CSU Foundation Day: Blast from the past!

CSU's Foundation Day social media includes a photo of my son and I in 2001 advertising the new speech pathology course at CSU! (Thanks Holly for finding this).

Bathurst speech pathologists' dinner

 It is always such fun to meet with my local Bathurst speech pathologists. Last night we met for dinner at a local restaurant.

 

It was lovely to 

• meet new graduate speech pathologists who have moved to Bathurst from studying at Australian Catholic University
• reconnect with members of the Waiting for Speech Pathology NSW Translational Research Grant team: Emily Davis, Sally Thornton (Dubbo) and Angela Roberts
• meet new babies
• say hello to many friends and hear about what they are doing. 

Waiting for Speech Pathology team: Sharynne, Emily Davis, Sally Thornton, Angela Roberts 

Here are some of the things we created as part of the Waiting for Speech Pathology NSW Translational Research Grant:

Website: https://www.nsw.gov.au/departments-and-agencies/wnswlhd/services/speech-pathology

McLeod, S., Davis, E., Rohr, K., McGill, N., Miller, K., Roberts, A., Thornton, S., Ahio, N., & Ivory, N. (2020). Waiting for speech-language pathology services: A randomised controlled trial comparing therapy, advice and device. International Journal of Speech-Language Pathology, 22(3), 372–386. https://doi.org/10.1080/17549507.2020.1731600 

Sharynne  and Emily Davis

Bathurst speech pathologists (verbal permission was given to include everyone including babies on my blog)

 

Speech pathology screening clinic at OAMS

Today, as part of our RHRI research, Sarah Bartlett, Emily-Jane Woodhead and I (3 speech pathologists) worked alongside Katrina and Tegan from OAMS to run a speech pathology screening clinic for Indigenous families to drop in and yarn about their children's speech, language and communication. We learned a lot and enjoyed yarning with the families and children.

Our students are our future

Yesterday I had the priviledge of meeting two final year speech pathology students who are in the final week of their final placement. One more exam/assessment task to go, then they are speech pathologists. All the best Bridgette Hardman (UTS) and Wanting Lin (Celia) (UC). Thanks to Cathie Matthews and others like her who mentor students during their clinical placements.

Central West Speech Pathologists Day - Bathurst

Today 37 speech pathologists from across the Central West of NSW met for a professional development day organised by Christine Porter from EnhanceABILITY. There were nine presentations from local speech pathologists, including myself. My presentation was titled "Supporting multilingual and multicultural children and families in rural NSW ". 

It was wonderful to connect with friends and previous students. Some people I enjoyed catching up with: 

• Emily-Jane Woodhead who began working today with our team at Charles Sturt University. 
• Sarah Faulks who finished her honours degree at CSU last year and is now working in Parkes. 
• Kristyne Smith who is a very experienced teacher and now a new graduate in Bathurst
• Lydia Parker who is a new graduate in Orange who began last year.
• I was impressed that Kelly and Steph travelled for 3 hours to come from Condobolin for the event.

Christine Porter, Sharynne, Sarah Faulks

2023 Charles Sturt Excellence Award winners

WOW! Today our teams were notified about the 2023 Charles Sturt Excellence Awards

From the Vice Chancellor: "I am excited to announce our 2023 Charles Sturt Excellence Award Winners and Highly Commended are now available to view on RED. Congratulations to this year’s winners and highly commended. Your work has had an outstanding impact on our students, research and the community. We recognise and appreciate your exceptional effort and achievements, which contribute to the success of our University, realisation of our Strategy and living our Values." 

**RESEARCH EXCELLENCE AWARD WINNERS: Early Childhood Interdisciplinary Research Group (ECIR) 

Recognises and celebrates outstanding contributions of individuals and teams who engage in research excellence that contributes to the success of Charles Sturt and drives regional outcomes with global impact. 

Research Winners: Early Childhood Interdisciplinary Research Group (ECIR) 

Names: Sharynne McLeod (Team Lead), Belinda Frieze, Kristen Andrews, Kate Margetson, Belinda Downey, Linda Mahony, Kelly-Ann Tribolet, Laura Delli-Pizzi, Michelle Brown, Olebeng Mahura, Kate Freire, Ben Pham, Carmen Huser, Nicola Ivory, Sheena Elwick, Nicole McGill, Jessamy Davies, Laura Hoffman, Shukla Sikder, Roslyn Cox, Marie Ireland, Lysa Dealtry, Anna Cronin, Jenny Dwyer, Leanne Gibbs, Julian Grant, Sarah Verdon, Audrey Wang, Carolyn Gregoric, Azizur Rahman, Robyn Brunton, Suzanne Hopf, Cheree Dean, Van Tran, Holly Mcalister, Andi Salamon, Sarah Stenson, Kate Crowe, Libbey Murray, Cherie Zischke, Graham Daniel 

What the nomination was for: This nomination is for excellence in research capacity building. ECIR provides an internship model where early career researchers are well supported by more experienced researchers in a wide range of research activities including organising conferences, editing books, writing book chapters, running research projects, analysing data, writing journal articles, and applying for promotion and grants. Members work collaboratively on projects such as the hosting of the Early Childhood Voices Conference (ECV2022), recent submission of an edited book arising from ECV2020 presentations, and analysis of children’s drawings from across the globe. These joint projects develop knowledge, skills and experience for members to pursue their own research interests. 

Why it is Excellence Award worthy: Not only have ECIR members been very research active themselves, but they have created capacity building opportunities for other researchers, within and beyond the team. Members willingly share with each other for the benefit of all and to grow knowledge about early childhood and conducting research, particularly from an interdisciplinary perspective. The group brings together Educators, Speech Pathologists, Psychologists, Computer Scientists, Nurses and Physiotherapists who may not usually research together. Achievements over the past year include journal articles (55 accepted + 16 submitted), conference papers( 59 presented/accepted for presentation +18 conference workshops/seminars etc + 4 submitted), book chapters (29 published/in press + 1 submitted), books (3 published/in press + 1 under contract), and conference proceedings (1 published). They also have a high level of community engagement with 3 events hosted/training delivered, 22 media coverages, 4 media contributions, social media profile, 5 public lectures/presentations, 19 community consultations. Members are well recognised for their achievements with 3 individual and 1 group awards, leadership/membership of professional associations and editorial boards, invited working party and advisory participants. They have had 2 PhD completions and 2 PhD submissions by ECIR members and provide HDR support to 17 students.

 

 

**SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY (HIGHLY COMMENDED): Speech Pathology Team 

Recognises and celebrates individuals and teams who engage regionally and globally to drive positive, bold change to deliver resilient people, sustainable environments and flourishing communities, ensuring the delivery of real and impactful benefits for the wider community.

Names: Suzanne Hopf (Team Lead), Linda Wilson, Cyrena Hunt-Madden, Catherine Easton, Alex Spiller, Laura Hoffman, Lisa Brown, Caitlin Slaney, Marijke Denton, Sharynne McLeod, Chris Plant, Sarah Verdon

Nominees selected for collaborating extensively to support various initiatives, including the development of speech pathology services and university programs in low-middle-income countries such as Vietnam, Cambodia, and Fiji. They have facilitated innovative work-integrated learning solutions for global citizenship skills and local community access to speech pathology services. The team has also contributed to HDR enrolments and Australia Awards scholarships for students from Cambodia, Ghana, and Vietnam. Furthermore, they have published professional association position statements and clinical guidelines for culturally responsive speech pathology practice, and their research impact is evident with over 30 publications and presentations in the last two years.

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.

Bathurst speech pathology dinner

I really enjoy catching up with the Bathurst speech pathologists at their annual (and sometimes more frequent) dinner. The number of speech pathologists in Bathurst continues to grow and it was great to meet the new graduates and student speech pathologist.

 

SPH512 Meet and Greet with Prof Sharynne McLeod

Tonight I was interviewed by Bec Malcolm for the CSU "SPH512 Meet and Greet with Prof Sharynne McLeod". What a great group of people. We ended up chatting for over 90 minutes!

 

Here are the questions they asked in advance: 

SPEECH PATHOLOGY PROFESSION 

• 1. Where do you feel there is the greatest opportunity for influence as the speech pathology profession? 
• 2. It seems that speech pathology is a relatively young (and fast growing) discipline. What are the biggest changes you’ve seen? What do you envisage over the next 10 or 20 years? 
• 3. What is the biggest challenge that speech pathology is currently facing as a profession in your eyes? And how do you think we should look to overcome or address it? 
• 4. You work with and train both teachers and SLPs. Many of us are coming to SLP from an education background. What do you think are the most important things for us to know if that’s us - e.g. any specific challenges that brings etc. 

CHILDREN’S SPEECH TEXTBOOK

• 5. What was/is your vision for how "Children's Speech" is to be used by students and practising speech pathologists? To be read from cover to cover? Using the index to look up certain specific sections? To look up very specific information? Something else? 
• 6. I truly admire your dedication to evidence-based practice and rigor. The Children’s Speech seems like a very thorough textbook. But it was sometimes difficult to see the forest for the trees reading through different conflicting studies, e.g. risk factors for SSDs in ch.1. What is your best advice for students reading these sorts of parts of the book? 
• 7. What do you look for when choosing toys for assessment and intervention tasks? What are some of your favourites? 
• 8. When do you expect the next edition of your text book to be published? 9. What are the key updates you plan on making to the textbook that might be helpful for us to know for our studies now? 

 

Australia’s speech-language pathology profession and its global impact

The following manuscript has been accepted for publication

McLeod, S., McGill, N., Baldac, S., & Mulcair, G. (2023). Australia’s speech-language pathology profession and its global impact. Perspectives of the ASHA Special Interest Groups (SIG 17).  

Here is the abstract 

Purpose: To describe the speech-language pathology profession in Australia and its global impact. 

Conclusion: Australia is known for its international collaboration in research, advocacy, leadership in clinical education and training of the workforce, innovations in technology for service delivery and global partnerships. In Australia, speech-language pathologists are known as speech pathologists who have expertise in providing assessment and intervention to optimise communication and/or swallowing for people across the lifespan. Speech Pathology Australia (SPA) is the peak professional body in Australia and was founded in 1949. It is a self-regulating profession, recognised by the Australian government as the body that sets and maintains the standards for the profession. Members can hold Certified Practising Speech Pathology (CPSP) status if they meet annual recency of practice and continuing professional development requirements. Not all speech pathologists are members of SPA. SPA has approximately 14,000 members, almost half (48.9%) are employed in private practices where services may be funded by government funded schemes, private health insurance, or self-funded by service users. Most (96.5%) SPA members are female and 82.8% only speak English with Cantonese being the most common second language spoken. The Professional Standards for Speech Pathologists in Australia outlines the knowledge, skills and attributes for entry-level and practicing speech pathologists. SPA has hosted an annual national conference and produces two journals: International Journal of Speech-Language Pathology and Journal of Clinical Practice in Speech-Language Pathology. SPA have committed to cultural responsiveness and privileging the voices of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples and Communities, the First Peoples of Australia. SPA has aspired to provide culturally safe speech pathology services for all people and supports the development of speech-language pathology in the Asia-Pacific region including Vietnam and Cambodia.

Wonderful chat with SP2B

This morning I met Lucy Cannon, a "speech pathologist to be" (SP2B), while shopping in Ethik (my favourite store in Jervis Bay - https://ethik.com.au/). We had a great chat about the reason why she chose the course and her aspirations for the future. I'm looking forward to keeping in touch with Lucy.

Sharynne and Lucy

Congratulations to the CSU Speech Pathology Team for winning the Vice Chancellor's CSU Successful Graduates Award

Congratulations to the CSU Speech Pathology Team for winning the Vice Chancellor's CSU Successful Graduates Award 

Charles Sturt University RED Award Successful Graduates: Recognises and celebrates individuals and teams that engage, inspire, motivate, and have made an outstanding and significant contribution to delivering excellence in service to students, alumni, staff, or the wider community. 

Speech Pathology Team, Faculty of Science and Health (Names: Sarah Verdon, Lisa Brown, Marijke Denton, Catherine Easton, Laura Hoffman, Suzanne Hopf, Alex Spiller, Linda Wilson) 

What the nomination was for: The Speech Pathology team are nominated for their development and implementation of the Master of Speech Pathology (MaSP) course. The MaSP is recognised as a world-leading blended online professional training course for speech-language pathologists (SLPs). The MaSP was the first Australian blended online speech pathology (SP) course to be awarded the maximum five-year course accreditation with Speech Pathology Australia, the national governing body for speech pathologists in Australia. Throughout this course the speech pathology team applies the Charles Sturt online learning model (2018) and an evidence-based constructivist approach to learning and teaching to deliver an innovative, high-quality student-centred university experience. Student and community feedback on the MaSP consistently identifies a rewarding and flexible student experience that prepares sought after work-ready graduates. 

Why is it Excellence Award worthy: A 2018 Speech Pathology team research project revealed over 92% of MaSP students chose the Charles Sturt course over other courses because it was offered online, with more than one third of participants stating they would not have attended university at all without this course. MaSP students see benefit in the constructivist pedagogy for their future practice, as indicated by the following student comment: "I've really learned to embrace the style of learning … because I can transfer it to so many other areas that I may not be directly taught about." (Student feedback forum, 20/05/2021). 

The national peak body of the profession, Speech Pathology Australia, acknowledged the strength of the Charles Sturt MaSP course stating: “the flexible and unique online learning offers prospective students an opportunity to commence a new profession. Students strongly advocated for the unique offering of the Masters ‘online’ program” (Speech Pathology Australia, accreditation feedback, 2020).

Speech Pathology Week 2021

22-28 August is Speech Pathology Week 2021. The theme is Communication is everyone's right. https://www.speechpathologyaustralia.org.au/SPAweb/whats_on/Speech_Pathology_Week  

"Speech pathologists work to ensure everyone can communicate with confidence. It is important that the broader community understands that: 

• communication is a basic human right;
• 1.2 million Australians live with communication disability;
• communication disability is largely invisible. Unseen and out-of-sight;
• confident communication helps maximise educational, health and social outcomes; and 
• communication is more than just speech. "

I was interviewed by Speech Pathology Australia for their SPA Week podcast which will be released soon.

 

Keynote address to the Philippine Association of Speech Pathologists

Today I presented a keynote address to the Philippine Association of Speech Pathologists Virtual Convention titled: "EBP Approaches to Assessment and Intervention of Children’s Speech". There were over 330 attendees at the convention.

Here is the abstract: 

Speech pathologists frequently provide assessment and intervention for children with speech sound disorders (SSD) and need to draw on four types of evidence when working with these children and their families: (1) Research evidence (2) Clinical expertise of the speech pathologist (3) Client preferences, values, and circumstances (4) Practice context relating to the setting and client (Hoffman et al., 2013). This presentation will provide recent evidence about children’s speech acquisition, assessment, and intervention regarding children who speak English, as well as many other languages. Free evidence-based resources created by researchers from across the world in over 60 languages will be described https://www.csu.edu.au/research/multilingual-speech

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

Paediatric Professional Pathways Panel 2021: ACU Student Society

Tonight I presented on the Australian Catholic University (ACU) Student Society's Paediatric Professional Pathways Panel 2021. They had 117 students registered from Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane, and Townsville. 

The other presenters were: 

• Dr Hannah Stark 
• Olivia O'Hare 
• Felicity Conlan 

How inspiring to hear four stories that had the same themes: dream big, do your best, put others first, see closed doors as new opportunities...so you can make a difference in the world. 

Congratulations to Aimee Wisnewski, Nicole Romei and the entire ACU SPSSM team on a very professional and fascinating evening. 

 

Presenters and committee members (photo provided by committee)

Some of the attendees (photo provided by committee)

Visiting UQ

While visiting Brisbane I took the opportunity to visit the University of Queensland and catch up with A/Prof Nerina Scarinci, the head of the speech pathology program. It was great to hear about their undergraduate and masters courses as well as their research that includes conjoint appointments with some of the hospitals in Brisbane. I also was able to visit the simulation hospital where students practice with actors before going on clinical placement.

Visiting the simulation clinic with Nerina Scarinci

Elizabeth Usher founded the UQ speech pathology course

Holly's thesis has been submitted

It is always very exciting when a thesis is due for submission. Today Holly McAlister submitted her honours thesis. I have been honoured be Holly's honours co-supervisor (with Dr Suzanne Hopf as primary supervisor). Her thesis is part of her Bachelor of Speech and Language Pathology (Honours) and her thesis is titled: "Fiji English speech sound acquisition and disorders in Fijian children". Best wishes for finalising your thesis and for a great outcome Holly.

SUBMITTED!

Celebrating Speech Pathology Week

This week is Speech Pathology Week. Normally the Bathurst speech pathologists all meet for dinner. This year is not normal - so we met via zoom. It was fascinating to hear of how therapy with children has been via telehealth, telephone, posted home programs, and face-to-face while wearing masks!

The general consensus was:

Therapy via videoconference is better than wearing masks (except when there is no internet)!