-bristol.html

Invited presentation to the Cylch Ieithyddiaeth/Bangor Linguistics Circle

I was honoured to be invited to speak to the staff and students at Bangor University https://www.bangor.ac.uk/ and the Cylch Ieithyddiaeth/Bangor Linguistics Circle. Thank you to Bethan Collins who organised the event and to the engaged students and staff who attended.

Here is the title of my presentation: Communication professionals need to advocate for communication rights and the Sustainable Development Goals

Here is the abstract:

Communication is a human right for all. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights states “Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression… regardless of frontiers” (Article 19, United Nations, 1948). As communication professionals, we have the power to enhance everyone’s participation in day-to-day life, families, communities, and society. When we support everyone’s ability to communicate, we contribute to the 17 Sustainable Development Goals and the five pillars of the 2030 Agenda: people, planet, prosperity, peace, and partnerships.

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

McLeod, S., & Marshall, J. (2023). Communication for all and the Sustainable Development Goals. International Journal of Speech-Language Pathology, 25(1), 1-8. https://doi.org/10.1080/17549507.2022.2160494

Thank you Bethan Collins (PhD student) who organised the event

Some of the audience in Bangor and online

 

During my conversations I learned about Bangor University's commitment to sustainability and Prof Thora Tenbrink's work. She is Professor of Linguistics and Dean of Research at the College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences at Bangor University:

• Director of the Places of Climate Change Research Centre at Bangor University https://www.bangor.ac.uk/plocc and Co-leading the PATCCh WISERD research network (Place-based Approaches To Climate Change)  https://wiserd.ac.uk/project/patcch-network/
  
• Involved in the Public Map Platform project, which gives children on the island of Anglesey a voice regarding their local place, expressed through various arts methods in addition to language (https://publicmap.org/en)
  
• Part of the Rural Wales Local Policy and Innovation Partnership which aims at co-creating solutions to local challenges through communication with rural communities https://www.arsyllfa.cymru/cymru-wledig-lpip-rural-wales-phase-two/
  

 

Finally, I love this message on emails from the university as it encourages multilingualism: 

"Mae croeso i chi gysylltu gyda'r Brifysgol yn Gymraeg neu Saesneg. Ni fydd gohebu yn Gymraeg yn arwain at oedi. You are welcome to contact the University in Welsh or English. Corresponding in Welsh will not lead to delay."

Research Wellness Retreat in Wales

I was invited to run a Research Wellness Retreat for staff at Cardiff Metropolitan University and Bristol Speech and Language Therapy Research Unit. The retreat was held at Cardiff Metropolitan University and during the afternoon we enjoyed St Fagans National Museum of History in Cardiff https://museum.wales/stfagans/about/

The following people were able to attend: Prof Yvonne Wren, Dr Robert Mayr, Prof Fei Zhao, Dr Rhonwen Lewis, Dr Sam Burr, Ria Bayliss, Annie Li Jiaying, and Charlotte McCarthy. We were also pleased to welcome Dr Rhiannon Phillips (Deputy Associate Dean for Research, Cardiff Met) for part of the day.

The next week I also had wonderful individual meetings with Dr Rhonwen Lewis, Annie Li Jiaying, Anna Kowalska, Charlie Strutt, and Caitlin Holmes.

Dr Robert Mayr inspiring the attendees

Fei, Rhonwen, Annie, Rhiannon, Ria, Robert, Yvonne, Sam, Charlotte, Sharynne

Welsh cakes and Tim Tams

Rhonwen Lewis planning a book

Lunch at Cardiff Met

St Fagans National Museum of History in Cardiff

St Fagans National Museum of History in Cardiff

Sam, Sharynne, Yvonne, Charlotte, Annie, Robert and Rhonwen at
St Fagans National Museum of History in Cardiff

Sharynne meeting with Charlie Strutt about the new tertiary clinic
for children with complex speech sound disorders at Cardiff Met

Prosiect Pengwin

Prosiect Pengwin is a large research project being led by Prof Yvonne Wren at Cardiff Metropolitan University and BSLTRU funded by the Welsh Government to create tools to screen children's speech and language development across Wales.  

Here is some information from the Welsh Government written in English: https://www.earlyyears.wales/en/news/prosiect-pengwin-early-years-co-design-panel and Welsh: https://www.earlyyears.wales/cy/newyddion/prosiect-pengwin-panel-cyd-gynhyrchu-blynyddoedd-cynnar 

The Prosiect Pengwin research group is working on behalf of Welsh Government to develop tools and resources that will support health, education and childcare practitioners to identify and support speech, language and communication skills in the early years. The first stage of the project involves creating questionnaires and activities for use by health and early years practitioners to monitor the development of children's speech, language and communication skills and identify when extra help is needed. The aim is to ensure that children who have or are at risk of speech and language disorders are identified and supported well before they reach school.

This morning I attended (virtually) a meeting with 13 members of the team across Wales and England. This is an impressive team of very skilled researchers. The ELIM team https://research.ncl.ac.uk/elim-i/elim-i/elim-itrainingandhandbooks/ (Prof Cristina McKean, Dr Jenna Charlton, Christine Jack) is part of this Prosiect Pengwin team. Cathie Matthews has just trialed the ELIM in Australia as part of her Masters' research with me - and we will present this work at the Speech Pathology Australia National Conference in a few weeks' time. 

Visiting Wales

I enjoyed visiting Cardiff and learning more about Wales and Welsh and here are some photos taken during my visit.

Invited lecture at Cardiff Metropolitan University Centre of Hearing, Language and Communication

Today (Wednesday 24th April) I presented a lecture as part of the Cardiff Metropolitan University Centre of Hearing, Language and Communication Research Lecture Series. My presentation was titled: Assessing Children's Speech in Languages Other than Welsh and English 

It was great to spend time with the team at Cardiff Metropolitan University and to see Prof Robert Mayr again (we met in Sydney last June at the ISB14 conference)

The Speech, Hearing and Communication research group, led by Dr Robert Mayr, has three major strands:

• Bilingual Development, led by Dr Robert Mayr;
• Healthy and Impaired Hearing, led by Prof Fei Zhao, and
• Clinical Speech and Language Research, led by Prof Yvonne Wren.

The latter is run in partnership with the Bristol Speech and Language Therapy Research Unit (BSLTRU). Much of our work involves national and international collaborations, notably with universities in Europe, the USA, China and Japan and Australia.

 https://www.cardiffmet.ac.uk/sportandhealthsciences/researchandinnovation/populationriskandhealthcare/Pages/Speech,-Hearing-and-Communication.aspx

Sharynne and Prof Yvonne Wren

OUP Handbook authors: Sharynne, Rhonwen Lewis, Robert Mayr, Yvonne Wren

Some of the audience at the invited lecture -
99 people registered online as well