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

VietSpeech writing retreat #3 for 2021

We are so close to the end of our Australian Research Council Discovery Grant (VietSPeech). We have set aside another week to work on finishing 8 journal articles and putting our VietSpeech workbook online so that people can access it. We are excited about another busy week.

Special issue of International Jounal of Speech-Language Pathology special issue on SDGs

A call has been extended throughout the world for expressions of interest for papers to be considered for a special issue of the International Jounal of Speech-Language Pathology (IJSLP) focussing on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). 

https://speechpathologyaustralia.cld.bz/IJSLP-special-edition-EOI

Special issue title: Communication, Swallowing, and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

 Journal: International Journal of Speech-Language Pathology (http://www.tandfonline.com/toc/iasl20/current)

Guest Editors: Professor Sharynne McLeod, Charles Sturt University, Australia Professor Julie Marshall, Manchester Metropolitan University, UK 

Expressions of interest due Monday 13 December, 2021 to Sharynne McLeod (smcleod@csu.edu.au)

The United Nations’ 17 Sustainable Development Goals (https://sdgs.un.org/goals) “provides a shared blueprint for peace and prosperity for people and the planet, now and into the future… In order to make the 2030 Agenda a reality, broad ownership of the SDGs must translate into a strong commitment by all stakeholders to implement the global goals.” (UN, 2015).

Each of the 17 SDGs impacts the world’s citizens, including people with speech, language and communication needs, people with dysphagia, and those who work with them (e.g., speech-language pathologists, audiologists, psychologists, teachers, doctors, lawyers). The International Journal of Speech-Language Pathology will join the world to work with the United Nations to implement the SDGs by publishing this special issue, acknowledging that communication and swallowing are important for “peace and prosperity for people and the planet (UN, 2015)”

This special issue of the International Journal of Speech-Language Pathology will include 2,500-3,000 word commentary articles/ essays that address at least one SDG and its relationship to people who experience communication and swallowing disability. Commentaries must be supported by (a) new evidence and/or (b) evidence-based literature and will be peer-reviewed. Commentaries can be broad ranging, describing the relevance of the SDG to this field, or provide an overview of work with a specific intervention, country or population.

Expressions of interest are sought from authors across the world in a variety of disciplines. Commentaries are encouraged from people who live and work in Majority World countries (including low and middle-income countries and small island states) and people who have lived experience of communication and / or swallowing disability. The aim is to cover EVERY SDG – so be creative.

Expressions of interest are due Monday 13 December 2021 and should include: 

1. Proposed title (the title should include the acronym “SDG”) 
2. The SDG number(s) that will be the focus of the commentary (e.g., SDG8) (https://sdgs.un.org/goals). You may also like to include the relevant SDG target and indicator, but this is not essential (an example is provided below). 
3. Contact author’s name, institution, country, email address 
4. Additional author(s) names, institutions, countries, email addresses (if appropriate) 
5. Proposed type of manuscript: commentary containing (a) new evidence and/or (b) evidence-based literature (2,500-3,000 words) 6
6. Proposed abstract. The abstract should be approximately 200 words. State the primary objective of your commentary; your focus (broad ranging, or an overview of work with a specific intervention, country or population), your main outcomes and results; and conclusions that might be drawn, including their implications for further research or application/practice. 
7. A statement to indicate that you will be able to submit the manuscript by April 30, 2022 and revisions to the manuscript (after peer review) by June 2022.

People who submit an expression of interest will hear the outcome by the end of January 2022. If accepted to write a full paper, the requirements are: 1. Commentary papers should be 2,500-3,000 words. Word lengths include the title, abstract, references, tables, figures, appendices and references. 2. The manuscript should use IJSLP formatting and American Psychological Association referencing (http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals/authors/healthcare/iasl.pdf) 3. The manuscript should be submitted to https://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/tasl

 

CSU Professorial Promotions Committee

I have just finished reviewing a large number of applications for the CSU Professorial Promotions Committee that is meeting next week. Almost every application had over 60 pages of evidence. It has been a huge, but very fascinating task. There are many extremely impressive people at CSU!

CSU Faculty of Arts and Education - Altitude Series - Invited Presentation

Today was the first presentation in the CSU Faculty of Arts and Education - Altitude Series to inspire high quality research reaching into the stratosphere.

Our VietSpeech team were invited to talk about "ARC Grant Success Stories" and described the journey of from our first work in Vietnam in 2011 through to gaining the ARC grant in 2018 and what we have achieved over the past almost 4 years. It was wonderful to remember where the work began and to celebrate our achievements and impact.

SLM Ice Cream Social across the world's timezones

Our SLM team were inspired by an event advertised by ASHA and have decided to make it our own ... so we are having out inaugural SLM team Ice Cream Social!! Here is Dr Kate Crowe's invitation:

Whether you like your ice cream cow-based or plant-based, soft-serve or scoop, chocolate or strawberry, heavily sprinkled or sprinkle free please organise a scoop of your favourite iced dessert and join us for a catch up. The global distribution of our group does make the logistics a little challenging, but I think the best time is: 

• 10pm Fiji 
• 8pm Sydney 
• 5pm Vietnam 
• 12pm Germany 
• 10am Iceland 
• 6am Eastern US 

You can checkout the other options here: https://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/meetingtime.html?iso=20210901&p1=82&p2=240&p3=95&p4=37&p5=211&p6=263 (spoiler alert ... none of them are great!). 

Marie may have to eat ice cream for breakfast, but it is for the greater good. Franklin and Sadie are especially welcome! 

Here is my response: 

Dear Kate, Jess has analysed the moral choices about the time zones based on what she is reading for her MPhil Theory of Justice (Rawls). (1) Utilitarian = based on greatest good for greatest number of people (most people have pm timeslots for icecream) (Tate; Mills) (2) Rights-based liberalist approach = choose someone who is “least advantaged” and develop times based around that (Rawls). I like your timezones whatever theory you used. Please send a zoom invite to us all Regards Sharynne

We managed to meet on 3rd September in Iceland, Vietnam and Australia. We discussed family, life, COVID-19 restrictions, and how members of the team are in the Polyglot Club. This year Kate C is studying Danish (in addition to speaking Icelandic and English) and Ben is studying Chinese and German (in addition to speaking Vietnamese and English).

Icecream with Kate C in Iceland

Kate C in Iceland, Ben in Vietnam, and Sharynne and Kate M in Australia

Belinda's PhD - Writing results and discussion chapters

 Belinda is on a roll writing her results and discussion chapters. It has been helpful to work on her Table of Contents for these chapters and outline all of the headings. Now she is filling in the text and doing great work :)

Belinda Downey, Sharynne, Tamara Cumming, Will Letts

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.

Book chapter in press "Supporting the communication of underserved children in Viet Nam"

The following book chapter was just accepted for publication:

Supporting the communication of underserved children in Viet Nam 

Ben Phạm, Sharynne McLeod, Sarah Verdon, Kate Margetson, and Van H. Tran 

The purpose of this chapter is to provide a case study of work undertaken in Viet Nam to support underserved children with communication disabilities. This chapter focusses on collaborations between Viet Nam, Australia, and other countries to support children with communication disorders and to nurture the developing speech and language therapy profession in Viet Nam. The chapter also profiles research and initiatives that have focussed on understanding children’s speech and language acquisition to develop culturally and linguistically appropriate assessments and resources to support intervention. Childhood communication disorders include difficulties with speech, language, hearing, communication and/or literacy.

The title of the book is: Improving Care for Marginalized and Underserved Populations with Communication Disorders and the International Association of Communication Sciences and Disorders (IALP) is currently finalising the publisher.

Congratulations Dr Van Tran on your second PhD submission

Today Dr Van Tran submitted her second PhD. Her thesis is titled: “Home language maintenance among Vietnamese-Australian families”. It was submitted as four journal articles and an exegesis. Her PhD scholarship was from Charles Sturt University and she was part of our Australian Research Council Discovery Grant: VietSpeech (DP180102848).

Van was in COVID-19 lockdown in Sydney and was cheered on by her family (in Sydney and Vietnam), her supervisory team (myself in Bathurst, Dr Sarah Verdon in Albury, Dr Audrey Wang in Bathurst), members of the Speech-Language-Multilingualism team (in Shepparton, Sydney, Newcastle, Fiji, Vietnam, Brisbane, Young, Newcastle and Iceland), and friends (in Sydney) and received congratulatory messages from across the world (Sydney, Albury, Germany, The Netherlands, and US).  Congratulations Van and best wishes for your examination!

Congratulations Van from around the world!

Here is Van’s abstract: 

Home language maintenance is of importance in culturally and linguistically diverse societies including Australia, where more than 300 languages are spoken and over one-fifth of the population speak a language other than English at home. While home language maintenance is associated with academic, social, cultural, and economic benefits for both individuals and societies, it can be a challenge for multilingual families due to child, parent, community, and society level factors. 

Underpinned by Spolsky’s language policy theory, which comprises language practices, language ideologies, and language management, the purpose of this mixed methods research is to explore home language maintenance among Vietnamese-Australian families. To achieve this purpose, this study aims to explore how factors related to demographics, language practices, language ideologies, and language management are associated with: (1) Vietnamese-Australian children’s proficiency and use in Vietnamese and English, (2) Vietnamese-Australian parents’ language use with their child and in social situations and their attitudes towards home language maintenance, and (3) Vietnamese-Australian parents having language policies. Additionally, it aims to: (4) describe Vietnamese-Australian families’ language policies in relation to home language maintenance, and (5) explore successful experience of home language maintenance among Vietnamese-Australian families. 

To achieve these aims, data were collected from a questionnaire completed by 151 Vietnamese-Australian families and a focus group discussion with seven parents from five families. All the families had children under 18 years of age. Survey data were analysed using Pearson’s correlation, analysis of variance (ANOVA), and multiple regression models. An inductive thematic analysis using NVivo was applied to the focus group discussion to explore successful home language maintenance. 

The results from these analyses were presented in three published papers and one submitted paper. The first paper highlights that children’s home language maintenance does not negatively impact English proficiency and is significantly dependent on parents’ language use and attitudes towards home language maintenance. The second paper indicates that parents’ language use with their children is positively linked to their language use in social situations. This in turn is higher when parents are younger, have higher Vietnamese and lower English proficiency, and attend community events more frequently. Parents’ attitudes towards home language maintenance correlate with their perceptions of cultural identity, beliefs in the importance of English maintenance and in the benefits of home language maintenance, and their age. The third paper highlights that only a third of the families had a family language policy. Having a family language policy is associated with parents’ Vietnamese proficiency, parents’ language use with children, and their intention of future residence in Vietnam. The fourth paper concludes with an in-depth investigation of families’ successful experiences of home language maintenance. It presents parents’ motivations, challenges, practices and strategies, and recommendations for support in home language maintenance. 

This PhD research found that home language maintenance is dependent on parents’ efforts including persistent language input, positive attitudes towards home language maintenance, and consistent reinforcement of a family language policy. The research also highlights parents’ desire for the inclusion of home language maintenance in formal education. This research is expected to raise public awareness of the importance of home language maintenance, promote multilingualism, and support multilingual families in Australia and around the world. 

The following papers are in Van's PhD

1. Tran, V. H., Wang, C., McLeod, S., & Verdon, S. (in press). Vietnamese-Australian children’s language proficiency and use. International Journal of Bilingualism. 
2. Tran, V. H., McLeod, S., Verdon, S., & Wang, C. (2021). Vietnamese-Australian parents: Factors associated with language use and attitudes towards home language maintenance. Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1080/01434632.2021.1904963
3. Tran, V. H., Verdon, S., McLeod, S., & Wang, C. (in press). Family language policies of Vietnamese-Australian families. Journal of Child Science. 
4. Tran, V. H., Verdon, S., & McLeod, S. (2021). Consistent and persistent: Successful home language maintenance among Vietnamese-Australian families. [Manuscript submitted for publication]. School of Education, Charles Sturt University. 

Here are other publications she has co-authored during her PhD (more to come)

1. Wang, C., Verdon, S., McLeod, S., & Tran, V. H. (2021). Profiles of linguistic multicompetence in Vietnamese-English speakers. American Journal of Speech-Language Pathology, 30(4), 1711-1727. https://doi.org/doi:10.1044/2021_AJSLP-20-00296 
2. McLeod, S., Margetson, K., Wang, C., Tran, V. H., Verdon, S., White, K., & Phạm, B. (2021). Speech acquisition within a 3-generation Vietnamese-English family: The influence of maturation and ambient phonology. Clinical Linguistics and Phonetics. Advance online publication https://doi.org/10.1080/02699206.2020.1862915 
3. McLeod, S., Verdon, S., Wang, C., & Tran, V. H. (2019). Language proficiency, use, and maintenance among people with Vietnamese heritage living in Australia. Journal of Monolingual and Bilingual Speech, 1(1), 55–79. https://doi.org/10.1558/jmbs.10973

Masters students each have submitted a draft of their whole thesis - congratulations

I am very proud of Van and Hang who have recently submitted a draft of their whole thesis. It is such a pleasure to co-supervise these students with Dr Ben Pham from Ha Noi National University of Education.

Here is our first blogpost this year: https://speakingmylanguages.blogspot.com/2020/02/supervising-masters-students-in-viet-nam.html

Waiting list management: Professionals’ perspectives and innovations

The following paper was accepted for publication today. It is the final paper to be accepted from Dr Nicole's PhD:

McGill, N., McLeod, S., & Hopf, S. C. (2021, in press August). Waiting list management: Professionals’ perspectives and innovations. Advances in Communication and Swallowing.

Here is the abstract:

BACKGROUND: Waiting lists for speech and language therapy exist when services do not meet demand. Waiting lists pose practical and ethical challenges for speech and language therapists (SLTs) and workplaces to manage, with potential flow on effects for children and families. 

OBJECTIVE: The present study aimed to describe SLTs’ perspectives about waiting lists for children with speech, language, and communication needs (SLCN) and explore waiting list management strategies. 

METHODS: The present study reports on 187 SLTs’ written responses to open-ended questions in a questionnaire. SLTs were from nine countries, had an average of 12 years’ experience in the profession (range 0.2-45 years), and either currently or had previously worked with children. Data were analysed qualitatively using thematic analysis. 

RESULTS: SLTs’ feelings about their waiting lists centred on three themes: (1) negative (e.g., “overwhelmed”, “stressed”, “anxious”, “embarrassed”); (2) neutral (e.g., “not too bad”, “okay”); and (3) positive (e.g., “manageable”, “proud”). Four themes related to waiting list management: (1) SLT service delivery (e.g., triage, use of technology in service provision); (2) workplace processes and policies (e.g., eligibility criteria, prioritisation); (3) SLT workforce actions (e.g., recruitment and retention of skilled SLTs); and (4) inaction (e.g., waiting list management was “out of my hands”). 

CONCLUSIONS: Waiting lists can have negative consequences and many SLTs take action to manage waiting lists; however, waiting list management strategies are not necessarily effective which can impact children’s outcomes. There is a need to reimagine service delivery and identify effective actions for managing speech and language therapy waiting lists at a local and systemic level in order to optimise outcomes for children and families.

Masters students at Ho Chi Minh Medical and Pharmacy University, Viet Nam

My Masters students at Ho Chi Minh Medical and Pharmacy University, Viet Nam (Nguyễn Thị Hằng and Phạm Thị Vấn) are doing really well. They have just submitted a draft of their literature review, method and results. I really enjoy working with Dr Ben Phạm who is their primary supervisor. They are aiming to submit on 20th August - so they are nearing completion.

Podcast for Up and Coming Speechies

Recently I was interviewed by Hannah McKerral and Sienna McCormack, two up and coming speech pathologists for their podcast. The resulting 27 minute interview is here: https://podcasts.apple.com/au/podcast/in-the-loop-professor-sharynne-mcleod/id1528880071?i=1000529636429

They certainly asked some interesting questions - and I have enjoyed listening to their other podcasts exploring the lives of Australian speech pathologists. Here is their abstract:

In today’s Up + Coming Speechies in the loop episode, we are SO excited to be chatting to Professor Sharynne McLeod. Sharynne is a professor of speech and language acquisition, researcher and advocate for communication rights for all. She specialises in multilingual children’s speech acquisition and children with speech sound disorders. She has made an incredible contribution to our profession, and after learning from her books and research for many years it was an honour to sit down and chat with her. In this episode we talk about Sharynne’s career pathway, her research and incredible experiences, including presenting to the United Nations and her most current projects. This episode was a quick and speedy one, but we absolutely loved hearing about Sharynne's rich experiences and hope you do too! If this is your first time checking us out, hellooo!!! Thanks so much for listening! We are Sienna and Hannah, two Australian Speech Pathology students wanting to help educate, motivate and inspire other speech students, recent graduates or even someone thinking about studying Speech Pathology through student-friendly interview episodes. If you want to learn more about us and the direction of this podcast you can do so here. Or you can check out our most recent episode with just the two of us here! In this episode catch up after our brief hiatus, talk all about final year, beginning a new semester, placement tips n trick, speech pathology assistant work and hear from our brand new speechie hotline!! We also share some big announcements, so get listening so you know what's coming!

PhD supervision at Ulster University

It was an honour to support Natalie Hegarty at Ulster University to complete her PhD and generate these wonderful publications and resources to support speech and language therapists as they work with children with speech sound disorders:

• Thesis: https://pure.ulster.ac.uk/en/publications/supporting-and-understanding-speech-sound-disorder-sussd 
• SuSSD Website: https://pure.ulster.ac.uk/en/publications/supporting-and-understanding-speech-sound-disorder-sussd 
• Articles: https://pure.ulster.ac.uk/en/publications/intervention-for-children-with-phonological-impairment-knowledge- 
• https://pure.ulster.ac.uk/en/publications/a-qualitative-exploration-of-speech-language-pathologists-interve

Balancing struggle and hope in early childhood education

Belinda Downey, Sharynne, Will Letts, Tamara Cumming

Belinda Downey is writing up her PhD on the topic of balancing struggle and hope in early childhood education supported by her supervisor A/Prof Will Letts, Dr Tamara Cumming and myself.

Kate M's first PhD meeting

It was a pleasure to meet with Kate Margetson in her new role as part-time PhD student. Kate will be supervised by Dr Sarah Verdon and myself. She has been our amazing project officer on the VietSpeech project over the past 2 years, and will continue in this role when she returns from parent leave. Welcome Kate, we look forward to the important work you will undertake and share with the world as part of your PhD.

Kate Margetson's first PhD meeting - with her supervisors Sharynne and Sarah - and Van Tran popped in to wish her well

ABC News: Chronic shortage of speech therapists

Last week ABC News published the following article that included the reserach from Dr Nicole McGill's PhD: Chronic shortage of speech therapists: Children with language delays at risk academically, socially https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-07-16/lengthy-speech-therapy-waitlists-leave-children-vulnerable/100292818 

Nicole was then quoted and interviewed on ABC Regional Riff  (broadcast throughout Victoria) along with SPA’s president Tim Kittel. Nicole's segment on the Regional Riff starts at 48:00 minutes. https://www.abc.net.au/radio/goulburnmurray/programs/breakfast/breakfast/13442194 

Congratulations Nicole! It is wonderful that your important messages are being broadcast across Australia.

 

Pomodoro writing technique

My students and colleagues frequently use the pomodoro writing technique https://pomofocus.io/ . Today was the first time I had used it - and it was great. Thanks Belinda and Tamara Cumming for being writing buddies. I was so surprised at how long writing takes! 

SciVal Library Guide

 My research has been profiled on the CSU SciVal Library Guide. https://libguides.csu.edu.au/impact/SciVal

• SciVal - How to access SciVal (5.05 minutes) 

• SciVal - How to access a module and how to define a researcher, as well as how to create a group of researchers(7.12 minutes) 

• SciVal - Looking at an individual profile (5.05 minutes) 

• SciVal - Benchmarking Module (5.45 minutes) https://doms.csu.edu.au/csu/items/402ce2f2-979d-4d73-8370-a5258f8c2610/1/

In the Benchmarking module is interesting to see the importance of the Field weighted citation average for my data compared to Geoff Gurr's citation average (as he publishes in a science field).