Communication and sensory loss: Global perspectives

Congratulations to Dr Kate Crowe who has just submitted her edited book titled "Communication and sensory loss: Global perspectives" to Routledge. She wrote "The book has 31 different author, authors with lived experience of hearing and/or vision differences, and authors who work in Asian, Oceanic, North American, South American, European, and African contexts". What a remarkable achievement! Kate has invited me to write the Foreword and I have been enjoying reading the chapters in order to complete this task. Congratulations again Kate!

Dr Kate Crowe submitting her book in Iceland on 1 Nov 2023

Visiting the Orange Aboriginal Medical Service (OAMS)

Yesterday Cathie Matthews, Sarah Bartlett (online) and I had the opportunity to visit the Orange Aboriginal Medical Service to discuss indigenous children's speech,  language and hearing. We learned about the HEALS program and their use of the PLUM and HATS screening checklists

PLUM and HATS: https://plumandhats.nal.gov.au/

Hearing Australia: "The PLUM (Parent-evaluated Listening & Understanding Measure) has 10 questions and screens for listening problems. The HATS (Hearing and Talking Scale) has 5 questions and screens for communication problems."

We also discussed the ELIM program currently being undertaken as part of Cathie Matthews' research with 2-year-olds in Orange and Sarah Bartlett discussed the Hanen program. We are planning our next meeting with more of the OAMS team to discuss future collaborations.

Chloe Thompson, Sharynne McLeod, Anne-Marie McPham, Taylor Clark, Cathie Matthews

Ching, T. Y., Saetre-Turner, M., Harkus, S., Martin, L., Ward, M., Marnane, V., … & Kong, K. (2020). The Hearing and Talking Scale (HATS): Development and validation with young Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children in urban and remote settings in Australia. Deafness & Education International, 22(4), 305-324. 

Ching, T. Y., Hou, S., Seeto, M., Harkus, S., Ward, M., Marnane, V., & Kong, K. (2020). The Parents’ evaluation of Listening and Understanding Measure (PLUM): Development and normative data on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children below 6 years of age. Deafness & Education International, 22(4), 288-304.

Parent perspectives of the relationships between ear health and children’s speech and language

The following manuscript has been accepted for publication 

Morrow, A., Orr, N., Nash, K., Clague, L., Coates, H., Cross, C., Evans, J. R., Gunasekera, H., Harkus, S., Harrison, L. J., McLeod, S., McMahon, C., Neal, K., Salins, A. & Macniven, R. (2023, in press January). Parent perspectives of the relationships between ear health and children’s speech and language in the Longitudinal Study of Indigenous Children. Children, 10(1), 165. https://doi.org/10.3390/children10010165 

Here is the abstract: 

Health and wellbeing are holistic concepts that are perceived to be inseparable for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. We examined relationships between parent-reported ear symptoms for 787 Indigenous children at two time points (age 2-3 years, age 4-5 years) and two parent-reported speech and language outcomes one year later (age 5-6 years). Most parents (80.2%) reported no concern about their child’s expressive language and (93.8%) receptive language. Binary logistic regression models examined ear health as a predictor of children’s expressive and receptive speech and language adjusting for sociodemographic and health covariates. For children without parent-reported ear symptoms there were lower odds of parental concern about expressive speech and language (aOR=0.45; 95% CI 0.21-0.99) and receptive language (aOR=0.24; 95% CI 0.09-0.62). Parents were less likely to have concerns about the child’s expressive speech and language if their child was female; lived in urban or regional areas; had excellent or very good global health; or had no disability when aged 2-5 years. Since parent-reported ear health and speech and language concerns were related, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children could benefit from culturally safe, strength-based, family-centred, integrated speech, language and ear health services.

This research was as the result of collaboration with Masters students and researchers at the HEARing Co-operative Research Centre including Prof Cath McMahon's team focusing on Indigenous people's ear health.

Conversations about Footprints in Time: The Longitudinal Study of Indigenous Children

Prof Linda Harrison and I have now met with the H:EAR Director, Professor Catherine McMahon at Macquarie University a few times. We have been discussing analysis of the valuable data from Footprints in Time: The Longitudinal Study of Indigenous Children (LSIC). 

Prof Catherine McMahon, Sharynne and Prof Linda Harrison

Here are details about the H:EAR research: https://www.mq.edu.au/research/research-centres-groups-and-facilities/healthy-people/centres/hear/news-and-events/news/news-items/new-funding-for-indigenous-hearing-health

Speech, sign, or multilingualism for children with hearing loss: Quantitative insights into caregivers’ decision-making

The following manuscript has been accepted for publication

Crowe, K., McLeod, S., McKinnon, D. H., & Ching, T. Y. C. (in press, February 2014). Speech, sign, or multilingualism for children with hearing loss: Quantitative insights into caregivers’ decision-making. Language, Speech, and Hearing Services in Schools.

Here is the abstract

Purpose: To investigate the influence of a comprehensive range of factors on the decision-making of caregivers of children with hearing loss regarding the use of speech, the use of sign, spoken language multilingualism, and spoken language choice. This is a companion paper to the qualitative investigation described in Crowe, Fordham, McLeod and Ching (in press).

Method: Through a questionnaire, 177 caregivers of 157 Australian children with hearing loss (ages 3;5 to 9;4, mean age 6;6) rated the importance of a range of potential influences on their decision-making about their children’s communication. The majority of children were reported to use speech (96.6%) as part or all of their communication system, with less reported to use sign (20.9%). Few children used more than one spoken language (8.3%).

Results: Proportional analyses and exploratory factor analyses were conducted. Overall, caregivers’ decisions were influenced by their children’s future lives, audiological and intervention characteristics, communication with those around them, community participation, access to intervention and education services in English, and concerns about their children’s future lives. Advice of speech-language pathologists, audiologists, and specialist teachers was more important to caregivers than advice from medical practitioners and non-professionals.

Conclusion: Caregivers’ decision-making about communication mode and language use is influenced by factors that are not equally weighted, and relate to child, family, community, and advice from others. Knowledge of these factors can assist professionals in supporting caregivers making choices regarding communication.