Australian Early Development Index workshop

Today Associate Professor Sharon Goldfeld visited Charles Sturt University in Bathurst as a guest of the Collaborative Research Network. Sharon is a paediatrician and public health physician at The Royal Children’s Hospital Centre for Community Child Health (CCCH) and a Research Fellow at the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute. Sharon has established a child health equity and policy research group including the Australian Early Development Index Research Program at CCCH with a focus on children with additional health and developmental needs, mental health and children with diverse language backgrounds.

Associate Professor Sharon Goldfeld (left centre) with members of the CRN

The AEDI is a community-based population measure of young children's development in their first year of school, based on questionnaires completed by kindergarten/prep teachers for each child in their class. Five key areas of early childhood development are assessed:

• physical health and wellbeing
• social competence
• emotional maturity
• language and cognitive skills (school-based)
• communication skills and general knowledge 

The AEDI website provides reports and community profiles for these five areas, based on data collected in 2009. Data from the 2012 collection will be made available in 2013. The AEDI information can be found here

(This blog was based on published information about the workshop)

Tips on publishing from ECRQ editor

Today the School of Teacher Education research committee invited Professor Adam Winsler, editor of Early Childhood Research Quarterly to present a workshop titled:  "Publishing and reviewing in top-flight peer-reviewed journals: A mentoring workshop for early-career (and seasoned researchers)". The workshop was attended by students and academics who learned a lot of information and strategies for publishing in high quality journals. Here are  Adam's top 10 tips for why quantitative and qualitative papers don't get published in ECRQ (and other journals):

"1. Not enough methodological detail or clarity provided 
2. No clear focused, specific, research questions/goals articulated

3. Literature review doesn’t set up the questions/hypotheses

4. Problems with spelling, grammar, writing, English, and APA style

5. No policy/educational/practice implications given

6. Conclusions don’t follow from the data (could have made the points in the discussion without doing the study)

7. Contribution to the literature unclear

8. Bad fit between research goals and method/design/analysis

9. Poor fit between content of paper and scope of journal

10. Poor data analyses or design" (Winsler, 2013)

Suzanne's doctoral studies commence: Learning from children who speak Fijian English

This week Suzanne Hopf began studying her PhD with me. She is based in Fiji and will be undertaking her PhD as a distance education student (Charles Sturt University has many PhD students who successfully complete their PhDs by distance education). Suzanne's proposed topic and abstract is below. I am looking forward to our journey together as we learn from multilingual children in Fiji.

Title: An analysis of speech sound acquisition patterns and phonological awareness skills in simultaneous and sequential learners of Fiji English

Fiji, in the South Pacific Ocean, has a rich cultural mix and a remarkable degree of linguistic diversity for a country of less than a million people (Mangubhai & Mugler, 2006). This study is primarily concerned with the Fijian dialect of English known as “Fiji English”. Fiji English is spoken by the majority of Fijian residents but with diverse levels of proficiency and dialectical variance (Tent & Mugler, 2008). It is also the dominant language of the Fijian school system with children receiving the majority of their instruction and materials in English even though they may have had minimal contact with English prior to commencing school (Shameem, 2002 & 2007).

Fijians, like other Pacific Island nationals, have a strong presence around the world. Significant immigrant numbers are recorded in many English speaking countries including Australia, New Zealand  and the US. It is apparent that speakers of Fiji-English are in the school systems of these and other English speaking countries, even if their specific numbers are currently unknown. An understanding of the unique nature of English dialects, such as Fiji English, will help elucidate the impact of any potential speech sound disorder or delay and its subsequent influence in all areas of the academic curriculum, particularly literacy and English language studies (Hambly et al., 2013; Hus, 2009; McCormack et al., 2011).

Little is currently known about Fijian children’s speech acquisition or early literacy skills despite research concerning the linguistic profiles of adults speaking indigenous (Fijian), adapted (Fiji-Hindi) and adopted (Fiji English) languages.  As such, the proposed study aims are threefold. Firstly, to describe the characteristic phonetic inventories and developmental pattern of speech sound acquisition in 4- to 7-year-old children who speak Fiji English. Secondly, to evaluate emergent literacy skills, such as phonological awareness, in the same population. Finally to compare the patterns of both speech sound and literacy development to age matched monolingual Australian English speakers. Data obtained will help to elucidate the unique linguistic characteristics of Fiji English, so that if necessary, appropriate accommodations and modifications can be made to future learning environments and materials to which these children are exposed.

A Sound Start begins

Today (Monday 11th March) our ARC Discovery Sound Start Project officially began. Sarah Masso and Kate Crowe have begun the task of preparing to undertake this large 3 year project. After eating cake (pictured), their next task is to write our ethics applications. Today also marks the beginning of Sarah's PhD studies. She will be supervised by Dr Elise Baker, Dr Jane McCormack, and myself. Her PhD will be based on an aspect of the Sound Start Project. We all are looking forward to an exciting three years ahead.

Collaborations between Future Fellows

Professor Susan Danby from Queensland University of Technology is also an Australian Research Council Future Fellow. Her project is titled "Young children's use of smart technologies in early childhood" and she started in December 2012. It has been wonderful to share experiences with her and to learn from one another about our projects that are centered around young children. We are both in the Early Years Education Collaborative Research Network, so we have many opportunities to share ideas.

Early Years Education Collaborative Research Network meeting in Sydney

Over the past 2 days researchers from Charles Sturt University, Queensland University of Technology, and Monash University met in Sydney to develop proposals for continuing transformational research in early years education. Prof. Adam Winsler, the CRN international visiting scholar, contributed to the discussions and provided information about the Miami School Readiness Project, a longitudinal study of 58,341 children.

Prof. Adam Winsler with members of the Early Years Education
Collaborative Research Network

Professor Adam Winsler visits CSU

Dr. Adam Winsler is visiting Charles Sturt University during March and April as an international scholar affiliated with the Early Years Education Collaborative Research Network. He is professor of applied developmental psychology at George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia, USA. His research, represented in over 80 publications, examines early childhood programs, school readiness, kindergarten retention, and bilingual language development among low-income, ethnically diverse, immigrant children. He also studies private speech (self-talk) and its role in behavioral self-regulation and executive function among typically developing children as well as children with ADHD or autism. His books include: Scaffolding Children’s Learning: Vygotsky and Early Childhood Education (Berk & Winsler, 1995), and Private speech, executive functioning, and the development of verbal self-regulation (Cambridge University Press, 2009). He is also editor-in-chief of the journal, Early Childhood Research Quarterly (ECRQ). For more details see http://winslerlab.gmu.edu

Professor Adam Winsler in Bathurst

 

Multilingual children with hearing loss: Communication and choice

This morning Kate Crowe submitted her PhD titled: Multilingual children with hearing loss: Communication and choice. She has been supervised by myself, Associate Professor David McKinnon (CSU), Dr Loraine Fordham (CSU), and Dr Teresa Ching (Australian Hearing). Her thesis contains 7 publications (see below) with commentary binding it together. During her PhD she worked with over 400 children and their families within the Longitudinal Outcomes of Children with Hearing Impairment (LOCHI) study. Congratulations Kate!

Kate with her submitted thesis!

1. Crowe, K. (2012). Hearing loss in children: An overview for educators. Special Education Perspectives, 21(1), 29-45.
2. Crowe, K., & McLeod, S. (in press). A systematic review of cross-linguisticand multilingual speech and language outcomes for children with hearing loss. International Journal of Bilingualism and Bilingual Education. doi: 10.1080/13670050.2012.75868
3. 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.
4. Crowe, K., McKinnon, D. H., McLeod, S., & Ching, T. Y. C. (2013). Multilingual children with hearing loss: Factors contributing to language use at home and in early education. Child Language Teaching and Therapy, 29(1), 103-121. doi 10.1177/0265659012467640
5. Crowe, K., McLeod, S., McKinnon, D. H., & Ching, T. Y. C. (2012). Speech or sign: Factors influencing caregiver choice for children with hearing loss. Manuscript in submission.
6. Crowe, K., Fordham, L. A., McLeod, S., & Ching, T. Y. C. (in press). “Part of our world”: Influences on caregiver decisions about communication choices for children with hearing loss. Deafness and Education International.
7. Crowe, K. (2012). Translation to practice: Transcription of the speech and sign of bimodal children with hearing loss. In S. McLeod & B. A. Goldstein (Eds.), Multilingual aspects of speech sound disorders in children (pp. 191-195). Bristol, UK: Multilingual Matters.

   

   Kate with her proud CSU supervisors: David McKinnon, Sharynne McLeod, Loraine Fordham

   
   

IJSLP statistics for 2012

I have just received the statistics for 2012 for the International Journal of Speech-Language Pathology (IJSLP).

• Full text downloads increased from 17,136 in 2008 to 22,154 in 2010 and 33,315 in 2012.
• Abstract downloads increased from 32,757 in 2008 to 51,162 in 2010 and 71,902 in 2012.
• Total circulation for each issue of IJSLP is approximately 19,670 including print and online.

I am the editor of this journal, and it is fantastic to see the international interest in the papers we publish.

Visit by Professors Jan Edwards and Marios Fourakis

Over the past 3 days, Professor Jan Edwards and Professor Marios Fourakis, have visited Charles Sturt University. They were visiting from the Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders at the University of Wisconsin, Madison (USA).

Professor Edwards’ research aims to better understand the interactions between phonological and lexical development in young children.  Currently, she is examining the interactions among vocabulary growth and phonological knowledge (speech production, speech perception, and higher-level knowledge) in children who speak mainstream and non-mainstream dialects of English as well as children with normal hearing and children with cochlear implants. 

Professor Fourakis has collaborated with Professor Larry Shriberg in the development of the classification system for paediatric speech sound disorders termed the Speech Disorders Classification System (SDCS). He also undertakes research into speech perception and production by people with cochlear implants.

Professor Jan Edwards, Professor Sharynne McLeod, and Professor Marios Fourakis

On Monday 25th February, Professor Edwards gave the following presentation at the School of Teacher Education Brown Bag Seminar Series in Bathurst, and was simultaneously video-conferenced to people in Dubbo, Wagga and Albury.

Title: Dialect mismatch and its implications for academic achievement

Abstract: The single most important problem in public education in the United States today is the “achievement gap”: the well-documented observation that children from low-socioeconomic status (SES) families perform less well academically than children from middle-SES families. Many children from low-SES families speak a non-standard dialect of English (e.g., African American English or AAE), while the language of instruction is Mainstream American English.  Dialect mismatch is an often-ignored factor that may contribute to the achievement gap.  This talk will discuss two studies related to dialect mismatch. Study 1 examines the impact of dialect mismatch on the awareness and comprehension of MAE by 105 4- to 7-year-old AAE-speaking children from low-SES families.  Study 2 describes a pilot intervention program to ameliorate dialect mismatch. Children from two pre-kindergarten classrooms participated in this program: one classroom received a focused curriculum that highlighted differences between “home” and “school” talk, while the other classroom received a control intervention that focused on mindfulness.  Children in the experimental group, but not the control group, improved significantly on measures of MAE comprehension and phonological awareness after the intervention program. [Funded by NIH grant 02932 to Jan Edwards and a Wisconsin Institutes of Discovery grant to Mark Seidenberg]

Kangaroos (including a joey in the pouch) welcoming Jan and Marios to Bathurst

A Sound Start is about to start

Last year we were awarded the following Australian Research Council (ARC) Discovery Grant: A sound start: Innovative technology to promote speech and pre-literacy skills in at-risk preschoolers (DP130102545).

Here is an overview of the project:

Speech impairment affects one in five Australian preschoolers. If the problem persists into the school years between 30% to 77% of these children will have reading difficulties. Without specialist services, these children face increased risk of life-long social, educational, vocational limitations. Three challenges exist: identification of preschoolers most at risk, development of strategies for targeting both speech and pre-literacy skills, and provision of appropriate specialist services. This project will determine if an innovative computer-based service, delivered within preschools, can address these challenges by promoting age-appropriate speech and pre-literacy skills in children with identified risk of reading difficulties. 

The project team are:

• Chief Investigators: Sharynne McLeod (CSU), Elise Baker (University of Sydney), Jane McCormack (CSU)
• Partner Investigators: Yvonne Wren and Sue Roulstone (University of the West of England)
• Project Officer: Kate Crowe
• PhD Student: Sarah Masso

The project will run from 2013 - 2015. The team met in Sydney on Thursday and Friday to plan for the project to commence in March. There is a lot to organise; however, we are looking forward to the challenges and anticipate outcomes that will be of benefit to children with speech difficulties.

Kate Crowe, Sarah Masso, Sharynne McLeod, Jane McCormack, Elise Baker

    

“Part of our world”: Influences on caregiver decisions about communication choices for children with hearing loss

The following manuscript has been accepted for publication:

Crowe, K., Fordham, L., McLeod, S., & Ching, T. Y. C. (2013, in press February). “Part of our world”: Influences on caregiver decisions about communication choices for children with hearing loss. Deafness and Education International.

Here is the abstract

Caregivers of young children with hearing loss make decisions about which communication mode/s and spoken language/s their children and family will use. Influences on decision-making about communication were examined for 177 caregivers of Australian children with hearing loss through a questionnaire. The majority of the 157 children used speech as part or all of their communication system (n = 138, 87.9%), and approximately one-third of the children (n = 52, 33.1%) currently or had previously used sign as part or all of their communication system. Twenty-two (14.0%) children and 35 (19.8%) caregivers used a spoken language other than English. Four themes emerged from the qualitative analysis of caregiver responses about the most important influences on their decision-making. Theme one identified caregivers’ sources of information, including advice from professionals, family, and friends, as well as caregivers’ own research and preferences. Theme two related to practicalities of communication within the family and the community, as well as the need for one language or communication mode to be acquired before another was introduced. Theme three described the influence of children’s individual characteristics on caregivers’ decision-making, including children’s ability to access speech through audition, communication skills, additional disabilities, and children’s own preferences about communication. Finally, in theme four caregivers expressed their hopes for their children’s future lives, specifically fostering a sense of belonging, creating future opportunities and successes, and giving children the opportunity to choose their own method of communication. The findings can assist families and professionals to make informed decisions about children’s communication.

Here is a post from June 2012 showing Kate analysing the data for this paper

“Oh! I forgot the voice”: A comparative study of children’s drawings of talking

Today Hannah Wilkin submitted her dissertation degree of Bachelor of Education (Primary) (Honours).

Her thesis was titled:“Oh! I forgot the voice”: A comparative study of children’s drawings of talking.

Hannah's thesis, and the drawing that inspired her title

Here is the abstract:

Talking and listening are important skills for all children to learn in order to fully participate in society. Since the publication of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) (UNICEF, 1989), there has been increased recognition that children’s views should be valued and respected. Previous studies have shown the benefits of utilising child-friendly methods such as drawing to understand aspects of children’s lives. This study aimed to determine whether children with moderate to severe speech sound disorder (SSD) conceptualise talking differently in their drawings to children with typically developing speech. Participants were 78 4- to 5-year-old children (40 males, and 38 females) who were divided into two groups according to their speaking proficiency based on their percentage of consonants correct (PCC) on the Diagnostic Evaluation of Articulation and Phonology (DEAP, Dodd, Crosbie, Holm & Ozanne, 2002). Children with typically developing speech achieved a standard score ≥ 7 and children with moderate to severe SSD achieved a standard score of ≤ 3. Children were matched on gender and age (within two months) to provide a comparative sample of 39 pairs of children. Each child was asked questions about their perceptions of their talking, to draw themselves talking to someone, and to describe their drawing. These drawings and accompanying descriptions were analysed using content, descriptive, developmental, and psychological approaches. The children were able to represent talking in their drawings. Findings from the study indicate few statistically significant differences between the drawings of children with SSD and typically developing speech. Significant differences were identified in three of the eleven areas assessed for the children’s drawings: accentuated body features, the colours used and one of the self report measures (KiddyCAT; Vanryckeghem & Brutten, 2006). Children with SSD were more likely to accentuate ears in their drawings, while children with typically developing speech were more likely to accentuate arms/hands. Children with SSD used red, brown, purple and yellow in their drawings more frequently than children with typically developing speech. The KiddyCAT self report measure found that more children with SSD were in the “some difficulty” category than children with typically developing speech. There were no significant differences for any of the other areas considered: number of people in the drawing, conversational partners, facial expressions, portrayal of talking, image of self, Who Am I? Analysis (WAI; de Lemos & Doig, 1999), Adapted Fury Relationship Analysis (AFRA; Holliday 2008) and Faces task (SPAA-C, McLeod 2004). The limited differences between the two groups could relate to children’s self-perception and self insights at that age, and compare with other research suggesting some preschool children do not believe they have difficulties talking, instead they suggest that their conversational partners have difficulty listening (McCormack, McLeod, McAllister & Harrison, 2010). It is recommended that drawings accompanied by children’s verbal descriptions can be used to enhance teachers’ and speech-language pathologists’ understandings of young children’s perceptions of their talking.

Hannah with her proud supervisors: Linda Harrison and Sharynne

October 2012 - February 2013 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 February 2013 RIPPLE Update

The transition to 2013 hasn’t slowed Sharynne’s Future Fellowship research. Over the last few months she has travelled to Jamaica, attended conferences, presented lectures, had a book chapter published, and several journal articles have been accepted for publication.

Two important launches occurred in November:

·     The anticipated position paper on Multilingual children with speech sound disorders was released by the International Expert Panel on Multilingual Children’s Speech of which Sharynne is the chair. The paper draws on international understandings of professional practice and outlines best practice recommendations to support children with speech sound disorders.

·     The Multilingual Children’s Speech website, a compilation of resources for speech-language pathologists (and others) who work with multilingual children with speech sound disorders. Within the first two weeks, the Google analytics report for the website showed an impressive 4,363 page views, with the top countries accessing the site being the United States, Slovenia, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom and Japan. The website also won the Speechwoman of the Month website award for December.

During November, Sharynne also spent time, along with RIPPLE PhD scholar Sarah Verdon, working with members of the Australian Government Department of Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs analysing data as part of a national study, Footprints in Time: Longitudinal Study of Indigenous Children (LSIC). In 2013, they plan to submit a journal article about Indigenous children’s speech and language competence from this analysis.

In January, Sharynne and Dr Karla Washington from the University of Cincinnati traveled to Jamaica to work with researchers from the Jamaican Language Unit and the University of the West Indies to study children's speech and language acquisition. They spent a few weeks testing and documenting young Jamaican children’s speech and language skills, as well as meeting with other researchers. While in Jamaica, Sharynne presented an invited lecture, The importance of supporting children’s speech and language development, at the University of the West Indies.

In February, Sharynne presented another lecture, Applying the ICF-CY and the World Report on Disability to supporting children’s communication, via videoconference to students at the University of Cincinnati. Sharynne discussed how she has applied these documents to her research in the LSIC, the ARC-funded Sound Effects study, and her Future Fellowship.

For more information, please visit Sharynne’s blog: Speaking my languages.

Dr Karla Washington and Sharynne working in Jamaica