Australian-American Fulbright Commission Scholar Showcase and Presentation Dinner

Last night the Australian-American Fulbright Commission Scholar Showcase and Presentation Dinner was held in Melbourne. Dr Kate Crowe was presented as one of the 46 2016 Fulbright Australian Scholars by His Excellency John Berry, Ambassador of the USA to Australia and Professor Don DeBats, Chair of the Australian-American Fulbright Commission Board. Charles Sturt University was a silver sponsor of the evening, and was represented by Vice Chancellor Andy Vann, Deputy Vice Chancellor (Research, Development and Industry) Mary Kelly. Kate's family and friends were also in attendance to celebrate her accomplishment. More details are here and a video is here.

2016 Fulbright Postdoctoral Scholars with His Excellency John Berry,
the Ambassador of the USA to Australia and Professor Don DeBats

Kate with VC Andy Vann, DVC Mary Kelly, her family and friends

Charles Sturt University Commencement Ceremony 2016

The Charles Sturt University Commencement Ceremony was held on Monday 22nd February to begin the academic year for 2016. This photo is of Ben Phạm my PhD student, Ninh Dang Vu my new professorial research assistant, and Rev. 'Oto Faiva who prayed the prayer for the staff and students at the commencement ceremony.

Ben Pham, Sharynne, Ninh Dang Vu, Rev. 'Oto Faiva

Cyclone Winston's impact on Fiji

One of my PhD students, Suzanne Hopf, lives in Fiji (and undertakes her studies via distance education). It was devastating to learn of the impact of Cyclone Winston on Fiji this weekend described as "one of the southern hemisphere’s most powerful cyclones on record". The school Suzanne visited during her data collection was used as an evacuation centre, and it is likely that many of the children, families, and teachers who contributed to her PhD have been impacted. As well as rebuilding and cleaning up after the cyclone, electricity, internet, and daily supplies will be limited for some time.

Cross-cultural adaptation of the Intelligibility in Context Scale for South Africa

The following article has just been accepted for publication.

Pascoe, M. & McLeod, S. (2016, in press February). Cross-cultural adaptation of the Intelligibility in Context Scale for South Africa. Child Language Teaching and Therapy.

Here is the abstract

The Intelligibility in Context Scale (ICS) (McLeod, Harrison, & McCormack, 2012a) is a screening questionnaire that focuses on parents’ perceptions of children’s speech in different contexts. Originally developed in English, it has been translated into 60 languages and the validity and clinical utility of the scale has been documented in a range of countries. In South Africa, there are eleven official languages yet few assessment materials available in languages other than English. In this paper we describe the cross-cultural adaptation of the ICS into a screening tool encompassing all South Africa’s official languages in addition to English. Objectives were: (1) To describe the linguistic and conceptual equivalence of the ten translated versions compared to the original ICS.  (2) To evaluate speech-language therapists’ (SLT) perceptions of the usability and value of the ICS translations in the languages of South Africa. Twenty-five participants translated the ICS into ten official languages of South Africa using forward and back translation and community checking. Next, a survey of 23 SLTs practicing in South Africa, and semi-structured interviews with five SLTs working in Cape Town, took place. The conceptual and linguistic equivalence of the adapted materials for each language was considered. Concepts that were challenging to translate from English into many of the Bantu languages included those relating to immediate/extended family, acquaintances, strangers and hearing/understanding. Linguistic challenges in translation related to dialectal differences and the use of pronouns. The SLTs in the sample found the ICS easy to use and saw it as a useful component of assessment especially when working with families who do not share a language with the SLT. Overall the study contributes to the development agenda of SLTs working in South Africa by creating and trialing the ICS in all the countries’ official languages to improve access and quality of services offered to all the families they serve.

Celebrating Lunar New Year

This Year of the Monkey, we held a picnic to celebrate Lunar New Year, sharing stories about the celebration from China and Vietnam.

Audrey Wang, Ben Pham, Sharynne, Helen Liu

Bathurst speech pathologists' dinner

In 2003 when I moved in Bathurst there were very few speech pathologists and most worked with adults rather than children. Now there are many more speech pathologists in Bathurst and they work in schools, early intervention settings, community health centres, hospitals and private practices. Ben Pham and I enjoyed catching up with everyone over dinner last night.

L-R: Katrina, Meredith, Emily, Esther, Ben, Sharynne,
Kathy, Angela, Christine, Jess, and Kate

Second Most Prevalent Disability Category in the US

An email was sent to ASHA members from Dr. Lemmietta G. McNeilly, Chief Staff Officer, Speech-Language Pathology containing the following information:

Speech or Language Impairments, Second Most Prevalent Disability Category
"According to the recently released, "37th Annual Report to Congress on the Implementation of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, 2015," speech or language impairments (17.9%) was the 2nd most prevalent disability category in 2013 for students ages 6 through 21 served under IDEA, Part B. The most prevalent category continues to be specific learning disabilities at 39.5%. Other highlights of the report, data from reporting periods associated with fall 2013; include:

• The most prevalent disability category of children ages 3 through 5 served under IDEA, Part B, was speech or language impairments (44.2%). The next most common disability category was developmental delay (37.1%), followed by autism (8.4%).
• Hispanic or Latino students ages 6 through 21 were 1.34, 1.21, 1.29, and 1.06 times more likely to be served under IDEA, Part B, for hearing impairments, orthopedic impairments, specific learning disabilities, and speech and language impairments, respectively, than were students ages 6 through 21 in all other racial/ethnic groups combined.
• Speech or language impairments were the second or third most prevalent category for students ages 6 through 21 in every racial/ethnic group.
•  More than 8 in 10 students reported under the category of speech or language impairments (87.1%) were educated inside the regular class 80% or more of the day."

Lemmietta G. McNeilly, ASHA, 9 February 2016

Application of the ICF to communication

Last year I was invited to be a member of the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association ad hoc committee on the application of the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health to communication. ASHA has subsequently developed a website that includes resources we developed on creating person-centered goals:
ICF and speech sound disorders
ICF and specific language impairment

Magdalena Janus' visit to CSU

This week Magdalena Janus has been visiting CSU sponsored by RIPPLE. She has been involved in the development of the Early Development Index (EDI) that has been adapted for use throughout Australia as the Australian Early Development Census (AEDC). It has been exciting to discuss possibilities for future collaboration.

L-R: Jennifer Sumsion (Director of RIPPLE), Linda Harrison (Acting SubDean Research), Sue Walker (via Skype from Queensland University of Technology), Magdalena Janus, Fran Press, Sharynne McLeod (Kate Williams not in the photo).

Fulbright Postgraduate Scholarship awarded to Kate Crowe

Kate Crowe has been awarded a prestigious  Fulbright Postgraduate Scholarship to study in the US with Professor Marc Marschark at Rochester Institute of Technology. Her project is titled Semantic network structure and use in Deaf and Hard of Hearing learners. Here is the Fulbright announcement and the CSU news release is here and Speech Pathology Australia's tweet is here. She is one of two Fulbright Postdoctoral Scholarship awardees (the four others received state awards).
Here is the abstract:

The purpose of this project is to investigate Deaf and Hard of Hearing (DHH) learners’ semantic networks to improve the effectiveness of approaches to language and literacy learning. The overarching goal of the proposed research is to extend knowledge of semantic networks in DHH learners through three related studies to be undertaken at Rochester Institute of Technology. Specifically, the aims of this project are to (1) examine the within-category structure of semantic networks of DHH learners, (2) understand facilitators and barriers to DHH learners’ access to their semantic networks, and (3) observe the impact of instruction on DHH learners’ use of semantic networks.

Congratulations Kate!

Speech Pathology Australia 2015 highlights

It was great to see the work of members of our team listed in the 2015 Speech Pathology Australia highlights on pages 8 and 11 of February's SpeakOUT.

Children's Speech: Advertised on Pearson's website

Elise Baker and I are currently in the final phases of copyediting and page proofing our new book. It has just been advertised on Pearson's website (here) and will be available in a few months' time.

Enjoying and learning about Northern Vietnam

Over the past 2 weeks Ben Pham has shown me and my family some of Northern Vietnam. Here are a few photos demonstrating the diversity, culture, and beauty of Northern Vietnam.

Waterlilies at Ninh Binh

Working (and enjoying the scenery) on a Ha Long Bay cruise

The data team and families enjoying the Vietnamese Cultural Museum

Going to dinner in our Ao Dais

Charlotte's last day with the Sound Start Study

Today was Charlotte’s last day on the Sound Start Study. She has been working hard with us for the last two years – and working particularly hard over the last 3 months. She has been an invaluable member of the Sound Start team and has shown incredible initiative since her first day with us. Charlotte has been a pleasure to work with and has remained as cool as a cucumber despite varying levels of stress, workload and scanning (!!). She has finished a mountain of work over these last few weeks...Charlotte has been offered an incredible position as a speech pathologist at one of the large teaching hospitals in Sydney and will definitely be an asset to her new team.
CONGRATULATIONS CHARLOTTE! Congratulations on an amazing time with us, an amazing honours result and an amazing job opportunity. What a way to start a new, exciting year. Sound Start wouldn’t have been the same without you. (Written by Sarah Masso)

Lecture to the Faculty of Early Childhood Education, Hanoi National University of Education

Today Ben Pham and I gave a lecture at the Faculty of Early Childhood Education, Hanoi National University of Education. Their report about the lecture is here (the photo only shows some of the audience). The faculty and students were an enthusiastic audience and were interested in the topics we covered including international speech acquisition, speech assessments, conducting research with children, and seeking ethical approval (from the university, preschools, caregivers and assent from child participants).

Research on the Vietnamese Speech Assessment

Ben Pham has been trialling the research version of the Vietnamese Speech Assessment (Pham, Le, & McLeod, 2015) in Ha Noi as part of her PhD data collection and Xuan Le has been assisting with reliability of transcription. We have been recording the levels and types of cues and prompts children require to identify the words/pictures during the testing.

Authors of the Vietnamese Speech Assessment (Pham, Le, & McLeod)

Today we were able to discuss the content validity of the test items and pictures regarding children in Northern Vietnam (Ben), Southern Vietnam (Xuan Le), USA (Dr. Giang Pham), and Australia (Sharynne) over a delicious lunch at the Hanoi National University of Education. We were also able to ask a Vietnamese-English-speaking child from the USA which words she knew from the VSA. Each of these procedures strengthens the content validity of the test.

Data collection in Ha Noi

Over the next few days I will accompany Ben Pham to preschools in Ha Noi, Vietnam where she has been collecting data for her PhD. The aim of her PhD is to describe speech acquisition of children in Northern Viet Nam and she is assessing children's speech using the Vietnamese Speech Assessment. Today we were also accompanied by Dr. Giang Pham from San Diego State University and Xuan Le from Ho Chi Minh City who are assisting us with reliability of transcription. Ben also has a team of excellent students from Hanoi National University of Education who are her research assistants during her data collection.

Visiting Ha Noi's speech therapist

Today I had the opportunity to visit Dr Oanh, one of only two speech therapists in Ha Noi (a city of over 7 million people!). Dr Oanh is a cleft palate surgeon who undertook the speech therapy course at Pham Ngoc Thach Medical University, run by the Trinh Foundation. I was her lecturer in 2013 and it was a pleasure to catch up with her in Ha Noi. She has just begun her PhD considering appropriate speech therapy assessment and intervention for Vietnamese children with cleft lip and palate.

Xuan Le, Dr Giang Pham, Sharynne, Dr Oanh, Ben Pham

Hanoi National University of Education: Faculty of Special Education

Ben Pham, my PhD student, is a lecturer in special education at Hanoi National University of Education (HNUE). Today I had the opportunity to visit HNUE and meet with the Dean and Vice Deans of Special Education. Dr. Giang Pham is visiting from San Diego State University, so after the meeting Ben, Giang and I presented lectures to the staff members of the Faculty of Special Education.

Museum of Ethnography in Ha Noi

Today Ben and I visited the Museum of Ethnography in Ha Noi. This excellent museum celebrates the cultures and languages of the 54 ethnic groups in Viet Nam as well as 10 other Asian countries. The museum includes outdoor and indoor exhibits. We enjoyed the water puppets and a lunch at the restaurant run by students with hearing impairment or other disabilities.