Book meeting

We received great feedback from Springer about our book proposal for "Early childhood voices in the lives of children, families, and practitioners". Today was our last book meeting for the year. We have been working hard as an editorial team.

Linda Mahony, Sharynne McLeod, Andi Salamon, Jenny Dwyer

Congratulations Dr Nicole McGill on your PhD graduation and Holly McAlister on your first class honours

Today, Nicole McGill graduated with her PhD at the Charles Sturt University graduation ceremony in Wagga Wagga. Dr Kate Crowe, Dr Suzanne Hopf and I were proud supervisors. She was meant to have graduated at the same ceremony as Dr Anna Cronin - but could not attend due to COVID restrictions in her state.

I was delighted that Nicole graduated at the same ceremony as Holly McAlister who graduated with first class honours. It was such a pleasure to be Holly's associate supervisor with Dr Suzanne Hopf being her primary supervisor. 

It was a really special day for Suzanne Hopf who supervised both of these wonderful researchers' theses. Suzanne was in Fiji and unable to travel due to COVID restrictions - but was able to watch the graduation online in real time. 

It was wonderful to celebrate the occasion with Nicole and Holly's families, some of the speech pathology graduates from Albury, and the other happy graduates.

Dr Nicole McGill, Prof Sharynne McLeod, Holly McAlister

CSU Speech pathology graduates from the Bachelors and Masters program with Dean of Science Megan Smith, Head of Speech Pathology Dr Sarah Verdon, and Prof Sharynne McLeod

Dr Nicole McGill celebrating with her family

Farewell Professor Linda Harrison

Professor Linda Harrison has worked at Charles Sturt University for 25 years in the field of early childhood education. She developed the Early Years Learning Framework for Australia (EYLF) with Prof Jennifer Sumsion and was on the advisory group for the Longitudinal Study of Australian Children (LSAC). She has has a strong influence on researchers and research at CSU, including in her role as the inaugural Associate Dean Research for the Faculty of Arts and Education. We have worked together for 14 years (see here). She is moving to Macquarie University and tonight was her farewell party. It was a wonderful time of celebration. We will miss her greatly.

Some of the people celebrating Linda's contribution to CSU

Carol Burgess (Head, School of Teacher Education), Dr Peter Wilson, Prof Linda Harrison, Prof Sharynne McLeod

Prof Linda Harrison, Emeritus Prof Bob Meyenn (previous Dean of Education), Prof Sharynne McLeod

Dr Shuka Sikder, Dr Audrey Wang, Prof Linda Harrison, Mark Situ

Assessment of Children as Effective Communicators in Early Childhood Education and Care

It has been great to work with a team from Charles Sturt University (led by Sarah Verdon) to submit the following government report:
Verdon, S., Mackenzie, N., McLeod, S., Davidson, C., Masso, S., Verdon, L., & Edwards-Groves, C. (2017). Assessment of children as effective communicators in early childhood education and care: Literature review. Melbourne, Australia: Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Authority.

This resource for early childhood professionals and will be profiled on the VCAA website
http://www.vcaa.vic.edu.au/Pages/earlyyears/vfldoutcomes/communication.aspx

Here is the executive summary

The Victorian Early Years Learning and Development Framework (VEYLDF, State of Victoria Department of Education, 2016) targets five key learning outcomes. This report contains a review of the fifth outcome: children are effective communicators. The development of communication skills begins at birth and is integral to a child’s self-expression, wellbeing, identity, sense of agency and capacity to make friends (State of Victoria Department of Education, 2016). Therefore, communication skills are essential for developing confident and creative individuals who can effectively navigate and participate in life in the twenty-first century and beyond. The following principles for assessing communicative competence have been identified in this review to inform practice:
1. Effective assessment of communication requires a clearly defined purpose.
2. A range of assessments may be required to develop a clear understanding of a child’s strengths and challenges since communication is multifaceted (including but not limited to speaking, listening, reading and writing).
3. Communication assessment can use both formal and informal methods.
4. Assessment of communication considers all languages and communication systems used by a child to gain a holistic understanding of a child’s communicative competence.
5. Effective assessment of communication is based on the input of multiple stakeholders including parents, early childhood professionals, health professionals and children.
6. Assessment of communication considers functionality and participation, not only competence in comparison to adult targets.
7. Assessment of communication is an opportunity for multidisciplinary collaboration.
A range of tools available to support early childhood professionals in their assessment of children’s communication have been identified within this review. These tools were selected to address the each of the key components of children as competent communicators across the full range of communicative skills that children develop from birth to eight years. Nineteen following tools to support early childhood professionals’ assessment of children’s communication are reviewed in this report.
The purpose of this review is to provide a comprehensive resource for early childhood professionals seeking to assess the communication of the children they work with. The review identifies appropriate communication assessment tools for use by early childhood professionals and outlines the areas of communication development that are addressed by the tools. The review provides an overview of the purpose and features of each tool and a discussion of its usefulness in assessing children’s communication. Early identification of communication needs is essential to supporting children’s long-term social and educational outcomes. It is hoped that this document will empower early childhood professionals with the knowledge to identify areas of children’s communication in need of assessment and the resources to confidently undertake these assessments.

Early Learning Languages Australia

The Australian Government Department of Education and Training have created apps for preschool children to learn languages and details are found here: https://www.ella.edu.au
Currently the ELLA program is available in 8 languages: Arabic, Chinese (Mandarin), French, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese or Spanish.
In 2018 two more languages will be added: Hindi and Modern Greek
More information is available here
The evaluation report is here

Educators’ perspectives on facilitating computer-assisted speech intervention in early childhood settings

The following paper has been accepted for publication based on work from our Sound Start Study:
Crowe, K., Cumming, T., McCormack, J., Baker, E., McLeod, S., Wren, Y., Roulstone, S., & Masso, S. (2017, in press). Educators’ perspectives on facilitating computer-assisted speech intervention in early childhood settings. Child Language Teaching and Therapy.
Here is the abstract:

Early childhood educators are frequently called on to support preschool-aged children with speech sound disorders and to engage these children in activities that target their speech production. This study explored factors that acted as facilitators and/or barriers to the provision of computer-based support for children with SSD in early childhood centres. Participants were 23 early childhood educators at 13 centres who participated in the Sound Start Study, a randomised controlled trial that examined the effectiveness of the Phoneme Factory Sound Sorter® (PFSS) computer program (Wren and Roulstone, 2013). Following the trial, participants completed a telephone interview discussing their experiences implementing the program. Transcripts from the interviews were analysed and three categories emerged as factors that influenced the provision of support: (a) Personal factors that related to the children (engagement with PFSS, inclusion/exclusion experience), peers, and educators (service provision, educator engagement, and support of child PFSS use); (b) Environmental factors that related to policies and philosophies (child-centred practice, technology), the physical environment (inclusion/exclusion), and logistics (time, technology); and (c) Program factors that related specifically to PFSS (program format, specific games, game duration). In order to best meet the needs of children, parents, educators, and clinicians, these factors need to be taken into consideration in the provision of speech and language therapy services in early childhood centres.

Early Years Connect webinar

Today I presented an Early Years Connect webinar to 256 early childhood education professionals. "Early Years Connect is a professional development package which has been designed to support Queensland early childhood education and care (ECEC) educators working with children with complex additional needs. This includes children with disability, significant development delay and complex social, emotional and behavioural needs." A list of all the planned webinars is here. My webinar is here.
Here is their description of my presentation

Title: Communication strategies for children with speech, language and communication needs

Description: Every child can benefit from high-quality early childhood education and care (ECEC) - if only we understand how to meet their needs. How can you support the inclusion of children with speech, language and communication needs in your early childhood education and care service? What communication strategies can you use with children to build their skills and sense of belonging?

Join Sharynne McLeod, Professor of Speech and Language Acquisition at

Charles Sturt University, to learn how to support children with speech, language and communication needs.

The webinar will explain:

*       the critical role of communication in relationships and learning

*       common communication difficulties

*       strategies for building communication skills.

This webinar is free for all staff, approved providers and governance bodies of Queensland-based ECEC services, including long day care, kindergarten, family day care and outside school hours care.

Congratulations Hannah!

Hannah Wilkin has just found out that she achieved first class honours for her thesis titled "Oh I forgot the voice: A comparative analysis of children's drawings". Congratulations Hannah! May your honours be a key that unlocks many doors in your future. Hannah is currently working as a primary school teacher in Bathurst.

Collaborations between Future Fellows

Professor Susan Danby from Queensland University of Technology is also an Australian Research Council Future Fellow. Her project is titled "Young children's use of smart technologies in early childhood" and she started in December 2012. It has been wonderful to share experiences with her and to learn from one another about our projects that are centered around young children. We are both in the Early Years Education Collaborative Research Network, so we have many opportunities to share ideas.

Early Years Education Collaborative Research Network meeting in Sydney

Over the past 2 days researchers from Charles Sturt University, Queensland University of Technology, and Monash University met in Sydney to develop proposals for continuing transformational research in early years education. Prof. Adam Winsler, the CRN international visiting scholar, contributed to the discussions and provided information about the Miami School Readiness Project, a longitudinal study of 58,341 children.

Prof. Adam Winsler with members of the Early Years Education
Collaborative Research Network

Professor Adam Winsler visits CSU

Dr. Adam Winsler is visiting Charles Sturt University during March and April as an international scholar affiliated with the Early Years Education Collaborative Research Network. He is professor of applied developmental psychology at George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia, USA. His research, represented in over 80 publications, examines early childhood programs, school readiness, kindergarten retention, and bilingual language development among low-income, ethnically diverse, immigrant children. He also studies private speech (self-talk) and its role in behavioral self-regulation and executive function among typically developing children as well as children with ADHD or autism. His books include: Scaffolding Children’s Learning: Vygotsky and Early Childhood Education (Berk & Winsler, 1995), and Private speech, executive functioning, and the development of verbal self-regulation (Cambridge University Press, 2009). He is also editor-in-chief of the journal, Early Childhood Research Quarterly (ECRQ). For more details see http://winslerlab.gmu.edu

Professor Adam Winsler in Bathurst

 

Speech sound disorders in a community study of preschool children

The following manuscript has been accepted for publication
McLeod, S., Harrison, L. J., McAllister, L. & McCormack. J. (2012, in press December). Speech sound disorders in a community study of preschool children. American Journal of Speech-Language Pathology.

ABSTRACT:
Purpose. To undertake a community (non-clinical) study to describe the speech of preschool children identified by parents/teachers as having difficulties “talking and making speech sounds” and compare those who had and had not accessed the services of a speech-language pathologist (SLP).
Method. Stage 1: Parent/teacher concern regarding speech skills of 1,097 4- to 5-year-old children attending early childhood centers was documented. Stage 2a: 143 children identified with concerns were assessed. Stage 2b: Parents returned questionnaires about service access for 109 children.
Results. The majority of the 143 children (86.7%) achieved a standard score below the normal range for the percentage of consonants correct (PCC) on the Diagnostic Evaluation of Articulation and Phonology (Dodd, Crosbie, Holm, & Ozanne, 2002). Consonants produced incorrectly were consistent with the late-8 phonemes (Shriberg, 1993). Common phonological patterns were: fricative simplification (82.5%), cluster simplification (49.0%)/reduction (19.6%), gliding (41.3%), and palatal fronting (15.4%). Interdental lisps on /s/ and /z/ were produced by 39.9% of children, dentalization of other sibilants by 17.5%, and lateral lisps by 13.3%. Despite parental/teacher concern, only 41/109 children had contact with an SLP. Children who had contact with an SLP were more likely to be unintelligible to strangers, express distress about their speech, have a lower PCC and a smaller consonant inventory compared to the group who had not contacted an SLP.
Conclusions. There are a significant number of preschool-aged children with SSD who have not had contact with an SLP. These children have mild-severe SSD and would benefit from SLP intervention. Integrated SLP services within early childhood communities would enable earlier identification of SSD and access to intervention to reduce potential educational and social impacts.

Excellence in Research in Early Years Education

Over the past 2 days I have been in Sydney for a meeting of the Excellence in Research in Early Years Education (EREYE) Collaborative Research Network (CRN). This group of Australian researchers have an impressive breadth and depth of expertise. Combined we were successful recipients of almost half of the last round of Australian Research Council Discovery Grants awarded to education researchers across the country. We have been discussing a large-scale collaboration that could have a major impact on Australian early childhood education.

Listening to children with speech and language impairment: Implications for teachers of young children

The School of Teacher Education Research and Scholarship Brown Bag Seminar for Monday 13th August titled: "Listening to children with speech and language impairment: Implications for teachers of young children" was presented by Graham Daniel  and described work that we had undertaken together over the past few year. Graham presented a version of this talk via video-linkup to the Listening conference in Bristol in June.

Here is the abstract:

Children spend a large portion of their lives at school. Consequently, teachers play a major role in supporting their social, emotional and educational development. Children with speech and language impairment are at greater risk of reduced social, emotional, and educational outcomes. However, classroom teachers receive little training about how to support these children in the school environment and may be unaware of the implications of speech and language impairment on children's learning and schooling experience.  The aim of this paper was to better understand the lives of children with speech and language impairment and to provide implications for educational practice. Interviews were conducted with six children with speech and language impairment and 28 others including their parents, siblings, friends, teachers, and significant adults within their lives. The participants reported that these children experienced withdrawal and exclusion, had fewer friendships and were more disengaged in activities that involved language. These children’s experiences may have considerable implications for children’s social, emotional and learning (particularly literacy) outcomes. The children used a range of strategies and support networks (particularly siblings) to participate within the school environment. The insights garnered from considering these children’s lives can inform teachers’ provision of an inclusive learning environment to support children’s socialisation, encourage diverse ways of communicating, and maximise learning opportunities.

Helping children succeed: Presentation to Bathurst Child and Family Network

Today (30 July, 2012) Dr Sarah McDonagh and I were invited to present a 3 hour seminar to the Bathurst Child and Family Network titled "Helping Children Succeed Through Speech, Language, and Literacy". Over 50 early childhood education staff, speech pathologists, and community service staff traveled from Bathurst, Orange, Cowra, Mudgee, Forbes, Portland, and Lithgow for the seminar. Lavinia Gibbs began the day with a welcome to country that reminded us of the Wiradjuri nation who's land we were meeting on and the oral traditions of the nation. I followed by speaking about children's speech and language acquisition then Sarah talked about promoting reading from birth, through preschool and into the school years. The enthusiastic participants were keen to take away ideas to use when working with families and children within their communities. Thank you to Annette, Jenell and Karen for organising such a great day.  

Bathurst Child and Family Network seminar participants
(with Dr Sarah McDonagh on the right)

Brisbane: Early Years Education Collaborative Research Network

This week almost 70 people within the Early Years Education Collaborative Research Network met in Brisbane. The CRN includes researchers from Charles Sturt University, Monash University, and Queensland University of Technology. What an inspiring week by the Brisbane River!

Over the week we have gone under, over and around many research ideas and questions

Love the spelling! Actually we are mostly "sisters" not "bro"s

2012 Research Higher Degree Students

I am very fortunate to work with wonderful, dedicated and enthusiastic research higher degree students. During 2012 I will be working with the following students:

Kate Crowe (PhD) 
Topic: Multilingual children with hearing loss: Communication choices and outcomes 
Sarah Verdon (PhD) 

Topic: Quality services for supporting young multilingual children with speech and language disorders

Jacqui Barr (PhD)
Topic: “I’m not like most other kids”: Sibling experiences of disability and implications for education 
Hannah Wilkin (BEd Honours) 

Topic: Talking about talking: Children's insights

Nicole Limbrick (BHlthSc Honours) 
Topic: Designs and decisions: The creation and use of informal criterion-referenced measures for assessing children’s speech 

PhD students: Jacqui Barr, Kate Crowe, Sarah Verdon with Sharynne

Listening to children talking about talking

One of our participants showing off his work

Over the past weeks Hannah Wilkin (primary education student), Elissa Shand (speech pathology student) and I have been visiting children in preschools. We have been talking to typically developing 4- to 5-year-old children about talking... and we are learning a lot. We will make comparisons between these current data, and data from the Sound Effects Study (where we talked to children who had speech impairment). Additionally, as part of establishing the children's speech and language skill level, we have been piloting the usefulness of the English version of the International Speech Assessment with another validated assessment tool. Thank you children for teaching us a lot about talking!

Sharynne, Elissa and Hannah with some of the children's drawings

Babycam enables us to consider infants' lives while at childcare

Baby's view (image from Press et al., 2011)

Observer's view (image from Press et al., 2011)

For the past few years, I have been fortunate to work with a group of colleagues in early childcare education and psychology on an Australian Research Council Linkage Grant to consider what is life like for babies in childcare. Over the course of the project we developed/used a number of innovative techniques to attempt to get a baby's eye-view on their world. One of these techniques was "babycam" where we placed a lipstick sized camera on a headband/hat worn by the babies. We spent a long time developing this technique (e.g., the smaller sized cameras were too hot).

We have just completed the project where we collected longitudinal and cross-sectional data with babies in long daycare centers and family day care homes. The media has spent the past weekend reporting stories that have come from the project about the competency of these infants in the ways that they relate to one another.

• The Daily Telegraph - Babies looking out for mates: Kid-cam reveals all
• Herald Sun – The secret lives of babies
• Courier Mail - Secret life of babies caught on camera show they look out for their mates
• TopNews Arab Emirates - Toddlers less than 1 year have good communication skills
• Today Online (Singapore) - Your little social butterfly 

In addition, we have just learned that the story has been reported around the globe in the following venues:

ABS CBN News‎, ‎Adelaide Now‎, ‎AFP‎, ‎Bahrain News Agency‎, ‎Bangkok Post‎, ‎Calgary Herald‎, ‎Canada.com‎, ‎Channel News Asia‎, ‎China Post‎,  Daily Star Online‎, ‎DAWN.com‎, ‎Deccan Herald‎, ‎Expressindia.com‎, ‎Focus News‎, ‎FRANCE 24‎, ‎Geo Television Network‎, ‎Gulf Today‎, ‎Himalayan Times‎, ‎Hindustan Times‎, ‎Huffington Post UK‎, ‎Indian Express‎, ‎Indian Express‎, ‎Inquirer.net‎, ‎Jakarta Globe‎, ‎MSN Malaysia News‎, ‎MSN Philippines News‎, ‎Naharnet‎, ‎New Straits Times‎, ‎NEWS.com.au‎, ‎Newstrack India‎, ‎Ninemsn‎, ‎Outcome Magazine (blog)‎, ‎PhysOrg.com‎, ‎Radio Netherlands‎, ‎Sin Chew Jit Poh‎, ‎SKNVibes.com‎, ‎Straits Times‎, ‎Telegraph.co.uk‎, ‎The Nation, Pakistan‎, ‎The News International‎, ‎The West Australian‎, ‎TODAYonline‎, ‎‎TopNews Arab Emirates‎, ‎TopNews New Zealand‎, ‎TopNews United States‎, ‎TruthDive‎, ‎Vancouver Sun‎, ‎Yahoo!7 News‎

We have published book chapters and articles about our work (and there will be more publications in the future)

•  Press, F., Bradley, B. S., Goodfellow, J., Harrison, L. J., McLeod, S., Sumsion, J., Elwick, S. Stratigos, T. (2011). Listening to infants about what life is like in childcare: A mosaic approach. In S. Roulstone & S. McLeod (Eds.), Listening to children and young people with speech, language and communication needs. (pp. 241-250). London: J&R Press.
• Sumsion , J., Harrison, L. J., Press, F., McLeod, S., Goodfellow, J. & Bradley, B. S. (2011). Researching infants’ experiences of early childhood education and care. In D. Harcourt, B. Perry & T. Waller (Eds). Researching young children’s perspectives: Debating the ethics and dilemmas of educational research with children (pp. 113-127). London: Routledge.
• Goodfellow, J., Elwick. S., Stratigos, T., Sumsion, J., Press, F., Harrison, L., McLeod, S., & Bradley, B. (2011). Infants’ lives in childcare: Crafting research evidence. The First Years Nga Tau Tuatahi Journal of Infant Toddler Education, 13(2), 43-48.  
• Sumsion, J., Harrison, L., Press, F., McLeod, S., Goodfellow, J., Bradley, B., & Stonehouse, A., (2009). Infants’ experiences in long day care and family day care. Jigsaw, 53.