CSU CVC researchers featured on SPA website and communications

Speech Pathology Australia has featured us on their website! https://www.speechpathologyaustralia.org.au/

 

Analytics: Multilingual Children's Speech website

The Multilingual Children's Speech website is popular: 303,488 views by 194,058 active users (1 Jan 2023 - 13 July2026) with the following pages being the most popular 

• Intelligibility in Context Scale: 83,422 views
• Speech acquisition: 34,849 views
• Speech assessment: 32,962 views
• English consonants: 20,699 views

 

Translations of the ICS and SPAA-C

This week we have just uploaded a Nepalese translation of the Intelligibility in Context Scale https://www.csu.edu.au/research/multilingual-speech/speech-assessments/ics to the Multilingual children's Speech website.

We also have been contacted by people across the world to translate the SPAA-C into Chinese (Traditional and Simplified) and the ICS into several Indian languages:

Assamese
Bengali
Bodo
Dogri
Kannada
Kashmiri
Konkani
Maithili
Malayalam
Manipuri
Marathi
Odia
Sanskrit
Telugu
Urdu

SPAA-C webpage

The Speech Participation and Activity Assessment of Children (SPAA-C) is designed to support professionals and researchers to understand the lives of children and other important people who surround them.

 Dr Helen Blake has been working with me - and researchers from around the world to translate the SPAA-C. The Hebrew version, along with a number of others has been added to the website this week: https://www.csu.edu.au/research/multilingual-speech/speech-assessments/spaa-c

We now have versions in: English,  Afrikaans, Fe’efe’e, German, Hebrew, Jamaican Creole, Polish, and Vietnamese

Keynote at International Society of Monolingual and Bilingual Speech (ISMBS) conference, Chania Greece

I am keynote speaker at the International Society of Monolingual and Bilingual Speech (ISMBS) conference in Chania, Greece (16-19 June 2025). Details of my keynote address are below. Dr Helen Blake and I are also presenting a paper titled: "Audio and video recordings supporting multilingual children's speech" and Helen is co-presenting a poster with her PhD student.

There are 52 oral presentations and 21 posters with attendees from 26 countries (Australia, Belgium, Canada, Chile, China, Croatia, Cyprus, France, Germany, Greece, Hong Kong SAR China, Israel, Italy, Japan, Korea, Mexico, Moldovia, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Spain, Taiwan, The Netherlands, UAE, UK, USA). 

Prof Elena Babastouli ended her opening address with the following quote: "Small opportunities are often the beginning of great enterprises" (Demosthenes).

It is always great to share knowledge with colleagues from across the world - and this conference in Chania is special. 

The ISMBS conference venue on the Chania harbour

Sharynne and Helen Blake at the Arsenal 

Sharynne's keynote

Colleagues who have written chapters in The Oxford Handbook of Speech Development in Languages of the World from Wales, Poland, Cyprus and Greece

Prof Elena Babatsouli (ISMBS chair), Sharynne and Prof Kakia Petinou Κάκια Πετεινού (ISMBS committee)

Helen presenting her paper with Sharynne  cheering in the background

Multilingual Minds are Unlocking Global Knowledge, γνώση, 认识, إدراك, דַעַת, ज्ञान …
Distinguished Professor Sharynne McLeod
Children’s Voices Centre, Charles Sturt University, Australia

Global understandings of speech, language, and communication encompass knowledge from 7,000+ languages. Communication professionals who read English have access to research and evidence-based resources, assessments, and interventions in approximately 100 languages. Critiques of psychology and linguistics report that research has focussed on English, northern hemisphere Indo-European languages (Draper et al., 2023; Kidd & Garcia, 2022), and “Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich, and Democratic (WEIRD) societies” (Henrich et al., 2010). This presentation will commend the work of multilingual minds (researchers, professionals, and translators) who provide English-language access to global knowledge about speech, language, and communication. It will outline the decade of work of the International Expert Panel on Multilingual Children’s Speech, and knowledge contained within global initiatives including:

• The Oxford Handbook of Speech Development in Languages of the World
• Multilingual Children’s Speech website (https://www.csu.edu.au/research/multilingual-speech/speech-acquisition/speech-acq-studies)
• Crosslinguistic Phonology Project (https://phonodevelopment.sites.olt.ubc.ca/), 
• Multilingual Families Lab Familles Multilingues (https://bilingualacquisition.wordpress.com/)
• CHILDES (https://childes.talkbank.org/) and PhonBank (https://phon.talkbank.org/)

The presentation will conclude by challenging our reliance on English as the medium for knowledge dissemination and acknowledging the future potential of our connected multilingual world for greater understandings of speech, language, and communication.

 

UTS Podcast - Understanding each other: Multilingual speech pathology practice

I was invited to be a guest on the "What’s Got Us Talking: The UTS Speech Pathology Podcast"

Discover the latest research and insights in Speech Pathology from the University of Technology Sydney. Join Professor Bronwyn Hemsley, Head of Speech Pathology at UTS, as she starts the conversations shaping the field. A must-listen for speechies, students, and their curious friends. 

https://omny.fm/shows/whats-got-us-talking-the-uts-speech-pathology-pod

 Here are the shownotes:

Understanding each other: Multilingual speech pathology practice

https://omny.fm/shows/whats-got-us-talking-the-uts-speech-pathology-pod/understanding-each-other-multilingual-speech-patho

Description
As multilingual speech pathology is an emerging field of research and practice, we explore how and why speech pathologists support multilingual clients, and several new developments. it.

Resources:

Multilingual Children’s Speech YouTube channel https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLRXcSAl_dA7arRMrE0qdxLuzGChY1LgY2

Multilingual Children’s Speech website: https://www.csu.edu.au/research/multilingual-speech

Key paper:

McLeod, S., & Crowe, K. (2018). Children’s consonant acquisition in 27 languages: A cross-linguistic review. American Journal of Speech-Language Pathology, 27(4), 1546–1571. https://doi.org/10.1044/2018_AJSLP-17-0100

Free posters: https://www.csu.edu.au/research/multilingual-speech/speech-acquisition/learning-english-consonants

Host: Prof Bronwyn Hemsley

Guests: Dr Denise Ng,  Prof Sharynne McLeod, Emily Chan, and Lily.

Produced by Laura Corrigan, thanks to 2SER

ECV2024 - more than 1000 registrations

Today we are at 1091 registrations :) for the Early Childhood Voices 2024 conference!

We have all of the video presentations ready for uploading to YouTube - then the website will be built - and the conference will begin in less than two weeks time. The Faculty of Arts and Education (FOAE) team are about to begin uploading.

Thanks everyone - and especially Dr Carolyn Gregoric our magnificent conference secretary.

Patrick McKenzie (FOAE), Michelle Egan (FOAE), Dr Belinda Downey, Janelle Bateman (FOAE), Dr Carolyn Gregoric, Prof Sharynne McLeod

ECIR leadership team meeting - Dr Carolyn Gregoric, Prof Sharynne McLeod, A/Prof Libbey Murray

Multilingual Children's Speech website

We are systematically updating the Multilingual Children's Speech website (https://www.csu.edu.au/research/multilingual-speech/home). Here is the new content:

• Speech acquisition studies now has 620 studies (414 new studies have been added) https://www.csu.edu.au/research/multilingual-speech/speech-acquisition/speech-acq-studies
  
• Speech assessment tools now has 379 assessments (262 assessments have been added) https://www.csu.edu.au/research/multilingual-speech/speech-assessments/speech-assessment-tools
  
• Speech interventions has 168 interventions (168 have been added - new page) https://www.csu.edu.au/research/multilingual-speech/speech-interventions
  
• First Nations resources has 57 children's books (57 have been added - new page) https://www.csu.edu.au/research/multilingual-speech/first-nations-resources
• Multilingual children's speech development has 67 videos (67 have been added + more to come) https://www.csu.edu.au/research/multilingual-speech/speech-acquisition/multilingual-childrens-speech-development
  

People can no longer say that there are "no studies/assessments/interventions/resources" in languages other than English. There are a LOT (especially if you look beyond the English language).

Information has been added by collaborating with colleagues, mostly authors of The Oxford Handbook of Speech Development in Languages of the World. Thank you everyone for your generosity to make this website such a useful resource. 

At CSU Dr Helen L. Blake has been amazing working with me on this project. 

The fantastic CSU webteam have been so supportive and creative: Boram Kwon, Alex Moore, Lindsey Ting, Kath, Kelly Bull, Amber Murray – overseen by Paula Woodhouse. (I am so pleased we have made it to the top of their workplan. I originally booked in the update of this website just before the COVID pandemic - so appreciate their current focus on our site).

Multilingual Children's Speech analytics

The Multilingual Children's Speech website is being updated by the CSU webteam at the moment. Dr Helen L. Blake and I are working on significant content updates with Boram Kwan, Lindsey Ting and Alex Moore overseen by Paula Woodhouse. They are amazing!

Here is the reach of our work at the moment. Over the past year there have been 119,627 views of the website. The map has a blue circle on each country that has used the website over the past year - showing a wide reach across the world! We are glad it is used/useful.

 

Children's photoshoot at CSU

Sunday afternoon was spent with 16 enthusiastic children, their families, and CSU colleagues having a fun photoshoot at Charles Sturt University. Kirsten Cunningham (https://www.kirstencunningham.com/portraits) was the extraordinary photographer who encouraged the children of all ages to share their smiles and enthusiasm. The photos will be used for the CSU website, research, and educational materials. Thanks to everyone who came along and had an awesomely fun day.

Sharynne with Kirsten Cunningham (photographer)

Speech assessment tools: Updating the Multilingual Children's Speech website

We are systematically updating the Multilingual Children's Speech website. Today we have uploaded the updated Speech Assessment Tools page:

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

The page now has 379 speech assessment tools.

Previously (yesterday) there were 117 speech assessments on the Speech Assessment Tools page*. 

There are 262 NEW assessments on the page (compared with yesterday). 

These have been added by collaborating with colleagues, mostly authors of The Oxford Handbook of Speech Development in Languages of the World. Thank you everyone for your generosity to make this website such a useful resource. 

Thank you especially to Dr Helen L. Blake who is working with me on this project and the fantastic CSU webteam: Boram Kwon, Alex Moore, Lindsey Ting,  Kelly Bull, Amber Murray.

*63 were on the Multilingual Children's Speech website Sept 2024 (not in OUP chapter) + 54 were both on the website and in the OUP chapter (some have been updated)

Multilingual Children's Speech website - Updates and new pages

Today the CSU webteam (Alex Moore and Lindsey Ting) launched new pages and updates on the Multilingual Children's Speech website.

Dr Helen Blake and I have been updating information and creating new pages based on research undertaken by authors of The Oxford Handbook of Speech Development in Languages of the World. There are completely new pages - and the other pages are being updated with hundreds of new entries! Here are some of the new pages that we have launched (more to come):

• Multilingual speech interventions - https://www.csu.edu.au/research/multilingual-speech/speech-interventions (this is a completely new page)
  
• Multilingual Speech Playlist - https://research.csu.edu.au/multilingual-speech-playlist

Dr Helen L. Blake and Sharynne working on the
Multilingual Children's Speech website

 

Thank you Helen and Carolyn

Dr Helen L. Blake and Dr Carolyn Gregoric are my essential teammates. Helen works closely with me on  our Multilingual Children's Speech work and Carolyn works closely with me on the Early Childhood Interdisciplinary Research Group and the Early Childhood Voices Conference (ECV2024). They are invaluable supports. We get so much done to support our colleagues, children and families across the world. Thank you Helen and Carolyn!

Helen, Sharynne and Carolyn - a great team

CSU webteam - Creating the web presence for our new centre and the virtual Treehouse

I have had many fantastic meetings with the CSU webteam to created web presence for our new centre and the virtual Treehouse. The team include:

• Boram Kwon
• Lindsey Ting
• Alex Moore

They have listened carefully, have looked at our current web presence - and have come up with some fantastic ideas. We have worked through the wireframe stage - and are about to start building the first stage (horse stage) - before we launch into the zebra and unicorn stages.

First meeting with the CSU webteam

CSU webteam showing the wireframe design

Multilingual Children's Speech website

Our research websites are very popular across the whole world. Today we began working with the Charles Sturt University webteam to make them even more user friendly and up to date.

Multilingual Children's Speech  https://www.csu.edu.au/research/multilingual-speech/

• 2023 - 104,606 views
• 2024 (6 months) - 55,579 views

VietSpeech https://www.csu.edu.au/research/vietspeech/

• 2023 - 2,083 views
• 2024 (6 months) - 1,245 views

 

Invited paper accepted for publication in Portuguese Journal of Speech and Language Therapy

We have just had the following invited paper accepted for publication in the Portuguese Journal of Speech and Language Therapy: 

McLeod, S., Blake, H. L. & Margetson, K. (2024, in press). Enhancing children’s speech using international evidence-based resources. RPTF - Revista Portuguesa de Terapia da Fala [Portuguese Journal of Speech and Language Therapy] https://www.aptf-rptf.com/

 It is wonderful to continue our collaborations with our colleagues in Portugal: https://speakingmylanguages.blogspot.com/search/label/Portuguese

 

Inspiration for The Treehouse from London

Here are some ideas for The Treehouse after visiting the Young V&A in London. They also have a website for children called Mused: https://www.vam.ac.uk/mused/

"Pick up a book
To read in the nook
And please bring it back
After having a look"

Children were photographed with an artifact that they brought to show "this is me"

The Story Machine prompts children to create stories with prompts to consider:
Who are you going to meet? | What will you take? | Where will you go? | How will you get there?

A village is created with doll houses.
Another section had torches for the children to explore the exhibits

Build it

Build it

Build it

Children really enjoyed climbing the various stairs.
The storytelling stage had plush red carpet on the stairs.

Materials and challenges were provided in the Open Studio
that was next to The Shed for designers and artists in residence 

Young V&A - a very popular venue with many people lined up in the rain

ECIR bio for Research Office website

The Early Childhood Interdisciplinary Research Group will be profiled on the Research Office website:

The Early Childhood Interdisciplinary Research Group (ECIR) conducts transformative research promoting social justice for children, families and practitioners. This group brings together a critical mass of interdisciplinary early childhood researchers (academics, adjuncts, HDR students) to build research capacity, establish and expand collaborations, and support funding application success. The group cultivates a positive collegial environment to develop the full potential of researchers at all stages of their careers.
The ECIR team recently have published the Springer book: Early childhood voices: Children, families, professionals https://link.springer.com/book/9783031564833. Additionally, ECIR founded the successful Early Childhood Voices Conference hosting ~ 2,000 online registrations during ECV2020 and ECV2022. The conference will be held again in 2024. The ECV2022 Children Draw Talking Global Online Gallery included drawings from 200 children from 24 countries. These children’s insights were shared with the United Nations: https://www.ohchr.org/sites/default/files/documents/issues/youth/hr75/submissions/subm-views-youth-led-cso-early-childhood-interdisciplinary-resear.pdf. Acknowledging these and other initiatives, ECIR won a CSU Research Excellence (RED) Award in 2023.
Reflecting this expertise, Charles Sturt University earned an ERA rating of “above world standard” for Field of Research 1301 Education Systems, which encompasses early childhood education, and 1302 Curriculum and Pedagogy, which encompasses creative arts, media and communication curriculum and pedagogy, curriculum and pedagogy theory and development, mathematics and numeracy curriculum and pedagogy.
ECIR is currently funded by the Charles Sturt University Sturt Scheme and will transform into the International Children’s Research and Communication Centre in 2025. Learn more https://researchoutput.csu.edu.au/en/organisations/early-childhood-interdisciplinary-research-group

ECV2024 call for abstracts and site launch

We are hoping to launch the ECV2024 site next week with our call for abstracts. Here is the announcement

The Early Childhood Voices Conference (ECV2024) is a FREE international interdisciplinary conference sharing research about innovative methods, theories, and partnerships with children, families, and practitioners. ECV2024 supports social justice during early childhood and within the early childhood sector. International speakers will present research or commentary in a virtual online space. Presentations will share innovations to improve the lives of children and families, and support the evidence-based practice of early childhood educators. The conference will be held from 25th to 28th November 2024. ECV2024 will be held entirely online and asynchronously; that is, you can watch the presentations anytime during the conference. ECV2024 is FREE. There is no registration fee and no fees to present or view the presentations. Registration is required only for confirmation of participation. ECV2024 is organised by the Charles Sturt University Early Childhood Interdisciplinary Research Group. Abstract submissions are welcome from 22 April 2024.

Strengthening creative thinking: A presentation by Dr Ross Anderson from the Creative Engagement Lab

I really enjoyed this online presentation this morning by Dr Ross Anderson who talked about the recent research projects of the Creative Engagement Lab. Dr Anderson is currently assisting and consulting in a project with the Curriculum & Pedagogy Research Group and the Education Course Directors in the Faculty of Arts & Education. The website for the Creative Engagement Lab has the following introduction:

Creative Engagement Lab is dedicated to revealing and strengthening the creative capacities of people and organizations.We passionately believe in the power of creative work as a tool for connecting people, transforming organizations, expanding perspectives, and furthering social justice imperatives. The experiences we design are responsive to the unique social environments and needs of each client. We rely on insights from the international field of creativity research, including our own research into arts integrated practice for learning and wellbeing. Our intention is always to help individuals and groups identify, cultivate and apply their unique creative resources. https://creativeengagementlab.com/