Congratulations Charlotte

Today Charlotte learned that she achieved first class honours. Congratulations Charlotte!

RIPPLE newsletter containing loads of stories about our team

The latest RIPPLE newsletter contains loads of stories about our team, including an interview with Helen Blake, and awards won by Sarah Masso and Suzanne Hopf.

Graduation congratulations continue

Today my son graduated from CSU and my daughter received her high school results. I am very proud of both of them: their achievements to date, and their goals for the future.
The CSU Media tweet is here.

RIPPLE PhD graduates

Today the RIPPLE PhD graduates (Dr Tina Stratigos, Dr Sarah Verdon, and Dr Tamara Cumming) were congratulated by the Vice Chancellor (Professor Andy Vann) and their supervisors (Professor Sharynne McLeod, Professor Jennifer Sumision, and Dr Sandie Wong) at the Charles Sturt University graduation ceremony.

Sarah V's PhD graduation

Today Sarah Verdon graduated with her PhD from Charles Sturt University. She was announced the winner of the Faculty of Education Outstanding Thesis Prize.  Her thesis title was: Embracing Diversity, Creating Equality: Supporting the Speech, Language and Communication of Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Children. Sandie Wong and I were her supervisors and her research was supported by the Research Institute of Professional Practice, Learning and Education. Here is the abstract:

This 3-phased mixed methods dissertation included first, a population study of over 5000 children, finding 15.3% of Australian preschool children were multilingual and that language maintenance was supported by parental use of home language, type of early education environment and generations since migration. Second, a mapping analysis of over 2,800 support services demonstrating a mismatch between children's and professionals' cultural and linguistic diversity. Third, ethnographic research undertaken in 14 sites across four continents, in Brazil, Italy, Hong Kong, Canada and the US, identifying six principals of culturally competent practice to guide professionals' support of children's speech, language and communication.

Prof. McLeod, Dr. Verdon, and Dr. Wong

A contrastive analysis of two Fiji English dialects

Suzanne's next journal article for her PhD has been accepted for publication today:
Hopf, S. C. & McLeod, S. & Geraghty, P.  (2015, in press December). A contrastive analysis of two Fiji English dialects: A diagnostic guide for speech-language pathologists. Speech, Language, and Hearing.
Here is the abstract

Speech-language pathologists (SLPs) are increasingly aware of the need to minimise the impact of cultural and linguistic mismatch when working with culturally and linguistically diverse clients. Consequently, there is a growing body of literature designed for the SLP to obtain an understanding of the characteristics of languages and dialects that may be outside the SLPs’ previous experience. This paper provides a review of the phonological features of two Fiji English (FE) dialects (Fijian Fiji English and Fiji Hindi Fiji English). This information is provided to assist English-speaking SLPs’ diagnostic decision-making when working with people from Fiji who wish to improve their speech intelligibility and to differentiate between speech difference and speech sound disorder in young Fiji children. The Fiji languages influence to varying degrees the phonetics and phonology of FE dialects. Consequently basilectal (heavily accented) speakers have many differences when compared to acrolectal (lightly accented) speakers. Acknowledging the diversity in FE speech production, this paper provides a review of phonetic and phonemic variants for basilectal and acrolectal speakers of Fijian Fiji English and Fiji Hindi Fiji English.

2015 PhD, postdoc, and honours community of scholars meeting in Sydney

Almost all of my research students live in different cities from one another (and myself) including Sydney, Newcastle, Albury and Nadi (Fiji). They support one another via email, phone, etc. Once a year we meet face-to-face. Last year was in Bathurst and this year was at the CSU Homebush (Sydney) campus. Each year each student presents their research and the group provides encouragement, feedback, and ideas. This year, we also had Dr Yvonne Wren as our guest speaker who listened to each presentation and then at the end of the day discussed research impact, and how it related to each student's research. We also planned which conferences we would attend in 2016/7. It was Kate's birthday, so we also had cake.

The people who attended this years' research students' day were: Anna Cronin (PhD, commencing 2016), Helen Blake (PhD), Ben Phạm (PhD), Charlotte Howland (Honours), Suzanne Hopf (PhD - via teleconference from Fiji), Sarah Masso (PhD), Sarah Verdon (post doc), Kate Crowe (post doc) as well as Dr Yvonne Wren and Dr Elise Baker (for the afternoon). 

Back: Sarah Verdon, Charlotte Howland, Sharynne McLeod, Yvonne Wren, Sarah Masso, Ben Pham
Front: Helen Blake, Kate Crowe, Anna Cronin
Teleconference from Fiji: Suzanne Hopf

Sarah Verdon presenting her ideas for a research grant application

Sound Start Study team meetings with Dr Yvonne Wren

Over the past 3 weeks, Dr Yvonne Wren has been visiting Australia sponsored by our Australian Research Council Discovery Grant (Sound Start Study). Yvonne is the author of Phoneme Factory Sound Sorter, the software we used during our randomised controlled trial. Yvonne was not involved in the randomisation or data collection, but has been assisting us with data analysis and interpretation as well as with writing papers while she has been in Sydney and Bathurst. It has been such a pleasure to spend extended time with her.

Yvonne Wren's visit to Bathurst

Yvonne Wren has spent almost a week visiting Bathurst as part of our ARC Discovery Grant (Sound Start Study). It has been a pleasure to share the sunshine and kangaroos - and to have so much time together to talk, plan, work, and write. One of the exciting moments of the visit was the team's submission of our Sound Start Study data to the statistician in the UK (Paul White).

We calculated we saw over 100 kangaroos behind the
Charles Sturt University campus (here are 17).

Sound Start Study visit to NSW Department of Education Rural and Distance Education Unit

Dr Yvonne Wren from the Bristol Speech and Language Therapy Research Unit and University of Bristol visited the NSW Department of Education Rural and Distance Education Unit on Thursday 26^th November. She demonstrated the Phoneme Factory software designed for teachers and assistants to support children with speech sound difficulties. Phoneme Factory consists of two programs:

1.     Phoneme Factory Phonology Screener provides teachers with a tool to individually assess children’s production of speech sounds and to determine if they need additional support (e.g., intervention using the Sound Sorter software, or further assessment and intervention by a speech pathologist)

2.     Phoneme Factory Sound Sorter provides games for children to play to support their speech and phonological awareness skills. The software enables teachers to individualise activities to a child’s particular needs.

The Phoneme Factory software was developed in the UK by Dr Wren and Professor Roulstone. The Phoneme Factory Sound Sorter has been adapted for the Australian context with support from the Rural and Distance Education Unit. It has been trialled in public and private preschools in NSW over the past 3 years in the Sound Start Study in association with researchers from Charles Sturt University (Professor Sharynne McLeod, A/Prof Jane McCormack, Dr Kate Crowe, Sarah Masso) and The University of Sydney (Dr Elise Baker).

Mike Tom, Kym Knight, David McLeod, Greg Alchin, and Yvonne Wren

Congratulations Charlotte on your honours thesis submission

Today Charlotte Howland submitted her honours thesis to The University of Sydney. Charlotte has been working as our research assistant on the Sound Start Study for the past two years while she has been studying speech pathology at The University of Sydney. Her honours thesis incorporated data from the Sound Start Study and she was supervised by Dr Elise Baker, Dr Natalie Munro and myself.
The title of her thesis was: Played, jumped and shouted: Realization of grammatical morphemes by children with phonological impairment.

Charlotte Howland and Dr Elise Baker at The University of Sydney

Charlotte and Sharynne celebrating at CSU

Sarah's first book chapter

Today Sarah Masso saw the published version of her first book chapter:
Masso, S. & Baker, E. (2015). Speech: Phonology. In S. McLeod &  J. McCormack (Eds.) Introduction to speech, language and literacy (pp. 134-178). Melbourne, Australia: Oxford University Press.
There is something special about holding a book you are published in, especially since journal articles are mostly published online now, so the tangible pleasure of touching your own publication is rare.

Presentations at the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association convention in Denver, CO

This year I am not attending the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association convention in Denver, CO and it is the first year for many years I am not going. I was the topic co-chair for the Cultural and Linguistic Considerations Across the Discipline Committee so I have a good idea of a number of excellent sessions that will be presented over the next few days. I am involved in  two oral presentations and one poster presentation:

• Assessment and Analysis of Polysyllables in Children With Speech Sound Disorders: Sarah Masso, Sharynne McLeod, Elise Baker, Jane McCormack Polysyllables may unlock the relationship between speech, language, literacy and phonological processing. Ninety-three preschool children with speech sound disorders were assessed using the Polysyllable Preschool Test. Seven categories of polysyllable error were identified: (1) substitutions, (2) deletions, (3) distortions, (4)additions, (5) alterations in timing, (6)alterations in phonotactics, (7)alterations in sequence.

• Validation of the Intelligibility in Context Scale as a Subjective Measure for Jamaican Creole- Speaking Preschoolers: Megan McDonald, KarlaWashington, Sharynne McLeod, Kathryn Crowe, and Hubert Devonish Ninety-eight children aged 3-to-6-years, who use Jamaican Creole and Standard Jamaican English, participated in a study to establish the validity and reliability of the Intelligibility in Context Scale-Jamaican Creole (ICS-JC). The ICS-JC demonstrated good psychometric properties for construct and criterion validity and reliability (internal consistency, test-retest, inter-rater).

• Cultural and Diagnostic Appropriateness of Standardized Language Assessments for Bilingual-Speakers: Considering Jamaican Creole- Speaking Preschoolers: Lauren Mikhail, Maggie Gilmore, Karla Washington, Sharynne McLeod, Hubert Devonish, Maureen Samms-Vaughan

Shared knowledge and mutual respect: Enhancing culturally competent practice through collaboration with families and communities

The following article has just been accepted for publication.  It is the final paper to be published from Sarah's PhD.
Verdon, S., Wong, S., & McLeod, S. (2015, in press November). Shared knowledge and mutual respect: Enhancing culturally competent practice through collaboration with families and communities. Child Language Teaching and Therapy. 
Here is the abstract:

Collaboration with families and communities has been identified as one of six overarching principles to speech and language therapists’ (SLTs’) engagement in culturally competent practice with children from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds (Verdon et al., 2015a). The aim of this study was to describe SLTs’ collaboration with families and communities when engaging in practice to support the speech, language and communication of children from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds. The study also aimed to identify the benefits and tensions related to such collaborations and to describe opportunities for SLTs to enhance their cultural competence through engagement with families and communities. The current study drew upon three data sources collected during the Embracing Diversity – Creating Equality study: field notes, narrative reflections by the researcher, and semi-structured interviews with SLTs. This study was conducted in 14 international sites across five countries (Brazil, Canada, Hong Kong, Italy and the US) representing a diverse range of cultural and practice contexts. Cultural-Historical Activity Theory (CHAT, Engeström, 1987) was used as both an heuristic framework though which the study was conceptualised and as a tool for analysis to describe the varied nature of collaboration in different cultural contexts, the benefits of collaborating with families and communities, and the tensions that can arise when engaging in collaborative practice to support multilingual children’s learning and education. The results illuminate the importance of SLTs’ collaboration with families in order to gain an understanding of different cultural expectations and approaches to family involvement, and to build partnerships with families to work towards common goals. Collaboration with communities was highlighted as important for its ability to both facilitate understanding of children’s cultural context and build respectful, reciprocal relationships that can act as a bridge to overcome often unspoken or invisible tensions arising in cross-cultural practice. The findings of this study highlight opportunities for professionals involved in supporting children’s development to enhance the cultural competence of their practice through engagement with families and communities.

25th anniversary since Australia signed the United Nations Convention on the Rights of a Child

This week is Children's Week (24 October–1 November 2015)  and this year marks the 25th anniversary since Australia signed the United Nations Convention on the Rights of a Child (UNCRC). Much of our research draws on the UNCRC as a guiding principle. We frequently quote articles 12 and 13 that encourage us to listen to children's views on things that matter to them.

Congratulations Sarah (again!)

Today Sarah Masso, my PhD student, learned that she was awarded the Higher Degree Research grant from Speech Pathology Australia (worth $5000). Congratulations Sarah!

Enhancing English intelligibility to support participation of multilingual speakers in Australia.

Today Helen Blake had her PhD endorsement session. Helen's PhD proposal is titled: Enhancing English intelligibility to support participation of multilingual speakers in Australia. Sarah Verdon and I are her PhD supervisors. The purpose of Helen's research is to investigate the impact of multilingual speaker’s intelligibility in English on their participation in Australian society and to provide insight into whether intelligibility enhancement has an effect on that participation. 

Helen about to present her endorsement session with her supportive audience

Helen's PhD will consist of 8 papers which have been designed to address the following research questions:

1. What is the relationship between spoken English proficiency and participation in Australian society (e.g., employment, education and access to services)?
2. What are multilingual speakers’ perceptions of the impact of their English proficiency on their participation in society?
3. Which multilingual speakers seek intelligibility enhancement?
4. Can an intervention for intelligibility enhancement improve multilingual speakers’ intelligibility in English?
5. What are the experiences of multilingual speakers who participate in intervention for intelligibility enhancement?
6. What recommendations for practice in intelligibility enhancement can be made as a result of the preceding studies? 

Helen's proposed research is significant because it will provide insight into multilingual speaker’s participation in Australian society at a time when Australia’s economy is benefiting from international students, Australia’s multilingualism is increasing and international asylum seekers escaping conflict and persecution and government policies on immigration are renewing debate around migration, assimilation and cultural diversity in Australia and around the world. Over half a million (503,081) migrants arrived in Australia between the 2006 and 2011 censuses and 67% of them reported speaking a language other than English at home (Australian Bureau of Statistics, 2013b). 
Helen's research also addresses three of five priorities identified in the government’s Strategic Research Priorities: Planning framework for research in Australia’s national interest:

• Priority 2. Promoting population health and wellbeing: Identify strategies to maximise social and economic participation in order to build resilient communities.
• Priority 4. Securing Australia’s place in a changing world: Develop a comprehensive understanding of the Asia Pacific region including cultural, demographic and social change.
• Priority 5. Lifting productivity and economic growth: Identify the skills required to effectively engage with our region and the world and how to develop them. (Department of Industry and Science, 2013). 

Helen's celebratory lunch with fellow PhD student Ben Pham
and supervisors Sarah Verdon and Sharynne

 

Publication of Introduction to Speech, Language and Literacy

This week I received the first published version of Introduction to Speech, Language and Literacy. Oxford University Press had wrapped it in ribbon, and Katie Ridsdale had written a lovely card to accompany the book. It has been wonderful to work with OUP and their attention to detail, even at this final stage of publication, is typical of the great working relationship we have had during the entire production process. The book was publicized at the Early Start Conference in Wollongong last week, and it is hoped that it may be useful to educators, linguists and speech pathologists.

OUP at the Early Start Conference, Wollongong

The stars of the book's case study videos enjoyed seeing themselves in print

Six overarching principles of culturally competent practice

The following manuscript has been accepted for publication ">Verdon, S., McLeod, S., & Wong, S. (2015, in press October). Supporting culturally and linguistically diverse children with speech, language and communication needs: Overarching principles, individual approaches. Journal of Communication Disorders.

It is one of the final papers from Sarah Verdon's PhD and outlines six overarching principles of culturally competent practice. 
>Here is the abstract
Speech-language pathologists (SLPs) are working with an increasing number of families from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds as the world’s population continues to become more internationally mobile. The heterogeneity of these diverse populations makes it impossible to identify and document a one size fits all strategy for working with culturally and linguistically diverse families. This paper explores approaches to practice by SLPs identified as specialising in multilingual and multicultural practice in culturally and linguistically diverse contexts from around the world. Data were obtained from ethnographic observation of 14 sites in 5 countries on 4 continents. The sites included hospital settings, university clinics, school-based settings, private practices and Indigenous community-based services. There were 652 individual artefacts collected from the sites which included interview transcripts, photographs, videos, narrative reflections, informal and formal field notes. The data were analysed using Cultural-Historical Activity Theory (Engeström, 1987). From the analysis six overarching principles of culturally competent practice (PCCP) were identified. These were: (1) identification of culturally appropriate and mutually motivating therapy goals, (2) knowledge of languages and culture, (3) use of culturally appropriate resources, (4) consideration of the cultural, social and political context, (5) consultation with families and communities, and (6) collaboration between professionals. These overarching principles align with the six position statements developed by the International Expert Panel on Multilingual Children’s Speech (2012) which aim to enhance the cultural competence of speech pathologists and their practice. The international examples provided in the current study demonstrate the individualised ways that these overarching principles are enacted in a range of different organisational, social, cultural and political contexts. Tensions experienced in enacting the principles are also discussed. This paper emphasises the potential for individual SLPs to enhance their practice by adopting these overarching principles to support the individual children and families in diverse contexts around the world.

Parental beliefs and experiences regarding involvement in intervention for their child with speech sound disorder

The following manuscript has just been accepted for publication based on the thesis of Dr Nicole Watts Pappas, my former PhD student.
Watts Pappas, N., McAllister, L., & McLeod, S. (2015, in press October). Parental beliefs and experiences regarding involvement in intervention for their child with speech sound disorder. Child Language Teaching and Therapy.

Here is the abstract

Parental beliefs and experiences regarding involvement in speech intervention for their child with mild-moderate speech sound disorder (SSD) were explored using multiple, sequential interviews conducted during a course of treatment. Twenty-one interviews were conducted with seven parents of six children with SSD; (1) after their child’s initial assessment, (2) during intervention and (3) at the conclusion of an intervention block. Qualitative analysis of the interviews revealed several factors that influenced the parents’ beliefs and experiences. These included: (1) their motivation to do the right thing by their child; (2) their expectations of parent/professional roles; (3) their interactions with their child in the experience; (4) their interactions with the speech language therapist (SLT); and (5) the nature of the child’s difficulties. The parents in the study wanted to be involved in their child’s intervention but were reluctant to participate in intervention sessions. This preference appeared to be influenced by prior expectations of parent/professional roles and a belief that they would ‘interfere’ in the session. Additionally, whilst they appreciated being asked for their opinion regarding intervention goals and activities, the parents had a preference for the therapist to take the lead. Parental belief in the SLT as the expert influenced this preference, but the SLTs’ beliefs and practice may also have played a role. The less pervasive nature of the child’s difficulties influenced the form of service preferred by the parents. Most particularly, the parents were more eager to work with their child at home and had a more marked preference for intervention sessions with the SLT to focus on their child rather than their family than did parents of children with pervasive disabilities investigated in other studies. The findings of the study have implications for how therapists may best work with families of children with less pervasive difficulties in intervention.