Panel D Committee of the Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia (ASSA)

I have been invited to be on the Panel D Committee of the Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia (ASSA) https://socialsciences.org.au/ for a three-year term commencing from the AGM next month. What an honour. 

The Chair of the committee,  Emeritus Professor Donald Byrne wrote 

"The Committee's work is crucial to the overall functioning of the Academy in ensuring a broad voice for the disciplines of Education, Psychology and Health Sciences in all of the Academy's activities."

From the website

“The Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia is an elected body of over 700 leading researchers and professionals across the social science disciplines…a peak body for the social sciences and a distinguished, independent membership organisation, gathering the best and brightest social science minds from universities, research institutes and policy agencies across the country. These are the people whose research shapes government decision-making, whose advice is called on by Australia’s leaders, and whose expertise has long played a key role in shaping our nation.” (https://socialsciences.org.au/academy/)

Reconnecting with Lynelle

Today I had the opportunity to reconnect with Lynelle Wyllie-Smith who was my honours student a number of years ago. She now is a speech pathologist in Tasmania - and I really enjoyed reconnecting with her. Here is her publication from her honours research.

Wyllie-Smith, L., McLeod, S., & Ball, M. J. (2006). Typically developing and speech-impaired children's adherence to the sonority hypothesis. Clinical Linguistics and Phonetics, 20(4), 271–291. https://doi.org/10.1080/02699200400016497

Graduation congratulations

During April/May, some of my research students graduate at Charles Sturt University. I am unable to celebrate with them at the graduation ceremonies, because the graduation dates changed from December 2023-  so coincided with my international travel. I cheered loudly from the other side of the world - and had an opportunity to celebrate Belinda in Bathurst.

Pre-graduation celebration with Dr Belinda Downey

Congratulations Sarah Faulks on your honours graduation in Albury in April.
I am glad A/Prof Sarah Verdon was with you to celebrate

Preparing presentations for the Speech Pathology Australia National Conference

We are very excited to have a number of abstracts accepted for the Speech Pathology Australia National Conference to be held in Perth in May. This week I have begun working with my colleagues to prepare our presentations.

Sarah Faulks and Sharynne working on our SPA presentation

Congratulations Sarah Faulks on your Honours submission

Congratulations to Sarah Faulks who has completed her honours thesis titled: Multilingual language assessment for Vietnamese-Australian children 

Her thesis has been supervised by A/Prof Sarah Verdon, myself, and Dr Van Tran.

We had a online submission party yesterday.

Sarah's online honours celebration

On 17th October, Sarah will present her Honours thesis in order to conclude the requirements for her degree. Congratulations Sarah. It has been a pleasure to be on your supervisory team.

Honours research - the last month before submission

Sarah Faulks has been working with A/Prof Sarah Verdon and myself on her honours research. She has one month before submission and is completely on track. Congratulations Sarah and best wishes for the final stretch before you finish your degree.

Sarah F's first visit to CSU Bathurst

Today was Sarah Faulks' first visit to CSU in Bathurst. It was lovely to show her around. Sarah is in her final year on the Albury campus. It has been such a joy to be her honours supervisor. Her research is going very well.

Congratulations Sarah Faulks on your scholarships

Congratulations to Sarah Faulks (our honours student) who won two awards last week:

• Kerin Health Scholarship: Sarah received this scholarship in recognition of her passion for rural allied health and my determination to give back to rural communities in my future career as a speech pathologist. This scholarship involved an extensive written application as well as an interview. 
• Executive Dean's Award for 2022: Sarah received this award in recognition of the high level of academic achievement in her studies undertaken in the 2022 academic year.

 

Bilingual Vietnamese-English children's language honours research

Sarah Faulks is undertaking her honours degree and is analysing some of the data from our VietSpeech ARC Discovery Grant. Her supervisors are A/Prof Sharynne McLeod, Dr Van Tran and myself. She is almost finished scoring the children's English data from the Renfrew Action Picture Test (RAPT). We had a great discussion about scoring the Vietnamese Language Scale (VLS) since a number of the children were code mixing their responses in Vietnamese and English.

A/Prof Sarah Verdon, Prof Sharynne McLeod, Sarah Faulks, Dr Van Tran

In the news: First of its kind research aids multilingual Fijian children’s speech sound acquisition

Last week CSU media  published a story about our resreach understaken in Fiji. The story is based on Holly's honours research. We are excited that Holly is now undertaking her PhD with us.

The CSU media release is here: https://news.csu.edu.au/latest-news/first-of-its-kind-research-aids-multilingual-fijian-childrens-speech-sound-acquisition

Here are the journal articles Holly has published from her Honours research that were quoted in the news release:

McAlister, H., Hopf, S. C., & McLeod, S. (2022). Effect of dialect on identification and severity of speech sound disorder in Fijian children. Speech, Language and Hearing, Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1080/2050571X.2022.2052506 

McAlister, H., McLeod, S., & Hopf, S. C. (2022). Fijian school students’ Fiji English speech sound acquisition. International Journal of Speech-Language Pathology, Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1080/17549507.2022.2044905

 

Congratulations Sarah Faulks on submitting your honours proposal

Congratulations to Sarah Faulks who submitted her Honours research proposal today titled "Bilingual language assessment for Vietnamese-Australian children". Sarah is supervised by A/Prof Sarah Verdon and her co-supervisors are Dr Van Tran and myself.

Effect of dialect on identification and severity of speech sound disorder in Fijian children

Congratulations Holly McAlister on the publiscation of "Effect of dialect on identification and severity of speech sound disorder in Fijian children" from your honours thesis

The eprint link for 50 free copies is: https://www.tandfonline.com/eprint/65ZQUTEVTTGKUNBRTEU9/full?target=10.1080/2050571X.2022.2052506 

 

Effect of dialect on identification and severity of speech sound disorder in Fijian children

The following manuscript has been accepted for publication. 

McAlister, H., Hopf, S. C. & McLeod, S. (2022, in press March). Effect of dialect on identification and severity of speech sound disorders in Fijian children. Speech, Language and Hearing. 

Congratulations Holly on the second publication from your honours thesis. Here is the abstract:

Speech sound disorder (SSD), common in preschool and school-age children internationally, is recognised as a potential barrier to oral-language and literacy acquisition, future social and academic success. Fiji is an island nation in the South Pacific with limited access to speech-language pathology services. In Fiji homes, Fijian and Fiji Hindi are spoken widely; however, at school, Fiji English is the dominant language. Given that Fiji English proficiency is aligned to academic success in Fiji, this study sought to investigate the incidence of SSD amongst Fijian children speaking different dialects of Fiji English and the impact of dialect on diagnostic decision-making. The study analysed Fiji English speech samples of 75 Fijian students (Year 1: n=35, age range: 5;3–7;3; Year 4: n=40, age range: 9;0–10;5). Descriptive and non-parametric statistical analysis were conducted to determine patterns of speech sound errors and the impact of conducting relational analysis with an external standard dialect on the identification of SSD. Some Fijian children presented with SSD in Fiji English upon and beyond school entry. However, the impact of dialect on diagnostic decision-making was significant. When Fiji English dialects were the target, instead of Australian English, mean percentage of consonants correct increased 10.20% and 24/26 students initially identified with SSD were reclassified. Speech-language pathologists and other communication specialists need to consider children’s dialect for valid identification of SSD in Fijian children who speak different dialects of Fiji English.

Fijian school students’ Fiji English speech sound acquisition

The following manuscript has just been accepted for publication: McAlister, H., McLeod, S., & Hopf, S. C. (in press). Fijian school students’ Fiji English speech sound acquisition. International Journal of Speech-Language Pathology. 

It is the first publication from Holly McAlister's honours thesis. Congratulations Holly! 

Here is the abstract: 

Purpose: The aim of this study was to investigate Fijian students’ acquisition of Fiji English speech sounds. 

Method: Participants were 72 multilingual students (5-10 years) living in Fiji who spoke the Fijian or Fiji Hindi dialects of Fiji English. The students’ productions of single words from the Diagnostic Evaluation of Articulation and Phonology were analysed according to dialect using the Children’s Independent and Relational Phonological Analysis (CHIRPA) (Baker, 2017). 

Result: Most English consonants were acquired by 6;0. English consonants that were not in the inventories of Fijian or Fiji Hindi were the last acquired, while those that were common between English and the two languages were some of the earlier acquired consonants. Percentage of consonants correct for Fiji English was significantly lower for Grade 1 students (M = 93.01, SD = 0.07) in comparison to Grade 4 students (M = 99.03, SD = 0.01). Plosive and nasal sounds were acquired by 90% of the students earlier than fricative, approximant and affricate sounds, though acquisition of some plosive and fricative sounds varied between Fiji English dialects. All word-initial consonant clusters were acquired by 90% of the students by 9;6, with r-clusters tending to be the latest acquired. The acquisition of word-final consonant clusters was highly variable as students often produced appropriate dialectal variants. 

Conclusion: Multilingual Fijian children may acquire English specific sounds later than their monolingual English-speaking peers. Consideration of the language environment and analysis of the speech sample with reference to the child’s dominant English dialect is imperative for valid identification of SSD in children who speak different dialects of English.

PhD and research students in 2022

I am very fortunate to be working with a cadre of wonderful research students in 2022:

• Van Tran - CSU (PhD)
  
• Marie Ireland - CSU (PhD)
• Kate Margetson - CSU (PhD)
• Belinda Downey - CSU (PhD)
• Holly McAlister - CSU (PhD)
• Sarah Faulks - CSU (Honours)
  
• Anniek van Doornik - Utrecht University, The Netherlands (PhD)
• Caitlin Hurley - University of Western Australia (DClinDent)
• Nguyễn Thị Anh Thủ - Hanoi National University of Education, Viet Nam (PhD)

Belinda Downey (CSU). Supervisors A/Prof Will Letts and Sharynne

Caitlin Hurley (UWA). Supervisors A/Prof Robert Anthonappa and Sharynne

Kate Margetson (CSU). Supervisors Sharynne and A/Prof Sarah Verdon

Marie Ireland (CSU). Supervisors Sharynne and A/Prof Sarah Verdon

Dr Van Tran (CSU). Supervisors Sharynne and A/Prof Sarah Verdon

Sarah Faulks (CSU). Supervisors A/Prof Sarah Verdon, Dr Van Tran and Sharynne

Holly McAlister (CSU). Supervisors Dr Suzanne Hopf and Sharynne

Nguyễn Thị Anh Thủ (HNUE). Supervisors Dr Ben Pham and Sharynne

Honorary Professor (Adjunct) at the University of Technology Sydney

I am honoured that my appointment as Honorary Professor (Adjunct) at the University of Technology Sydney (UTS) will be extended. I look forward to future collaborations with the UTS team. Here is my blogpost from when this position began in 2019 https://speakingmylanguages.blogspot.com/2019/03/adjunct-professor-at-university-of.html

Fellow of the Royal Society of NSW

I have been elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of NSW https://www.royalsoc.org.au

The Royal Society of New South Wales encourages "... studies and investigations in Science, Art, Literature and Philosophy"... Throughout its history, the Society has done much to foster local research, particularly in science, through meetings, symposia, publications and international scientific exchange, and has supported and fostered the endeavours of other organizations dedicated to the furtherance of knowledge.

Thank you to Interim Vice Chancellor John Germov and Professor Christine Slade from CSU who nominated me to become a Fellow. It is such an honour to be amongst such distinguished leaders https://www.royalsoc.org.au/about-us/fellows

The category of Fellow recognises the substantial contribution made by residents of NSW who are leaders in their fields within the disciplines of science, art, literature and philosophy. Proven leaders and experts in their fields are entitled to use the postnominal FRSN.

This is the 200th anniversary of the Royal Society of NSW. The NEXUS Exhibition at the State Library of NSW begins a year of celebrations to mark the Society’s contributions to the intellectual life of NSW over 200 years. 

Here is the list of new members from the August 2021 bulletin: https://www.royalsoc.org.au/submit-bulletin-documents/2021-issues/378-454-august/file

 

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

Speech Pathology Australia Prize for most outstanding academic performance

Holly McAlister just learned that she has been awarded the Speech Pathology Australia Prize by the Faculty of Science at Charles Sturt University for the graduating student with the most outstanding academic performance in the Bachelor course. This is such wonderful news and so well deserved. As part of her studies, Holly completed her honours degree supervised by Dr Suzanne Hopf and myself as co-supervisor. It was a pleasure to work with Holly. Here are some posts about our work with Holly here: https://speakingmylanguages.blogspot.com/search?q=Holly+McAlister&max-results=20&by-date=true

Congratulations Dr Nicole McGill, Dr Anna Cronin and Holly McAlister on your graduation

Today our Charles Sturt University Speech-Language-Multilingualism team held a virtual/simulation graduation for 

• Dr Nicole McGill (PhD) 
• Dr Anna Cronin (PhD) 
• Holly McAlister (BSpLangPath)(Hons) 

from Shepparton, Brisbane, Young, Culcairn, Bathurst, Newcastle, Sydney, Fiji, and Iceland. 

Here is the official CSU list of graduands: https://www.csu.edu.au/current-students/your-course/graduation/graduations-2020

Additionally, Dr Anna Cronin was awarded the Charles Sturt University Higher Degree by Research University Medal for the Faculty of Arts and Education! 

We are so proud of you all. It has been an honour and privilege to be your supervisors: 

• Dr Nicole McGill (PhD) - Prof Sharynne McLeod, Dr Kate Crowe, Dr Suzanne Hopf 
• Dr Anna Cronin (PhD) - Prof Sharynne McLeod, Dr Sarah Verdon 
• Holly McAlister (BSpLangPath)(Hons) - Dr Suzanne Hopf, Prof Sharynne McLeod 

Best wishes as your research changes the world and you begin the next phase of your careers.

The graduation ceremony (complete with as many hats as possible)

Dr Nicole McGill

Dr Anna Cronin

Holly McAlister (BSpLangPath)(Hons)

Dr Sarah Verdon made a CSU gold "mace" for the ceremony