Recently published book chapters

The following invited book chapters have been published recently: 

1.    McLeod, S., McCartney, E. & McCormack, J. (2012). Communication (d310-d369). In A. Majnemer (Eds). Measures for children with developmental disabilities: Framed by the ICF-CY (pp. 312-325). London: Mac Keith Press.  

“This chapter describes assessment of the Activities and Participation domain of Communication (d3) as it relates to children and youth with developmental disabilities. In the ICF-CY, Communication relates to “general and specific features of communicating by language, signs and symbols…” (World Health Organization, 2007, p. 145) and encompasses: Communicating – receiving (d310-d329), Communicating – producing (d330-d349), and Conversation and use of communication devices and techniques (d350-369).” 

2.    McLeod, S. (2013). Speech sound acquisition. In J. E. Bernthal, N. W. Bankson & P. Flipsen Jnr (Eds.), Articulation and phonological disorders: Speech sound disorders in children (7th ed., pp. 58-113). Boston, MA: Pearson Education. 

"This chapter explores typical or normal speech sound acquisition. At the beginning of this chapter we consider the reasons it is important for speech-language pathologists (SLPs) to understand typical speech sound acquisition, models of speech sound acquisition, and the research methods that have been employed to understand how children learn to produce speech sounds. The remainder of this chapter examines children’s speech sound acquisition of English, from infancy to the school years."

Congratulations Nicole

Nicole Limbrick has just officially learned that she has achieved first class honours for her thesis titled:
"Designs and decisions: The creation of informal measures for assessing speech production in children"
Here is my blog entry regarding the submission of her thesis (with abstract).
http://www.speakingmylanguages.blogspot.com.au/2012/09/today-nicole-limbrick-submitted-her.html
Congratulations Nicole!

Ingredients for phonological interventions

Dr Elise Baker from The University of Sydney has been in Bathurst to work on a number of projects with me this week. One of the things we have done is finalised our paper titled: "Ingredients of phonological interventions for children with speech sound disorders" and submitted it to a journal. This paper has been written with Lynn Williams (East Tennessee State University, USA) and Rebecca McCauley (Ohio State University, USA). Here are a few blog entries about the development of this work:

http://www.speakingmylanguages.blogspot.com.au/2011/11/ingredients-for-working-with-children.html

http://www.speakingmylanguages.blogspot.com.au/2011/09/research-retreat-in-sydney.html

This week Elise and I worked with Tony O'Neill (graphic designer at Charles Sturt University) to finalise the figure that illustrates the overarching framework. Tony has been involved in ensuring perfection in the visual presentations many of our projects over the past years (and particularly over the past month), so I am delighted to include his photo here. Thanks Tony!

Elise Baker, Sharynne McLeod, and Tony O'Neill working at Charles Sturt University on graphic design for our projects

 

Successful grant application: A sound start

Today we learned that our recent Australian Research Council Discovery Grant application has been funded for 2013-2015. There were several other grants awarded to colleagues in the Early Years Education Collaborative Research Network, RIPPLE, and Charles Sturt University. This years' success rate was: 21.37% so we are thrilled to have been amongst the successful applications.

Here are the details of our successful grant:

TITLE: A sound start: Innovative technology to promote speech and pre-literacy skills in at-risk preschoolers (DP130102545).

INVESTIGATORS: Sharynne McLeod (Charles Sturt University), Elise Baker (The University of Sydney), Jane McCormack (Charles Sturt University), Yvonne Wren, Sue Roulstone (University of West of England, UK)

SUMMARY OF THE PROPOSAL: Speech impairment affects one in five Australian preschoolers. If the problem persists into the school years between 30% to 77% of these children will have reading difficulties. Without specialist services, these children face increased risk of life-long social, educational, vocational limitations. Three challenges exist: identification of preschoolers most at risk, development of strategies for targeting both speech and pre-literacy skills, and provision of appropriate specialist services. This project will determine if an innovative computer-based service, delivered within preschools, can address these challenges by promoting age-appropriate speech and pre-literacy skills in children with identified risk of reading difficulties.

The news arrived while Elise Baker was visiting me, and we were overwhelmed by the number of congratulatory emails and phonecalls that arrived from colleagues. We fitted in a celebratory lunch with Professor Jennifer Sumsion (who was a chief investigator on another successful application) and Professor Linda Harrison and Associate Professor Fran Press who found out about their promotions at the same time.

L-R: Julie Martello, Fran Press, Elise Baker, Jennifer Sumsion, Linda Harrison, Sharynne McLeod

Book review: Multilingual Aspects of Speech Sound Disorders in Children

The following book review was recently published:

Brice, A. E. (2012). Multilingual Aspects of Speech Sound Disorders in Children edited by Sharynne McLeod and Brian Goldstein. International Journal of Language & Communication Disorders, 47(6), 750. doi: 10.1111/j.1460-6984.2012.00176.x
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1460-6984.2012.00176.x/abstract
Brice stated:
"The specific information, regarding phonetic and phonemic differences of the languages discussed, is almost encyclopaedic in nature. The main strengths of this book are: (1) the research presented is current and detailed; (2) 112 languages are discussed, some in more detail than others; (3) numerous tables provide normative data regarding speech sound development; and (4) numerous chapters provide clinical information in the form of case studies or how the information can be applied clinically."
Brice also critiqued the discussion of the following concept within the 30 chapters: "The concepts of language proficiency and dominance in bilingual children need to be reconsidered since a bilingual child is unique and not composed of two monolinguals (Grosjean 1989)."

Issues in Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Populations - ASHA 2013

Although the 2012 American Speech-Language-Hearing Association convention has not as yet taken place, plans for the 2013 Convention (November 14–16) in Chicago are already underway! I have just accepted an invitation from Professor Robert Fox to be a member of the Issues in Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Populations committee for the 2013 convention. I look forward to reviewing proposals and to planning the content for this topic. Typically 12-14,000 people attend this convention annually - so it is exciting to be involved in the planning committee.

Intelligibility in Context Scale in 24 languages (with more on the way)

Over the past year I have been working with colleagues around the world to translate the Intelligibility in Context Scale (ICS) into a range of languages.

The Intelligibility in Context Scale is a quick parent report measure of children’s intelligibility. The 7-item questionnaire rates the degree to which children’s speech is understood by different communication partners (parents, immediate family, extended family, friends, acquaintances, teachers, and strangers) on a 5-point scale. It has been developed to provide speech-language pathologists with information about children’s intelligibility (e.g., children with speech sound disorders, childhood apraxia of speech).
Information about the creation and English validation of the Intelligibility in Context Scale can be found at http://jslhr.asha.org/cgi/content/abstract/55/2/648 . 

Next month, the versions in 24+ languages will be available at www.csu.edu.au/research/multilingual-speech/ics. The languages of the ICS so far are:

1. Arabic (Standard) (ﺍﻠﻌﺮﺒﯿﱠﺔ)
2. Bulgarian (Български)
3. Chinese (Simplified) (简体中文)
4. Chinese (Traditional) (繁體中文)
5. Croatian (hrvatski)
6. English
7. Finnish (suomi)
8. French (Français)
9. German (Deutsch)
10. Greek (Standard Modern Greek) (Πρότυπο Νέας Ελληνικής)
11. Israeli Hebrew (עברית)
12. Hungarian (Magyar)
13. Icelandic (Íslenskur)
14. Japanese (日本語)
15. Malay (Melayu)
16. Maltese (Malti)
17. Portuguese (Português)
18. Romanian (român)
19. Russian (русский)
20. Slovenian (slovenščina)
21. Spanish (Español)
22. Swedish (Svenska)
23. Turkish (Türkçe)
24. Vietnamese (Việt)
    McLeod, S., Harrison, L. J., & McCormack, J. (2012). The Intelligibility in Context Scale: Validity and reliability of a subjective rating measure. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, 55(2), 648-656. doi: 10.1044/1092-4388(2011/10-0130)

Creating the Multilingual Children's Speech website

Over the past few months I have been working with many people to create the Multilingual Children's Speech website. It contains resources for speech-language pathologists (and others) to support them to work with multilingual children. It will be launched in November, but I wanted to name some of the people from Charles Sturt University who have assisted with the design, uploading, and critiquing of content: Bobbie Tulloh, Jo Masters, Dan Given, Tony O'Neill, Amy Felke, Sarah Verdon, Kate Crowe, Brendon McLeod, and Amy Whitfield.

Here is the image that will be on the Overview page next to the words "Children are amazing!"

Amazing web support: Jo Masters and Dan Given with Sharynne

Reading!

Reading is such a big part of my work.

Last week I read (and examined) an excellent 200+ page masters' thesis, and two of my PhD students' drafts. I decided to put this week's reading in a pile - it is over 10cm of double sided text! The pile includes another PhD student's thesis draft, drafts of journal articles I am writing, and revising, drafts of the Intelligibility in Context Scale in 20 languages, and articles and page proofs for the International Journal of Speech-Language Pathology that I am reviewing and editing. It takes a lot of time to read - and the pile never seems to get much smaller. In addition I have over 600 flagged emails that I have not answered yet - even though answering emails consumes a very large part of every day. It is really important to remember that it is a privileged to be able to read, since many people in the world cannot.

August - September 2012 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 October 2012 RIPPLE Update

In early August, Sharynne, along with CRN colleagues and members of the Department of Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs (FAHCSIA), got together to learn more about the Longitudinal Study of Indigenous Children (LSIC). LSIC parallels the Longitudinal Study of Australian Children (LSAC), both Australian Government initiatives and rich sources of data.

Sharynne also spent more time hosting international visitors over the last couple of months than travelling herself; however, she was still kept busy with long-distance Skype and conference calls. During August she hosted a visit from two former students—Lê Thi Thanh Xuân (Xuân) and Lê Khánh Điền (Điền)—from Pham Ngoc Thach University, Hồ Chí Minh City, Việt Nam. The trio met to work on a phonological analysis of Vietnamese children’s speech and to play in some snow that had fallen in the Central Tablelands of NSW (the first time the two students had ever seen snow).

In late August she hosted Dr Elise Baker from the University of Sydney. Sharynne and Elise have been writing chapters for their new book, Children’s speech: An evidence-based approach to assessment and intervention. During the visit, they took photos of mouths at the CSU Dental and Oral Health Clinic, which will be used to demonstrate how speech is produced.

Sharynne has also continued her work with the International Expert Panel on Multilingual Children’s Speech on developing a position paper on multilingual children with speech sound disorders, which has involved extensive international collaboration. Dr Caroline Bowen visited Bathurst in September, and worked with Sharynne and Sarah Verdon to moderate comments on the penultimate version of the draft. The final paper should be ready within a few months and will be made available to children, families, speech-language pathologists and other professionals.

For more information, please visit Sharynne’s blog: Speaking my languages.

Lê Thi Thanh Xuân and Lê Khánh Điền visiting CSU