Launch of the WHO Rehabilitation Competency Framework (RCF)

Tonight I attended the online launch of the World Health Organization's Rehabilitation Competency Framework (RCF). I was honoured to be one of the 80 people on the Delphi panel supporting its development. Prof Pam Enderby (IALP President) was on the Technical Working Group. It was great to read in Mills, Cieza et al. (2020) about the input from speech pathologists into this important document.

Two articles have been written describing its development

Mills, J.-A., Middleton, J. W., Schafer, A., Fitzpatrick, S., Short, S., & Cieza, A. (2020). Proposing a re-conceptualisation of competency framework terminology for health: a scoping review. Human Resources for Health, 18(1), 15. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12960-019-0443-8 

Mills, J.-A., Cieza, A., Short, S. D., & Middleton, J. W. (2020). Development and validation of the WHO Rehabilitation Competency Framework: A mixed methods Study. Archives of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apmr.2020.10.129

 Here are some posts about my contribution to this work: 

• https://speakingmylanguages.blogspot.com/2020/02/contribution-to-world-health.html
• https://speakingmylanguages.blogspot.com/2019/11/world-health-organization.html
  
• https://speakingmylanguages.blogspot.com/2019/09/world-health-organization.html

Belinda's PhD team

I am on Belinda Downey's team to support the finalisation and submission of her PhD. We met today to discuss her timeline and our roles and expectations. I am really pleased to be working with Belinda, Will and Tamara on this important project.

Tamara Cumming, Will Letts, Belinda Downey, Sharynne McLeod

Farewell to CSU colleagues

Today we farewelled two colleagues from the School of Teacher Education: Dr Helen Logan and Dr Julie Lancaster. I have worked with both of them over a number of years, am grateful for their contributions to the school, university, research, and children's lives, and will miss them.

Dr Helen Logan, Dr Peter Wilson (who made the beautiful ceramic gifts),
Dr Julie Lancaster, Carol Burgess (Head of School)

Authorship guidelines for PhD students

Here are the authorship guidelines for PhD students from CSU's policy documents

https://policy.csu.edu.au/view.current.php?id=00272%20

Research students

(12)A higher degree by research (HDR) student should be listed as principal author on any multiple-authored article that is substantially based on the student’s work for the HDR award. If a supervisor meets the criteria for authorship, they should take second author status, unless the student and supervisor have agreed otherwise.

(13)Acknowledgement of a supervisor as a co-author is appropriate if the supervisor meets the criteria for authorship as stated in the Authorship: A guide supporting the Australian Code for the Responsible Conduct of Research guide and the Research Authorship Guidelines.

(14)There may be circumstances where the supervisor is the principal author, but this must be with the student's written approval. If a research supervisor and their student form a contract for their research collaboration, it must include a statement on the principles to be used to determine authorship.

Iceland: Earthquakes and northern lights

I love sharing the world with my colleagues. Today Kate Crowe, who is living in Iceland, gave a presentation to people in Belgium in the midst of earthquakes, the library was closed because of the earthquakes, then saw the northern lights - all in one day!

https://www.icelandreview.com/nature-travel/reykjanes-earthquake-swarm-magma-accumulation-suspected-eruption-a-possibility/

Venus International Women’s Award

I have just learned that I have received the following award: Venus International Foundation (https://www.venusinfo.org/) Award forDistinguished Woman Researcher in Speech and Language Acquisition. I was nominated by a colleague. Here is some information about the award program: https://viwa.info/viwa-2021.html The ceremony will be held at the Venus International Foundation 6th Annual Meeting to be held at Green Park Chennai on 6th March 2021. 

I was informed that I was unable to receive the award unless I paid USD500 to attend the ceremony (even though I was given the option and requested that I received it in absentia). So, I have declined the award.

Profiles of linguistic multi-competence in Vietnamese-English speakers

The following manuscript has just been accepted for publication. It presents work from Study 1 undertaken by our VietSpeech team:

Wang, C., Verdon, S., McLeod, S., & Tran, V. T. (2021, in press). Profiles of linguistic multi-competence in Vietnamese-English speakers. American Journal of Speech-Language Pathology. 

Here is the abstract 

Purpose: Speech-language pathologists work with increasing numbers of multilingual speakers; however, even when the same languages are spoken, multilingual speakers are not homogenous. Linguistic multi-competence considers competency across all languages and is associated with multiple demographic, migration, linguistic, and cultural factors.
Method: This paper examines the linguistic multi-competence of adults with Vietnamese heritage living in Australia (n = 271) and factors associated with varying profiles of multilingualism. Participants completed a self-report questionnaire (available in English and Vietnamese) regarding their language proficiency and associated factors.
Results: Participants were largely (76.6%) first generation migrants to Australia. Three distinct profiles of linguistic multi-competence were statistically identified using a cluster analysis: (1) Vietnamese Proficient (n = 81, 31%), (2) Shared Proficiency (n = 135, 52%), and (3) English Proficient (n = 43, 17%); that is, half were proficient in both languages. Multinomial logistic regression analyses compared participants profiled as Shared Proficiency with those who were more dominant in one language. Factors associated with the Vietnamese Proficient group (compared with the Shared Proficiency group): used Vietnamese much more than English with different people across different situations, were more likely to believe that maintaining Vietnamese helped them communicate in English, and earned less. Participants in the English Proficient group: used English more than Vietnamese with different people across different situations, were more likely to have lived in English-speaking countries longer, were younger in age, and were less likely to believe that maintaining Vietnamese helped improve academic study than those with Shared Proficiency.
Conclusion: Undertaking a comprehensive language profile is an important component of any multilingual assessment to enable speech-language pathologists to develop an understanding of different presentations of linguistic multi-competence, engage in culturally responsive practice, and to acknowledge that high levels of competence can be achieved across multiple languages. 

Here is the plain English summary: 

Speech-language pathologists (SLPs) work with increasing numbers of multilingual speakers. Each multilingual speaker is different, even if they speak the same language. Linguistic multi-competence considers competency across all languages and is associated with demographic, migration, linguistic, and cultural factors. This paper examined linguistic multi-competence of 271 adults with Vietnamese heritage living in Australia and factors associated with varying profiles of multilingualism. Participants completed a self-report questionnaire (available in English and Vietnamese). Participants were statistically sorted into three distinct profiles of linguistic multi-competence: (1) English Proficient (17%), (2) Vietnamese Proficient (31%), (3) Shared Proficiency (52%). Participants in the English Proficient group: used English more than Vietnamese, were more likely to have lived in English-speaking countries longer, were younger in age, and were less likely to believe that maintaining Vietnamese helped improve academic study than those in the Shared Proficiency group. This study demonstrates the importance of undertaking a comprehensive language profile during a multilingual assessment to enable speech-language pathologists to develop an understanding of different presentations of linguistic multi-competence, engage in culturally responsive practice, and to acknowledge that high levels of competence can be achieved across multiple languages.

Oxford Children’s Language Australia (OCLA)

Recently, Oxford University Press invited me to be a member of Oxford Children’s Language Australia (OCLA). Education Today just published this news article outlining the partnership and listing the members: 

"Oxford University Press’ Oxford Children’s Language Australia (OCLA) partners with leading Australian literacy and language research experts to unlock the power of language for learning. The OCLA will support the education community by sharing best-practice teaching resources and tools based on evidence-based pedagogies to help transform children’s language and literacy skills." https://www.educationtoday.com.au/news-detail/Experts-partner-to-unlock-the-power-of-language-for-learning-5201

Early Childhood Research Group: First meeting for 2021

Today was our first Early Childhood Research Group for 2021. We reviewed the excellent feedback from our ECV2020 conference - then planned for ECV2021, an edited book, communication with professionals, and infrastructure grants.

Rejoinder submitted

This morning I submitted my rejoinder for an Australian Research Council grant application. I submitted the original application in November and received the assessors' reports a couple of weeks ago. I had the opportunity to write 5000 characters in response to the assessors' reports (rejoinder). I was thrilled to see the Dean John McDonald and Head of School Carol Burgess moments after the Research Office submitted the rejoinder. They have been very supportive during the application process. Now we await the ARC's decision.

Prof Sharynne McLeod, Executive Dean John McDonald, Head of School Carol Burgess

CSU orientation week

This week is CSU's orientation week - the week before the academic year begins. We are fortunate that we have few COVID restrictions at the moment so that students can come to campus and receive a face-to-face welcome.

"Getting Ready for School the Deadly Way"

 The series of videos titled "Getting Ready for School the Deadly Way" are a great resource. They address the following topics: 

• 'RRAP' Shared Book Reading: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xAK0OPkJixA 
• Book Selection: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kyNPH0I_D0c 
• Reading is for Everyone (SONG): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LKy-gg7gvPo 
• Words (SONG): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZEsnXgR9ymI 
• Teaching Emotional Literacy: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X1kmjtun2LE 
• Emotions (SONG): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yyqrq3GQuJE 
• Pencil Grip Handwriting: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JACKIX5Aq34 
• Happy Day (SONG): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2iVN0uUzQLI 
• Stop, Wait and Go (SONG): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fLDTNgc2C_o

Van's PhD

Dr Van Tran is working hard to complete her second PhD this semester. She is currently analysing data for paper 5. We had another productive meeting today. She is supervised by Dr Sarah Verdon, Dr Audrey Wang and myself.

Dr Van Tran, Dr Audrey Wang, Prof Sharynne McLeod, Dr Sarah Verdon

Information from Vietnam's 2019 census

My colleagues in Vietnam have just shared the following information with me from the 2019 census in Vietnam: 

1. Infographic of 20 major indicators https://www.gso.gov.vn/en/data-and-statistics/2019/12/infographic-20-major-indicators-of-the-2019-population-and-housing-census/ 
2. Full report: https://www.gso.gov.vn/en/data-and-statistics/2020/11/completed-results-of-the-2019-viet-nam-population-and-housing-census/

International Mother Language Day

Happy International Mother Language Day for 21st February (which aptly is also Helen’s birthday). https://en.unesco.org/commemorations/motherlanguageday

The theme of the 2021 International Mother Language Day, “Fostering multilingualism for inclusion in education and society,” recognizes that languages and multilingualism can advance inclusion, and the Sustainable Development Goals’ focus on leaving no one behind. UNESCO believes education, based on the first language or mother tongue, must begin from the early years as early childhood care and education is the foundation of learning.(UNESCO, 2021)

World Health Organization or Organisation?

I am continually surprised to see the Australian media write "World Health Organisation". 

From the WHO Style Guide:

"World Health Organization, WHO, the Organization (not World Health Organisation, the WHO)" (p. 3)

https://www.unaids.org/sites/default/files/sg13_web_v4%20pdf%20-%20adobe%20reader.pdf

Launch of the WHO Rehabilitation Competency Framework

In 2019 I was on a Delphi panel to provide advice into the development of the World Health Organization's (WHO) Rehabilitation Competency Framework. Here is a description by WHO of the need for the framework

Profound rehabilitation worker shortages, maldistribution, and issues of quality and relevance pose a major barrier to people accessing the care they need, when and where then need it. Competency frameworks are an important mechanism for addressing these challenges, especially in contexts where the rehabilitation workforce is emerging.

The WHO Rehabilitation Competency Framework will be launched on 26th February, 2021. More details are here: https://who.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_6lTQFccYRoCC8dWuhirZQA

 Here are some posts about my contribution to this work: 

• https://speakingmylanguages.blogspot.com/2020/02/contribution-to-world-health.html
• https://speakingmylanguages.blogspot.com/2019/11/world-health-organization.html
  
• https://speakingmylanguages.blogspot.com/2019/09/world-health-organization.html

 

Chúc mừng năm mới and Guò nián hǎo" (过年好)

Chúc mừng năm mới

过年好 Guò nián hǎo

Happy Lunar New Year - the Year of the Ox!

In 2019, Kate Margetson begain working for VietSpeech on Lunar New Year, and in 2021, she went on maternity leave on Lunar New Year. How appropriate!

https://speakingmylanguages.blogspot.com/search/label/Lunar%20New%20Year

ASHA's Research Tuesday features Crowe and McLeod (2020)

This week our paper was featured by the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA) for Research Tuesday:

Crowe, K., & McLeod, S. (2020). Children's English consonant acquisition in the United States: A review. American Journal of Speech-Language Pathology, 29(4), 2155-2169. https://doi.org/doi:10.1044/2020_AJSLP-19-00168

Immediately, a Facebook question came up: "Evidence for treating /s,l,r/ at 5 years?"

There has been LOTS of discussion on just this point, beginning with the McLeod and Crowe (2018) article. 

• Here is a summary of all of the discussion based on McLeod and Crowe (2018): https://www.theinformedslp.com/how-to/that-one-time-a-journal-article-on-speech-sound-norms-broke-the-slp-internet 
• And part two based on Crowe and McLeod (2020): https://www.theinformedslpmembers.com/reviews?month=08-2020 
• Here’s another blogpost on the topic: https://www.slptoolkit.com/blog/we-have-been-interpreting-the-articulation-norms-all-wrong/ 
• Here is a paper that puts the discussion into perspective for US schools (open access): Ireland, M., McLeod, S., Farquharson, K., & Crowe, K. (2020). Evaluating children in U.S. public schools with speech sound disorders: Considering federal and state laws, guidance, and research. Topics in Language Disorders. https://doi.org/10.1097/TLD.0000000000000226 

The bottom line – typically developing children produce s, l, r by 5 years and here are the free images everyone can use to promote it: https://www.csu.edu.au/research/multilingual-speech/speech-acquisition 

Here is the email we received from ASHA announcing they had selected our article to profile: We've been doing this Research Tuesday initiative since 2015, and we have found it to be a very successful way of getting the word out about our authors' publications and research. I hope that the readership of your important article sees a spike because of next week's highlight! 🙂 Congratulations, and best wishes, ~ Kathleen Halverson, Editorial Projects Editor, Serial Publications and Editorial Services Team Social Media Liaison, Scholarly Journals Program 301-296-8719 khalverson@asha.org Follow us on social media! Twitter for Journals: @ASHAJournals Twitter for Perspectives: @SIGPerspectives Pinterest: www.pinterest.com/ashaweb/asha-journals

Congratulations Prof Kirrie Ballard - Speech Pathology Australia Innovation Award + AMP Tomorrow Maker 2020

Congratulations to Prof Kirrie Ballard who has won the Speech Pathology Australia Innovation Award 2020 and was named an AMP Tomorrow Maker for 2020: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UyHktCHmbr8&list=PLRA7I7WhI1-Qbnqu34HPsYSkh-87h61nt&index=10

Speech Pathology Australia is committed to promoting innovation and being at the forefront of emerging trends and opportunities. In order to help meet this aspiration, early in 2019, the Association’s Board of Directors approved the introduction of the Speech Pathology Australia Innovation Awards. In 2020, the Speech Pathology Australia Innovation Award in the Research category has been awarded to Kirrie Ballard for her nomination, titled: ‘Go Bananas! The game changer in speech therapy’. The nomination outlined the development of an interactive video-gaming system for remote tablet-based speech therapy that solves the challenge of delivering intensive evidence-based treatment protocols to children with speech sound disorder. As the winner, Kirrie Ballard is required to provide an article for Speak Out about her innovation and to provide a short presentation to the Speech Pathology Australia National Conference in Darwin in 2021. Congratulations to Kirrie Ballard! #innovation #WeSpeechies #SLPeeps #SP2030

https://www.linkedin.com/posts/speech-pathology-australia_innovation-wespeechies-slpeeps-activity-6704903308894724096-5Sqt

These grants and acknowledments enable her to continue her important work that we profiled here: McLeod, S., Ballard, K. J., Ahmed, B., McGill, N., & Brown, M. I. (2020). Supporting children with speech sound disorders during COVID-19 restrictions: Technological solutions. Perspectives of the ASHA Special Interest Groups, Advance online publication. https://doi.org/doi:10.1044/2020_PERSP-20-00128