International Speech Screener (ISS)

The International Speech Screener (ISS, McLeod, 2013) is a 50-item picture-naming task that samples all English consonants and six English consonant clusters on two occasions in word-initial position. Words vary in length and stress. The ISS was designed to ensure that there were two examples of each word-initial consonant. Most pairs of words for each word-initial consonant contained a monosyllabic word and a bisyllabic or polysyllabic word (e.g., dog, dinosaur). Within these words most English vowels, within-word consonants, word-final consonants, and some word-final consonant clusters are sampled. The ISS is presented via PowerpointTM with one picture per slide. An audio-voice recording of the target word is available on each slide and played during the imitation condition. 

More information about its development: 

McLeod, S., & Masso, S. (2019). Screening children's speech: The impact of imitated elicitation and word position. Language, Speech, and Hearing Services in Schools, 50(1), 71–82. https://doi.org/10.1044/2018_LSHSS-17-0141

CeTasSSD data planning and collection is underway

We have begun data collection for our CeTasSSD study! Tonight 715 entries have been recorded from the caregivers of 4- to 5-year-olds. While some entries will not be analysed (a few parents entered twice, some did not give consent to be involved in the research etc.), we are going to have a large number of children to help us learn about children's speech, and the best screening pathway for the state. Thank you to Kate Crowe, Felicity Laurence and Lisa Johnson who have overseen this online data collection phase from parents.

Today we also met to work through the practicalities of the data collection phase that begins next week to talk with children to listen to their production of speech sounds and learn from them about what they think about their speech. It was a really productive day of problem solving and getting things in place. Thanks Helen Blake, Ally Barrett, and Emma Scanlon - plus our special helper :)

.

 

 

Speech pathology screening clinic at OAMS

Today, as part of our RHRI research, Sarah Bartlett, Emily-Jane Woodhead and I (3 speech pathologists) worked alongside Katrina and Tegan from OAMS to run a speech pathology screening clinic for Indigenous families to drop in and yarn about their children's speech, language and communication. We learned a lot and enjoyed yarning with the families and children.

Accepted journal article - Methods of Diagnosing Speech Sound Disorders in Multilingual Children

Our manuscript titled "Methods of Diagnosing Speech Sound Disorders in Multilingual Children" has just been accepted for publication in the "Changemaker" Special Forum for the Q1 journal Language, Speech, and Hearing Services in Schools. It came about because our session at the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association convention in 2024 was one of the few that was awarded "changemaker" status - so we were invited to write up our submission. Thanks to Karla and Kate for leading this important paper. Here is the reference and abstract:

Washington, K. N., Crowe, K., McLeod, S., Margetson, K., Bazzocchi, N. B. M., Kokotek, L. E., van der Straten Waillet, P., Másdóttir, T., & Volhardt M. D. S., (2025, in press). Methods of diagnosing speech sound disorders in multilingual children. Language, Speech, and Hearing Services in Schools.

Purpose: Identification of speech sound disorder (SSD) in children who are multilingual is challenging for many speech-language pathologists (SLPs). This may be due to a lack of clinical resources to accurately identify SSD in multilingual children as easily as for monolingual children. The purpose of this paper is to describe features of multilingual speech acquisition, identify evidence-based resources for the differential diagnosis of SSD in speakers of under-studied language paradigms, and to demonstrate how culturally responsive practices can be achieved in different linguistic contexts.
Method: Examples of different approaches used to inform accurate diagnosis of SSD in 2- to 8-year-old multilingual children are described. The approaches used included: (a) considering adult speech models, (b) completing validation studies, and (c) streamlining evidence-informed techniques. These methods were applied across four different language paradigms in countries within the Global North and Global South (e.g., Jamaican Creole-English, Jamaica; Vietnamese-English, Australia; French and additional languages, Belgium; Icelandic-Polish, Iceland). The culturally responsive nature of approaches in each cultural/linguistic setting is highlighted as well as the broader applicability of these approaches.
Results: Findings related to dialect specific features, successful validation of tools to describe functional speech intelligibility and production accuracy, and the utility of different techniques applied in the diagnosis of SSD are outlined.
Conclusions: Culturally responsive methods offer a useful framework for guiding SLPs’ diagnostic practices. However, successful application of these practices is best operationalized at a local level in response to the linguistic, cultural, and geographic context.

SACHL 2025

Dr Kate Margetson and I have a grant through the Rural Health Research Institute to develop the Speech Assessment of Children’s Home Languages (SACHL, Margetson & McLeod, 2025) https://www.csu.edu.au/research/multilingual-speech/speech-assessments/sachl and to ensure it is relevant to all speech pathologists including in rural and remote settings.

This morning we

• reflected on our presentation at the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (Nov 2024)
• prepared our presentation for the (rural) Central West Speech Pathologists (7 Feb 2025)
• worked on our chapter for a book to be published in Italian
• looked at speech assessments in languages other than English (including the HKCAT that just arrived by mail from Prof Carol To in Hong Kong).

We have already been productive in our first week back from holidays!

 

Hong Kong workshop - Children's speech assessment and intervention: What works? What's new? What's the evidence?

Dr Kate Margetson and I presented a workshop (19-20 October 2024) in Hong Kong titled: Children's speech assessment and intervention: What works? What's new? What's the evidence? https://speechearing.org/en/products/speech-sound-disorder

We were invited by Prof Thomas Law, Prof Valerie Pereira, and Prof Kathy Lee from Chinese University of Hong Kong Speech and Hearing Social Enterprise.

This 2-day workshop will combine the latest evidence with clinical examples and opportunities to apply knowledge to your clinical practice based on the following topics

• Understanding children with speech sound disorders
• Children’s speech development: Latest evidence from 50 languages
• Children’s speech assessment, analysis, and differential diagnosis
• Speech assessment of children’s home language(s) (SACHL)*
• Twenty interventions: Selecting the right intervention approach for each child
• Listening to children to make a difference in their day-to-day lives.

Dr Kate Margetson presenting the SACHL

Chinese University of Hong Kong graduates attending our seminar

HongKong Speech Therapy Association executive committee at the end of our seminar

*The SACHL research is supported by the CSU Rural Health Research Institute.

Speech assessment tools: Updating the Multilingual Children's Speech website

We are systematically updating the Multilingual Children's Speech website. Today we have uploaded the updated Speech Assessment Tools page:

https://www.csu.edu.au/research/multilingual-speech/speech-assessments/speech-assessment-tools

The page now has 379 speech assessment tools.

Previously (yesterday) there were 117 speech assessments on the Speech Assessment Tools page*. 

There are 262 NEW assessments on the page (compared with yesterday). 

These have been added by collaborating with colleagues, mostly authors of The Oxford Handbook of Speech Development in Languages of the World. Thank you everyone for your generosity to make this website such a useful resource. 

Thank you especially to Dr Helen L. Blake who is working with me on this project and the fantastic CSU webteam: Boram Kwon, Alex Moore, Lindsey Ting,  Kelly Bull, Amber Murray.

*63 were on the Multilingual Children's Speech website Sept 2024 (not in OUP chapter) + 54 were both on the website and in the OUP chapter (some have been updated)

Brazilian Portuguese speech assessments and resources

While in Brazil I was able to purchase two of Brazilian Portuguese speech assessments and discuss their development and use with the authors:

• ABFW: Teste de Linguagem Infantilm - Prof Haydee Fiszbein Wertzner is the author of the speech subtest - and the "W" in the title acknowledges her contribution. It is important to purchase the complete test because the book and the box of cards are sold separately as well
  
• Complete test - https://www.booktoy.com.br/index.php?route=product/product&path=57&product_id=749
• Manual - https://profono.com.br/produto/abfw-teste-de-linguagem-infantil/
• Stimulus cards - https://profono.com.br/produto/fichario-abfw/
  
• TESF: Teste de Estimulabilidade dos Sons da Fala - https://www.editorabooktoy.com.br/tesf-teste-de-estimulabilidade-dos-sons-da-fala-12276 - Luciana de Oliveira Pagan-Neves, Danira Tavares Francisco, and Haydée Fiszbein Wertzner (other authors are Márcia Mathias de Castro and Tatiane Faria Barrozo). This assessment considers stimulability - and references Glaspey and Stoel-Gammon's work.
  

Authors of TESF Luciana de Oliveira Pagan-Neves, Danira Tavares Francisco, and Haydée Fiszbein Wertzner

Speech assessment component of the ABFW: Teste de Linguagem Infantilm

 Some of the other resources available at the FORL conference from BookToy https://www.booktoy.com.br/

European Portuguese speech assessments

It is so helpful to travel to different countries to learn more about the clinical tools used to assess children's speech. Here are some of the European Portuguese speech assessments that I need to add to the Multilingual Children's Speech webpage.   

• Paediatric Automatic Phonological Analysis Tools (APAT): https://acsa.web.ua.pt/FAFA.htm (free)
• Teste Fonético-Fonológico: https://edubox.pt/terapia-da-fala?lang=pt
• Rastreio de Linguagem e Fala (RALF) (screening): https://edubox.pt/terapia-da-fala?lang=pt
  

I was able to purchase one of them for my international collection of speech assessments.

Published book chapter: Diagnosing speech sound disorder in bilingual Vietnamese-English-speaking children: Are English-only assessments sufficient?

Congratulations Kate on the publication of this important book chapter from your PhD. 

Margetson, K., McLeod, S., & Verdon, S. (2024). Diagnosing speech sound disorder in bilingual Vietnamese-English-speaking children: Are English-only assessments sufficient? In E. Babatsouli (Ed.). Multilingual acquisition and learning: A ecosystemic view to diversity (pp. 217-245). John Benjamins Publishing. https://doi.org/10.1075/sibil.67.08mar

Here is the website for the chapter: https://benjamins.com/catalog/sibil.67.08mar

Development of children's speech assessments

I have just been invited to advise someone internationally about her development of a speech assessment. Here are a few of our published resources I have just sent: 

Appendix C of this paper is designed to support people’s test development: 

• 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. https://doi.org/10.1044/2018_AJSLP-17-0100 1. 

Here are some general papers - with assessments available on the Multilingual Children's Speech website: https://www.csu.edu.au/research/multilingual-speech/speech-assessments

• McLeod, S. (2012). Multilingual speech assessment. In S. McLeod & B. A. Goldstein (Eds.), Multilingual aspects of speech sound disorders in children (pp. 113–143). Multilingual Matters. 
• McLeod, S. (2012). Translation to practice: Creating sampling tools to assess multilingual children’s speech. In S. McLeod & B. A. Goldstein (Eds.), Multilingual aspects of speech sound disorders in children (pp. 144–153). Multilingual Matters. 
• McLeod, S., & Verdon, S. (2014). A review of 30 speech assessments in 19 languages other than English. American Journal of Speech-Language Pathology, 23(4), 708–723. https://doi.org/10.1044/2014_AJSLP-13-0066 

A few years ago I worked with Dr Ben Pham and Xuan Le to create a speech test for Vietnam - and Ben's subsequent papers show how well her test development worked: 

• Phạm, B., McLeod, S., & Le, X. T. T. (2016). Development of the Vietnamese Speech Assessment. Journal of Clinical Practice in Speech-Language Pathology, 18(3), 126–130. 
• Phạm, B., & McLeod, S. (2016). Consonants, vowels and tones across Vietnamese dialects. International Journal of Speech-Language Pathology, 18(2), 122–134. https://doi.org/10.3109/17549507.2015.1101162
• Phạm, B., McLeod, S., & Harrison, L. J. (2017). Validation and norming of the Intelligibility in Context Scale in Northern Viet Nam. Clinical Linguistics & Phonetics, 31(7-9), 665–681. https://doi.org/10.1080/02699206.2017.1306110
• Phạm, B., & McLeod, S. (2019). Vietnamese-speaking children's acquisition of consonants, semivowels, vowels, and tones in Northern Viet Nam. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, 62(8), 2645–2670. https://doi.org/10.1044/2019_JSLHR-S-17-0405 
  
• Phạm, B., & McLeod, S. (2023). Considerations of dialect on the identification of speech sound disorder in Vietnamese-speaking children. International Journal of Language & Communication Disorders. https://doi.org/10.1111/1460-6984.12992
• McLeod, S., Margetson, K., Wang, C., Tran, V. H., Verdon, S., White, K., & Phạm, B. (2022). Speech acquisition within a 3-generation Vietnamese-English family: The influence of maturation and ambient phonology. Clinical Linguistics & Phonetics, 36(4-5), 470-493. https://doi.org/10.1080/02699206.2020.1862915 

We also have a lot of papers outlining the development of the ICS. Here are two:

• McLeod, S., Harrison, L. J., & McCormack, J. (2012). Intelligibility in Context Scale: Validity and reliability of a subjective rating measure. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, 55, 648–656. https://doi.org/10.1044/1092-4388(2011/10-0130) 
• McLeod, S. (2020). Intelligibility in Context Scale: Cross-linguistic use, validity, and reliability. Speech, Language and Hearing, 23(1), 9–16. https://doi.org/10.1080/2050571X.2020.1718837

Early identification of communication delay by health and education professionals in rural Australia

Over the past two days Cathie Matthews has been in Bathurst working with me on her Masters research. She has undertaken important research about early identification of communication delay by health and education professionals in rural Australia. I have really enjoyed working with her to write up her data collected from early childhood educators, child and family health nurses, caregivers and 2-year-old children.

Profiles of Early Expressive Phonological Skills (PEEPS)

Today Profiles of Early Expressive Phonological Skills (PEEPS) arrived in the mail. PEEPS was created by A. Lynn Williams, and Carol Stoel-Gammon; and I was very honoured to write the foreword and the Appendix.

In my Foreword I wrote:

To date, there have been few tools available to speech-language pathologists (SLPs) to assess young children’s emerging speech skills. The Profiles of Early Expressive Phonological Skills™ (PEEPS) has been designed for young children (18–36 months of age) who have small vocabularies and limited inventories of speech sounds. The PEEPS™ is a unique evidence-based speech assessment and is a welcome addition to SLPs’ almost empty toolboxes for young children. The word list has been carefully selected using the authors’ extensive knowledge of young children’s vocabularies and emerging speech skills and children can enjoy the process of naming toys during “play” (i.e., assessment). The PEEPS™ profile is a “multilayered description of a child’s phonological system” (p. 5) that enables SLPs to gain an overview of children’s strengths and identify “warning signs” or “red flags for phonetic and phonological development” (p. 68).
The authors of the PEEPS™ are eminent authorities on children’s speech and have undertaken extensive research that underpins their conceptualization and operationalization of this unique tool. They have spent more than 15 years developing the PEEPS™ and the world has been waiting. The PEEPS™ has proven value for working with young children, including those with cleft lip and palate (Scherer et al., 2012).

PEEPS Foreword

I have been invited to write the Foreword and Appendix containing speech acquisition data for the PEEPS and today I received the page proofs:

Williams, A. L., & Stoel-Gammon, C. (2023). Profiles of Early Expressive  Phonological Skills™ (PEEPS™). Paul H. Brookes Publishing. 

Part of my foreword states:

To date, there have been few tools available to speech-language pathologists (SLPs) to assess young children’s emerging speech skills. The Profiles of Early Expressive Phonological Skills™ (PEEPS) has been designed for young children (18–36 months of age) who have small vocabularies and limited inventories of speech sounds. PEEPS™ is a unique evidence-based speech assessment and is a welcome addition to SLPs’ almost empty toolboxes for young children...The authors of PEEPS™ are eminent authorities on children’s speech and have undertaken extensive research that underpins their conceptualization and operationalization of this unique tool. They have spent more than 15 years developing PEEPS™, and the world has been waiting...

Teaching UTS students online about speech assessments

I had the wonderful opportunity to teach first year Masters' students from the University of Technology Sydney (UTS) this week, presenting 3.5 hours of lectures on the topic of assessment of children's speech. I enjoyed meeting the students and am grateful for the chance to discuss for quality assessments when considering children's speech.

These UTS students consented to have their photographs taken to appear on my blog

I was delighted to receive this thank you card!

Which speech sound norms are used in US public schools?

I have just had the opportunity to read a preprint copy of the following manuscript that will be published in Seminars in Speech and Language soon: 

Farquharson, K., & Stevenson, K. L. (2021). Which speech sound norms are used in US public schools? A retrospective survey analysis. Seminars in Speech and Language. 

Here is the abstract: 

Speech sound acquisition normative data are widely and heavily used in the United States (US) to determine eligibility for services. Normative studies differ in the age and geographic location of participants, which can limit applicability across the US. In 2016, we queried school-based speech-language pathologists (SLPs) in the US using a web-based survey, to determine which speech sound norms are used. All 9 regions from the US census were represented. The Iowa-Nebraska norms were most commonly reported. However, many SLPs were unable to name the source of the data that they used. Over 60% of the sample indicated that they referred to one source of normative data. Results of a logistic regression indicated that region of the US predicted if SLPs used one or multiple sources. Specifically, SLPs in the West North Central region of the US (which includes Iowa and Nebraska) were more likely to use only one source of data, the Iowa-Nebraska norms. We recommend that speech sound norms are less heavily relied upon for eligibility decisions, particularly due to the substantial variations in culture and dialect throughout the various regions of the US. 

The opening paragraph shows the impact of our recent review paper about children's speech acquisition:

In 2018, the McLeod and Crowe article on speech sound acquisition “broke the internet”1. Although the article did not include new data, it did include an important reexamination of how speech sounds are acquired. This raised many questions for practicing clinicians regarding the age at which they should consider treating certain sounds. As a part of that broad discussion, it became evident that clinicians may be placing too much clinical weight on speech sound normative data for making eligibility decisions, and that speech sound normative data was being used for diagnostic purposes2. In the past three years, there has been substantial discussion regarding the use of speech sound normative data (henceforth: speech sound norms), particularly in school-based settings...

I look forward to the continued "substantial discussion regarding the use of speech sound normative data" once this paper is published. 

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. https://doi.org/10.1044/2018_AJSLP-17-0100 

Crowe, K., & McLeod, S. (2020). Children's English consonant acquisition in the United States: A review. American Journal of Speech-Language Pathology, 29(4), 2155–2169. https://doi.org/10.1044/2020_AJSLP-19-00168

Emails from SLPs across the world - this is why we do our research

Here is a series of emails I received over the past few days from Jeanene M. Johnson, M.A. CCC-SLP, a speech-language pathologist (SLP) in Texas (she gave consent for me to share her name). I regularly receive emails like this (but am usually able to be more helpful). I love that we can hear from people who are using our work 

Email 1: 

I am a huge fan of your work!  Can you please tell me if you have updated pictures in the Single Word Test of Consonant Clusters or if you have published a test that uses this test?  I have been using your test and would like an updated version if it is possible.  Your work is amazing! 

 SM response: 

Thank you so much for your lovely email! Unfortunately I haven’t updated my Single Word Test of Consonant Clusters pictures and I haven’t published a test that uses it. I’m glad to hear that it is useful. I often use Pixabay to select new pictures for the work I am doing, but at the moment don’t have time to select updated pictures.

Email 2: 

Thank you Sharyne!  Your work is legendary and it should be! Keep publishing !  You are a true scientist in our field!; Don’t retiree….; You inspire us! Thank you for taking the time to answer my question.  I am just an average private practitioner. 

SM response: 

Thanks so much for your lovely email that has brightened the start to my week!You are exactly the person we do our work for – someone who translates our research into changing children’s lives. Thank you for your important work!

IMPACT Measures Tool

IMPACT Measures Tool (https://impact.ecprism.org/) has just been launched.

Here is the annoucement: 

The University of Oregon’s EC PRISM team has officially launched The IMPACT Measures Tool, a free repository of early childhood and parenting measures that simplifies the process of finding, comparing, and accessing measurement tools. All measures on IMPACT are scored on their usability, cost, cultural relevance, and technical merit. IMPACT provides:
· A database of measurement and assessment tools in a variety of domains
· A science-driven scoring system to identify each measure’s key features and strengths
· Educational resources on measurement in early childhood
The IMPACT Measures Tool was developed to address the need for an easy way to access a variety of early childhood measures, to understand the key features of each measure, and to make informed decisions when selecting measures.
Visit https://impact.ecprism.org/ to access the tool and start searching for measures. Please reach out to ecprism@uoregon.edu for questions or additional information

Evaluating children in U.S. public schools with speech sound disorders: Considering federal and state laws, guidance, and research

The following manuscript was accepted for publication today:
Ireland, M., McLeod, S., Farquharson, K., & Crowe, K. (2020, in press June). Evaluating children in U.S. public schools with speech sound disorders: Considering federal and state laws, guidance, and research. Topics in Language Disorders.

This paper was a wonderful collaboration with colleagues in the US resulting from our discussions about how to apply the speech acquisition normative data published in McLeod and Crowe (2018) and Crowe and McLeod (2020) to the US context regarding eligibility for services.

Here is the abstract

More than half of U.S. speech-language pathologists (SLPs) currently practice in the school setting and 92.6% of SLPs who work in schools provide services focused on children’s speech sound production (articulation and/or phonology). This paper describes evaluation and eligibility requirements for children with speech sound disorders (SSDs) in the United States focusing on four sources of information: (1) federal requirements, specifically the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), (2) state and local requirements and guidance, (3) other sources of guidance (e.g., from professional associations), and (4) research. To be eligible to receive services under IDEA, three conditions must be met: (1) the student has an impairment, (2) that impairment results in an educational impact, and (3) the student requires specially designed instruction to make progress. Civil rights and diversity (cultural, linguistic, and gender) within these contexts are also considered. Case examples are provided to highlight eligibility criteria and to guide SLP practice. The information and examples provided in this article will enable SLPs in the United States to navigate IDEA evaluation and eligibility requirements to ensure children with speech sound disorders who are eligible under IDEA receive appropriate services.

New Speech Pathology Australia-Risk Assessment Tool (COVID-19)

There is a new Speech Pathology Australia-Risk Assessment Tool (COVID-19)

• Here is the link: https://www.speechpathologyaustralia.org.au/SPAweb/About_us/COVID-19_News_and_Information/COVID-19_-_Risk_Assessment_Tool/SPAweb/About_Us/COVID-19/Risk_Assessment_Tool.aspx 
• More information about COVID-19 from Speech Pathology Australia is here: https://www.speechpathologyaustralia.org.au/SPAweb/About_us/COVID-19_News_and_Information/SPAweb/About_Us/News/COVID-19.aspx?hkey=0bee894c-a70a-4608-8217-a5df8161063f