Moderating comments on the position paper

Since June, I have been working with the International Expert Panel on Multilingual Children's Speech to develop a position paper on multilingual children with speech sound disorders (see post from June, 2012). Dr Caroline Bowen came to Bathurst on Thursday 20th and Monday 24th September to moderate the comments on the penultimate version of the draft. We worked with Sarah Verdon to integrate 21 versions of the document sent to us from people across the world, as well as the comments received via email and Google docs. The international collaboration has been outstanding. We are finalising the paper at the moment, and hope that in a few months it will be broadly available as an aspirational document for children, families, speech-language pathologists and other professionals we collaborate with.

Dr. Caroline Bowen and Sharynne working on the Multilingual Children with Speech Sound Disorders Position Paper

Congratulations to the speech therapy graduates in Viet Nam

On Friday 21st September, the first cohort of students graduated from the speech therapy course at Pham Ngoc Thach University of Medicine, Ho Chi Minh City, Viet Nam. I was very sorry that I could not be with them at their graduation to celebrate this very important achievement.

When I was teaching the students in 2011, I was impressed by their hard work, thirst for knowledge, and aim to make a difference in the lives of the people of Viet Nam.
Congratulations!

Designs and decisions: The creation of informal measures for assessing speech production in children

Today Nicole Limbrick submitted her thesis as part of her Bachelor of Health Science (Speech Pathology) (Honours) degree at Charles Sturt University. Jane McCormack and I have really enjoyed supervising her, and have been very proud that already she has presented her work at the Speech Pathology Australia National Conference and submitted her work for consideration in an international journal.

Nicole Limbrick, Jane McCormack and the honours thesis!

Here is the title and abstract of her thesis:

Designs and decisions: The creation of informal measures for assessing speech production in children

Speech-language pathologists (SLPs) frequently assess children’s speech to diagnose and identify areas of difficulty, then determine appropriate intervention goals. Formal measures are available for assessment; however, many SLPs use informal measures within clinical practice. The purpose of this two-part mixed methods study was to describe and explore the creation of informal measures for the assessment of children’s speech. Study 1 involved a systematic review of 39 informal measures identified via journal database and internet searches, scanning of reference lists, and submission by SLPs and researchers. The measures were reviewed in terms of their conceptualisation (purpose and scope) and operationalisation (evaluation and validation). Common conceptual features included assessment of consonant singletons, single word sampling, computer format, and picture-naming to elicit target sounds. Few measures provided information addressing the operational criteria. Study 2 involved an inductive thematic analysis of journal entries from eight creators of informal measures that explored key considerations in the conceptualisation of these measures. Informal measures were created due to the absence of measures which were culturally appropriate and sufficiently comprehensive, as well as a desire to incorporate technology. Considerations in the creation of informal measures included the engagement of children and the measure’s useability. Informal measures reviewed in study 1 largely reflected the considerations described by creators in study 2. Informal measures featured innovative ideas which could be incorporated in future test development.

Wholistic learning during a PhD

When working with my PhD students I aim to teach them about more than research, children, and speech-language pathology. Today I took Kate Crowe and Sarah Verdon on an excursion to the Sommerville Collection (to broaden our minds) followed by icecreams (to broaden our figures?!).

ARC Future Fellows

Today A/Prof Kirrie Ballard, from The University of Sydney visited Charles Sturt University. She has just been named an Australian Research Council Future Fellow for 2013-2016. There are a number of ARC Future Fellows in speech pathology, although most of the projects involve working with adults, rather than children: Miranda Rose (LaTrobe), David Copeland (UQ), Lyndsay Nickels (Macquarie), Kirrie Ballard (Sydney), and myself (CSU).
Susan Danby (QUT), a member of the Early Years Education Collaborative Research Network has also been named a Future Fellow for 2013-2016.

Sarah Verdon, Sharynne, and Kirrie Ballard (University of Sydney)

Book review: Listening to children and young people

A review of our book has just been published:

Nicoll, H., & Campbell, L. (2012). Book review: Listening to Children and Young People with Speech, Language and Communication Needs. International Journal of Language & Communication Disorders, 47(5), 618-618. doi: 10.1111/j.1460-6984.2012.00179.x

Here is the concluding paragraph:

"In summary, this volume profiles the voice of children and young people with SLCN. One of its main strengths is that it provides a variety of successful strategies for including the young person in the research process. It collates essays from advocates, professionals and young people themselves on the importance of being heard."

Universities are for children too

On Sunday Charles Sturt University hosted Kids Day Out, a community day for local families to enjoy the university grounds, and to raise money for local children's charities. There were ponies, donkeys, bunnies, jumping castles, rides, bands, and lots of children.

Writing chapters for our book: "Children's speech"

This week Dr Elise Baker has been visiting from The University of Sydney. We have been writing chapters for our new book Children's Speech: An Evidence-Based Approach to Assessment and Intervention. We have been drawing on the wisdom and knowledge of so many authors in our field (see the picture of a few of the books we have been consulting!). Today Elise Baker and I went to the Charles Sturt University Dentistry and Oral Health Clinic to take photos of the mouths of ourselves and our family and friends. These photos will be used to demonstrate how speech is produced. We have had a very productive week - and wish that we could do this more often.

Elise and Sharynne hard at work with one of our dental photos in the background

Saying aaaah to get the perfect shot of my uvular for our book

A few of the books informing the field of childhood speech sound disorders

The cycle of publishing journal articles - 2012

From time to time I find it helpful to reflect on the entire cycle of publishing journal articles. Here is what 2012 is looking like so far: 4 published, 6 in press, and 9 in submission. There are more articles that are currently being written and planned. It is such a pleasure to publish with my students and colleagues on topics that hopefully will make a difference in children's lives.

PUBLISHED

1. McCormack, J., McAllister, L. McLeod, S. & Harrison, L. J., (2012). Knowing, having, doing: The battles of childhood speech impairment. Child Language Teaching and Therapy, 28, 141-157.
2. Williams, C. J. & McLeod, S. (2012). Speech-language pathologists’ assessment and intervention practices with multilingual children.  International Journal of Speech-Language Pathology, 14(3), 292–305.
3. McLeod, S., Harrison, L. J. & McCormack, J.  (2012). Intelligibility in Context Scale: Validity and reliability of a subjective rating measure. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, 55, 648-656.
4. Toohill, B., McLeod, S. & McCormack, J. (2012). Effect of dialect on identification and severity of speech impairment in Indigenous Australian children, Clinical Linguistics and Phonetics, 26(2), 101-119.

IN PRESS

1. McLeod, S., Daniel, G., Barr, J. (2012, in press August). “When he’s around his brothers ... he’s not so quiet”:  The private and public worlds of school-aged children with speech sound disorder. Journal of Communication Disorders.
   
2. Wren, Y., McLeod, S., White, P., Miller, L. & Roulstone, S. (2012, in press August). Speech characteristics of 8-year-old children with speech difficulties: Findings from a prospective population study. Journal of Communication Disorders.
3. Crowe, K., McLeod, S., & Ching, T. Y. C. (2012, in press June). The cultural and linguistic diversity of 3-year-old children with hearing loss. Journal of Deaf Studies and Deaf Education.
4. Hambly, H., Wren, Y., McLeod, S., & Roulstone, S. (2012, in press May). The influence of bilingualism on speech production: A systematic review. International Journal of Language and Communication Disorders.
5. To, C. K. -S., Cheung, P. S. -P., & McLeod, S. (2012, in press March). A population study of children's acquisition of Hong Kong Cantonese consonants, vowels, and tones. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research.
6. Washington, K. N., Thomas-Stonell, N., McLeod, S., & Warr-Leeper, G. (2012, in press February). Parents’ perspectives on the professional-child relationship and children’s functional communication following speech-language intervention. Canadian Journal of Speech-Language Pathology and Audiology / Revue canadienne d'orthophonie et d'audiologie.

IN SUBMISSION and UNDER REVIEW (with many different co-authors)

1. Designs and decisions: The creation and use of informal measures for assessing speech production in children..
2. The impact of extrinsic demographic factors on Cantonese speech sound acquisition.
3. Construct Validity of the FOCUS© (Focus on the Outcomes of Communication Under Six): A Functional Communication Outcome Measure for Preschool Children.
4. Predictors and outcomes of communicative participation for preschoolers with speech-language impairments with and without concomitant mobility impairments.
5. Applying the World Report on Disability to Australian children with communication disability.
   
6. Multilingual children with hearing loss: Factors contributing to language use at home and early education.
7. Factors that enhance English-speaking speech-language pathologists’ transcription of Cantonese-speaking children.
8. Speech sound disorders in a community sample of preschool children.
9. Phonetic variations and sound changes in Hong Kong Cantonese and implications for speech sound assessment.

When he’s around his brothers ... he’s not so quiet

The following manuscript has just been accepted for publication:

McLeod, S., Daniel, G., Barr, J. (2012, in press August). “When he’s around his brothers ... he’s not so quiet”:  The private and public worlds of school-aged children with speech sound disorder. Journal of Communication Disorders.

ABSTRACT

  Children interact with people in context: including home, school, and in the community. Understanding children’s relationships within context is important for supporting children’s development. Using child-friendly methodologies, the purpose of this research was to understand the lives of children with speech sound disorder (SSD) in context. Thirty-four interviews were undertaken with six school-aged children identified with SSD, and their siblings, friends, parents, grandparents, and teachers. Interview transcripts, questionnaires, and children’s drawings were analysed to reveal that these children experienced the world in context dependent ways (private vs. public worlds). Family and close friends typically provided a safe, supportive environment where children could be themselves and participate in typical childhoods. In contrast, when out of these familiar contexts, the children often were frustrated, embarrassed, and withdrawn, their relationships changed, and they were unable to get their message across in public contexts. Speech-language pathology assessment and intervention could be enhanced by interweaving the valuable insights of children, siblings, friends, parents, teachers, and other adults within children’s worlds to more effectively support these children in context.

Providing equitable and quality service for multilingual children

The School of Teacher Education Research and Scholarship Brown Bag Seminar for Monday 27th August is titled: "Providing equitable and quality service for multilingual children with speech sound disorders in a linguistically diverse context". This presentation was made by Sarah Verdon, a PhD student I am supervising with Sandie Wong. The presentation was part of her endorsement of her PhD candidature. 

Elise Baker (University of Sydney), Sarah Verdon, Sandie Wong, Sharynne

Here is the abstract:
Australia is one of the world’s most multilingual countries. However, little is known about the demographics of Australia’s multilingual children and the early childhood education and health services available to support them. Most multilingual children are able to acquire their languages without difficulty; however, some children do not. Multilingual speech and language acquisition is different from monolingual acquisition and its unique and complex nature is less understood. Multilingual children with speech sound disorders are not being identified at the same rate as monolingual children and therefore are at risk of the many known impacts of speech sound disorders such as poor literacy development and later educational and social success. This research aims to provide demographic data about the linguistic diversity of multilingual children, their location in Australia, their language acquisition patterns, and the early childhood education and health services available to them. Through the study of innovative practices of early childhood education and health professionals from around the world, the second aim of this research is to identify strategies to effectively support Australia’s multilingual children with speech sound disorder. The knowledge gained from this research will inform the development of high quality, equitable, integrated services for multilingual children and increase positive outcomes for their future educational and social success.