Listening Conference in Bristol

On 20^th June the University of the West of England hosted a 1 day conference titled: Listening to Children and Young People with Speech, Language and Communication Needs. The conference was attended by over 50 speech and language therapists, teachers, psychologists, parents and students. During the conference our Children Draw Talking art exhibition was displayed. I was invited to present the keynote address titled: The importance and challenges of listening to children and young people with speech, language and communication needs

The other presenters were:

• Rena Lyons: Exploring identity in children with speech and/or language impairments
• Ros Merrick: Picture Me: Using illustrations in conversation with children
• Graham Daniel and Sharynne McLeod: Listening to children with speech and language impairment: Implications for teachers of young children  (presented by Graham via video conference from Australia!)
• Mary Wickenden:  See me, not just the chair: Aspects of identity for disabled teenagers who use Augmentative and Alternative Communication
• Helen Hambly: One voice among many – contrasting children’s experiences of their primary language impairment (PLI) with the experiences of their parents, peers and the professionals who support them
• Sue Roulstone: Children’s perspectives from the Better Communication Research Programme
• Linda Lascelles: Chief Executive, Afasic: Tuning in to children and young people with speech and language difficulties.
  

  

  Sharynne presenting the keynote address

  
  

  

  Rachael and Jim, Ros Merrick, Helen Hambly, Sharynne, Sue Roulstone, Linda Lascelles, Mary Wickenden, Rena Lyons

  
  

  

  Year 3 students from Cardiff University with their copies of the Listening book

  
  

  

  Graham Daniel presenting his paper from Australia

  
  

  

  Rosemary Hayhow, and Anna Blackwell

  
  

  

  Jim and Rachael from J&R Press

Launch of the FOCUS: Focus on Outcomes of Children Under Six

The FOCUS team: Nancy Thomas-Stonell (seated), L-R Bruce Oddson, Bernadette Robertson, Karla Washington, Peter Rosenbaum, Joan Walker

This week a new outcome measure of communicative participation was launched in Toronto, Canada.  The FOCUS: Focus on Outcomes of Children Under Six is a parent and clinician-report measure that is framed around the World Health Organization's International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF). The FOCUS has taken 12 years to develop and has established reliability and validity measures. 

I was invited to open the 2-day conference with a presentation titled: "Children’s speech, language & communication: Learning from the WHO’s focus on functioning & participation". 

Other presentations included: 

• Using the Communication Function Classification System (CFCS) Mary Jo Cooley Hidecker
• Development and Validation of the FOCUS© Nancy Thomas-Stonell, Bernadette Robertson & Bruce Oddson
• Outcomes and Predictors of Outcomes for preschoolers with S/LI: A Post-doctoral Research Study Using the FOCUS© Karla Washington
• Measures & Measurement: Do we really need another lecture on this? Peter Rosenbaum
• Knowledge Translation: A great idea but how do we overcome people’s conservatism?  Dr. Peter Rosenbaum & Dr. Virginia Wright
•  What do we know about effective knowledge translation strategies? Dr. Diane Russell
• Opportunities & Challenges with using the FOCUS© Claire Maclean, Judy Meintzer, and Kate Wishart

Planning future research projects

Over the past week I have been working with Dr Karla Washington to plan our upcoming research project in Jamaica in January. We have been working on grants, ethics protocols and papers.

Parents' choices about language mode and use

Kate Crowe is one of my PhD students who is working on a fascinating and important topic. She is examining parental choices about the language mode (speech / signing) and language (English / Arabic / Greek / etc) for children with hearing loss. She has asked over 100 parents using a survey that included both open-ended questions and closed questions. She has been analysing the quantitative data with A/Prof David McKinnon, and the qualitative data with Dr Loraine Fordham. This picture shows the first stage of analysis of the qualitative data - using the old-fashioned technique of reading and sorting meaning statements to create themes. She is now entering the data into NVivo to undertake further analyses of the important insights these parents have given about the factors that influence their choices.

Dr Libbey Murray and Kate Crowe discussing emerging themes from Kate's data (in Brisbane)

UPDATE February 2013:
Here is the link to the published paper from this research
http://speakingmylanguages.blogspot.com.au/2013/02/part-of-our-world-influences-on.html

Disentangling the impact of speech and language impairment from speaking a language other than English

While in Brisbane I have been able to discuss and progress the analysis of data regarding children in the Longitudinal Study of Australian Children (LSAC) who speak languages other than English. My colleagues, Dr Sue Walker (Queensland University of Technology), Chrystal Whiteford (QUT), Linda Harrison (CSU) and I have been disentangling the impact of speaking a language other than English from having a speech and language delay in any/all languages.

Here is a summary of our findings to date:
Within Australia educational provisions are made to support children who speak languages other than English (LOTE) as their primary language. For children who speak a LOTE and have speech and language difficulties in each language, additional support services are required. This study aimed to determine the impact of primarily speaking a language other than English at home when 4- to 5-years-old on teacher-rated literacy, numeracy, and social-emotional outcomes at 8- to 9-years-old for children identified with and without overall speech and language concern. Participants were from the Kindergarten cohort of The Longitudinal Study of Australian Children (LSAC) (n = 4983). A matched-case control design (controlled for sex, socio-economic position (SEP), and age) enabled comparison between four groups of children: a) English + typical speech and language (n=109), b) LOTE + typical speech and language (n=109), c) English + speech and language concern (n=109), d) LOTE + speech and language concern (n=109). Next, multiple regression analyses were undertaken for the entire LSAC sample (n=4983) constructed in a hierarchical framework, with variables entered in four steps: child factors (including LOTE), family factors, competencies when 4- to 5-years-old, then competencies when 6- to 7-years-old. Three teacher-rated outcome measures at age 8- to 9-years were considered. The results indicated at 4- to 5-years there were significant differences between groups a) and b) on the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test (PPVT), a direct assessment measure, and the parent-rated Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ). Further, there were significant differences between groups c) and d) on the PPVT. Children speaking LOTE performed more poorly than English speaking children on both these measures. There were no significant differences between groups on the Who am I? (WAI). However, by 8-to 9-years speaking a LOTE did not predict school-age academic and social-emotional difficulties. Significant predictors for Language and Literacy included SEP, parent and teacher reported use of speech pathology services, expressive language concerns, PPVT at 4- to 5-years and children’s competencies at 6- to 7-years. Significant predictors for Mathematical Thinking included child sex, SEP, LOTE, parent and teacher reported use of speech therapy, 4/5 PPVT and children’s competencies at 6- to 7-years. For the SDQ significant predictors included child sex, SEP, receptive language concerns and children’s approaches to learning at 6-7 years. These results indicate that presence of speech and language concern at 4- to 5-years was a greater predictor of school-age academic and social-emotional difficulties than speaking a LOTE.

Sue Walker, Chrystal Whiteford, Linda Harrison & Sharynne

Brisbane: Early Years Education Collaborative Research Network

This week almost 70 people within the Early Years Education Collaborative Research Network met in Brisbane. The CRN includes researchers from Charles Sturt University, Monash University, and Queensland University of Technology. What an inspiring week by the Brisbane River!

Over the week we have gone under, over and around many research ideas and questions

Love the spelling! Actually we are mostly "sisters" not "bro"s

A systematic review of the influence of bilingualism on speech production

The following paper has been accepted for publication this week:
Hambly, H., Wren, Y., McLeod, S., & Roulstone, S. (2012, in press May). The influence of bilingualism on speech production: A systematic review. International Journal of Language and Communication Disorders.

ABSTRACT
Background: Children who are bilingual and have speech sound disorder are likely to be under-referred, possibly due to confusion about typical speech acquisition in bilingual children.
Aims: The aim of this review was to investigate what is known about the impact of bilingualism on children’s acquisition of speech in English to facilitate identification and treatment of bilingual children with speech sound disorder.
Methods: A systematic review of studies from the last 50 years was conducted. Studies investigating speech acquisition in bilingual infants and children (where one language was English) were identified through searching 7 electronic databases, bibliographies of relevant articles and emailing authors. Sixty six studies investigating bilingual speech production met inclusion criteria, with 53 describing typically developing children and 13 describing children with speech sound disorder. The 66 studies were analysed thematically and summarised in terms of methods, key findings and underlying theories.
Main Contribution:
There was limited evidence to suggest that bilingual children develop speech at a slower rate than their monolingual peers; however, there was evidence for qualitative differences and increased variation in speech production. Nearly all studies provide evidence for transfer between the two phonological and language structures, although the amount of transfer varied between studies. There was evidence of positive and negative transfer of features from the dominant language (L1) to the second language (L2) as well as from L2 to L1. Positive transfer became more evident with increased age and length of exposure to a second language. More recently researchers have moved away from investigating whether there are one or two phonological systems and accept that there are two systems that interact.  Interest has shifted to examining how phonological systems interact and to identifying factors that influence interactions. The review revealed a number of inconsistencies in the findings of studies due to differences in methodology, languages investigated, and degree of language exposure. Overall, measurement issues were addressed well but most studies provided limited sample information about language experience, schooling and socio-economic status.
Conclusions: There are differences in speech sound acquisition between monolingual and bilingual children in terms of rate and patterns of error, with both positive and negative transfer occurring in bilingual children.

Book review: Listening to children and young people

The following book review has just been published in the RCSLT Bulletin referring to Listening to Children and Young People with Speech, Language, and Communication Needs. Here are some excerpts


"I am a self-confessed train/bedtime reader, so I found this book fantastic for its dip-in-able, engaging and readable style.

The first few pages are a series of short passages...These are heart-warming, sensitively written and very powerful examples of the impact of our work...their voices radiate through the pages.

The rest of the book ... is packed with different ideas and techniques that I have been truly inspired by...

 I would normally recommend taking a thriller to bed but I will put my neck on the line and say that your clinical practice will be enhanced after ‘sleeping on this book’."

Reviewer Kirsty Bui, SLT, Director, SLT Journal Club
Overall rating: 4 out of 5

Walkie Talkies

Kate and Hannah with their pedometres

The job of a researcher requires vast amounts of sitting, thinking, reading, and typing.
As a result, my students and I have decided to conduct a 10 week challenge to walk at least 10,000 steps per day. We live in different cities from one another, so if we find ourselves in the same place, we try to walk (and talk) together. Consequently we have called ourselves the Walkie Talkies and are plotting our steps using Excel spreadsheets.
There are prizes not only for the most steps walked, but also for the largest standard deviation, and the most improved since baseline. We may even use more of the statistical capabilities to explore our results as an exercise in quantitative stats! I will keep you posted on how we are doing.

March-May 2012 summary

AUSTRALIAN RESEARCH COUNCIL FUTURE FELLOWSHIP UPDATE
‘Speaking my language: International speech acquisition in Australia’
Written by Kim Woodland, Research Institute for Professional Practice, Learning and Education for the May 2012 RIPPLE Update

Sharynne and Dr Yvonne Wren in Bathurst

Sharynne began March by speaking to over 400 parents and teachers from 30 rural and remote schools throughout New South Wales. Her presentation—Supporting children’s speech and language development—was part of RDE RELATE, a community education initiative from the Department of Education and Communities’ Country Areas Program which aims to support rural and remote communities by using videoconferencing to broadcast important speakers and issues. Work has also continued on the Early Years Education Collaborative Research Network (EYE CRN), including a two-day meeting in Albury where Sharynne worked with colleagues from three universities to analyse data from the Longitudinal Study of Australian Children (LSAC). She used the wealth of information from her Fellowship experience to focus on children speaking languages other than English. Dr Yvonne Wren from The University of the West of England visited in April, and they worked on a journal article, conference presentation and a grant submission. An international speech assessment project Sharynne has been supervising with Dr Martin Barrett, which involved Masters’ students from East Tennessee State University creating a prototype computer program for the International Speech Assessment, was wrapped up in early May with a final presentation. Sharynne has also continued publishing, with three co-authored journal articles on children's speech and language recently being released.

The RIPPLE Effect is published here: http://www.csu.edu.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0004/255163/The-RIPPLE-Effect-Issue-1-2012.pdf

Systematic review of speech assessments

Sarah Verdon and I have been spending each Friday undertaking a systematic review of speech (articulation and phonology) assessments for speakers of languages other than English. The review encompasses the conceptual and operational aspects of the assessments. We have had a lot of fun working out what the manuals are saying by using Google Translate, then asking our colleagues from around the world who speak the languages (and we also try to ask the people who have written the test). There are some very impressive assessments that are available, and I can't wait until it is completed and we are ready to tell the English-speaking world about them.

Sarah with German, Spanish, Turkish, Greek, Cantonese and Norwegian tests

Analysing Vietnamese children's speech with students in Ho Chi Minh City

This afternoon I spent an hour discussing speech analysis with two groups of students from Ho Chi Minh City (via Skype) facilitated by Janella Christie and a Vietnamese interpreter. It is exciting to see how they have been applying my lectures from May 2011 to real children in Vietnam. They have been developing assessments and analyses that are relevant to the different pronunciations from different parts of Vietnam. They have also been finding phonological patterns that are typical for English-speaking children, and not listed in Tang and Barlow (2006). It is a privilege to be a part of developing the profession of speech pathology in VietNam.

Help! My computer is full

We often take our computers for granted.
This week I was copying data (video and audio files as well as images from the children's drawings) from our Talking about Talking research onto my computer -- and received the message that my computer was full! Researching about children's speech does take a lot of computer storage, and is another factor and cost in undertaking research in this field.

International Speech Assessment: Finalization of the ETSU capstone project

Today was the final presentation of the capstone project undertaken by the masters' students from East Tennessee State University. Over the past 18 months they have been working with Dr. Martin Barrett and myself to create a prototype for the International Speech Assessment. During their presentation, the students said that they had completed 2897.5 hours of work on the project! It has been a very an interesting process to learn what is important for creating a working computer program.
An earlier blog posting about the project (May 2011) is here

ISA Capstone Team: L-R Howard Morris, Jim Johnson, Dr. Martin Barrett, Nathanial McConnell, Heather Haley, Chandan Biswas, Eric Barclay, Kris Cunigan, Aaron Stokes

Speech-language pathologists at war?

Two journal articles have been published recently that talk about battles:

1. McCormack, J., McAllister, L. McLeod, S. & Harrison, L. J., (2012). Knowing, having, doing: The battles of childhood speech impairment. Child Language Teaching and Therapy, 28, 141-157.
2. Kenny, B. & Lincoln, M. (2012). Sport, scales or war?Metaphors speech-language pathologists use to describe caseload management. International Journal of Speech-Language Pathology, 14(3), 247-259.   

 When we enter the speech-language pathology profession we don't realize we will be engaged in battles (e.g.,  having to fight for our clients, fight for rights within our workplaces, etc); nor do we think about the battles our clients and their families experience (e.g., in order to access services).

Student graduation

Rebekah Lockart graduated on 20th April with a Master of Speech and Language Pathology from the Faculty of Human Sciences, Department of Linguistics, Macquarie University in Sydney. Congratulations Rebekah! Her thesis was titled: “Factors that enhance Australian speech-language pathologists’ assessment of the speech of Cantonese-speaking children” and it was a privilege to supervise her work (we had an official arrangement between the two universities). 

During June Rebekah will be presenting aspects of her thesis at the Speech Pathology Australia National Conference in Hobart, Australia and I will be presenting a different paper based on this work at the International Clinical Phonetics and Linguistics Conference in Cork, Ireland. We have also just received positive reviews from an international journal about a paper based on her thesis – so soon the world will also know about the important work that Rebekah has undertaken.

Rebekah and David Lockart

 

Supervision of distance and part-time higher degree research students

Today I coordinated a supervisory workshop for the CSU Research Office titled "Supervision of distance, remote and part-time higher degree research students" The workshop was attended by academics from four universities (Australian National University, University of Canberra, Charles Sturt University, and University of New South Wales).
The other presenters were
Rob Doubleday, Manager, Research Policy and Coordinator | CSU Research Office

Dr Rod Pope, Head, Research Professional Development Programs | CSU Research Office

Kate Crowe, PhD student, Faculty of Education, CSU.

As part of my presentation I discussed practices of effective supervisors (based on James and Baldwin, 1999) that required special consideration when working with part-time distance students (see asterisked points):

"FOUNDATIONS

1.Ensure partnership is right for project

2.*Get to know students and carefully assess their needs

3.*Establish reasonable, agreed expectations

4.Work with students to establish a strong conceptual structure and research plan

MOMENTUM

5. Encourage students to write early and often

6. *Initiate regular contact and provide high quality feedback

7. *Get students into the life of the department

8. Inspire and motivate

9. *Help if academic and personal crises crop up

FINAL STAGES

10. Take an active interest in students’ future careers

11. Carefully monitor the final production and presentation of the research"

James, R., & Baldwin, G. (1999). Eleven practices of effective postgraduate supervisors. Parkville VIC: University of Melbourne.

Children's books in languages other than English

As part of my Future Fellowship research I have collected many children's books written in languages other than English. I have been considering the vocabulary, illustrations, and conventions used by authors, illustrators and publishers in different cultures. This weekend I found a wonderful bookshop in Sydney that specializes in Japanese and Chinese books (including extensive children's book sections). It is called Kinokuniya, and think I will be visiting it again.

Japanese books are traditionally opened from right to left and written from top to bottom. However, many contemporary Japanese children's books are opened from left to right, and are written horizontally to mirror English conventions.

Dr Yvonne Wren's visit

Over Easter Dr Yvonne Wren and her family visited Bathurst. I have worked with Yvonne in Bristol on a number of occasions, and we have worked in many other cities in the world on days before or after conferences. So, it was wonderful to have her visit my home this time. Yvonne and I have been working on a paper based on analysis of the ALSPAC longitudinal data set. We also discussed her development, computerisation and testing of Phoneme Factory Phonology Screener.

Sharynne and Yvonne exploring Bathurst

A kangaroo near the entrance of Charles Sturt University

Just published: Intelligibility in Context Scale

The following manuscript has just been published  

 McLeod, S., Harrison, L. J. & McCormack, J.  (2012). Intelligibility in Context Scale: Validity and reliability of a subjective rating measure. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, 55, 648-656.

Purpose: To describe a new measure of functional intelligibility, the Intelligibility in Context Scale (ICS), and evaluates its validity, reliability, and sensitivity using clinical measures of severity of speech sound disorder: percentage of phonemes correct (PPC), percentage of consonants correct (PCC), and percentage of vowels correct (PVC).

Method: Speech skills of 120 preschool children (109 with parent-/teacher-identified concern about how they talked and made speech sounds, and 11 with no identified concern) were assessed via the Diagnostic Evaluation of Articulation and Phonology. Parents completed the 7-item ICS questionnaire which rates the degree to which children’s speech is understood by different communication partners (parents, immediate family, extended family, friends, acquaintances, teachers, and strangers) on a 5-point scale.

Results: Parents’ ratings showed that most children were “always” (5) or “usually” (4) understood by parents, immediate family and teachers, but only “sometimes” (3) by strangers. Factor analysis confirmed the internal consistency of the ICS items; therefore, ratings were averaged to form an overall intelligibility score. The ICS had high internal reliability (α=0.93), sensitivity, and construct validity. Criterion validity was established through significant correlations between the ICS and PPC (r=.54), PCC (r=.54), and PVC (r =.36).

Conclusion: The ICS is a promising new measure of functional intelligibility. These data provide initial support for the ICS as an easily administered, valid and reliable estimate of preschool children’s intelligibility when speaking with people of varying levels of familiarity and authority.