Planning 2026 data collection in Tasmania

This morning our research team planned our 2026 data collection in Tasmania. We have wonderful preliminary data from 2025, and at the end of this month Sarah Verdon will interview people involved in the research during 2025. Our 2026 data collection will involve every 4- to 5-year-old child across the school population to determine speech screening pathways to be used into the future. We are excited to be working with Felicity Laurence who will undertake her PhD with us next year, and Lisa Johnson from CET.

Data collection finished

Congratulations to Caitlin Hurley who has finished collecting data for her Doctorate in Clinical Dentistry. Ten children have received dental surgery (teeth extractions) and have had their speech tested before and after surgery. Perceptual data also have been collected from families and children. Now for data analysis.

Caitlin Hurley with her supervisors Sharynne and Robert

First participant recruited

I was so excited to receive your email this evening:
"Exciting update ... first participant recruited! ... I’m excited we’re going to get this started... 😊

This is so exciting! Caitlin Hurley is about to begin her data collection for her doctoral research. I’m really looking forward to delving into the results and discovering new knowledge<23072662 student.uwa.edu.au=""> as w<23072662 student.uwa.edu.au="">e begin to scientifically understand the association between speech and dentition.

Difficulties conducting research - noisy environments

I am currently reading a draft research document - and was reminded of the difficulties in the field when trying to audio- and video-record young children's speech so that reliable speech transcription can be made and accurate data entry can be assured:

"The speech sample collection was not carried out if the assessment room had too much noise such as drilling machines, saws, wall demolition, continuous honking, etc. in the surrounding area."

It reminded me of conducting speech assessments in Vietnam in a room that was next to the parking area for parents' and teachers' motorbikes. We kept having to stop as people came and went.

Conducting research online

Here are some resources to support online research:

• NSW Department of Education: https://education.nsw.gov.au/content/dam/main-education/teaching-and-learning/curriculum/learning-from-home/media/documents/guidelines-to-support-schools-using-live-video-with-students.pdf 
• StoryPark (Early childhood education) https://blog.storypark.com/2020/04/how-to-provide-a-virtual-group-time-to-young-children/
• Carrying out qualitative research under lockdown – Practical and ethical considerations https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/impactofsocialsciences/2020/04/20/carrying-out-qualitative-research-under-lockdown-practical-and-ethical-considerations/