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

 

 

Help! How can I support multilingual children? Speech assessment of children’s home language(s) (SACHL)

Today Dr Kate Margetson and I presented a 2-hour invited seminar titled "Help! How can I support multilingual children? Speech assessment of children’s home language(s) (SACHL)" at the Central West Speechies' PD Day in Orange.

Karen Trengove (Learn2Communicate), Dr Kate Margetson (CSU), Prof Sharynne McLeod (CSU), Dr Rebecca Sutherland (The University of Sydney)

Dr Kate Margetson describing data from our research

Dr Kate Margetson describing the SACHL

 

This presentation was a really important day for Kate's postdoctoral research. We have had a 18month grant from the Rural Health Research Institute (RHRI) to consider how speech pathologists can support multilingual children, particularly in rural areas. Kate presented our work on the SACHL:

https://www.csu.edu.au/research/multilingual-speech/speech-assessments/sachl

The attendees both provided a wonderful audience for research translation, but also for providing advice about how to make the SACHL better for all.

Sunflowers = moments of joy in rural Australia

What a joyful day!

RHRI Project 8 meeting and planning in Perth

Our RHRI Project 8 began earlier this year and is progressing very well. We met in Perth on the Sunday before the Speech Pathology Australia National Conference to progress our research to the next stage of data collection. 

We are presenting three papers from our research undertaken as part of this grant:

1. How can I assess children’s speech in a language I do not speak? Insights from VietSpeech research - Kate Margetson and Sharynne McLeod
2. Caregivers’ insights into supporting late talkers using Target Word™ Hanen Program® for parents  - Sarah Bartlett and Sharynne McLeod 
3. Supporting 2-yearold’s communication: Collaborations between rural health professionals and early childhood education services - Cathie Matthews, Sharynne McLeod, et al.

We have arranged a number of meetings to progress our research. Additionally, there are many papers on the conference program that are very relevant to our work - so we are learning a lot.

Emily-Jane, Sharynne and Sarah B discussing our research

RHRI Grant - "Improving access to services for rural children with speech, language and communication needs"

We are so pleased to have been funded by the CSU Rural Health Research Institute (RHRI) for the project titled "Improving access to speech pathology services for rural children with speech, language and communication needs" ($321,832) for 1.5 years. 

Of particular importance in rural areas is the consideration of culturally appropriate and equitable care. There are two groups we are supporting in this grant 

1. CHILDREN: Indigenous, multilingual and multicultural Australian children with speech-language and communication needs. 
2. PROFESSIONALS: The primarily monolingual monocultural speech-language pathology workforce who support multilingual children across NSW (Nancarrow et al., 2023; Verdon et al., 2014). 

Part of this work will be in association with an Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisation who initiated and invited us to work with them on a component of the project. 

AIMS 

1. To understand the prevalence and service requirements of children from a rural Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisation and to design a trial to improve access to speech pathology services that best meets their needs 
2. To equip rural SLPs to work cross-culturally and cross-linguistically, especially in languages they do not speak 

Here is our progress to February 2024 

1. The staff and students have been appointed and have begun. We met virtually in December 2023 to establish the team:

• Prof Sharynne McLeod - Chief Investigator
• Kate Margetson - Postdoctoral Scholar
• Dr Carolyn Gregoric - Postdoctoral Scholar
• Emily-Jane Woodhead - Research Officer
• Sarah Bartlett - PhD student
• Cathie Matthews - Masters' student (supported by the Early Childhood Interdisciplinary Research Sturt Scheme)

2. Ethics applications – Phase 1 has been approved; Phase 2 in progress 

3. Work with Dr Hazel Dalton regarding practice population profiles and data 

4. Submission of manuscript to Q1 journal addressing Indigenous Australian children with speech, language and communication needs 

5. Abstracts accepted for presentation to the Speech Pathology Australia National Conference in Perth, May 2024. 

6. Submission of manuscript to Q1 journal addressing pilot research testing Target Word as a service model 

Early identification of communication delay by health and education professionals in rural Australia

Today Cathie Matthews and I had a productive day working on her Masters' thesis. We were working on a paper titled "Early identification of communication delay by health and education professionals in rural Australia". Her mixed methods study sought to assess the feasibility of the Early Communication Measures to identify communication risk in 48 2-year-old children by eight early childhood educators, eight child and family health nurses, and 48 caregivers.

While we were working we learned that her abstract was accepted for presentation at the upcoming Speech Pathology Australia National Conference in Perth in May 2024. Congratulations Cathie.

Equitable Access to Speech Practice for Rural Australian Children Using the SayBananas! Mobile Game

Today the following manuscript was acceptted for publication: 

McLeod, S., Kelly, G., Ahmed, B. & Ballard, K. (2023, in press). Equitable access to speech practice for rural Australian children using the SayBananas! mobile game. International Journal of Speech-Language Pathology. 

Here is the abstract 

Purpose. To evaluate the effect, usage, and user-experience for SayBananas!, a Mario-style mobile game providing Australian children access to high-dose individualised speech therapy practice. 

Method. Participants were 45 rural Australian children with speech sound disorders (SSD) (4;4-10;5 years) with internet access. This mixed-methods study involved: (1) recruitment, (2) eligibility screening, (3) questionnaire, (4) online pre-assessment, (5) SayBananas! intervention using motor learning principles (4 weeks, 10–15 target words) (6) online post-assessment and interview. Usage and performance were automatically monitored. 

Result. Most participants were highly engaged with SayBananas! completing a median of 44.71 trials/session (~45% of the 100 trial/session target, range 7-194). After intervention, participants made significant gains on treated words and on formal assessment of percentage of consonants, vowels, and phonemes correct. There was no reliable change for parent-rated intelligibility or children’s feelings about talking. The number of practice sessions was significantly correlated with percent change on treated words. On average, children rated the app as “happy/good/fun” providing detailed drawings of playing SayBananas!. Families provided high ratings of engagement, functionality, aesthetics, and quality. 

Conclusion. SayBananas! is a viable and engaging solution for rural Australian children with SSD to gain access to equitable, cost-effective speech practice. The amount of app use was associated with amount of speech production improvement over a 4-week period.

In the news: App research helps speech therapy for rural Australian children

It is Speech Pathology Australia Week and the theme is "Good communication builds better communities". CSU has published the following media release: App research helps speech therapy for rural Australian children

https://news.csu.edu.au/latest-news/app-research-helps-speech-therapy-for-rural-australian-children

Ethics approval received to start research with "Say Bananas"

Last week we received ethics approval from Charles Sturt Universtity to commence our research to share the Say Bananas app with children in rural NSW. Grace Kelly gave a presentation about the research to speech pathologists in non-government settings in Orange. Now we have our first participant ready to begin.

Grace Kelly presenting to the speech pathologists in Orange

For more information email gkelly@csu.edu.au, and information about the research project about Say66 and the Say Bananas app is available on social media: 

• YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Unh1uKJWwA&t=5s 
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/UCanSay66 
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ucansay66/ 
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/say66

Impromptu professional development in Balranald

Today while I was in Balranald (which is over a 7 hour drive from my home) I happened to meet Emelia Bett (the local speech pathologist) and Kellie Hodgson (her aide). We had an enjoyable time discussing some of the children that they are working with and brainstorming ideas for their speech intervention. It is so great to see speech pathology in rural schools in NSW - something that is not common in my state.

Emelia Bett, Kellie Hodgson and Sharynne

Visiting Broken Hill University Department of Rural Health

Today I spent time at the Broken Hill University Department of Rural Health. I had lunch with the La Trobe University speech pathology students who are on their final year placement working in schools throughout the region (thanks for organising lunch Sarah and Alisha). I enjoyed meeting this enthusiastic group of students and discussing their placements, rural practice, and international research. I also had the opportunity to meet with Claire Brunero (Speech Pathology Academic), Dr Debra Jones (Director or Primary Health Care) and Professor David Lyle (Head of Department of Rural Health). It was great to hear their passion and advocacy for rural health.

La Trobe University speech pathology students

Prof David Lyle, Dr Debra Jones, Prof Sharynne McLeod