Dr Helen L. Blake, A/Prof Kathy Cologon and I are working on the LSHSS Clinical Forum: Children’s communication and the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC). We are delighted by the large number of submissions from across the world - and are now inviting reviewers.
Today Kathy Cologon, Helen Blake and I met for our first face-to-face meeting to discuss our clinical forum for Language, Speech, and Hearing Services in Schools titled "Children’s communication and the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC)".
Here is the call for papers: https://academy.pubs.asha.org/call-for-papers/childrens-communication-and-the-united-nations-convention-on-the-rights-of-the-child-crc/
This collection for Language, Speech, and Hearing Services in Schools (LSHSS) encourages research submissions that offer insights into children’s communication aligned with the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC, United Nations, 1989), the United Nations’ most widely ratified human rights treaty.
The CRC is important for everyone, including children with speech, language, communication and swallowing needs, their families, communities, and those who work with them (e.g., speech-language pathologists, audiologists, educators, psychologists, health and medical professionals, lawyers).
This Clinical Forum of LSHSS encourages papers that address at least one Article of the CRC its the relationship to children’s communication, particularly children with diverse communication abilities. Some papers could focus on communication rights that are mentioned in Articles 2, 12, 13, 29, 30 and 40 of the CRC (McLeod, 2018). The aim is for the Clinical Forum to cover most of the Articles in the CRC – so be creative.
Papers are sought about children with diverse communication abilities from authors across the world in a variety of disciplines, including from people who live and work in Majority World countries (low and middle-income countries and small island states). Papers that include the perspectives of children are encouraged.
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| Helen, Sharynne, Kathy |
The ECV2024 Children’s Voices Committee had a very productive and creative meeting today. We are planning to have two child-focussed tasks at ECV2024. We are asking children to test these ideas/questions for our upcoming conference. Then we will invite the world's children to participate:
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| ECV2024 Children's Voices Committee - 27 Feb 2024 |
1. CHILDREN PLAYING (for all children)
Draw (make/create) yourself playing
Tell me about your picture …
2. CHILDREN’S SOLULTIONS (for older children)
How would you make the world a better place? Pitch your solution by writing a story or making a presentation (e.g., PowerPoint)
THANK YOU FROM THE ECV2024 CHILDREN’S VOICES COMMITTEE
What an exciting moment - to hold a book that includes a chapter that I have co-authored with my daughter.
McLeod, S., & McLeod, J. (2023). Communication rights moderated through hierarchies of disability and childhood. In S. Meyers, M. McCloskey, G. Petri (Eds.). The Routledge international handbook of disability human rights hierarchies. Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003410089
I enjoyed the collaboration, conversations, and the task of writing together. I am proud of our thinking, particularly our work on identifying challenges living with visible versus invisible disabilities.
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Today I attended a fascinating presentation in the School of Education Research Seminar titled "Intentional research: Participatory approaches to ethical (infant) research and pedagogy" by Dr Andi Salamon.
Abstract: Participatory research approaches aim to break down distinctions between researchers and those being ‘researched’. Such approaches have been critiqued in relation to very young children with the suggestion that the participation of children under three in research (and often pedagogical practice) is an illusion (Palaiologou, 2014). It is argued, however, that possibilities exist to consider infant research participants in ethically symmetrical ways to adult participants, and by not doing so we can ‘other’ very young children (Salamon, 2015). Such seemingly conflicting perspectives highlight the inherent challenges of including people with the least power as research participants. This week’s SoE Research Seminar presents the innovative methodological shifts of a research project that documented and deconstructed infants’ evocative emotional communication. Framed through a theory of practice architectures lens the project afforded babies opportunities to participate, enabled by methodological choices, critical reflection on the ‘happening-ness’ of practices and considered as ‘intentional research’. The presentation aligns this approach with intentional teaching pedagogy in Australian early childhood education contexts, and discusses implications for high quality practices in pedagogy with infants, in qualitative research and in any educational system more broadly.
I really enjoy working on page proofs. They usually appear a number of years after a project begins. Today we finalised page proofs for this chapter that was part of Anna Cronin's PhD research:
Cronin, A., McLeod, S., & Wren, Y. (2020, accepted August). Communication rights of young children in early childhood education and care. In F. Press & S. Cheeseman (Eds.). (Re)conceptualising children’s rights in infant-toddler early childhood care and education: Transnational conversations. Dordrecht, The Netherlands: Springer.
Book series: Policy and Pedagogy with Under-three Year Olds: Cross-disciplinary Insights and Innovations, Vol. 4,
This evening I attended an excellent seminar presented by Prof Anne Graham and Julia Truscott from the University of Southern Queensland via the Queens University Belfast Centre for Children's Rights.
There were some excellent resources shared during the presentation via ERIC: https://childethics.com/
We have just received reviews of our chapter titled "Communication rights moderated through hierarchies of disability and childhood" which we submitted in May to "Hierarchies of Disability Human Rights" edited by Stephen Meyers, Megan McCloskey and Gabor Petri for the Interdisciplinary Disability Studies Book Series to be published by Routledge Press, NY.
While there were a few minor recommended changes we were thrilled with their overall summaries of our chapter:
Reviewer 1: "This is an important and well-written chapter. It clearly established the international legal framework for the right to education, describes barriers to that right, and provides a case study on children with disabilities’ right to education in Australia..."
Reviewer 2: "This is a well-written chapter that readers will find fascinating. Communication rights seem to be somewhat hidden in disability human rights discussion, therefore this chapter will be a valuable addition to our edited volume..."
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| Jess McLeod and Sharynne |
Today I had a conversation with an early childhood researcher about a session from the Early Childhood Australia conference today.
There was discussion about the Four Guiding Principles from the Convention on the Rights of the Child (General Comment 5): Best interests, survival and development, non discrimination, participation/ inclusion https://www.unicef.org/armenia/en/stories/four-principles-convention-rights-child
There also was discussion about the usefulness of the Child rights impact assessment https://sites.unicef.org/csr/css/Children_s_Rights_in_Impact_Assessments_Web_161213.pdf
They also shared information about Growing Up in Queensland https://www.qfcc.qld.gov.au/keeping-kids-more-safe/listening-children-young-people/growing-queensland
There was discussion about early childhood educators focus on "children's right to play and exercise choice" and that 2022 will be the Year of Play. It is interesting that within speech pathology, we focus on communication rights, not the right to play. Both professions are not taking full account of human rights principles:
Human rights are universal and inalienable; indivisible; interdependent and interrelated... Indivisible and interdependent because all rights – political, civil, social, cultural and economic – are equal in importance and none can be fully enjoyed without the others. They apply to all equally, and all have the right to participate in decisions that affect their lives. https://www.unfpa.org/resources/human-rights-principles
It is so important to learn from different professions.
The following book chapter has been accepted for publication: Cronin, A., McLeod, S., & Wren, Y. (2020, in press). The rights of children with speech, language and communication needs in early childhood education and care. In F. Press & S. Cheeseman (Eds.). (Re)conceptualising children’s rights in infant-toddler early childhood care and education: Transnational conversations. Dordrecht, The Netherlands: Springer.
Here is the abstract
This chapter reviews international literature on communication rights and applies it to young children particularly in early childhood education and care (ECEC) settings. Communication rights within the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child encompass: freedom of expression and opinion (Articles 12 and 13) and the language(s) in which children communicate (Articles 2, 29, 30 and 40). Accommodating and upholding communicative rights for children may require flexibility and creativity, depending on the modality of the children’s communication, and the language that they use. Thought and consideration to children’s right to communicate is imperative given communication is necessary for protection of many other rights. The second part of the chapter expands the discussion to specific considerations relating to communication rights for young children with speech, language and communication needs (SLCN), in particular, those with cleft lip and palate. A commentary is presented by Dr Yvonne Wren focusing on the rights of children with SLCN (including those with cleft lip and palate) in the United Kingdom (UK). Dr Wren draws on information from the Cleft Collective Cohort Studies, a large-scale national cohort study of over 2,000 children born with cleft lip and/or palate in the UK, with a particular focus on the early childhood experiences of education and care for children in the cohort.
