The cultural and linguistic diversity of 3-year-old children with hearing loss

The following manuscript, written by Kate Crowe (my PhD student) recently was accepted for publication:

UPDATED REFERENCE (OCTOBER, 2012)
 Crowe, K., McLeod, S., & Ching, T. Y. C. (2012). The cultural and linguistic diversity of 3-year-old children with hearing loss. Journal of Deaf Studies and Deaf Education, 17(4) 421-438. doi: 10.1093/deafed/ens028

ABSTRACT

Understanding the cultural and linguistic diversity of young children with hearing loss informs the provision of assessment, habilitation, and education services to both children and their families. Data describing communication mode, oral language use, and demographic characteristics were collected for 406 children with hearing loss and their caregivers when children were 3-years-old. The data were from the Longitudinal Outcomes of Children with Hearing Impairment (LOCHI) study, a prospective, population-based study of children with hearing loss in Australia. The majority of the 406 children used spoken English at home; however, 28 other languages also were spoken. Compared to their caregivers, the children in this study used fewer spoken languages and had higher rates of oral monolingualism. Few children used a spoken language other than English in their early education environment. One quarter of the children used sign to communicate at home and/or in their early education environment. No associations between caregiver hearing status and children’s communication mode were identified. This exploratory investigation of the communication modes and languages used by young children with hearing loss and their caregivers provides an initial examination of the cultural and linguistic diversity and heritage language attrition of this population. The findings of this study have implications for the development of resources and the provision of early education services to the families of children with hearing loss, especially where the caregivers use a language that is not the lingua franca of their country of residence.

Learning from children and their teachers in Tonga

During the first week of July I took annual leave and traveled with my family to Tonga in the South Pacific. We went as a part of a delegation to bring laptops and a library of children's books to a small village school on Tongatapu (the main island). We had corresponded with the village for about 18 months, and this was our first visit. We were overwhelmed by the welcome from the children, teachers, parents and villagers. We were even on Tonga TV for four days in a row! On Sunday, after spending a few days in the school, we went to the village church service where the choirmaster had composed an anthem in our honour. The Prime Minister of Tonga, Nobel Tu'ivakano, also came to the service, and sat at the head table with us at the feast after the service. The speeches during the feast acknowledged the strength of our ongoing relationship and we look forward to returning in the future.

Playing snap with the boys (a new game for them)

Speeches at the primary school

My family after the Tongan feast

Tongan children's literature: "Pato Puku" by Meleane Faufe'ulungaki

International Clinical Phonetics and Linguistics Association Executive Committee

I am very honoured to be the Vice President of the International Clinical Phonetics and Linguistics Association. I am now half way through my second term of office, so have been in the role for 6 years. The most challenging role for the committee over the past 2 years was to work with academics from Christchurch, New Zealand, who were to host the 2012 ICPLA conference, decide that this was not possible due the earthquakes, then find an alternative venue. We were very thankful that Prof Fiona Gibbon and Dr Alice Lee from University College Cork agreed to host the conference at short notice. It was an extremely successful conference. The next conference, will be held in June 2014 in Stockholm, Sweden. We are hoping that Christchurch will be ready to host the 2016 conference.



ICPLA executive committee: Martin Ball, Sara Howard, Sharynne, Ben Rutter, Tom Powell



L-R: Alice Lee, Tom Powell, Martin Ball, Fiona Gibbon, David Crystal,
Sara Howard, Ben Rutter, Sharynne McLeod

David Crystal receives honours of ICPLA

In conversation with David Crystal (note the Waterford Crystal bowl)

During the International Clinical Phonetics and Linguistics Association Conference, Professor David Crystal received the honours of the association. This was the first time ICPLA has bestowed an award to anyone, and David Crystal was a very worthy recipient. He was the founder of the field of clinical linguistics and phonetics, and has written many many books and articles on the topic. After being presented with an engraved Waterford Crystal bowl, the delegates of the ICPLA conference were treated to a Conversation with David Crystal. During the conversation, David outlined his long held belief that there should be a linguistics lab, much like a blood pathology lab, for speech-language pathologists to send language samples to. He also described the 3 things influencing the world's languages: the globalization of English, the digitization of language, and the extincion of languages. In addition, he said that he would not change his "bucket theory" regarding the influence of different components of language on one another.

Dr Karla Washington, Professor David Crystal, and Kate Crowe

Being in the same room as my distance collaborators

Most of the writing I do is with people who are in a different city or country to myself. Every so often I have the opportunity of being in the same room as them. While at the ICPLA conference in Cork, I was able to spend time with Bill Hardcastle and Sara Wood from Queen Margaret University, Edinburgh, to continue to work on our EPG book. I also had the opportunity to meet Elspeth McCartney from Strathclyde University in Glasgow. Elspeth, Jane McCormack and I recently wrote a book chapter for a book on the ICF-CY - and this was the first time we had met!

Elspeth McCartney and Sharynne

Sara Wood, Bill Hardcastle and Sharynne

International Clinical Phonetics and Linguistics Association Conference

This week is the International Clinical Phonetics and Linguistics Association Conference held at University College Cork, in Ireland. I always enjoy ICPLA conferences, because they are times to meet with old friends and make many new ones. I always learn so many new things and come away brimming with new ideas for research and collaborations.

This year there are 250 delegates from 33 different countries. There will be 4 keynotes, 9 thematic panels, 60 oral presentations, and 160 posters. Professor David Crystal will receive honours of the association, the first award to ever be made by the association. 

During the conference I am co-presenting 3 papers and 2 posters with my colleagues and students:

• Lockart, R. & McLeod, S. (2012, June). Accuracy of identification and transcription of speech sound errors in a non-native language. (paper)
• Wren, Y., McLeod, S., White, P., Miller, L., & Roulstone, S. (2012, June). Speech characteristics of 8-year-old children with speech difficulties: Findings from a prospective population study. (paper)
• Crowe, K. & McLeod, S. (2012, June). Case studies of the use of extIPA transcription. (invited paper)
• Crowe, K., McLeod, S., Ching, T. (2012, June). Multilingualism and multi-modalism in children with hearing loss and their families. (poster)
• Washington, K. N. & McLeod, S. (2012, June). Bi-dilectal considerations for Jamaican Creole: A focus on phonology (poster)

Fiona Gibbon (conference co-chair) and Sara Howard (ICPLA president)

Margaret Kehoe (Switzerland), Sharynne, Jan van Doorn (Sweden), David Snow (USA)

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International expert panel on multilingual children's speech

Today I chaired an international expert panel on multilingual children's speech in Cork, Ireland. This was the first meeting of the panel, and subsequent meetings with a larger group of participants will be held virtually. The aims of the panel are to:

• Define international best practice guidelines for working with multilingual children with speech sound disorders.
• Identify practical pathways for improvement of international practices for working with multilingual children with speech sound disorders.
• Share resources, current research, and exemplary practices regarding multilingual children’s speech.
• Plan collaborative projects to advance knowledge about multilingual children’s speech.

 We had a very rich discussion throughout the day, that was inspired by the following quote: How do we “close the gap between the linguistic homogeneity of the profession and the linguistic diversity of its clientele” ?(Caesar & Kohler, 2007, p. 198) 

By the end of the day we had outlined issues to enable us to prepare the draft of a position paper on multilingual children's speech. 

The international expert panel hard at work

The panel was still smiling at the end of our stimulating day together

Growing up in Ireland

Today I visited University College Cork, and spoke with colleagues in the speech therapy department who are using the Growing Up in Ireland longitudinal study data to consider prevalence of speech and language impairment in 9-year-old children in Ireland. They have been using papers that we have published from the Longitudinal Study of Australian Children (LSAC) study in Australia to compare with their data. It was interesting to discuss the similarities and differences between the two studies and the two sets of results. A number of questions asked in the LSAC study about speech and language have also been used in the Growing Up in Ireland study. However, while LSAC began data collection with two waves at 0 and 4 years, Growing Up in Ireland began data collection with two waves at 9 months and 9 years.

Dr Ciara O'Toole, Zoe Rooke, Prof Fiona Gibbon - University College Cork

Kissing the Blarney Stone!

While in Cork I had to visit Blarney Castle and kiss the Blarney Stone, that is said to give you the "gift of the gab" or the "gift of eloquence". My speech-language pathology colleagues and I thought it was worth the effort to lie on our backs and hang over a sheer drop to kiss the stone so that we increased our ability to talk (although some of our family did suggest that we did not need to). We were thankful for the gentleman who made sure we did not fall. We wondered if early speech therapy in Ireland involved a visit to the castle!

Speech Pathology Australia Conference in Hobart

While I am in Cork, Ireland, the Speech Pathology Australia National Conference is underway in Hobart, Tasmania, Australia. My students are presenting papers and posters for the first time - and from all reports have done extremely well. The following presentations have just been completed on the other side of the world to me:

• Lockart, R. & McLeod, S. (2012, June). Australian speech pathologists' assessment of the speech of Cantonese-speaking children (poster)
• Limbrick, N., McCormack, J. & McLeod, S. (2012, June). Designs and decisions: A review of informal measures for assessing children's speech. 

Bek Lockart presenting her poster in Hobart

Planning multilingual assessments in Bristol

While visiting the Speech and Language Therapy Research Unit in Bristol I had the opportunity to speak with staff, students and visitors to the department about a wide range of research projects (current and future).
I enjoyed meeting all of the postgraduate students and research assistants. I found out about the Parent Research Panel that has been formed to inform the Child Talk - What Works research project.

SLTRU staff and students

I also enjoyed discussing ideas for computerised assessments with Dr Yvonne Wren and Dave Rush from Alfiesoft and Mandarin/Putonghua assessments with Dr Zeng Biao. Yvonne, Prof Sue Roulstone and I had many other projects to discuss including ways to use the ALSPAC longitudinal study data to further inform us about children's speech and language skills.

Dave Rush and Dr Yvonne Wren

Dr Zeng Biao, Sharynne and Dr Yvonne Wren

Features of the Bristol accent

I have spent the week in Bristol and have enjoyed hearing the Bristolian accent. Here is a summary of some of the features, as outlined by Yvonne Wren and colleagues in a paper that is currently in submission for publication:

 
Vowels:

1. Use of [ə] for /ʌ/ (as in ‘putt’).

2. Use of [a] for /ɑː/ (as in ‘bath’)

3. Slightly longer or fuller vowels than RP e.g. mad [maˑd]; job [ʤɑˑb]; also - bucket [bəˑkɪˑʔ] rather than /bʌkɪˑʔ/; goodness [ˈgʊdnɛs] rather than /gʊdnəs/ or /gʊdnɪs/.

Consonants:

1. Post vocalic /ɹ/ as in [fɑɹm]

2. Presence of /l/ following word final /ə/ (as in ‘Americal’) and also medially in e.g. ‘drawling’ and ‘chimley’. (This is a feature known as Bristol ‘l’ and is confined to the local area of Bristol. ‘Eva’ and ‘evil’ would be homonyms in a child who shows this feature.)

3. Use of [f] for /θ/

4. Use of glottal stop for /t/ before a pause e.g. Pete – [piːʔ]

Australian Census data shows changes in Australia’s cultural and linguistic diversity

Australia’s 2011 census data were released today. Here are some interesting statistics:

• Australia's population is now over 21.5 million
• One in four people were born overseas, with the most common places of birth being India (13%) and UK (12%)
• Mandarin is now the second most common language spoken at home other than English, (previously this was Italian).
• Hinduism is the fastest growing religion
• 15% of the population does not hold citizenship
• Indigenous and Torres Strait Islander population is just under 550,000 (an increase of 20.5% since last census), with a third living in capital city areas
• The median age of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander population is 21 years - 16 years lower than the national figure

 Source: http://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-06-21/census-stats-reveal-australian-population-growing-strongly/4084130?WT.svl=news3