Today Sarah Bartlett, Holly McAlister and I spent an hour looking at the formula for writing their final PhD chapters (then they write their first PhD chapter).
I always ask my students to print the work they have written and read it in hard copy before summarizing it in their final chapter. We were very impressed with Sarah's large pile of double-sided printing!
Congratulations Cathie Matthews who submitted her Masters of Philosophy thesis today. Her thesis is titled "Supporting 2-year-olds’ communication : Collaborations between caregivers, early childhood educators, and health professionals in rural Australia". What a huge achievement! Cathie's research was supervised by myself, Julian Grant and Libbey Murray.
Congratulations to Anniek Van Doornik, my PhD student at Utrecht University in The Netherlands, who has just had this paper from her PhD accepted for publication:
Van Doornik, A., Welbie, M., McLeod, S., & Gerrits, E., Terband, H. (2025, in press). Speech and language therapists' insights into severity of speech sound disorders in children for developing the Speech Sound Disorder Severity Construct. International Journal of Language and Communication Disorders.
Abstract
Background: Children with speech sound disorders (SSD) are at higher risk of communication breakdown, but the impact of having an SSD may vary from child to child. Determining severity of SSD helps SLTs to recognise the extent of the problem and to identify and prioritise children who require intervention.
Aims: This study aimed to identify severity factors for SSD in order to develop a multifactorial Speech Sound Disorder Severity Construct (SSDSC) using speech-language therapists’ (SLTs’) views and the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF).
Method: In an explorative five-staged qualitative study, the research question was answered: “How do SLTs determine the severity of speech sound disorders in children?”. A total of 91 SLTs from the Netherlands participated in data collection and analysis. The iterative process included three different qualitative research methodologies (thematic analysis, constructivist grounded theory and content analysis) to ensure validation of the results by means of method triangulation.
Results: SLTs considered 9 themes: intelligibility, speech accuracy, persistence, the child’s perception, impact, communicative participation, concomitant factors, professional point of view, and environmental factors. The themes were summarised in three main severity factors: (I) Speech accuracy, (II) The child’s perception of the impact of their speech, and (III) Intelligibility in communication. Other severity factors were concomitant factors and impact. Expertise and support were identified as facilitators or barriers that may worsen or relieve the severity of SSD.
Conclusions: This study highlights the need for SLTs to rethink how they think about severity as a simplistic construct reflecting only speech accuracy. It is recommended that a broader holistic approach to measuring severity is adopted.
What this paper adds:
What is already known on the subject
Although there are several proposals aiming to define the severity of SSD, the extent to which these align with clinical practice is not well understood. In recent years, speech accuracy and other factors such as intelligibility have been suggested as possible indicators of SSD severity. Flipsen et al (2005) concluded that experienced clinicians evaluated the number, type and consistency of speech errors as well as intelligibility, considering articulatory competence at both the segmental and whole word level when determining severity. Enderby and John (2015) developed ICF-based Therapy Outcome Measures (TOMs), including a TOM for phonological disorder. Although there is evidence in the literature that multiple factors should be considered when determining severity, there is still no clear guidance on this. In this discussion, the perspective of SLTs is an important contribution to the development of a measure of severity, but is lacking in the known literature.What this paper adds to existing knowledge
As a first step, this study examines SLT’s perspectives on how they define and measure severity of SSD, and determines how those views align with the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF) in order to develop a severity construct that can be further tested and validated. Using the views of SLTs and the ICF, this qualitative study resulted in the multifactorial Speech Sound Disorder Severity Construct (SSDSC).What are the potential or actual clinical implications of this work?
The practical experience of SLTs, combined with what is known from the literature, provides insight into the different factors that may contribute to severity of SSD. These factors may be considered in developing a measure of SSD severity in the future.
Congratulations to my research students who have graduated during 2024.
Due to CSU changing the graduation ceremony dates - they clashed with my previously organised international travel - so I was unable to attend their graduations ceremonies. So, over the past few weeks, I was able to borrow academic gowns and celebrate in person.
Congratulations!
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| Dr. Marie Ireland (celebrating at ASHA 2024) |
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| Sarah Bartlett - Graduate Certificate in Research |
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| Celebrating at The Treehouse during ECV2024 |
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| Dr Kate Margetson |
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| Dr Belinda Downey |
My postdoc, PhD and Masters students are working hard. There are so many small steps to completing a higher degree - and it is an honour to walk alongside them.
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| Holly McAlister: PhD supervisors Dr Suzanne Hopf and Prof Sharynne McLeod |
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| Cathie Matthews: Masters supervisors - Sharynne McLeod, Julian Grant, Libbey Murray |
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| Kate Margetson: Postdoc supervisor: Sharynne McLeod |
Congratulations to Caitlin Hurley who is submitting her thesis titled "The impact of maxillary incisor extractions on children's speech" for her Doctorate of Clinical Dentistry (Paediatric Dentistry)(DClinDent) at the University of Western Australia tomorrow. She will be sharing her work with the following examiners: Prof Nicola Innes (Cardiff), Prof Nigel King (Hong Kong Kong, SAR China), and AProf John Winters (Perth Childrens Hospital, WA). It has a pleasure to be her associate supervisor and to support her important research.
During 2023 I have been learning to play the Bathurst War Memorial Carillon. My teacher is Lyn Fuller AM, President of the Carillon Society of Australia. On Saturday 4th November, Lyn, Katherine Howarth and I played two trios for the Bathurst community during the 90th anniversary celebrations of the Bathurst Carillon and the Carillon Society of Australia Annual Meeting.
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| Katherine, Sharynne and Lyn following their performance |
I am co-supervising Caitlin Hurley's research for her Doctorate of Clinical Dentistry that she is undertaking at the University of Western Australia. Over the past two months we have worked together in three countries: Australia, Austria and New Zealand.
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| Analysing speech data at The University of Auckland, NZ |
Marie Ireland and I have come to Iceland to visit Dr Kate Crowe so that three of four of the team can be together for Marie's PhD submission (Dr Sarah Verdon is in Australia). We had to drive past a few magnificent waterfalls on the way to submission. We fixed a few punctuation marks and page formatting at Gullfoss while drinking hot chocolate, then had celebratory dinner before heading to our colleague's summer house for the submission event - coordinated with people win the US and Australia.
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| Marie with supervisors Sharynne and Kate at Thingvellir |
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| Marie with excited supervisors Sharynne and Kate at Gullfoss |
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| Celebratory dinner |
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| Checking submission status in the north of Iceland |
It was such a surprise to receive the Morita Prize for research at the 29th IAPD congress in Maastricht yesterday. The congress is the largest meeting of paediatric dentistry and was attended by over 1200 delegates representing over 78 countries! They had received over 500 abstracts, and so I was already honoured to have my poster selected to be one of around 30 to be considered for this prize. During the presentation the judges were very interested in the IPA transcription on the poster, and also asked me what's next... we will see! This award really does mean a lot to me, and I know that without yourself and Robert this would not have been possible. I've attached a photo from the opening ceremony, and another with Prof Figen Seymen, the incoming president of the association who presented the award.
Today, School of Education PhD student Kate Margetson presented her PhD research proposal at an Endorsement of Candidature session.
Kate’s thesis title is: Supporting English-Speaking Professionals to Work with Bilingual Vietnamese-English-Speaking Children. Her study is supervised by Professor Sharynne McLeod and Associate Professor Sarah Verdon
Proposal Abstract: Culturally responsive practice that values multilingualism is needed for education and health professionals to provide equitable service to multilingual children and their families. Extensive studies have identified that professionals lack knowledge and skills for assessing multilingual children’s speech, especially when they do not speak the same languages. While assessing children in all the languages that they speak is recommended, often professionals rely on English assessments. There are no guidelines for how professionals can transcribe multilingual children’s speech, which likely contributes to speech sound disorders being under- or over-diagnosed in multilingual children. The proposed research aims to investigate how English-speaking professionals can assess and diagnose speech sound disorders in bilingual Vietnamese-English-speaking children, using a mixed methods research design. A research protocol for multilingual speech transcription will be designed and tested with Vietnamese-English-speaking children and adults. Speech profiles of bilingual Vietnamese-English-speaking children will be used to explore the interaction between Vietnamese and English, the impact of ambient phonology on acquisition, characteristics of typical acquisition versus speech sound disorder, and the subsequent importance of assessing both Vietnamese and English. An implementation science approach will be adopted to develop and test an online tool for professionals to learn how to assess and transcribe children’s speech in Vietnamese. This body of work seeks to bridge the gap between research and practice by equipping professionals with practical guidelines and transcription skills so that they can provide a culturally responsive, equitable service when assessing multilingual children’s speech.
Congratulations Kate!
Today was our first official meeting with Cathie Matthews as she is finalising her paperwork to undertake a Masters of Philosophy at Charles Sturt University. She will be supervised by Prof Julian Grant, Dr Libbey Murray and myself. Cathie and I have been working together throughout the year preparing a reserach project as part of NSW Health - she will now be supported in her research via the Masters program. Welcome Cathie!
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| Prof Julian Grant, Cathie Matthews, Libbey Murray and Sharynne McLeod |
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.
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| A/Prof Sarah Verdon, Prof Sharynne McLeod, Sarah Faulks, Dr Van Tran |
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.
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| Sharynne and Lucy |
This morning I received the following email thanking me and my 20 Australian colleagues for our contribution to teaching the first 14 Masters graduates of the Speech and Language Therapy course in Vietnam. The course was undertaken at the University of Medicine and Pharmacy in Ho Chi Minh City (UMP HCMC), Vietnam.
Dear international SALT lecturers, mentors, clinical supervisors, thesis research supervisors,
I am Mrs. Nguyen Thi Thanh Thuy and I work as a Program Coordinator for my organization, MCNV, and in charge of the SALT Education Development Project in partnership with TFA since 2017. Under this project, the first Master of SALT course was implemented with 14 students at the University of Medicine and Pharmacy in Ho Chi Minh city (UMP HCMC), Vietnam. The 14 MSALT students have finished their training program and will be awarded with degrees at the end of April 2022. To come to this point of achievement, your contribution in the forms of lecturing, mentoring, clinical supervision, thesis research supervision has been invaluable.
To celebrate the completion of the first MSALT course and to congratulate the MSALT students on their graduation, MCNV and UMP HCMC will jointly organize a WORKSHOP on SHARING FINDINGS FROM SOME RESEARCH ON SPEECH AND LANGUAGE THERAPY IN VIETNAM. On behalf of MCNV, I would like to send this email to invite you to join the Workshop online.
Yours Sincerely,
Nguyen Thi Thanh Thuy, M.Phil Coordinator Disability Program- MCNV Vietnam A: E3 Trung Tu Diplomatic Compound 6 Dang Van Ngu Str, Ha Noi City T: (+84) 24 3835 9005/ ext 25 M: +84 (0) 986607351 W: mcnv.org FB: MCNV
One of the joys of attending the Aphasia Camp was meeting the students and speech pathologists who volunteered their time to support the people with aphasia. At the end of the camp each student was presented with a certificate by one of the participants. One participant's partner was so appreciative that they asked if they could "take the student home with them".
Here are a few of the great people I met during the camp who have given permission for their photos to be on my blog.
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| Wanwan and May volunteered at the Aphasia Camp and also gave me a tour of Griffith University |
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| Naomi is a speech pathologist and also Erin Holliday's sister. Erin was my honours student at CSU - so I am waving to Erin in this photo! |
Congratulations to our two masters students who presented their theses today at the University of Medicine and Pharmacy in Ho Chi Minh City, Viet Nam. Their presentations and answers to reviewers' were excellent. I was very proud of them.
Phạm Thị Vấn's thesis was titled "Đặc điểm âm lời nói của trẻ có rối loạn âm lời nói ở miền Bắc Việt Nam"[Speech sound characteristics of children with speech sound disorders in Northern Viet Nam] Her three supervisors were 1. TS. Võ Nguyên Trung 2. TS. Phạm Thị Bền 3. GS. TS. Sharynne McLeod
Nguyễn Thị Hằng's thesis was titled "TÍNH DỄ HIỂU LỜI NÓI CỦA TRẺ CÓ RỐI LOẠN ÂM LỜI NÓI Ở MIỀN BẮC VIỆT NAM" [SPEECH INTELLIGIBILITY OF CHILDREN WITH SPEECH SOUND DISORDERS IN NORTHERN VIETNAM] Her three supervisors were 1. PGS. TS. Đỗ Văn Dũng 2. TS. Phạm Thị Bền 3. GS. TS. Sharynne McLeod.
Both students have published their literature reviews as journal articles in Vietnam and we plan to publish their results in English-language journals in the future.
Thank you to Dr Ben Phạm who simultaneously translated the session from Vietnamese to English so that I could understand. She provided excellent information throughout the process went for over 4 hours during the session where three students presented.
Two new articles have been published today in Vietnam. These articles were written by our masters' students, supervised by Dr Ben Phạm and myself. Congratulations Hang and Van!
2. Pham Thi Van, Phạm, B., McLeod, S., & Vo Nguyen Trung (2021). Tổng quan các tiêu chuẩn chẩn đoán rối loạn âm lời nói ở trẻ em [Review of diagnostic criteria for speech sound disorders in children]. Tạp chí Khoa học trường Đại học Sư phạm Hà Nội: Khoa học Giáo dục [HNUE Journal of Science: Educational Sciences], 66(4AB), 82-97. doi: 10.18173/2354-1075.2021-0063.
Congratulations!
This is Van's last week of her PhD. It is an exciting time. Best wishes Van.
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| Van's last official PhD meeting with Dr Audrey Wang |