Congratulations Dr Lucy Rodgers

This evening I had a lovely time catching up with the new Dr Lucy Rodgers - who passed her PhD last month and will graduate in July. She was a visiting PhD scholar at the Children's Voices Centre in early 2025 as part of her Wellcome funded clinical PhD fellowship. She undertook her PhD at City St Georges, University of London, UK.. It is exciting to be working on postdoctoral grant applications with Lucy.

 Here is my blog post about her 2025 visit: https://speakingmylanguages.blogspot.com/2025/04/visitor-to-cvc-lucy-rodgers-wellcome.html

Welcome to The Treehouse Holly and Merlin

It was lovely to welcome my PhD student Holly McAlister and her dog Merlin to The Treehouse (CSU Bathurst) this week. While visiting, she and Wiebke Freese (visiting PhD scholar from University of Lubeck, Germany) spent time together looking through some of the speech tests I have gathered from across the globe).

Sharynne  McLeod, Holly McAlister, Wiebke Freese, Shukla Sikder

 

Index for The Oxford Handbook of Speech Development in Languages of the World

The Oxford Handbook of Speech Development in Languages of the World has 80 chapters and is over 1500 pages. Most of the chapters are structured around a template to support comparisons across languages. Creating an index for the Handbook is a large task requiring attention to detail and a lot of pattern matching. I am so pleased that Wiebke Freese has worked with the template to create the index for chapters 6-80. Wiebke is visiting the Children's Voices Centre during February and is a PhD student at the University of Lubeck (Universität zu Lübeck), Germany. Her supervisor, Prof Annette Fox-Boyer co-authored the chapter on German speech development. Wiebke said she was surprised and impressed that there is so much research about children's speech across the world. Thanks Wiebke for supporting children's speech - you are a superstar!

Wiebke Freese working in The Beehive at CSU

Discussing the index with Dr Helen L. Blake and the CSU copyeditor Dr Mark Filmer

Happy Sami day (6 February) and Camilla's report about her visit to CSU

Camilla Porsanger was a visiting PhD scholar at the Children's Voices Centre in 2025. Here is her report published by Nord University that has been published for Sami day 2026:

https://www.uv.uio.no/spedaims/aktuelt/aktuelle-saker/2026/urfolk-sprak-og-rettigheter.html

It begins: 

"– I år føles Samefolkets dag ekstra spesiell
Et forskningsopphold på den andre siden av kloden har gitt stipendiat Camilla Porsanger et tydeligere blikk på språk, identitet og rettigheter. – Å være på steder med så dyp kulturell og åndelig betydning for aboriginske urfolk gjorde sterkt inntrykk."

Translation

"– This year, Sami Day feels extra special
A research stay on the other side of the globe has given fellow Camilla Porsanger a clearer look at language, identity and rights. – Being in places with such deep cultural and spiritual significance for Aboriginal indigenous peoples made a strong impression."

Here are some photos from Camilla on Sami Day above the Arctic Circle in Norway

Farewell Camilla and family

We have loved having Camilla Porsanger and family visiting the Children's Voices Centre over the past few months. Camilla is undertaking her PhD through Nord University in Norway focusing on Sami children's language learning. We have learned so much from Camilla and her family and will miss them. We look forward to ongoing collaborations.

 

 

Camilla's presentation to the School of Indigenous Australian Studies

Giitu (thank you) Camilla Porsanger for your excellent presentation to the students in the School of Indigenous Australian Studies (SIAS) organised by Sharnie Hurford. Camilla is a visiting scholar in the Children's Voices Centre and SIAS - we have learned so much from her.

Farewell Lynn

We said farewell to Prof Lynn Williams this week. She was such a wonderful visiting scholar to the Children's Voices Centre. During her visit she:

1. Gave 4 presentations to CVC and CSU affiliates and professionals
2. Provided individual mentoring opportunities for CVC staff and affiliates
3. Supported the CVC staff work on the mission, vision, values and strategic plan
4. Discussed grant opportunities and grant ideas 
5. Discussed new research ideas - including context therapy
6. Observed our Children's Perspectives of Health and Healthcare children's advisory panel
7. Discussed the International Expert Panel on Multilingual Children's Speech tutorial on multilingual interventions 
8. Discussed the planned special issue of JSLHR on the Sustainable Development Goals
9. Many other things including providing great encouragement to us all

We look forward to ongoing collaborations and conversations in the future.

Thank you Lynn.

 

 

 

Full house @ The Treehouse

We have had a wonderful week hosting many visitors at The Treehouse.

On Tuesday we had more people working at The Treehouse than we have ever had before:

1. Lorraine Bennett - Senior Administration Officer
2. A/Prof Tamara Cumming - Associate Director 
3. Prof Sharynne McLeod - Director
4. Prof Lynn Williams - Visiting Scholar (visitor)
5. A/Prof Kathy Cologon - Associate Director (visitor)
6. Dr Helen L. Blake - Senior Research Fellow (visitor)
7. Camilla Porsanger - Visiting PhD student from Nord University (visitor)
8. Nicki Simone  - Visiting PhD student from QUT (visitor)

We had Dr Carolyn Gregoric, our Research Manager online too

What a productive and joyful place full of busy bees. 

Kathy, Sharynne, [Carolyn online], Lynn, Lorraine, Tamara

Sharynne, Helen, Kathy, Camilla, Lynn, Tamara

Lorraine and Kathy

Kathy and Lynn

Kathy and Tamara

Sharynne  and Lynn

 

2025 ASHFoundation 5K Walk/Run

Today Prof Lynn Williams and I walked for the American Speech-Language-Hearing Foundation Annual 5K Walk/Run (https://www.ashfoundation.org/). Lynn registered us for the event - and we enjoyed sharing the walk with our husbands, friends, and over 80 kangaroos! 

2025 ASHFoundation Virtual 5K Walk/Run - 14 September 2025

Registration is now open for the ASHFoundation’s 6th Annual Virtual 5K, taking place September 12–14, 2025. Walk, run, or roll from wherever you are—and on your own schedule—to support innovation in communication sciences and disorders. Participate as an individual or form a team. Every step you take helps fund research grants, scholarships, and new breakthroughs in speech, language, and hearing. Join a movement that’s making a difference across the country and around the world. 

Wattle

Sharynne  with Prof Lynn Williams

Thinking in Action: Strengthening Clinical Reasoning to Deliver High-Impact, Individualized Interventions

Today our Children's Voices Centre Visiting Scholar - Professor Lynn Williams  - presented a whole day workshop titled "Thinking in Action: Strengthening Clinical Reasoning to Deliver High-Impact, Individualized Interventions".

We had 16 people attend in person in Bathurst, 65 people attend session 1 online, 96 people attend session 2 online, and 62 people attend session 3 online!   

9:30-11:30 | Session 1: Thinking in Action: Strengthening Clinical Reasoning to Deliver High-Impact, Individualized Interventions (2 hours)
11:30-12:00 | COFFEE BREAK
12:00-1:00 | Session 2: The Evolution of the Multiple Oppositions Approach: From Theory to Global Practice (1 hour)
1:00-2:00 | LUNCH (Own expense at CSU café or BYO) 
2:00-3:00 | Session 3: Thinking in Action (1 hour)

Professor A. Lynn Williams, PhD, CCC-SLP 
A. Lynn Williams is Professor in the Department of Audiology and Speech-Language Pathology at East Tennessee State University (ETSU), USA. She was founding Dean of ETSU’s College of Health Sciences, and 2021 President of the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA). An internationally recognized expert in speech sound disorders, she has led innovative interprofessional education initiatives and currently serves as Vice President of the National Academies of Practice, advancing collaboration to improve education, research, and patient care.

Sessions 1 and 3: 
Thinking in Action: Strengthening Clinical Reasoning to Deliver High-Impact, Individualized Interventions
Clinical reasoning is the bridge between research and real-world practice that allows clinicians to honour evidence-based interventions while adapting to each client’s needs. These interactive sessions will explore how clinical reasoning guides moment-to-moment decision-making during intervention, particularly in modifying teaching moments such as cues and feedback, and how clinicians may “tailor it, mix it, or wing it.” Using case examples, we will unpack the critical differences between tailoring, hybrid methods, and eclecticism, and their impact on treatment fidelity and outcomes. Attendees will gain practical strategies to strengthen their clinical reasoning skills, maintain intervention fidelity, and elevate confidence in delivering effective, individualized care.

Session 2: 
The Evolution of the Multiple Oppositions Approach: From Theory to Global Practice
First described in Williams (2000), the Multiple Oppositions approach offers a contrastive intervention for children with severe speech sound disorders. Grounded in systemic phonology, it targets multiple error sounds simultaneously to maximize change in a child’s speech system. This one-hour presentation will chart its development over 25 years from theoretical origins to adoption across languages. Participants will gain practical insights into applying the approach to improve intelligibility and participation for children.
Williams, A. L. (2000). Multiple oppositions: Theoretical foundations for an alternative contrastive intervention approach. American Journal of Speech-Language Pathology, 9, 282–288. https://doi.org/10.1044/1058-0360.0904.282

Some of the online audience

Speech-language pathologists brought along their books for Lynn to sign

Creative gifts for The Beehive and The Treehouse

Today we had "welcome home soup" at The Treehouse with the Children's Voices Centre staff, Prof Lynn Williams and Camilla Porsanger. Lynn had brought some special gifts from USA to decorate The Beehive, the room where she is working while visiting Charles Sturt University. Thank you Lynn we love the creativity of your friends and colleagues in the US!

Prof Lynn Williams, Prof Sharynne  McLeod, Camilla Porsanger, A/Prof Tamara Cumming, Lorraine Bennett

Sharing welcome home soup at The Treehouse

 

Interprofessional Leadership in Health and Higher Education

Today our visiting scholar, Professor A. Lynn Williams. presented a seminar titled "Interprofessional Leadership in Health and Higher Education": An interactive seminar for academic leaders and staff highlighting collaborative and distributed leadership approaches in health and higher education. The seminar was both online and face-to-face and we had attendees in Bathurst, across the CSU footprint, and in Fiji and Vietnam! 

Here is Prof Williams' bio:

Professor A. Lynn Williams, PhD, CCC-SLP is Professor in the Department of Audiology and Speech-Language Pathology at East Tennessee State University (ETSU), USA. She was founding Dean of ETSU’s College of Health Sciences, and 2021 President of the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA). An internationally recognized expert in speech sound disorders, she has led innovative interprofessional education initiatives and currently serves as Vice President of the National Academies of Practice, advancing collaboration to improve education, research, and patient care.

Discussing the SACHL with Prof Lynn WIlliams

Prof Lynn Williams has spent 1.5 days with with Dr Kate Margetson discussing the Speech Assessment in Children's Home Languages (SACHL). Last week they met at the Charles Sturt University North Sydney campus and this week online. Her insights have been invaluable.

Welcome Prof Lynn Williams - Visiting Scholar to CVC

Today we welcomed Prof Lynn Williams our Visiting Scholar to the Children's Voices Centre. She will be based at The Treehouse in Bathurst during September. Today she met the CVC staff and students, discussed future grants and research, and noticed the arrival of spring on campus with the blossoms.  We look forward to a very productive month of collaboration.

Welcome to the Bathurst campus of CSU

Welcome to the CVC!

 

 

 At the end of Lynn's first day on the Bathurst campus she was welcomed by a local kangaroo!