2012 Research Higher Degree Students

I am very fortunate to work with wonderful, dedicated and enthusiastic research higher degree students. During 2012 I will be working with the following students:

Kate Crowe (PhD) 
Topic: Multilingual children with hearing loss: Communication choices and outcomes 
Sarah Verdon (PhD) 

Topic: Quality services for supporting young multilingual children with speech and language disorders

Jacqui Barr (PhD)
Topic: “I’m not like most other kids”: Sibling experiences of disability and implications for education 
Hannah Wilkin (BEd Honours) 

Topic: Talking about talking: Children's insights

Nicole Limbrick (BHlthSc Honours) 
Topic: Designs and decisions: The creation and use of informal criterion-referenced measures for assessing children’s speech 

PhD students: Jacqui Barr, Kate Crowe, Sarah Verdon with Sharynne

Just published: Multilingual Aspects of Speech Sound Disorders in Children

Multilingual Aspects of Speech Sound Disorders in Children has just been published by Multilingual Matters in the UK. Details about the book can be found here on my blog, and here on the publishers' website (including a preview of pages from the book). Once it arrived Brian and I took these photos of ourselves holding the book in the Northern Hemisphere winter and Southern Hemisphere summer to show what a global book it really is.

Brian in the northern hemisphere

Sharynne in the southern hemisphere

Listening to children talking about talking

One of our participants showing off his work

Over the past weeks Hannah Wilkin (primary education student), Elissa Shand (speech pathology student) and I have been visiting children in preschools. We have been talking to typically developing 4- to 5-year-old children about talking... and we are learning a lot. We will make comparisons between these current data, and data from the Sound Effects Study (where we talked to children who had speech impairment). Additionally, as part of establishing the children's speech and language skill level, we have been piloting the usefulness of the English version of the International Speech Assessment with another validated assessment tool. Thank you children for teaching us a lot about talking!

Sharynne, Elissa and Hannah with some of the children's drawings

Babycam enables us to consider infants' lives while at childcare

Baby's view (image from Press et al., 2011)

Observer's view (image from Press et al., 2011)

For the past few years, I have been fortunate to work with a group of colleagues in early childcare education and psychology on an Australian Research Council Linkage Grant to consider what is life like for babies in childcare. Over the course of the project we developed/used a number of innovative techniques to attempt to get a baby's eye-view on their world. One of these techniques was "babycam" where we placed a lipstick sized camera on a headband/hat worn by the babies. We spent a long time developing this technique (e.g., the smaller sized cameras were too hot).

We have just completed the project where we collected longitudinal and cross-sectional data with babies in long daycare centers and family day care homes. The media has spent the past weekend reporting stories that have come from the project about the competency of these infants in the ways that they relate to one another.

• The Daily Telegraph - Babies looking out for mates: Kid-cam reveals all
• Herald Sun – The secret lives of babies
• Courier Mail - Secret life of babies caught on camera show they look out for their mates
• TopNews Arab Emirates - Toddlers less than 1 year have good communication skills
• Today Online (Singapore) - Your little social butterfly 

In addition, we have just learned that the story has been reported around the globe in the following venues:

ABS CBN News‎, ‎Adelaide Now‎, ‎AFP‎, ‎Bahrain News Agency‎, ‎Bangkok Post‎, ‎Calgary Herald‎, ‎Canada.com‎, ‎Channel News Asia‎, ‎China Post‎,  Daily Star Online‎, ‎DAWN.com‎, ‎Deccan Herald‎, ‎Expressindia.com‎, ‎Focus News‎, ‎FRANCE 24‎, ‎Geo Television Network‎, ‎Gulf Today‎, ‎Himalayan Times‎, ‎Hindustan Times‎, ‎Huffington Post UK‎, ‎Indian Express‎, ‎Indian Express‎, ‎Inquirer.net‎, ‎Jakarta Globe‎, ‎MSN Malaysia News‎, ‎MSN Philippines News‎, ‎Naharnet‎, ‎New Straits Times‎, ‎NEWS.com.au‎, ‎Newstrack India‎, ‎Ninemsn‎, ‎Outcome Magazine (blog)‎, ‎PhysOrg.com‎, ‎Radio Netherlands‎, ‎Sin Chew Jit Poh‎, ‎SKNVibes.com‎, ‎Straits Times‎, ‎Telegraph.co.uk‎, ‎The Nation, Pakistan‎, ‎The News International‎, ‎The West Australian‎, ‎TODAYonline‎, ‎‎TopNews Arab Emirates‎, ‎TopNews New Zealand‎, ‎TopNews United States‎, ‎TruthDive‎, ‎Vancouver Sun‎, ‎Yahoo!7 News‎

We have published book chapters and articles about our work (and there will be more publications in the future)

•  Press, F., Bradley, B. S., Goodfellow, J., Harrison, L. J., McLeod, S., Sumsion, J., Elwick, S. Stratigos, T. (2011). Listening to infants about what life is like in childcare: A mosaic approach. In S. Roulstone & S. McLeod (Eds.), Listening to children and young people with speech, language and communication needs. (pp. 241-250). London: J&R Press.
• Sumsion , J., Harrison, L. J., Press, F., McLeod, S., Goodfellow, J. & Bradley, B. S. (2011). Researching infants’ experiences of early childhood education and care. In D. Harcourt, B. Perry & T. Waller (Eds). Researching young children’s perspectives: Debating the ethics and dilemmas of educational research with children (pp. 113-127). London: Routledge.
• Goodfellow, J., Elwick. S., Stratigos, T., Sumsion, J., Press, F., Harrison, L., McLeod, S., & Bradley, B. (2011). Infants’ lives in childcare: Crafting research evidence. The First Years Nga Tau Tuatahi Journal of Infant Toddler Education, 13(2), 43-48.  
• Sumsion, J., Harrison, L., Press, F., McLeod, S., Goodfellow, J., Bradley, B., & Stonehouse, A., (2009). Infants’ experiences in long day care and family day care. Jigsaw, 53.

CSU: For the public good

February is the beginning of the academic year for Australian universities (unlike my northern hemisphere colleagues). So, at Charles Sturt University (CSU) a lot of new year events are occurring. This week I met our new Vice Chancellor, Andrew Vann, who spoke at the Senior Women's Forum about the importance of CSU making a difference to our students' lives, and the communities in which we live. CSU has a footprint across regional New South Wales, and has nearly 40,000 students.
This week I have also had the opportunity to drive through the magnificent countryside to CSU's Australian Centre for Christianity and Culture in Canberra. I have attended the professorial forum: a stimulating two days' of discussion about all aspects of university life. It is encouraging to be amongst such a diverse group of learned people who uphold the explorer Charles Sturt's (and CSU's) motto of "for the public good". This motto fits very well with the research work I am undertaking on my Future Fellowship.

Publications for 2011

Each year universities require their staff to report on their productivity during the year. Here is my list of publications for 2011. I have had wonderful colleagues to work with to generate this research and to produce these publications. I really enjoy emails from people around the world who comment on how some of our publications have changed the way they work with children. I believe that this is one of the most important reasons to publish.

BOOKS

1.       Roulstone, S. & McLeod, S. (Eds). (2011). Listening to children and young people with speech, language and communication needs. London: J&R Press. (294 pages) http://www.jr-press.co.uk/communication-needs.html

CHAPTERS IN BOOKS

1.       Daniel, G., & McLeod, S. (2011). ‘I can’t say words much’: Listening to school-aged children’s experiences of speech impairment. In S. Roulstone & S. McLeod (Eds.), Listening to children and young people with speech, language and communication needs. (pp. 195-202). London: J&R Press.

2.       McLeod, S. (2011). Listening to children and young people with speech, language and communication needs: Who, why and how? In S. Roulstone & S. McLeod (Eds.), Listening to children and young people with speech, language and communication needs. (pp. 23-40). London: J&R Press.

3.       McLeod, S., McCormack, J., McAllister, L., Harrison, L. J., & Holliday, E. L. (2011). Listening to 4- to 5-year-old children with speech impairment using drawings, interviews and questionnaires. In S. Roulstone & S. McLeod (Eds.), Listening to children and young people with speech, language and communication needs. (pp. 179-186). London: J&R Press.

4.       Press, F., Bradley, B. S., Goodfellow, J., Harrison, L. J., McLeod, S., Sumsion, J., Elwick, S., Stratigos, T. (2011). Listening to infants about what life is like in childcare: A mosaic approach. In S. Roulstone & S. McLeod (Eds.), Listening to children and young people with speech, language and communication needs. (pp. 241-250). London: J&R Press.

5.       Roulstone, S., & McLeod, S. (2011). Listening to improve services for children and young people with speech, language and communication needs. In S. Roulstone & S. McLeod (Eds.), Listening to children and young people with speech, language and communication needs. (pp. 283-294). London: J&R Press.

6.       Sumsion , J., Harrison, L. J., Press, F., McLeod, S., Goodfellow, J. & Bradley, B. S. (2011). Researching infants’ experiences of early childhood education and care. In D. Harcourt, B. Perry & T. Waller (Eds). Researching young children’s perspectives: Debating the ethics and dilemmas of educational research with children (pp. 113-127). London: Routledge.

JOURNAL ARTICLES

1.       McLeod, S. (2011). Cultural and linguistic diversity in Australian 4- to 5-year-old children and their parents. ACQuiring Knowledge in Speech, Language, and Hearing, 13(3), 112-119.

2.       McLeod, S. (2011). Speech-language pathologists’ knowledge of tongue/palate contact for consonant production. Clinical Linguistics and Phonetics, 25(11-12), 1004-1013.

3.       Goodfellow, J., Elwick. S., Stratigos, T., Sumsion, J., Press, F., Harrison, L., McLeod, S., & Bradley, B. (2011). Infants’ lives in childcare: Crafting research evidence. The First Years Nga Tau Tuatahi Journal of Infant Toddler Education, 13(2), 43-48.   

4.       McCormack, J., Harrison, L. J., McLeod, S. & McAllister, L. (2011). A nationally representative study of the association between communication impairment at 4-5 years and children's life activities at 7-9 years. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, 54(5), 1328-1348.  doi:10.1044/1092-4388(2011/10-0155)

5.       McAllister, L., McCormack, J., McLeod, S., & Harrison, L. J. (2011). Expectations and experiences of accessing and participating in services for childhood speech impairment. International Journal of Speech-Language Pathology, 13(3), 251-267.

6.       Baker, E. & McLeod, S. (2011a). Evidence-based practice for children with speech sound disorders: Part 1 narrative review. Language, Speech, and Hearing Services in Schools, 14, 102-139. 

7.    Baker, E. & McLeod, S. (2011b). Evidence-based practice for children with speech sound disorders: Part 2 application to clinical practice. Language, Speech, and Hearing Services in Schools, 14, 140-151.

Recognition of Jamaican as a language

Dr Karla Washington

This week Dr Karla Washington and I have been preparing for our Jamaican speech acquisition project. We are having Skype calls with Prof. Hubert Devonish from the Jamaican Language Unit, and Kwesi, the only speech and language pathologist who works in the public sector in Jamaica (there are approx. 5 other SLPs who work in private practice).

Jamaican (also called Jamaican Creole, and Patois/Patwa) is spoken by all Jamaicans, yet has only been recognized as a legitimate language for about 10 years. The Jamaican Language Unit has advocated for and supported the recognition of the use of Jamaican in schools and society. Prof. Devonish was interviewed about this in 2010: http://www.jamaicans.com/speakja/patoisarticle/JamaicanPatoisLanguage-2.shtml

One exciting project that is almost complete is the publication of the "Jiisaz Buk": the New Testament written in Jamaican.It will be released on Jamaican Independence Day, 6th August. The BBC recently released a video story about the importance of this publication to the Jamaican people: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-16289048
Yet, here is an audio news story outlining the controversy about the Jamaican Bible, and recognition of the Jamaican language: http://news.bbc.co.uk/today/hi/today/newsid_9663000/9663844.stm

Lecture given in 5 time zones on 3 continents

This morning I gave a lecture in 5 different time zones, across 3 continents, in 2 languages (it was translated into Portuguese at one of the sites). The lecture was titled "Cross-linguistic aspects of communication development".

It was part of the "Different Languages, One World": Online seminar to Brazil and USA being conducted by

• East Tennessee State University, USA
• University of Northern Iowa, USA
• Universidade Federal de Santa Maria, Brazil
• Universidade de São Paulo-Baurú, Brazil

The lecture covered the following topics: defining multilingualism, speech sounds of the world, multilingual speech acquisition, multilingual assessment and intervention. The presentation is here.

It was a lot of fun, and the Adobe Connect classroom even allowed for some interaction between the sites.

Making a difference in children's lives

One of the guiding questions I consider during my work is:

"Will this make a difference in children's lives?"

Today I met a speech pathology student, Hannah Enright, who grew up in my home town. Her passion for making a difference in children's lives was evident, and it was a pleasure to spend time talking with her.

Sharynne and Hannah Enright

Talking about talking: Children's perspectives

Talking and listening are important skills for young children to learn in order to communicate and function within society. Talking and listening also are important precursors for reading and writing when children attend school. Today Hannah Wilkin (Charles Sturt University) and Elissa Shand (University of Newcastle) began working with me on the Talking about Talking research project. The overarching aim of this research is to listen to typically developing young children’s perspectives about their talking and listening, in order to facilitate educational transition practices between the early childhood setting (where talking and listening are the focus) to the school setting (where talking and listening practices evolve into writing and reading practices). The secondary aim of this research is to compare these typically developing children’s perspectives about talking and listening with those of 143 children with speech impairment. 

Hannah Wilkin, Sharynne, and Elissa Shand

Toddlers' speech perception

I was interviewed by ABC Science online yesterday about an interesting new study that has examined adults, 2- and 4-year-olds' abilities to change their vowel productions based on how they perceived their own speech output. The participants were asked to say "bed"; however, their speech was manipulated so that they heard themselves saying "bad". The adults and 4-year-olds changed their articulation of the vowel in accordance with the feedback, the 2-year-olds did not. More details are here

Factors that enhance Australian speech-language pathologists’ assessment of the speech of Cantonese-speaking children

Rebekah Lockart has finished her Masters thesis titled: Factors that enhance Australian speech-language pathologists’ assessment of the speech of Cantonese-speaking children. It has been an honour to supervise her project as part of her Master of Speech and Language Pathology in the Faculty of Human Sciences, Department of Linguistics at Macquarie University, Sydney. Here is her thesis abstract:

The aim of this study was to investigate the ability of 33 Australian speech-language pathology (SLP) students to identify and transcribe typical and atypical speech in a nonnative language. Participants completed 3 tasks in an experimental within subjects design. Task 1 involved transcription of 5 English words to provide a baseline of their transcription skills. In Task 2 participants transcribed a typical Cantonese-speaking adult from an audio recording of 25 words from the Hong Kong Cantonese Articulation Test (HKCAT). The listeners transcribed an average of 59.1% consonants correctly. The participants’ average score was increased to 72.9% when a transcription scoring system was applied (2=exact match, 1=common transfer pattern, 0=incorrect). In Task 3 participants were presented with 100 audio-visual recordings of Cantonese-speaking children producing words from the HKCAT and a phonetic transcription of each word. Participants identified consonant speech sound errors and transcribed each word under 4 additive conditions: 1) baseline, 2) +recording of an adult model, 3) +information about the Cantonese phonological system, 4) all variables. In Condition 1 participants accurately identified an average of 63.8% of children’s whole word productions as correct or incorrect. Participants achieved an average transcription score of 71.2%. The accuracy of speech sound error identification and transcription was significantly improved by the provision of information about the Cantonese phonological system (69.2%, 76.1%), and further enhanced by a recording of an adult model (71.6%, 76.1%), and addition of both factors (72.8%, 79.8%). Accuracy was influenced by broad transcription skill and proficiency in LOTEs, but not by musicality or confidence in working with multilingual clients. These results indicate SLP students, with no exposure to or specific training in Cantonese, have some ability to transcribe the speech of Cantonese-speaking adults and children and identify speech sound errors made by Cantonese-speaking children.

Reviewing published and unpublished speech assessments

Over the past week, Nicole Limbrick has visited Bathurst. Jane McCormack and I are supervising her honours dissertation titled: Designs and decisions: The creation and use of informal criterion-referenced measures for assessing children with speech impairment. During the week we finalized the criteria for critiquing conceptual and operational features of speech assessments, then coded informal measures and published tests in English and other languages. We realized just how complex the task of creating a robust, valid and reliable assessment is. So often we as speech pathologists head straight for the stimulus pictures, score form, and norms, almost discarding the examiner's manual. This week has highlighted the importance of interrogating the design of the assessment measures we use to ensure the integrity of the assessments undertaken with children. It has also highlighted the innovation amongst our professional community for creating assessment measures to address gaps where there are no suitable tools available. Nicole will present some of the findings of her research at the Speech Pathology Australia National Conference in Hobart next year.

 

Nicole Limbrick and Sharynne at Allen House in Bathurst

October - December 2011 summary

AUSTRALIAN RESEARCH COUNCIL FUTURE FELLOWSHIP UPDATE

‘Speaking my language: International speech acquisition in Australia’
Written by Kim Woodland, Research Institute for Professional Practice, Learning and Education for the December 2011 RIPPLE Update

Sharynne has been busy finalising two books: ‘Multilingual aspects of speech sound disorders in children’ (edited with Brian Goldstein); and ‘Listening to children and young people with speech language and communication needs’ (edited with Sue Roulstone). She also travelled to San Diego in November to meet with colleagues to conduct a content analysis of the common and unique ingredients that make up 15 interventions for children with speech sound disorders. This information will assist in building a framework to support speech-language pathologists, educators, and researchers. Sharynne then attended the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA) Convention in San Diego where she coordinated two invited sessions, and co-presented four papers. There were over 12,000 delegates attending the Convention. In early December, Sharynne co-presented a paper at a Symposium hosted by the World Health Organization (WHO) and the University of Sydney (‘World Report on Disability: Implications for Asia and the Pacific’). The paper Sharynne presented, along with Linda Harrison, Jane McCormack, and Lindy McAllister, addressed two recommendations from the World Report on Disability: improving disability data collection; and strengthening and supporting research on disability. For more information on Sharynne’s research, please visit her blog, Speaking my languages.

Klaire, Ann Smit, Martin Ball, Peter Flipsen Jnr, Elise Baker, & Sharynne at ASHA

World Report on Disability - World Health Organization symposium

On 5-6 December I attended the a symposium hosted by the World Health Organization (WHO) and The University of Sydney titled: World Report on Disability: Implications for Asia and the Pacific.

Alana Officer, the executive editor of the World Report on Disability summarized the 9 major "cross cutting recommendations" of the report as:

1. "Enable access to all mainstream policies, systems and services
2. Invest in specific programmes and services for persons with disabilities
3. Adopt a national disability strategy and plan of action
4. Involve people with disabilities
5. Improve human resource capacity
6. Provide adequate funding and improve affordability
7. Increase public awareness and understanding of disability
8. Improve disability data collection
9. Strengthen and support research on disability"
   

My colleagues and I presented the following paper that specifically related to recommendations 8 and 9:

• McLeod, S., Harrison, L. J., McCormack, J. & McAllister, L. (2011, December). Prevalence, risk, impact, and unmet need of children with speech and language impairment in Australia. 

More information about the symposium is here

More information about the World Report on Disability is here
Video presentations from the symposium are here
Powerpoint presentations from the symposium are here

Prof Sally Hartley, Sharynne, Prof Lindy McAllister

 

Assessment and intervention for Vietnamese children with speech sound disorder

Today I spoke with (Skyped) two groups of students and their lecturer Janella Christie from Pham Ngoc Thach University in Ho Chi Minh City about their final year projects. These two groups of students have chosen to continue work that we discussed during their lectures in May. One group has analyzed retrospective data of 57 children with speech sound disorders to identify common phonological patterns and is aiming to develop minimal pairs intervention resources for Vietnamese. The other group is creating a new assessment to use for all children in their hospital. They will be assessing preschool children and conducting in-depth analyses of these children's phonological skills. It is exciting to see that these students are committed to resourcing the new speech therapy profession in Vietnam. I anticipate that their resources will be useful for working with Vietnamese children throughout the world as well.

International perspectives of infant-toddler education and care

Over the  past two days, I have participated in a symposium at Charles Sturt University titled Infant-Toddler Education and Care: Exploring Diverse Perspectives on Theory, Research, Practice and Policy. It has been a stimulating time of discussion with experts from around the globe. Today presenters from 6 countries described the policy and practice for early childhood education and care and their inclusion/support practices for children:

• Liz Brooker (U.K.)
• Claire Vallotton and Jim Elicker (U.S.)
• Anne Kultti (Sweden)
• Niina Rutanen (Finland)
• Mette Gulbrandsen (Norway)
• Linda Mitchell and Jayne White (N.Z.)

CSU staff and invited guests from infant-toddler centres and services also discussed practices and policy issues in the Australian context. Thank you to Linda Harrison, Jennifer Sumsion and Fran Press who organized this fascinating symposium. 

 

Invited researchers working with infants and toddlers from around the globe

Multilingual speech and language development and disorders: New book

Today I received my copy of Communication Disorders in Multicultural and International Populations edited by Dolores Battle. I was invited to co-author a chapter with my colleague Helen Grech, from Malta. Here is the reference: Grech, H. & McLeod, S. (2012). Multilingual speech and language development and disorders. In D. Battle (Ed). Communication disorders in multicultural and international populations (4th ed) (pp. 120-147). St Louis, MI: Elsevier.

At the beginning of the chapter we defined multilingualism: "...a person who is multilingual is able to comprehend and/or produce two or more languages in oral and/or written form regardless of the level of proficiency, use, and the age the languages were learned." (p. 121).

We also described the complexity of defining multilingualism: "Parameters that characterize definitions of multilingualism include:

a) the number of languages known (e.g., bilingual, trilingual, polyglot, semilingual)

b) the age and timing of the acquisition of each language (e.g., simultaneous or sequential acquisition)

c) proficiency in each language (e.g., minimal skill, functional, proficient in daily life, proficient in all contexts including educational/academic/professional contexts)

d) domains of language knowledge and use (e.g., perception/comprehension vs. production)

e) language output mode (e.g., oral vs. signed vs. written)

f) language(s) spoken within the community (e.g., majority vs. minority languages)"

The appendix includes a comprehensive list of studies of typical and atypical speech and language acquisition by multilingual children.

"Different Languages, One World": Online seminar to Brazil and USA

Two universities from the US: East Tennessee State University and the University of Northern Iowa  and two universities from Brazil: Universidade Federal de Santa Maria and Universidade de São Paulo-Baurú are involved in a cross-collaborative program designed to promote research into communication disorders across languages and cultures. The initiative has been described in the November 21, 2011 issue of the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association magazine, the ASHA Leader here.

I have been invited to present a lecture and run a question/answer session in the "Different Languages, One World" series across 4 time zones and 3 continents. I will be focusing on international speech acquisition, and am looking forward to this exciting collaboration.

Speech-language pathologists’ knowledge of consonant production

A special issue of Clinical Linguistics and Phonetics has just been published to celebrate Martin J. Ball's 25 years of editorship of the journal. The special issue contains papers from around the world addressing all aspects of clinical linguistics and phonetics.

I was invited to write an article for the special issue, and I chose to triangulate three topics that have been central to Martin's research contributions: transcription, instrumentation, and education.

Here is the reference:

McLeod, S. (2011). Speech-language pathologists’ knowledge of tongue/palate contact for consonant production. Clinical Linguistics and Phonetics, 25(11-12), 1004-1013.

Here is the abstract:

"Speech-language pathologists (SLPs) rely on knowledge of tongue placement to assess and provide intervention. 175 SLPs who worked with children with speech sound disorders (SSD) drew coronal diagrams of tongue/palate contact for 24 English consonants. Comparisons were made between their responses and typical English-speaking adults’ contact established by electropalatography. SLPs were most accurate for consonants with no contact (h, p, f); then velar consonants (g, k, ng). The remaining consonants were rarely accurate (from most to least accurate: l, t, r, z, n, sh, s, zh, y, v, th(voiceless), d, m, b, w, th(voiced), ch, j). SLPs demonstrated good knowledge of contact along the midline, but poor knowledge of contact along lateral margins of the palate. Importantly, SLPs did not show awareness of: lateral bracing (horse-shoe contact) for alveolar consonants (t, d, n, s, z); the groove for s, z, sh, zh; or posterior lateral contact for most other consonants. Accuracy was not influenced by: length of time as SLP, location of SLP training, location of current workplace, proportion of caseload with SSD or childhood apraxia of speech, amount of time spent reading, or exposure to electropalatography. Awareness of coronal tongue placement for consonant production needs targeting in SLP education."