Anna's PhD endorsement session

Today Anna Cronin presented her PhD endorsement session. This is a requirement of Charles Sturt University's PhD program - and I believe that it is a really beneficial time for gaining expert opinion/advice from others outside of the PhD supervisory team. Anna's PhD topic is: Speech and participation of toddlers with cleft palate and her abstract is below.
Sarah Verdon and I were her proud supervisors as she presented her research to an expert panel. In true CSU style, Anna was in Brisbane, Sarah was in Albury, and the panel and myself in Bathurst, with other members of the audience dialing in from across Australia. Her reviewers were Professor Jennifer Sumsion and A/Professor Sandie Wong.

Abstract: Toddlers with cleft palate are at risk of speech, language, velopharyngeal and hearing difficulties. That is, having a cleft palate may impact on many areas of a child’s life. One model that has been used to holistically describe how a child may be affected by a cleft palate is the World Health Organization’s International Classification of Functioning, Disability, and Health – Child and Youth version (ICF-CY). Previous studies have applied the ICF-CY to children with speech impairment, as an assessment framework for working with young children with cleft palate, and to older children with cleft palate speech; however, no studies have investigated the experiences of toddlers with cleft palate in the context of this framework. The research so far has shown the extensive impact of the difference in the Body Structure (i.e., cleft palate) on children’s Body Functions (e.g., speech), Activities and Participation (e.g., communication, relationships). What has not been investigated is the impact of cleft palate early in children’s lives, as they participate in their homes and early childhood education centres.

The proposed research consists of three studies. Study 1 will describe the speech and language characteristics of 2-year-olds with cleft palate, using direct assessment of the children’s speech and language as well as play-based observations. Study 2 will investigate the impact of cleft palate on the lives of toddlers and their families. It will investigate the Activities and Participation of toddlers with cleft palate, and the experiences of their families and educators in caring for a child with a cleft through semi-structured interviews and questionnaires with families and educators of children with cleft palate. It will make use of the ICF-CY as a theoretical framework for the initial organisation of qualitative data before new themes are generated within the components of the ICF-CY. Study 3 will examine the current practices and aspirations of speech-language pathologists working with young children with cleft palate through semi-structured interviews, with a focus on those themes described by the families and educators in Study 2. The findings of this work will contribute to the research on the speech characteristics of young children with cleft palate, understanding the experiences of families of children with cleft palate, and how this understanding may be applied to provide holistic care for children with cleft palate, and their families by health and education professionals.

Meritorious Poster Award for American Speech-Language-Hearing Association Conference

Ben Phạm's 2017 American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA) Convention Poster presentation titled, "Assessing Vietnamese Children's Intelligibility", has been designated as a Meritorious Poster. Only 55 from 1895 posters received this accolade. It will be presented in LA in November. Congratulations Ben!

Invited speaker at National Health Innovation and Research Symposium

I was an invited speaker at National Health Innovation and Research Symposium this week in Coffs Harbour. The program and presenters are here: https://www.mnclhdevents.com.au/
My presentation was titled: Communicating with children and families in a multilingual world
Here is my synopsis:

More than 20 per cent of Australians speak a language other than English at home. This presentation will highlight the benefits of multilingualism and provide insights from an international research program into how monolingual health professionals can successfully work with multilingual children and families.

Presenting in a session chaired by Professor Gail Whiteford

Presenting recent data from the Australian Census about
changes in the top 5 languages spoken between 2001 and 2016

The dinner speaker was Dr Karl Kruszelnicki and amongst many other topics he described the importance of free education and healthcare to a nation's wellbeing.

Communication as a human right discussed at the Australian Human Rights Commission

Today I visited the Australian Human Rights Commission with Prof. Kirrie Ballard (editor of International Journal of Speech-Language Pathology) and Gail Mulcair (CEO of Speech Pathology Australia). We met with Ed Santow, Human Rights Commissioner and Alastair McEwan, Disability Discrimination Officer to discuss the special issue of IJSLP on Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights that will be published next year to celebrate the 70th anniversary of the UDHR. I am the guest editor for this special issue and the submissions are currently under review.

Ed Santow, Gail Mulcair, Alastair McEwan, Sharynne McLeod, Kirrie Ballard

We also discussed the International Communication Project and the Universal Declaration of Communication Rights, as well as Speech Pathology Australia's input into the joint submission from Disabled People's Organisations Australia regarding the 18th session on the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disability.

It was a productive and inspirational meeting focused on communication as a human right for all people.

Prof Sharynne McLeod, Prof Kirrie Ballard, Gail Mulcair (CEO, Speech Pathology Australia)

Tweet from the Australian Human Rights Commissioner

3 Minute Thesis (3MT)

On 12th July, Helen Blake was among 8 PhD candidates who were the finalists in the 3MT @ CSU Final in Wagga. Helen’s presentation was titled Intelligibility Enhancement. Congratulations to the winner, Cara Wilson and all the finalists, whose presentations showcased the diversity of research at CSU. ​Congratulations also to Helen who showcased her work on Intelligibility Enhancement.

3MT finalists and judges (Helen is third from right)

Anna attends the Churchill Medallion Dinner

On 28th July, Anna Cronin was an invited guest at the 2017 Medallion Dinner held by the Churchill Fellows Association of NSW. Fifteen fellows were presented with a medallion to celebrate the completion of their Churchill Fellowship. Congratulations Anna! The details of Anna's Churchill Fellowship are https://www.churchilltrust.com.au/project/to-investigate-the-optimal-management-of-speech-problems-in-toddlers-with-cleft-palate/.

Beautiful Fiji

As well as the beautiful people described in my earlier blog posts - Fiji is also a beautiful place.

Visiting Suzanne in Fiji

Over the past few days I have been vising Suzanne Hopf and her family in Fiji. It has been a pleasure to spend time with them - and to reflect on all she accomplished during her PhD. Suzanne was working on her paper based on Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and recorded this video (here). This photo includes the symbol of communication in Fiji - the conch (trition) shell.

Suzanne and Sharynne in Fiji

Volunteering in the Yasawa Islands of Fiji

Over the past 2 weeks, my daughter and I took leave to volunteer at a school and preschool in the Yasawa Islands of Fiji. We joined a team from Australia who were building a playground at Namara Village School (see here). It was a fantastic opportunity to apply some of the knowledge I have gained from Suzanne Hopf's PhD studies about Fijian children's communication. We loved our time with the children and teachers. The children loved the playground, crafts, stories and activities. A video about our experience is here.

Sharynne singing with the Kindergarten children

Sharynne about to show the school children how to throw frisbees

The opening of the playground

Photographs have been used with permission.

Presentation to the Utrecht Summer School

Tonight I gave a presentation to students at the Utrecht Summer School in The Netherlands via Skype. The presentation was titled "Introduction to a cross linguistic procedure for intelligibility evaluation (ICS)". Dr Mieke Beers and Anniek van Doornik-van der Zee run the summer school each year and this year the students were from The Netherlands, Austria, United States, Kazakhstan, the Philippines and China. They were very attentive and asked excellent questions. It was a pleasure to speak to these future speech-language pathologists from around the world.

Fulbright Fellowship Lecture at CSU by Dr Kate Crowe

Dr Kate Crowe has just returned from the US following her Fulbright Fellowship. She has been a PhD student, postdoctoral scholar, and sessional lecturer at Charles Sturt University (CSU) over a number of years.

Today Kate presented a lecture to CSU titled:
Why potatoes aren’t vegetables: Things I’ve learnt from my Fulbright Fellowship 
Participants attended in person in Bathurst, and via video conference from Albury, Shepparton, Newcastle, Blue Mountains, and other parts of the state.

Head of School Carol Burgess presenting Dr Kate Crowe with
a gift from CSU to congratulate her on her Fulbright Fellowship

Here is the abstract of her presentation

Dr Kate Crowe left Charles Sturt University in August 2016 to become a Fulbright Postdoctoral Scholar at the National Technical Institute for the Deaf, Rochester Institute of Technology (NY). The Fulbright program is the flagship international educational exchange program of the U.S. government and is designed to increase mutual understanding between the people of the United States and the people of other countries. After spending nearly a year immersed in U.S. culture, Kate has returned to share her experiences of life and research. In this talk she will describe the research she has conducted to better understand how students with hearing loss process language and how the Fulbright program encourages collaborative research and understanding. She will also share stories about creating cultural bridges, and what happens when these bridges don’t quite meet in the middle. For example, why a potato may not be a vegetable (and how this confuses your research results)? What happens to squirrels in winter? What exactly is a cheesehead?

Kate is an Adjunct Research Fellow at Charles Sturt University (Australia) and a member of the International Expert Panel on Multilingual Children’s Speech. Kate has worked as a speech pathologist, academic, and researcher in a range of early childhood, school, and tertiary settings. Her research and clinical interests include communication choice and development for children with hearing loss, particularly children who use sign, live in multilingual environments, and/or have complex communication needs. Kate currently works with college-aged students who are deaf and is exploring linguistic and cognitive factors which inform how we teach deaf learners.

Cluster randomized controlled trial evaluating the effectiveness of computer-assisted intervention

The latest Sound Start Study article has just been published:

McLeod, S., Baker, E., McCormack, J., Wren, Y., Roulstone, S. Crowe, K., Masso, S., White, P., & Howland, C. (2017). Cluster randomized controlled trial evaluating the effectiveness of computer-assisted intervention delivered by educators for children with speech sound disorders. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research. Advance online publication doi:10.1044/2017_JSLHR-S-16-0385 http://jslhr.pubs.asha.org/article.aspx?articleid=2643351

Members of the Sound Start Study Team (+Yvonne Wren and Paul White)

Here are the details of our other Sound Start Study publications: 

Crowe, K., Cumming, T., McCormack, J., Baker, E., McLeod, S., Wren, Y., Roulstone, S., & Masso, S. (2017, in press). Educators’ perspectives on facilitating computer-assisted speech intervention in early childhood settings. Child Language Teaching and Therapy. doi:10.1177/0265659017717437

Masso, S., Baker, E., McLeod, S., & Wang, C. (2017). Polysyllable speech accuracy and predictors of later literacy development in preschool children with speech sound disorders. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research. Advance online publication doi:10.1044/2017_JSLHR-S-16-0171 http://jslhr.pubs.asha.org/article.aspx?articleid=2639744

Masso, S., McLeod, S., Baker, E., & McCormack, J. (2016). Polysyllable productions in preschool children with speech sound disorders: Error categories and the Framework of Polysyllable Maturity. International Journal of Speech-Language Pathology, 18(3), 272-287. doi:10.3109/17549507.2016.1168483 http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.3109/17549507.2016.1168483?journalCode=iasl20

Masso, S., McLeod, S., Wang, A. & Baker, E., & McCormack, J. (2017). Longitudinal changes in polysyllable maturity of preschool children with speech sound disorders. Clinical Linguistics and Phonetics, 31(6), 424-439. doi:10.1080/02699206.2017.1305450
http://www.tandfonline.com/eprint/hnFtnIR6iTvXn4IQNAV5/full

McCormack, J., Baker, E., Crowe, K., Masso, S., McLeod, S., Wren, Y., & Roulstone, S. (2017). Implementation fidelity of a computer-assisted intervention for children with speech sound disorders. International Journal of Speech-Language Pathology, 19(3), 265-276. doi:10.1080/17549507.2017.1293160
http://www.tandfonline.com/eprint/JjWu9TGPwWahCX53IuMM/full

McLeod, S., Crowe, K., & Shahaeian, A. (2015). Intelligibility in Context Scale: Normative and validation data for English-speaking preschoolers. Language, Speech, and Hearing Services in Schools, 46(3), 266-276. doi:10.1044/2015_LSHSS-14-0120 http://lshss.pubs.asha.org/article.aspx?articleid=2290674

McLeod, S., Crowe, K., Masso, S., Baker, E., McCormack, J., Wren, Y., Roulstone, S., & Howland, C. (2017). Profile of Australian preschoolers with speech sound disorders at risk for literacy difficulties. Australian Journal of Learning Difficulties. Advance online publication doi:10.1080/19404158.2017.1287105 http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/19404158.2017.1287105?journalCode=rald20

McLeod, S., Crowe, K., McCormack, J., White, P., Wren, Y., Baker, E., Masso, S., Roulstone, S. (2017). Preschool children’s communication, motor and social development: What concerns parents and educators? International Journal of Speech-Language Pathology. Advance online publication doi:10.1080/17549507.2017.1309065 http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/17549507.2017.1309065?journalCode=iasl20

Wren, Y., McCormack, J., Masso, S., McLeod, S., Baker, E. & Crowe, K. (2016, in press). Digital tools to support children’s speech and language skill. In S. Danby, M. Fleer, C. Davidson & M. Hatzigianni (Eds). Digital childhoods: Technologies in children’s everyday lives. Dordrecht, Germany: Springer.

Dr Sarah Verdon's CSU postdoc begins

Today Dr Sarah Verdon begins a 3-year Postdoctoral Research Fellowship in the Faculty of Science at Charles Sturt University. She was one of 5 people across all fields of science to receive this position (166 people applied!). Congratulations Sarah - we look forward to seeing (and using) the research that you generate from this postdoc.

NAIDOC week: Our Languages Matter

2 July to 9 July is NAIDOC (National Aboriginal and Islander Day Observance Committee) Week.
Here is how our CSU Head of Campus, Professor Chika Anyanwu has described its significance:

NAIDOC Week celebrates the history, culture and achievements of our Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. This year’s theme is Our Languages Matter. The aim is to emphasise and celebrate the unique and essential role that Indigenous languages play in cultural identity, linking people to their land and water and in the transmission of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander history, spirituality and rites, through story and song.

As a University whose ethos is built on Yindyamarra Winhanganha, ‘the wisdom of respectfully knowing how to live well in a world worth living in’, I would like us to join in celebrating the achievements and contributions that our Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people have made in our lives: as custodians of the land and waters that have nurtured and made our lives in the region worth living in; as custodians of wisdom through their spirituality, rites and song lines; as custodians of the languages which have held their culture for thousands of years and enriched ours as a result, and as intellectuals who have made enormous educational, entrepreneurial and cultural contributions which have nurtured, and continue to nurture future generations.

The joy of working with PhD students

Over the past few weeks I have had such an inspirational time working closely with my PhD students: Ben, Helen, Nicole, Anna, and Suzanne. They are such a dedicated group of women working on important topics. Most of my students live in other cities; however, we meet for 2-hours per week, email multiple times, and plan face-to-face intensive times for working on specific components of their PhD. Last week I spent two days with Ben Phạm interpreting data regarding Vietnamese children's speech acquisition. This week Anna Cronin is in Bathurst and we are finalising her PhD proposal focusing on two-year-olds with cleft palate. She has learned from conversations with Professor Linda Harrison, Jenny Dwyer, Ben, and Jessica. I am so fortunate to have a job working with people who can change the world.

Brainstorming by the fire with Anna

Ben and Sharynne analysing data about Vietnamese consonants

Web conferencing with Nicole McGill, Anna Cronin, Kate Crowe, Helen Blake

Top 5 languages spoken in Australia

The Australian Bureau of Statistics has released the 2016 census data today. For the first time, Vietnamese is one of the top 5 languages spoken in Australia (Ben will be pleased). The top 5 languages are: Mandarin (2.5%), Arabic (1.4%), Italian (1.2%), Cantonese (1.2%), and Vietnamese (1.2%). Greek is no longer in the top 5. The number of people who only spoke English at home has decreased to 72.7%. Here is my summary

Census QuickStats are here: http://www.abs.gov.au/websitedbs/censushome.nsf/home/quickstats

CSU News: Waiting for speech pathology grant

Today Charles Sturt University published a news release about our new NSW Health Translational Research Grant we have received with local speech pathologists Emily Davis, Katrina Rohr, Angela Roberts and Kate Miller and my PhD student Nicole McGill.
The news release is here
NSW Health's announcement about the grant is here 
The Western Advocate's story is here
I also had the opportunity of sharing information about the project on ABC radio. We are looking forward to beginning the project.

CSU's tweet about the media release

 Earlier blog posts about our grant are here

Three Minute Thesis - Helen Blake

Today Helen Blake participated in the Charles Sturt University heats of the Three Minute Thesis (3MT). Congratulations Helen - who made it through to the CSU finals.

Supporting children’s speech with the Nuffield Dyspraxia Programme

Today Dr Pam Williams presented a seminar titled "Supporting children’s speech with the Nuffield Dyspraxia Programme" at the Bathurst Community Health Centre. The presentation was supported by Charles Sturt University and the Western Local Health District. The seminar was presented via videoconference and was attended by people dialing in from 21 sites across NSW, Queensland, Victoria, and USA.

 The Nuffield Dyspraxia Programme is widely used across the world to support children with childhood apraxia of speech/developmental verbal dyspraxia. More information is available here: www.ndp3.com

Dr Pam Williams with the speech pathologists from Bathurst and Orange Community Health Centres

Here is some more information about Dr Williams. It was such an honour to have her visit the Central West of NSW.

Dr Pam Williams is a certified practising speech and language therapist who works at the Nuffield Hearing & Speech Centre, Royal National Throat Nose & Ear Hospital, London. Pam has spent much of her working life at the Nuffield Centre and is currently employed as a Consultant Speech & Language Therapist and Team Manager for Developmental Disorders. She was involved in creating the original Nuffield Centre Dyspraxia Programme, published in 1985, co-edited the current NDP third edition with her colleague Hilary Stephens, and has overall responsibility for NDP3’s ongoing development.
Pam is primarily a clinician, who assesses and treats children with severe speech impairments. However, she has lectured widely in UK and Ireland on the subject of NDP and developmental verbal dyspraxia/childhood apraxia of speech. She is also an honorary lecturer in the Division of Psychology & Language Sciences at University College London. Pam was a member of the working party who produced the RCSLT Policy Statement on Developmental Verbal Dyspraxia, published in November 2011. She is also a former chair of the UK Dyspraxia Foundation Charity. She was awarded a Fellowship of the Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists in 2013, in recognition of having carried out work of special value to the profession.
Pam carried out her doctoral studies at the University of Sheffield on a part-time basis while continuing to work at the Nuffield Centre and was awarded her PhD in May 2016. Pam’s thesis was supervised by Professors Joy Stackhouse and Bill Wells and investigated diadochokinetic skills in children aged 4-7 years with speech difficulties.

Katrina, Pam, Angela, David, Sharynne and Emily enjoying Australian desserts

Pam Williams' visit to Bathurst

Pam Williams (from the Nuffield Hearing and Speech Centre, UK) has visited Bathurst over the long weekend - so we have been able to enjoy her company and the local scenery together.

 

Pam Williams and Sharynne at Jenolan Caves

Sharynne, Ben Pham and Pam Williams chatting about Pam's research