Learning statistics

This week Sarah Masso spent a productive PhD week in Melbourne undertaking an ACSPRI (Australian Consortium for Social and Political Research Incorporated) statistics course with other members of the Early Years Education Collaborative Research Network. She will apply this knowledge to the analysis of the Sound Start data.

Sarah Masso still smiling at the end of her week-long statistics course

Hilary Monk (Monash) and Sarah Masso (CSU) in Melbourne at the end of their course

Meetings

This week I have attended a number of large and small meetings with colleagues from around the corner and around the world:

• Faculty of Education Professor's research meeting
• American Speech-Language-Hearing Association convention committee meeting
• Weekly meetings with my PhD students
• Meetings with prospective PhD students
• Meetings regarding our Australian senate submission

Mostly I find these meetings to be productive and informative. I am lucky to work with teams of people who work hard towards common goals.

Early Years Education Collaborative Research Network Whole of Network Meeting

This week I have travelled to Melbourne to meet with colleagues from Charles Sturt University, Queensland University of Technology, and Monash University. There are around 70 attendees at our final Early Years Education Collaborative Research Network (CRN) Whole of Network Meeting. The CRN has been going for 3 years as a result of Australian government funding of $5.3 million to build capacity within early years research across the three universities. It has been such a productive three years of collaboration amongst PhD students, senior, mid and early career researchers.

This week some of the guest speakers have included:

• Assistant Minister for Education, The Hon Sussan Ley, MP
• Professor Andrew Vann, Vice Chancellor of CSU
• Professor Marian Simms, Executive Director of Social, Behavioural and Economic Sciences, Australian Research Council
• Karen Weston, Assistant General Manager, Quality Improvement Branch, Department of Education and Early Childhood Development, Victoria
• Professor Anne Graham, Ethics in Research Involving Children, Southern Cross University
• Professor Maggie Walter, Member of the steering committee of the Longitudinal Study of Indigenous Children, University of Tasmania
• Deborah Kikkawa and Fiona Skelton, Department of Social Services, Longitudinal Study of Indigenous Children team

Research involving the Longitudinal Study of Indigenous Children (LSIC) was a focus during the meeting and our recent publication using the LSIC data was highlighted in the poster displays. I was invited to provide a workshop titled "Improving your academic writing - both journal article and thesis writing".

Sarah Verdon, Deborah Kikkawa, Sharynne McLeod, Fiona Skelton

Prof Susan Danby (QUT - Future Fellow), Prof Marian Simms (ARC), Prof Sharynne McLeod (CSU - Future Fellow)

PhD Think Tank

On Monday all of my PhD students met in Sydney – traveling from as far as Fiji to be together. We rarely spend time in the same location since everyone is based in a different city. Each student had 1.5 hours to present their work to the others and to gain feedback from the group about any aspect of their PhD. Sarah Verdon gained feedback about data collected during her 5 month trip across 5 continents to visit places where educators and speech pathologists worked with multilingual children. Suzanne Hopf discussed how the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF) was going to be used as the theoretical framework to underpin her work to consider Fijian children's speech, language, and literacy. Sarah Masso discussed how she was using factor and cluster analyses to differentiate children with speech sound disorders based on their production of polysyllables. Kate Crowe shared advice for success in the final stages of writing a PhD. It was such a useful day and everyone gained insights into each others’ work, as well as their own. My students continually keep in touch throughout the year, sharing papers, techniques, tips, and encouraging one another. Being together in a face-to-face context strengthens this community of practice. 

Dr Kate Crowe, Sarah Masso, Sarah Verdon, Suzanne Hopf, and Sharynne in Sydney

Chinese New Year: The Year of the Horse

I was in Sydney for the Chinese New Year parade and celebrations along with Suzanne Hopf, my PhD student and one of my ex-students from The University of Sydney, Susanne Rigby (nee Perks) who practices as a speech pathologist in Sydney. Sydney is home for many people across Asia, and many different countries were represented in the parade that lasted for over an hour. In the last Australian census, the second most commonly spoken language was recorded as Mandarin, with Cantonese and Vietnamese being amongst the top five. It is great to see that Sydney embraces and celebrates its multicultural and multilingual composition.

Colour and movement in the Chinese New Year parade in Sydney

Sharynne with speech pathologist, Susanne Rigby

Writing over summer

It is summertime in Australia at the moment. Quite a contrast to the polar vortex and the snow days being experienced by my colleagues in the US. It has been a good time to write book chapters and journal articles since many locals are still on holidays. Today Linda Harrison and I spent the day writing a paper we have currently titled "Multilingualism and speech-language competence in early childhood: Impact on academic and social-emotional outcomes at school". We rewarded ourselves with a swim in the middle of the day's writing. We hope that this paper will be ready to submit soon - we have been working on it for a few years.

In the news

Dr Kate Crowe's PhD research has featured in the local Bathurst Life newspaper on page 2.
It is great for our research to have a voice in the community -  you never know who will read it and which children it could assist.

Language maintenance and loss in a population study of young Australian children

The following manuscript has been accepted for publication

Verdon, S., McLeod, S., & Winsler, A. (in press). Language maintenance and loss in a population study of young Australian children. Early Childhood Research Quarterly.

Here is the abstract

Information about children’s cultural and linguistic diversity and language acquisition patterns is important for the development of sustainable educational practices. While there is some knowledge about language acquisition, maintenance, and loss in adults and older children, there is limited information about young children. The first three waves of data from the Longitudinal Study of Australian Children (LSAC), from 4,252 young children were considered longitudinally over the first 5 years of life to identify patterns of language, acquisition, maintenance, and loss among those who speak languages other than English. Overall, 91.5% of children maintained speaking a language other than English at wave 2, yet only 86.6% did so at wave 3. Children’s patterns of language acquisition and loss over the first 5 years of life varied within and between language groups. For example, Arabic-speaking children tended to maintain Arabic throughout early childhood, whereas Italian-speaking children’s use of Italian decreased considerably over the first 5 years of life while use of English steadily increased. Environmental and personal factors such as parental language use, presence of a grandparent in the home, type of early childhood care, first- and second-generation immigrant status and parental perception of support from the educational environment were related to language maintenance among non-English speaking children.

The end of an era for IJSLP and me

Over the past 9+ years I have edited the International Journal of Speech-Language Pathology. Much of the editorial work has occurred on weekends and evenings. I have thoroughly enjoyed this role as we have been able to support the development of high quality research into high quality publications. I have appreciated the unwavering support of the associate editor (Dr Angela Morgan), the staff and national council of Speech Pathology Australia (particularly Gail Mulcair), informa Healthcare (particularly Håkan Pårup, Therese Franzen, Marie Larsson), the executive board, editorial consultants, reviewers, authors, and readers. Through small steps we have been able to create an international venue for promoting world-class research to support people with speech, language, communication, and swallowing needs.

Sharynne editing IJSLP at home

Here is what was written by the CEO of Speech Pathology Australia, Gail Mulcair, in the December issue of SpeakOUT (p. 6)

At the conclusion of 2013, Professor Sharynne McLeod will retire as Editor of the International Journal of Speech-Language Pathology (IJSLP). Sharynne has held the role since May 2004 and has worked tirelessly and with great enthusiasm over 10 years. During this time, Sharynne has led the journal to a new title and branding, achieved Medline and ISI Web of Science Social Sciences Citation indexation, with the most recent ISI impact factor ranking of 1.176, and significantly advanced its international standing and world-wide recognition as a leading journal in the profession and sciences of speech and language pathology. Sharynne has fostered many strategic international alliances, but has also been a strong supporter of developing and championing Australian research. Sharynne’s many groundbreaking achievements include the IJSLP becoming the first journal to include audio and video files, as well as the introduction of themed issues such as the Scientific Forum on the World Report on Disability and people with communication disability, with its lead article becoming one of the most downloaded articles of all Informa publications. Sharynne has displayed tremendous commitment and dedication in transforming our journal into a publication of world-class quality and scientific rigor, which is evidenced in its continued growth and wide readership. We extend our sincere appreciation and gratitude to Sharynne – she has left a very strong legacy and we wish her well with the many extra hours she will now have in her day!

Here is a part of the President's message published in the December issue of SpeakOUT (p. 3):

At the end of 2013, Professor Sharynne McLeod will step down as editor of the International Journal of Speech-Language Pathology after nearly 10 years in this position. On behalf of SPA, I wish to extend our deepest appreciation to Sharynne for her extraordinary expertise and dedication in her role as the editor of IJSLP. Due to her editorial expertise, she has steered the journal towards a position as a leading international journal in speech pathology, providing readers with high quality research articles and forums for discussion. Associate Professor Kirrie Ballard will take up the editorship of the journal and we look forward to working with her to continue building upon the strengths of IJSLP.

Importance of having assessments for use with multilingual children

A recent review of a paper I had submitted to an international journal began

"To my mind, two of the most important tasks for the profession of speech-language in this century are the development of assessments for use with multilingual children and children whose first language is not English and fostering clinicians’ awareness of them." 

This comment provides support for the work my colleagues and I have undertaken over the past 4 years.

Congratulations Hannah: First class honours

Today Hannah Wilkin graduated with first class honours for her Bachelor of Education (Primary). Hannah's honours thesis is profiled here. We are very proud of her achievements, and are pleased that children in the local schools are benefiting from her expertise as a teacher.

Introducing Dr Kate Crowe

Today Kate Crowe graduated from Charles Sturt University with her PhD. We are all so proud of what she has achieved. Here is the abstract of her PhD that was presented as seven publications.
The CSU media office ran a story on her accomplishments titled Caregivers' communication choices for children with hearing loss.

Dr Kate Crowe

Kate with her supervisors: Dr Loraine Fordham, Prof Sharynne McLeod, Dr Kate Crowe, & A/Prof David McKinnon (Dr Teresa Ching)

Kate with her family

Resourcing speech-language pathologists to work with multilingual clients

The following manuscript has just been accepted for publication: McLeod, S. (in press, December 2013). Resourcing speech-language pathologists to work with multilingual clients. International Journal of Speech-Language Pathology. 

This invited paper is based on my Elizabeth Usher Memorial address to the Speech Pathology Australia National Conference, Gold Coast, Australia, June 2013. Here is the abstract

Speech-language pathologists play important roles in supporting people to be competent communicators in the languages of their communities. However, with over 7000 languages spoken throughout the world and the majority of the global population being multilingual, there is often a mismatch between the languages spoken by children and families and their speech-language pathologists. This paper provides insights into service provision for multilingual children within an English-dominant country by viewing Australia’s multilingual population as a microcosm of ethnolinguistic minorities. Recent population studies of Australian preschool children show that their most common languages other than English are: Arabic, Cantonese, Vietnamese, Italian, Mandarin, Spanish, and Greek. Although 20.2% of services by Speech Pathology Australia members are offered in languages other than English, there is a mismatch between the language of the services and the languages of children within similar geographical communities. Australian speech-language pathologists typically use informal or English-based assessments and intervention tools with multilingual children. Thus, there is a need for accessible culturally and linguistically appropriate resources for working with multilingual children. Recent international collaborations have resulted in practical strategies to support speech-language pathologists during assessment, intervention, and collaboration with families, communities, and other professionals. The International Expert Panel on Multilingual Children’s Speech was assembled to prepare a position paper to address issues faced by speech-language pathologists when working with multilingual populations. The Multilingual Children’s Speech website (http://www.csu.edu.au/research/multilingual-speech) addresses one of the aims of the position paper by providing free resources and information for speech-language pathologists about more than 40 languages. These international collaborations have been framed around the World Health Organization’s International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF-CY) and have been established with the goal of supporting multilingual children to participate in society.

Children’s production of polysyllables as a marker for phonological processing and emerging literacy skills

Today Sarah Masso presented her PhD proposal at Charles Sturt University during her endorsement for candidature session. Sarah is a PhD candidate and research officer on our Australian Research Council Discovery Grant (DP130102545) (2013-2015) titled A sound start: innovative technology to promote speech and pre-literacy skills in at-risk preschoolers. Her PhD is designed to answer (in part) the second aim of the Sound Start Study: Use psycholinguistic theory, to

a. determine the relationship between children’s speech errors (developmental versus disordered), emergent literacy, and phonological processing skills.

b. test whether promotion of input processing skills alone will enhance speech and emergent literacy skills.

In true CSU style, her presentation occurred in 4 cities via video conference: Sydney, Bathurst, Albury and Wagga Wagga. Her presentation was well received by the invited panel members and audience.

 Here is her abstract

Children who have difficulty talking and making speech sounds may constitute up to 20% of preschool children in Australia (McLeod, Harrison, McAllister, & McCormack, 2013; McLeod & Harrison, 2009). Preschool-age children who have speech sound disorders are at significant risk of literacy difficulties (Lewis, Freebairn, & Taylor, 2002). Anthony et al. (2011) found that between 30% and 77% of children who have an ongoing difficulty with speech sound production when they start school will have difficulties learning to read. Identification of those children who will go on to have literacy difficulties is fundamental to providing targeted, effective and efficient early intervention. Children’s ability to store phonological representations, access/process phonological information (known as phonological processing), and complete phonemic-level tasks may be key to understanding their risk of literacy difficulties (Anthony, 2010). It has been suggested that the specificity of children’s phonological representations may be inferred from children’s accuracy of polysyllable productions (James et al., 2008; James, 2006). However, recent studies into the capacity of children to change the accuracy of their polysyllables suggest that this may not be a simple, linear relationship (Gozzard, Baker, & McCabe, 2008; Masso, McCabe, et al., in press). Thus, the relationship between children’s ability to say polysyllables and process phonological information needs to be explored. It is also necessary to determine whether the accuracy of children’s polysyllable production correlates with their ability to complete emergent literacy tasks. The body of work presented in this research proposal is designed to close a number of key gaps in the current evidence regarding the relationships between polysyllable speech production, phonological processing, and emergent literacy skills in preschool children who have speech sound disorders. Further, this research proposal outlines a body of work which will provide practical, evidence-based solutions to change how speech-language pathologists (SLPs) and early childhood education and care (ECEC) professionals identify and engage preschool-age children at a high risk of literacy difficulties in the years prior to commencing formal literacy education.