CLTT special issue

 Holly McAlister and I met to discuss our CLTT special issue

Special Issue: Listening to Children with Diverse Communication Abilities 

We currently have 16 papers that are allocated to the special issue:
7 papers are published online already and a few more have been accepted. The remainder will be finalised soon.  

1.  Shelton, N., Munro, N., Starling, J., Tieu, L., Sutherland, R., & Keep, M. (2026). Social media experiences of adolescents with communication disability: A structured interview pilot study. Child Language Teaching and Therapy. https://doi.org/10.1177/02656590261432879 
2. Deehan, H., McLeod, S., & Harrison, L. J. (2026). “Oh! I forgot the voice”: Comparing drawings of talking by children with and without speech sound disorder. Child Language Teaching and Therapy, 02656590261433348. https://doi.org/10.1177/02656590261433348
3. Gregoric, C., McLeod, S., Hopf, S. C., Downey, B., Rahman, A., Sikder, S., Zischke, C., Tran, V. H., Murray, E., McAlister, H., Ivory, N., Delli-Pizzi, L., Elwick, S., Dealtry, L., & Davies, J. (2025). Advancing the Sustainable Development Goals by listening to children's voices across the globe. Child Language Teaching and Therapy, 02656590251406102. https://doi.org/10.1177/02656590251406102
4. Harasym, J. A., Gross, D. P., MacLeod, A. A., & Phelan, S. K. (2026). They smirk ‘but you're not dying’ and other (mis)understandings about communication and concussion navigated by youth: An arts-based reflexive collective case study. Child Language Teaching and Therapy, 02656590261424124. https://doi.org/10.1177/02656590261424124
5. McCormack, J., Cronin, A., McLeod, S., Ireland, M., Wang, C., & Tiong, C. (2025). Children's drawings of intervention for childhood apraxia of speech: Place, people, activity, and emotion. Child Language Teaching and Therapy, 02656590251375340. https://doi.org/10.1177/02656590251375340
6. Spencer, S., Roberts, V., Schroeter, K., & Clegg, J. (2026). Being understood: Neurodivergent care leavers’ perspectives on their own communication skills. Child Language Teaching and Therapy, 02656590251411749. https://doi.org/10.1177/02656590251411749
7. Weir, S., Forster, S., & Clendon, S. (2026). Exploring voice and participatory processes for children who communicate in unconventional ways. Child Language Teaching and Therapy, 02656590261422660. https://doi.org/10.1177/02656590261422660 

CLTT special issue

 Holly McAlister and I have been working on the Child Language Teaching and Therapy special issue for about a year now. On Friday we did a stocktake:

• 5 accepted
• 5 rejected
• 5 minor revisions (awaiting reviewers/authors)
• 5 major revisions (awaiting reviewers/authors)
• 1 awaiting review 

The papers are excellent! It is going to be a great special issue focusing on children's voices.

World Children’s Day celebrations with the United Nations - 20 November 2025

From Regional Roots to Global Impact: Kids Interview UN Changemaker David Ohana

The CSU Advancement Office worked with the Children's Voices Centre (CVC) to create an online event to celebrate World Children’s Day on 20 November. The event profiled CSU alumnus David Ohana, Chief Communications & Marketing Officer, United Nations Foundation as a guest speaker https://unfoundation.org/who-we-are/our-people/david-ohana/

• 30 minutes ‘in conversation’ interview with David led by CVC children
• 30 minutes to talk about CVC/current research and projects, and fundraising call to actions. 

The full recording (1hour) is here:

http://clickemail.csu.edu.au/c/7/eyJhaSI6NTQzMjg4ODQsImUiOiJtZy1lbmM6Ry9BQWVKb3ZUYnVqWGNPL25CVWFSeWt2bjNSNm1hc0ciLCJyaSI6ImNvbnRhY3QtOWQ1ZmIwYTVjMTRiZTkxMWE5NzkwMDBkM2FkMWMzYWYtODgwMjdiNzYxY2VhNDk1Yzk1ZDA0NDBhZTdlOTQ1NTgiLCJycSI6IjAyLWIyNTM1Ny04YmE0OTFkZWI5ZmQ0NjNmYjg2M2M5MGJhNzhjMmMwYiIsIm0iOmZhbHNlLCJ1aSI6IjAiLCJ1biI6IiIsInUiOiJodHRwczovL21lZGlhLXN0dWRpby5jc3UuZWR1LmF1L3cveDVsQWt4SmFQV0s_a2V5PTI0NzI3ZjgxMGE0ODkxYzNmYTM0ODAxMWRlN2U2MmRiJl9jbGRlZT1nc3BabVJSUUdqSGppUTBPRDhfRDAyWUdkQW5iMDUyTGFGYmtNQlhVZzItSlhHekQwZlNNZHVYNU5GNWQta21nJnJlY2lwaWVudGlkPWNvbnRhY3QtOWQ1ZmIwYTVjMTRiZTkxMWE5NzkwMDBkM2FkMWMzYWYtODgwMjdiNzYxY2VhNDk1Yzk1ZDA0NDBhZTdlOTQ1NTgmZXNpZD04ODQzMGM0Zi0zZWQ2LWYwMTEtODU0NC03Y2VkOGQzNDQ4YWEifQ/f-y3A0yWKARtRVFEsqsQJQ

Information: 

• https://events.humanitix.com/from-regional-roots-to-global-impact-kids-interview-un-changemaker-david-ohana  
• https://alumni.csu.edu.au/news-and-events/events/industry/from-regional-roots-to-global-impact-kids-interview-un-changemaker-david-ohana 

 WOW! The children's questions were so enlightening - and David's stories were so inspiring. Congratulations to A/Prof Kathy Cologon and A/Prof Tamara Cumming who organised the event. I was in Washington DC - so watched online...

Join us this World Children’s Day for an inspiring free online event celebrating the power of children’s voices. Hosted by the Children’s Voices Centre, this free event features Charles Sturt alumnus David Ohana, now Chief Communications & Marketing Officer at the United Nations
Foundation (based in Washington DC), with a panel of curious young interviewers. In a playful reversal of roles the children will lead the discussion, asking David about his journey from
regional Australia to the global stage, his work in international advocacy, and what it means to create real change for young people around the world. Alongside this conversation, the Children’s Voices Centre will share stories from their inspiring, child-led research projects and their vision for a future where every child is heard, valued, and supported to thrive. Join us in celebrating the voices that shape tomorrow, because when children are heard, the world changes for the better.
Date: Thursday 20 November 2025
Time: 10.00am - 11.00am AEDT
Where: Online via Zoom.
Cost: Free (donations to the Children’s Voices
Centre Little Library Project welcomed).
If you are unable to attend the livestream, we encourage you to register regardless. A recording of the event will be sent to all registered participants.  From regional roots to global impact: Kids Interview UN Changemaker David Ohana

Children Draw Health Global Online Galleries

 The Children Draw Health Global Online Galleries are now on Charles Sturt University's YouTube channel 

• What makes you healthy: https://youtu.be/Lwedfy8_MB8
• Where to go to get healthier: https://youtu.be/365OwVm4oRs
• Who helps you be healthy: https://youtu.be/jATxwhYCyV4
• Ideal health service: https://youtu.be/7-X-z4gFDOg
• Four Galleries:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lwedfy8_MB8&list=PLRXcSAl_dA7YoGpVsg-oyKe3et80WnfVl

They  are also available on the Children's Voices Centre website: https://www.csu.edu.au/research/childrens-voices-centre/research/childrens-health

Here is our summary document: https://cdn.csu.edu.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0010/4506148/CVC-Children-draw-health-2025-Fiji-submission.pdf  

Thanks to the children from 18 countries who submitted 126 drawings to be included, the CVC Children's Advisory Groups, Dr Carolyn Gregoric, Dr Belinda Downey, Patrick McKenzie and the CSU Brand and webteams for their work to put this together.

 

Just published - Children’s drawings of intervention for childhood apraxia of speech

How exciting - this paper has just been published.

McCormack, J., Cronin, A., McLeod, S., Ireland, M., Wang, C., & Tiong, C. (2025). Children’s drawings of intervention for childhood apraxia of speech: Place, people, activity, and emotion. Child Language Teaching and Therapy. https://doi.org/10.1177/02656590251375340

Exiting for two reasons - summarises our Once Upon a Time research grant + first paper to be accepted for our Child Language Teaching and Therapy special issue! 

Here are the drawings that have been included as figures in our paper. These depict the participants' insights into undertaking DTTC intervention.

 

Children Draw Health: Children's advisory group week 2

Each Wednesday in September our Children Draw Health Advisory Group are considering the 100+ drawings from 17 countries we have received in our research. This week we continued to consider themes and answers to these questions:

1. What makes you healthy? 
2. Who helps you be healthy? 
3. Where do you go to get healthy? 
4. What would your ideal healthcare setting look like? 

Photographs are shared with permission from the children and their parents 

Children Draw Health: Children's advisory group week 1

Each Wednesday in September our Children Draw Health Advisory Group are considering the 100+ drawings from 17 countries we have received in our research. They are thinking about what the children of the world have shared. They analysed a sample of drawings to determine themes (food, doctors, hospitals, rainbows, friends, workout and sports), added their own ideas and came up with the following themes and answers to these questions:

1. What makes you healthy? Doctors, food, hospitals, Workout and sports
2. Who helps you be healthy? Mom, Dad, friends, doctors, hospital, therapist
3. Where do you go to get healthy? Hospital, doctor
4. What would your ideal healthcare setting look like? Rainbows, friends, nature

Stay tuned for next weeks' analysis...

A fun way to work out which themes answered which questions

At the beginning we considered each of the drawings and the artists' explanations

At the beginning we considered each of the drawings and the artists' explanations

At the end everyone demonstrated the thematic groups

Children Draw Playing - Data coding is mostly finished - planning next steps

This morning 9 members of our interdisciplinary research team met to discuss our coding of the Children Draw Playing drawings. We are now up to analysis and writing papers. The children are teaching us so much through their 181 drawings.

 

Parents as proxies for children – is it enough?

This morning some of the CVC affiliates were reflecting on whether using parents as proxies for children's perspectives is enough. Here are a few quantitative studies I have been involved in that compare persapectives of children, parents, and professionals’ 

McCormack, J., McLeod, S., & Crowe, K. (2019). What do children with speech sound disorders think about their talking? Seminars in Speech and Language, 40(2), 94–104. https://doi.org/10.1055/s-0039-1677760 

...This paper draws on data from the Sound Start Study in Australia to explore the attitudes toward talking of 132 preschool-aged children with SSD and the relationship between children's attitudes, speech accuracy, and parent-reported intelligibility and participation. The study revealed most of the children with SSD had a positive attitude toward talking. There was a significant relationship between children's attitudes toward talking and speech accuracy. Furthermore, there was a significant relationship between speech accuracy and parents' perceptions of intelligibility and participation. However, there was no significant relationship between children's attitudes and parents' perceptions. These results highlight similarities and differences between attitudes and experiences of preschool-aged children, their performance on clinical measures, and their parents' perceptions, indicating the need for SLPs to consider each of these areas during assessment and intervention...

van Doornik, A., Franken, M. C., McLeod, S., Terband, H., & Gerrits, E. (2025). Children’s, parents’, and experts’ perception of speech and communication. Language, Speech, and Hearing Services in Schools, https://doi.org/10.1044/2025_LSHSS-24-001 

...This study aims to improve our knowledge of how young children with speech sound disorders (SSD) perceive their own speech and communication in comparison with typically developing (TD) children and how these perceptions relate to parental judgment of communicative participation, intelligibility in different contexts, and an expert measure of children's speech accuracy (percentage of consonants correct in syllable initial position [PCCI]). Participants were 111 Dutch-speaking children (48–89 months old): 65 with SSD and 46 who were TD. Children's self-reports on the Dutch version of the Communication Attitude Test for Preschool and Kindergarten Children Who Stutter (KiddyCAT-NL) were compared (a) between SSD and TD groups and (b) with the parents' ratings….Statistical analysis revealed that young children in the SSD group perceived their speech and communication differently than children in the TD group. Only in the SSD group was there a moderate positive correlation between speech accuracy and intelligibility in context and only a weak correlation with the child's perception of speech and communication. Parents' and children's perceptions were weakly correlated. Information on children's perception of their own speech is complementary to information obtained from the parents and SLPs' formal assessment of speech accuracy. To fully understand the impact of SSD, it is therefore important to actively elicit and include children's perspectives on speech and communication.

 

Children’s drawings of intervention for childhood apraxia of speech (CAS): Place, people, activity, and emotion

The following paper just has been accepted for publication

McCormack, J., Cronin, A., McLeod, S., Ireland, M., Wang, C., & Tiong, C. (2025, accepted July). Children’s drawings of intervention for childhood apraxia of speech (CAS): Place, people, activity, and emotion. Child Language Teaching and Therapy.

It is one of the outcomes from our work on our grant funded by Once Upon a Time to consider perspectives of children with childhood apraxia of speech (CAS) who were undertaking DTTC intervention.  

Here is the abstract:

Sourcing and including the views of children in speech and language therapy aligns with Articles 12 and 13 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. This research explored the perspectives of 30 children (3;9 – 8;7 years) with childhood apraxia of speech regarding their experiences of Dynamic Temporal and Tactile Cueing intervention. Children lived in the United States or Australia and had engaged in one of three intervention studies exploring: delivery by their parent or speech and language therapist (SLT); delivery in high or low dose; and delivery in massed or distributed format. Children shared their perspectives of intervention through drawing a picture of themselves during intervention, describing their drawings, and identifying emojis responding to questions about intervention. Five focal points were identified in the drawings: Place (73.33%: environment, intervention materials, and transitions), People (73.33%: body parts and facial expressions, relationships and connection, and sense of self), Activity (20.00%: words, talking, and listening), Emotion (53.33%: positive and negative), and Not Talking (6.67%). Many participants felt happy about “speech practice” ( J  62.50%) and who did speech practice with them ( J  62.50%) but were divided in how they felt about the number of times ( J  33.3%) and the length of time ( J  29.17%) of speech practice. Children’s perspectives can be considered when designing and delivering intervention.

Here are two of the insightful drawings by the children involved in the project showing their involvement in intervention. These drawings will be included in the publication. Each drawing shows the child on the left and their speech-language pathologist on the right. Note the environment (table in figure 1 and door, table, chair, stickers in figure 2).

 

CVC Visiting Scholar - Dr Red Ruby Scarlet -

Today our Children's Voices Centre Visiting Scholar, Dr Red Ruby Scarlet https://redrubyscarlet.com.au/ was in Bathurst visiting CSU. She came to engage with children from our local early intervention service to explore their perspectives of health using arts-informed approaches.  The children's session focused on clay and they provided insights into their explorations. We spent time discussing our observations at the end of the session providing interdisciplinary insights. What an interesting day.

Sharynne, Dr Red Ruby Scarlet, Dr Belinda Downey, A/Prof Tamara Cumming

 

Children's Voices Centre: Children's play in Mongolia

This evening we had a fascinating session about children’s play in Mongolia presented by Altaituya (Agi) Burnee. This session was particularly insightful for affiliates involved in our Children Draw Play project.

The Children Draw Playing Global Online Gallery: Mongolia is available here: https://earlychildhoodresearch.csu.domains/early-childhood-voices-conference-2024/children-draw-playing/ 

Altaituya came to Australia to undertake a Masters thesis in education at Flinders University.  Altaituya recently returned to Mongolia and is now working in a school. 

• Burnee, Altaituya, 2024 Schoolteachers’ perspectives on an anti-bullying program in Gobi-Altai Province, Mongolia, Flinders University, College of Education, Psychology and Social Work https://theses.flinders.edu.au/view/3b991c60-0a64-487c-b4dc-c8e73a52bc13/1 

• View Altaituya's ECV2024 presentation here https://earlychildhoodresearch.csu.domains/early- childhood-voices-conference-2024/ecv2024-405/

What a fascinating session!

Altaituya Burnee, Sharynne McLeod, Kate Crowe (Iceland), Carolyn Gregoric, Tamara Cumming, Sarah Verdon, Mehdi Rassafiani, Laura Hoffman

 

 

Children Draw Health - our first submission comes from Iran

Children Draw Health is the project we are doing to gain children's perspectives about health and access to health care from acrsso the world. Our first submission arrived this week. The drawing was by Artin, (6 years) who lives in Iran. Artin who has communication difficulties says 

“If I play in the the park and visit my doctor he makes me feel ok everytime. Also my mom gives me comfort and help me to be healthy she cooks for us with love”.

CLTT special issue

The closing date has just passed for our Child Language Teaching and Therapy special issue titled "Listening to Children with Diverse Communication Abilities". Holly McAlister and I are working with the CLTT editors Prof. Judy Clegg and Prof. Vicky Joffe and have received a lot of submissions. We are delighted with the breadth and depth of topics that have been covered in the papers and have already learned from the children and young people who participated in the research. We are now allocating reviewers - who will shape the manuscripts - and provide advice about which ones should be published. I am grateful for a few days holiday at the beach to step out of my day-to-day working tasks and think about this important project. Here is my view :)

 

Thank you to the Assumption Catholic Primary School Band for contributions to ECV2024

Here is an email I sent today to the Assumption Catholic Primary School Band

Dear students and teachers

We are writing to officially thank you for your outstanding contribution to the Early Childhood Voices 2024 (ECV2024) Conference Launch on Monday 25th November 2024 at Charles Sturt University.

We were thrilled to have such high-quality music and were impressed with your maturity and professionalism as band members. We were also very grateful that you were our ECV2024 press gallery. Your insights have been enjoyed by people across the world

• Here is the ECV2024 conference website: https://earlychildhoodresearch.csu.domains/early-childhood-voices-conference-2024/
• Here is the YouTube link to the Assumption Catholic Primary School Band’s press gallery: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RoBtflnofQ8
• Here is the YouTube link to the ECV2024 Conference launch: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XsjxDyMUbWY&t=3s

Over the week of the conference 1338 people registered from 54 countries:
Afghanistan, Australia, Bangladesh, Benin, Brazil, Bulgaria, Burundi, Canada, China, Colombia, Denmark, Ethiopia, Fiji, Finland, France, Germany, Ghana, Greece, Hong Kong (SAR China), Hungary, Iceland, India, Indonesia, Iran, Ireland, Israel, Jordan, Kosovo, Kuwait, Malaysia, Malta, Morocco, Namibia, Nepal, Netherlands, New Zealand, Nigeria, Norway, Pakistan, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Slovenia, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Uganda, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, USA, Zambia.

Many more people continue to access the free online content: 4 keynote presentations, 147 oral presentations, and 200+ children’s drawings.

In fact, you may enjoy viewing the Children Draw Playing Global Online Gallery: https://earlychildhoodresearch.csu.domains/early-childhood-voices-conference-2024/children-draw-playing/

It would be wonderful if you, or some other students from Assumption Catholic Primary School may be interested in collaborating with us during 2025. This week, we launched the Children’s Voices Centre https://www.csu.edu.au/research/childrens-voices-centre/home.
Here is the media release: https://news.csu.edu.au/latest-news/new-research-centre-champions-childrens-communication-rights
The Children’s Voices Centre has signed an agreement with the World Health Organization undertake research to listen to children’s perspectives about health.

Thank you again and best wishes for Christmas and the holidays.

Sharynne

Distinguished Professor Sharynne McLeod
Charles Sturt University

American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA) convention

The American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA) convention is held in Seattle this week. At the opening ceremony they announced that there were 13,005 registrations from 58 countries and all 50 states of the US https://convention.asha.org/.

Here are our presentations:

• Culturally Appropriate Assessment in International Contexts: Assessing Children's Speech in Their Home Language(s) (1 hour session)- Sharynne McLeod, Helen L. Blake, Kate Margetson
  
• Services for Children With Pacific Islander Heritage: Practices and Aspirations of Speech-Language Pathologists (30 minute technical session) - Holly McAlister, Suzanne C. Hopf, Sharynne McLeod
  
• Children Draw Talking: Understanding Children's Functioning with Arts-Based Methods (1 hour session)- Sharynne McLeod, Marie Ireland, Jane McCormack, Anna Cronin, Cen Wang, Carolyn Gregoric, Holly McAlister, Suzanne C. Hopf, Van H. Tran, Karla N. Washington, Nicole Bazzocchi, Lauren Choi, Katarina Miletic, Andrea A.N. MacLeod, Jessica A. Harasym
• 
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

 

Our session titled "Culturally Appropriate Assessment in International Contexts: Assessing Children's Speech in Their Home Language(s)" was selected for live-broadcast:

Congratulations! Your in-person, 1-hour oral seminar (listed below) has been selected by the 2024 ASHA Convention Co-Chairs to be live-broadcast as part of the Virtual Program. During the submission process you indicated that you would agree to have your slides and audio broadcast to the virtual platform in real-time if selected. Only 77 sessions were chosen to be broadcast live, with consideration given to the overall strength and value to virtual-only participants and alignment with our 2024 theme, ELEVATE!...The live broadcast is a real-time feed of your presentation onsite in Seattle. Your session will not be recorded and will not be available as an on-demand Virtual Program session after it concludes.

Congratulations to Holly McAlister who is presenting her PhD and attending ASHA for the first time. I am so proud of how well she is networking and making the most of this unique opportunity.

I was also invited to host an ASHA Research Round Table - “Engaging in International Research Collaborations” with Dr. Giang Pham

Early Childhood Voices Conference 2024 (ECV2024) SUMMARY

The Early Childhood Voices Conference 2024 (ECV2024) was held from 25-28 November 2024. Organised by the Charles Sturt University Early Childhood Interdisciplinary Research Group (ECIR), this virtual and asynchronous event brought together 1,338 researchers and professionals from 54 countries:

Afghanistan, Australia, Bangladesh, Benin, Brazil, Bulgaria, Burundi, Canada, China, Colombia, Denmark, Ethiopia, Fiji, Finland, France, Germany, Ghana, Greece, Hong Kong (SAR China), Hungary, Iceland, India, Indonesia, Iran, Ireland, Israel, Jordan, Kosovo, Kuwait, Malaysia, Malta, Morocco, Namibia, Nepal, Netherlands, New Zealand, Nigeria, Norway, Pakistan, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Slovenia, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Uganda, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, USA, Zambia

LAUNCH: On Monday 25th November, the conference was officially launched by Professor Renée Leon, Vice-Chancellor and President, at a live-streamed event on the Bathurst campus. Professor Tony Dreise presented a keynote address entitled Giving voice to ‘villages’, listening to ‘Country’: It’s time to unlock the power of ‘place’. The audience enjoyed the music played by the Assumption Catholic Primary School Band. Students from the band also formed a press gallery to report on the launch (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RoBtflnofQ8). Afterwards, guests on campus visited the Treehouse for popcorn and refreshments.

WEBSITE: The conference website can be viewed here https://earlychildhoodresearch.csu.domains/early-childhood-voices-conference-2024/ 

KEYNOTES: Over four days, ECV2024 showcased the work of the four keynote presentations, 

STREAMS: 147 oral presentations, and 200+ children’s drawings across three streams:

• Early childhood voices: international interdisciplinary research: https://earlychildhoodresearch.csu.domains/early-childhood-voices-conference-2024/by-topics/
  
• Multilingual children's speech development: https://multilingual-childrens-speech-development.csu.domains/by-language/
  
• Children draw playing global online gallery: https://earlychildhoodresearch.csu.domains/early-childhood-voices-conference-2024/children-draw-playing/
  

SYNCHRONOUS PARTICIPATION: Participants also engaged in six yarning circle discussions and a workshop on understanding different communications methods presented by Shirley Wong, who has lived experience of augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) devices.

Here is the summary Dr Carolyn Gregoric wrote for the School of Education newsletter:

Early Childhood Voices Conference 2024

The Early Childhood Voices Conference 2024 (ECV2024), held from November 25 to 28, has just concluded, leaving a lasting impact on all participants. Organised by the Charles Sturt University Early Childhood Interdisciplinary Research Group (ECIR), this virtual and asynchronous event brought together 1,338 researchers and professionals from 54 countries.

On Monday 25th November, the conference was officially launched by Professor Renée Leon, Vice-Chancellor and President, at a livestreamed event on the Bathurst campus. Professor Tony Dreise presented a keynote address entitled Giving voice to ‘villages’, listening to ‘Country’: It’s time to unlock the power of ‘place’. The audience enjoyed the music played by the Assumption Catholic Primary School Band. Students from the band also formed a press gallery to report on the launch. Afterwards, guests on campus visited the Treehouse for popcorn and refreshments.

Over four days, ECV2024 showcased the work of the four keynote presentations, 147 oral presentations, and 200+ children’s drawings across three streams - early childhood voices: international interdisciplinary research, multilingual children's speech development and children draw playing global online gallery. 

Participants also engaged in six yarning circle discussions and a workshop on understanding different communications methods presented by Shirley Wong, who has lived experience of augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) devices.

The conference website can be viewed here https://earlychildhoodresearch.csu.domains/early-childhood-voices-conference-2024/

 

Call for Papers - Child Language Teaching and Therapy Special Issue

Call for Papers - Child Language Teaching and Therapy Special Issue
https://journals.sagepub.com/home/CLT

Listening to children with diverse communication abilities

Editors: Professor Judy Clegg and Professor Victoria Joffe

With Guest Editors: Distinguished Professor Sharynne McLeod and Holly McAlister from Charles Sturt University, Australia

"Child Language Teaching and Therapy is an international peer reviewed journal which aims to be the leading inter-disciplinary journal in the field of intervention and management of children’s speech, language, and communication needs. The journal publishes original research and review articles of high practical relevance, and which emphasise inter-disciplinary collaboration between education and therapies. The readership of the journal consists of academics and practitioners across the disciplines of education, speech and language therapy, psychology, and linguistics."

Child Language Teaching and Therapy is inviting authors to submit to a special issue titled: Listening to children with diverse communication abilities. This special issue supports children’s communication rights and expands on the Child Language Teaching and Therapy summer lecture titled “Do we really listen to children?” presented by Distinguished Professor Sharynne McLeod https://www.csu.edu.au/research/childrens-voices-centre.

You can watch the Child Language Teaching and Therapy summer lecture here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iajSaUyEuOw

Here is the abstract from the summer lecture:

Communication is a human right for all; and ALL includes children with speech, language, and communication needs, including those who speak/sign non-dominant languages (McLeod, 2018). Aligning with the Convention on the Rights of the Child (United Nations, 1989) we have given attention to the “voice” of children. For example, we have creatively engaged in child-friendly arts-based methods to provide children with the “right to freedom of expression… regardless of frontiers” as outlined in Article 13. However, do we REALLY listen to children? As we become more accustomed to including children’s perspectives in our professional practices, it is time to reflect on whether some of our inclusion of children’s voices could be perceived as “tokenistic” (Hart, 1992). As communication specialists, we have the power to support children’s voice and to assist others to listen. How can we mature in our practices to enhance children’s participation within democratic processes in their families, schools, communities, and society?

For this special issue, the editors invite papers that explore:

• Innovations in the identification and support of children and young people with speech, language and communication needs (SLCN) as a result of listening to and learning from children and young people.
• Methods to support children’s voice and to assist others to listen by considering space, voice, audience, and influence (see Lundy, 2007).
• Moving beyond tokenistic inclusion to supporting children’s engagement in research processes where children are lead researchers, or collaborators and co-designers of the research (see Hart, 1992; 2008; Shier, 2019).
• Diverse languages, cultures, modes of communication (sign language, AAC), ages (including infants and toddlers), geographies, abilities, and types of speech, language, and communication needs (SLCN). 

Theoretical, methodological, systematic review and empirical papers are all invited for consideration across the disciplines of education, speech and language therapy, psychology, and linguistics, as well as interdisciplinary and international contributions. Papers must be supported by new evidence and/or evidence-based literature. Papers that include research data must include a statement about ethical approval (including information about parent/guardian consent and child assent). Papers are encouraged from people who live and work in Majority World countries (including low and middle-income countries and small island states) and people who have lived experience of communication and / or swallowing disability.

We aim to publish this special issue of Child Language Teaching and Therapy in early 2026.

Submissions

To be considered for publication, papers must be received using the online submission system by Friday 18th April 2025 (early submissions are encouraged). Please prepare and submit manuscripts according to the guidelines available at https://journals.sagepub.com/author-instructions/CLT. Papers should be between 5,000 and 8,000 words, including all elements (title page, abstract, notes, references, tables, biographical statement, etc.). Papers in excess of 8,000 words will not be sent for review. When submitting your paper, please indicate that the paper is to be considered for the special issue. The manuscript should be submitted to https://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/cltt. All papers will receive a double-blind review, following the usual review process and criteria of Child Language Teaching and Therapy. The special issue is scheduled for publication in early 2026. Accepted papers will be published online first before the issue. Any papers accepted for publication but not included in the special issue due to space constraints will be published later in a regular issue. For further information, please contact the Editors, Judy Clegg (j.clegg@sheffield.ac.uk), Vicky Joffe (v.joffe@essex.ac.uk) and Guest Editors Sharynne McLeod (smcleod@csu.edu.au) and Holly McAlister (hmcalister@csu.edu.au).

References

• Hart, R. A. (1992). Children’s participation: From tokenism to citizenship. United Nations Children’s Fund International Child Development Centre.
• Hart, R. A. (2008). Stepping back from ‘the ladder’: Reflections on a model of participatory work with children. In A. Reid, B. B. Jensen, J. Nikel, & V. Simovska (Eds.), Participation and learning: Perspectives on education and the environment, health and sustainability (pp. 19-31). Springer. https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-1-4020-6416-6
• Lundy, L. (2007). ‘Voice’ is not enough: Conceptualising Article 12 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. British Education Research Journal, 33, 927–942. https://doi.org/10.1080/01411920701657033
• Mahony, L., McLeod, S., Salamon, A., & Dwyer, J. (Eds.). (2024). Early childhood voices: Children, families, professionals. Springer. https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-031-56484-0
• McCormack, J., McLeod, S., Harrison, L. J., & Holliday, E. L. (2022). Drawing talking: Listening to children with speech sound disorders. Language, Speech, and Hearing Services in Schools, 53(3), 713–731. https://doi.org/10.1044/2021_LSHSS-21-00140
• 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
• Roulstone, S., & McLeod, S. (Eds.). (2011). Listening to children and young people with speech, language and communication needs. J&R Press. http://www.jr-press.co.uk/communication-needs.html
• Shier, H. (2019). An analytical tool to help researchers develop partnerships with children and adolescents. In I. Berson, M. Berson, & C. Gray (Eds.), Participatory methodologies to elevate children’s voice and agency (pp. 295–315). Information Age Publishing.
• United Nations (1989). Convention on the rights of the child. https://www.unicef.org/crc/

Nord/ CSU Early Childhood Education Group

Tonight we had a meeting with the Nord/Charles Sturt University Early Childhood Education Group working towards a memorandum of understanding between the universities. 

There are three sub-groups:

• Children's Voices (Leads: Elisabeth Bjornestad)
  
• Online Learning for Early Childhood Education/ITE and Med (Lead: Leanne Gibbs/Martin Per Samuelsson)
• Quality Assurance, Regulation and Qualifications (Leads: Kelly Tribolet/Belinda Downey)

The Children's Voices group shared the following projects and would like to have a seminar where people share their work

• Nord University is working with Malta on a project about children's voices + a philosophical approach regarding children's hut building in Sweden/Norway and New Zealand.
  
• CSU is running the Early Childhood Voices Conference (ECV2024) next week and are working with the World Health Organization on a project about children's voices. 

Children's Voices Group