Australian definitions of a "child"

There is variance in how State and Territory Legislation defines a child. 

Australian Institute of Family Studies. (2024). Australian legal definitions: When is a child in need of protection? https://aifs.gov.au/resources/resource-sheets/australian-legal-definitions-when-child-need-protection 

Here are the definitions: 

• NSW: Section 3 of the Children and Young Persons (Care and Protection) Act 1998 No 157 (NSW) defines a child as a person who is under the age of 16 years and a young person as a person who is aged 16 years or above but who is under the age of 18 years. 
• VIC:  Section 3 of the Children, Youth and Families Act 2005 (Vic.) defines a child as: ‘(a) in the case of a person who is alleged to have committed an offence, a person who at the time of the alleged commission of the offence was under the age of 18 years but of or about the age of 10 years but does not include any person who is of or above the age of 19 years when a proceeding for the offence is commenced in the Court’ and ‘(b) in any other case, a person who is under the age of 17 years or, if a protection order, a child protection order within the meaning of Schedule 1 or an interim order within the meaning of that Schedule continues in force in respect of him or her, a person who is under the age of 18 years’ 
• NT: Section 13 of the Care and Protection of Children Act 2007 (NT) defines a child as a person less than 18 years of age, or a person apparently less than 18 years of age if the person's age cannot be proved. 
• WA: Section 3 of the Children and Community Services Act 2004 (WA) defines a child as a person who is under 18 years of age, and in the absence of positive evidence as to age, means a person who is apparently under 18 years of age. 
• SA: Section 16 of the Children and Young People (Safety) Act 2017 (SA) defines a child or young person as a person who is under 18 years of age. 
• TAS: Section 3(1) of the Children, Young Persons and Their Families Act 1997 (Tas.) defines a child as a person under 18 years of age. 
• ACT: Section 11 of the Children and Young People Act 2008 (ACT) defines a child as a person who is under 12 years old, and section 12 defines a young person as a person who is 12 years old or older but not yet an adult. The Children and Young People Act 2008 (ACT) refers to the Legislation Act 2001 that defines an adult as a person who is at least 18 years old. 
• QLD: Section 8 of the Child Protection Act 1999 (Qld) defines a child as an individual under 18 years. 

Thanks to Dr. Helen L. Blake for this information

Nord University - Visit to CSU and conversations about the future

We have been honoured to have visitors from Nord University (https://www.nord.no/en) at Charles Sturt University in Bathurst over the past three weeks. Susanne Francisco has coordinated the visit of 

• Professor Wenche Rønning and 
• Associate Professor Kathrin Olsen 

from Fakultet for lærerutdanning og kunst- og kulturfag [Faculty of Teacher Education and Arts and Culture]. We look forward to working on a Memorandum of Understanding between the two universities.

Dr Susanne Francisco, Prof Wenche Rønning, A/Prof Kathrin Olsen,
Dr Kate Smithers, Prof Sharynne McLeod and Dr Leanne Gibbs

Kathrin and Sharynne saw 9 kangaroos near CSU.

 

Preparing to be the Bristol Benjamin Meaker Distinguished Visiting Professor

I am looking forward to being the Bristol Benjamin Meaker Distinguished Visiting Professor in April/May 2024. https://www.bristol.ac.uk/international-research-development/visiting-researchers/visitors-for-202324/sharynne_mcleod/

 

During my visit, I will be presenting a number of lectures in England and Wales, as well as undertaking collaborative research with colleagues at the University of Bristol including:

"...this year’s BSLTRU Underwood Trust Annual lecture is taking place on Tuesday 30th of April. We are thrilled to announce that our guest speaker this year is Professor Sharynne McLeod from Charles Sturt University, Australia who will be speaking on Communicating with Children and Families in a Multilingual World."

 

 

BBC News: 'A wonderful opportunity': The adventure of raising bilingual children

BBC News: 'A wonderful opportunity': The adventure of raising bilingual children https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20240307-how-to-raise-bilingual-children

Thank you for wonderfully supportive colleagues

I am so honoured to work with wonderfully supportive colleagues. Here are a few who have encouraged and inspired me today.

Prof Julian Grant and Dr Emmaline Lear

Arifa Rahman

The Treehouse - a long journey - and we are getting there

This afternoon I had an important meeting with DVC-R Mark Evans and HOS Will Letts about many topics. They were very supportive of The Treehouse as a venue for our research with young children.

 

Once Upon a Time - Children's perspectives of DTTC intervention - Data are arriving

Our Once Upon a Time - Children's perspectives of DTTC intervention research team met today and had the first look at some of the submitted data. What a great milestone!

A/Prof Jane McCormack, Prof Sharynne McLeod, Dr Marie Ireland, Dr Anna Cronin

Celebrating International Women's Day

International Women's Day is celebrated on 8 March 2024. 

From Charles Sturt University's What's New and News

The theme of International Women's Day 2024 is “Count Her In: Invest in Women. Accelerate Progress". It brings attention to the fact that women's economic empowerment is central to a gender-equal world. When women are given equal opportunities to earn, learn and lead, entire communities thrive. 

This year we are celebrating women at Charles Sturt who are accelerating the progress of gender equity. From Monday, 4 March, profiles will be shared of women in the University who are leading the way in creating change by role modelling, breaking down barriers and supporting and advocating for others. These include: 

• Professor Renée Leon, Vice-Chancellor 
• Heather McGregor, Pro Vice-Chancellor, Student Success 
• Professor Sally Totman, Head of School, Social Work and Arts 
• Professor Sharynne McLeod, Professor of Speech and Language Acquisition 
• Dr Donna Bridges, Senior Lecturer in Sociology, Lead - Gender and Feminist Studies Network. 

On Friday 8 March, from 10am, there will be a panel discussion moderated by Michelle Crosby, Chief Operating Officer. Featuring each of our profiled staff members, the panel will focus on the impacts of gender on career trajectory, women in non-traditional roles and women supporting women. 

All Charles Sturt staff are invited to attend. 

You can find the calendar invitation to the panel discussion and profiles on the Respect, Equity and Diversity webpage: https://www.csu.edu.au/division/people-culture/current-staff/respect-equity-and-diversity/gender

Blog: https://thinkspace.csu.edu.au/diversityinclusion/ 

Here is my input for the CSU blog: https://thinkspace.csu.edu.au/diversityinclusion/2024/03/07/distinguished-professor-school-of-education-sharynne-mcleod/

• Profile questions for International Women’s Day 2024 
• Name: Sharynne McLeod 
• Role at the University: Distinguished Professor, School of Education 
• What was your first paid job? Working in my parents’ shoe store 
• The Science and Gender Equity Agency (SAGE) uses the analogy of a career as a pathway with open and closed gates. Can you tell us about your career pathway and some of the gates, or unexpected turns you have experienced? The Early Childhood Interdisciplinary Research Sturt Scheme is a wonderful example of a way that Charles Sturt University has opened gates for many early and mid career researchers and HDR students to grow as researchers, academics and people (https://researchoutput.csu.edu.au/en/organisations/early-childhood-interdisciplinary-research-group). Over the three years of funding (2021-2024) our 5-woman strong leadership team  have worked with over 40 people across Charles Sturt in fields such as early childhood education, speech pathology, nursing, psychology, physiotherapy, and data science (https://earlychildhoodresearch.csu.domains/researchers-and-publications/).
• Inclusion and gender equity are such hot topics today, but it hasn’t always been that way. What changes to these have you experienced or noticed during your career? I have a background in speech pathology and early childhood. Therefore, I have spent a lot of my career undertaking research about and advocating for inclusion of people with disabilities – particularly those with invisible disabilities that impact speech, language, hearing, communication as well as other invisible reasons that impact people’s ability to fully participate (e.g., mental health, cancer treatments etc.). I am passionate about everyone’s right to communicate. During my career I have been able to co-create opportunities to advocate for inclusion. For example, I have advocated for communication rights at the United Nations and the World Health Organization and many other places across the world.
• To allow us to get to know you better, what is something, besides gender equity of course, that you are passionate about? I think that children have a lot to teach us. Our recent submission to the United Nations has many examples of their wisdom: https://www.ohchr.org/sites/default/files/documents/issues/youth/hr75/submissions/subm-views-youth-led-cso-early-childhood-interdisciplinary-resear.pdf

 

Thank you Arifa for your generous gift "Dare to dream: A new journey is ready to begin" "Let your cup always be full of happiness"

Arifa Rahman and Sharynne

Three years between acceptance and publication of a journal article

This paper was accepted for publication in March 2021 – and finally has been published with volume and page numbers in March 2024!

 Tran, V. H., McLeod, S., Verdon, S. & Wang, C. (2024). Vietnamese-Australian parents: Factors associated with language use and attitudes towards home language maintenance. Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development, 45(2), 489-506. https://doi.org/10.1080/01434632.2021.1904963 

50 free online copies of are available here: https://www.tandfonline.com/eprint/KWECZQYPTHTETRGFWTZY/full?target=10.1080/01434632.2021.1904963

The Oxford Handbook of Speech Development in Languages of the World - getting closer to submission

The Oxford Handbook of Speech Development in Languages of the World is an important book - but very time intensive book to edit. There will be ~ 80 chapters in the final version. We have been working very hard:

• 30 chapters are completely finalised and ready for OUP
• 11 chapters are with the authors to answer the copyeditor's queries
• 12 chapters are with the copyeditor
• 19 chapters are with the authors after my editorial review
• the ~8 remaining chapters are undergoing editorial review/author finalisation
  

Early Childhood Interdisciplinary Research Sturt Scheme Research Impact

What do you get when you create a Charles Sturt research group with an agreed focus to make the world better for children? The answer is a lot of research impact. The Sturt Scheme funded Early Childhood Interdisciplinary Research (ECIR) group is a great example of how CSU supports active and quality interdisciplinary collaboration between new and experienced researchers to foster research excellence. 

• ECIR https://earlychildhoodresearch.csu.domains/ 

• ECIR Research Outputs https://researchoutput.csu.edu.au/en/organisations/early-childhood-interdisciplinary-research-group 

Children Draw Talking: 

ECIR members have collected 200 children’s drawings from over 20 countries as part of the Early Childhood Voices Conference 2022 (ECV2022) conference as a springboard for advocacy and research output. Together 16 members of the group analysed the 200 drawings using frameworks from education, speech pathology and linguistics. The project team recently shared their findings at a 1-hr symposium presented at the 2024 Australasian Journal of Early Childhood (AJEC) conference in February. The presentation stimulated excellent discussion amongst participants. Currently, journal articles reporting on the drawing analysis protocol and analyses outcomes are underway and have submitted a manuscript to a Q1 journal. 

• Gallery 1: The World https://earlychildhoodresearch.csu.domains/early-childhood-voices-conference-2022/children-draw-talking-gallery-1-the-world/ 

• Gallery 2: Indonesia https://earlychildhoodresearch.csu.domains/early-childhood-voices-conference-2022/children-draw-talking-gallery-2-indonesia/ 

• Gallery 3: Australia https://earlychildhoodresearch.csu.domains/early-childhood-voices-conference-2022/children-draw-talking-gallery-3-australia/ 

• Gallery 4: Australia https://earlychildhoodresearch.csu.domains/early-childhood-voices-conference-2022/children-draw-talking-gallery-4-australia/ 

United Nations Human Rights 75 Youth Declaration: 

Another exciting outcome from ECV2022 was an ECIR team response to the United Nations’ call for views of youth-led and youth-focused organizations and institutions on the future of human rights for the development of the Human Rights 75 Youth Declaration.. Their ECIR group submission can be accessed on the United Nations’ website here: https://www.ohchr.org/sites/default/files/documents/issues/youth/hr75/submissions/subm-views-youth-led-cso-early-childhood-interdisciplinary-resear.pdf 

Early Childhood Voices (Springer): 

Following on from the internationally successful Early Childhood Voices Conferences in 2020 and 2022 (ECV2020 and ECV2022) members of ECIR have co-edited and co-authored a book to be published by Springer in 2024 that brings together professionals across multiple disciplines from 17 countries. 

Mahony, L., McLeod, S., Salamon, A., Dwyer, J. (Eds.) (in press). Early childhood voices: Children, families, professionals. Springer. https://link.springer.com/book/9783031564833 

Here are some of the reviews: "Voice has been explored in early childhood before, but the focus of this book from a social justice perspective contextualizes voice work in a powerful way." "The interdisciplinary nature of the book is to be commended!" "The images of children and drawings by children bring the book to life and are a wonderful addition." "The book also tackles head on the diversity of experience and culture. It moves away from a privileged perspective on voice work and includes many chapters on complexity and challenges in life" 

Early Childhood Voices Conference 2024 (ECV2024): 

Looking ahead, the ECIR group have begun planning the Early Childhood Voices Conference 2024 (ECV2024), which will run from 25-28 November 2024. So start thinking about presenting your research with children. Abstract submissions are open from 22 April 2024 - 29 July 2024. The ECIR team will once again look to collect children’s views – this year the focus will be on how children experience play and how they see play as essential to creating a better world. 

Apply to join ECIR: If advocating for the rights of children drives your research activities consider sending an email Expression of Interest and your CV explaining why you would be a good addition to the ECIR group to ECIR@csu.edu.au. Charles Sturt University staff and students are welcome to apply.

International Association of Communication Sciences and Disorders (IALP) Child Speech Committee

Tonight we had a meeting of the International Association of Communication Sciences and Disorders (IALP) Child Speech Committee. Members are from Malta, Hungary, Hong Kong SAR China, Iceland, Germany, Canada, Scotland UK, and Australia. I was the Chair of this committee during 2023, and now am a consultant on the committee. Prof Helen Grech is now the Chair. We are continuing the a focus on multilingual children's speech in our presentations and projects as we prepare for the centenary celebrations of IALP. 

https://ialp-org.com/child-speech/

Appointment to Charles Sturt University Distinguished Professor

I just received the following news:

"On behalf of the Vice-Chancellor, it is my pleasure to advise that your nomination for Charles Sturt University Distinguished Professor has been approved. The appointment as a Charles Sturt University Distinguished Professor is a highly prestigious appointment and I congratulate you on being recognised for your outstanding contributions."

Nominations for Charles Sturt University Distinguished Professor are considered with reference to the following criteria:

• An international reputation for exceptional research and scholarship
• Professional peer recognition of significant achievements at a state, national and international level
• Research/research team leadership
• Outstanding community engagement

I am grateful for the support and encouragement of CSU during my 25+ years of employment and am so pleased that I have been able to work with many great students and colleagues to make a difference in children’s lives throughout the world.

ECIR colleagues surprising me with flowers to celebrate the announcement

Rural Health Research Institute Grant research team meeting to discuss ethics

Today we had a CSU Rural Health Research Institute Grant team meeting to discuss our ethics application that was submitted last week - and how we can ensure that we undertake respectful research where we support staff, children, families and one another.

Helen Blake, Emily-Jane Woodhead, Sharynne, Kate Margetson, Sarah Bartlett

The World Atlas of Language Structures Online (WALS)

Kate Margetson just showed me The World Atlas of Language Structures Online (WALS): https://wals.info/. This resource is useful as we are considering how to compare languages.  For example, it has a number of variables for comparing the phonology of a language.

ECV2024 Children’s Voices Committee - ready for children's input

The ECV2024 Children’s Voices Committee had a very productive and creative meeting today. We are planning to have two child-focussed tasks at ECV2024. We are asking children to test these ideas/questions for our upcoming conference. Then we will invite the world's children to participate:

ECV2024 Children's Voices Committee - 27 Feb 2024

1. CHILDREN PLAYING (for all children) 

Draw (make/create) yourself playing 

Tell me about your picture … 

1. What are you doing in the picture? • What are you playing? • What are you playing with? 
2. Where are you playing? 
3. Are you playing with someone? yes/no • Who are you playing with? • Are you talking? • What are you talking about? 
4. Which one are you?
5. How do you feel about playing?
6. How is playing good for the world? 

2. CHILDREN’S SOLULTIONS (for older children) 

How would you make the world a better place? Pitch your solution by writing a story or making a presentation (e.g., PowerPoint) 

THANK YOU FROM THE ECV2024 CHILDREN’S VOICES COMMITTEE

Development of children's speech assessments

I have just been invited to advise someone internationally about her development of a speech assessment. Here are a few of our published resources I have just sent: 

Appendix C of this paper is designed to support people’s test development: 

• McLeod, S., & Crowe, K. (2018). Children’s consonant acquisition in 27 languages: A cross-linguistic review. American Journal of Speech-Language Pathology, 27(4), 1546–1571. https://doi.org/10.1044/2018_AJSLP-17-0100 1. 

Here are some general papers - with assessments available on the Multilingual Children's Speech website: https://www.csu.edu.au/research/multilingual-speech/speech-assessments

• McLeod, S. (2012). Multilingual speech assessment. In S. McLeod & B. A. Goldstein (Eds.), Multilingual aspects of speech sound disorders in children (pp. 113–143). Multilingual Matters. 
• McLeod, S. (2012). Translation to practice: Creating sampling tools to assess multilingual children’s speech. In S. McLeod & B. A. Goldstein (Eds.), Multilingual aspects of speech sound disorders in children (pp. 144–153). Multilingual Matters. 
• McLeod, S., & Verdon, S. (2014). A review of 30 speech assessments in 19 languages other than English. American Journal of Speech-Language Pathology, 23(4), 708–723. https://doi.org/10.1044/2014_AJSLP-13-0066 

A few years ago I worked with Dr Ben Pham and Xuan Le to create a speech test for Vietnam - and Ben's subsequent papers show how well her test development worked: 

• Phạm, B., McLeod, S., & Le, X. T. T. (2016). Development of the Vietnamese Speech Assessment. Journal of Clinical Practice in Speech-Language Pathology, 18(3), 126–130. 
• Phạm, B., & McLeod, S. (2016). Consonants, vowels and tones across Vietnamese dialects. International Journal of Speech-Language Pathology, 18(2), 122–134. https://doi.org/10.3109/17549507.2015.1101162
• Phạm, B., McLeod, S., & Harrison, L. J. (2017). Validation and norming of the Intelligibility in Context Scale in Northern Viet Nam. Clinical Linguistics & Phonetics, 31(7-9), 665–681. https://doi.org/10.1080/02699206.2017.1306110
• Phạm, B., & McLeod, S. (2019). Vietnamese-speaking children's acquisition of consonants, semivowels, vowels, and tones in Northern Viet Nam. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, 62(8), 2645–2670. https://doi.org/10.1044/2019_JSLHR-S-17-0405 
  
• Phạm, B., & McLeod, S. (2023). Considerations of dialect on the identification of speech sound disorder in Vietnamese-speaking children. International Journal of Language & Communication Disorders. https://doi.org/10.1111/1460-6984.12992
• McLeod, S., Margetson, K., Wang, C., Tran, V. H., Verdon, S., White, K., & Phạm, B. (2022). Speech acquisition within a 3-generation Vietnamese-English family: The influence of maturation and ambient phonology. Clinical Linguistics & Phonetics, 36(4-5), 470-493. https://doi.org/10.1080/02699206.2020.1862915 

We also have a lot of papers outlining the development of the ICS. Here are two:

• 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. https://doi.org/10.1044/1092-4388(2011/10-0130) 
• McLeod, S. (2020). Intelligibility in Context Scale: Cross-linguistic use, validity, and reliability. Speech, Language and Hearing, 23(1), 9–16. https://doi.org/10.1080/2050571X.2020.1718837

Visiting RHRI CSU and OAMS in Orange

Today was Emily-Jane Woodhead's first visit to the Rural Health Research Institute (RHRI) at Charles Sturt University in Orange and the Orange Aboriginal Medical Service. We were made to feel so welcome in both locations. It was great to meet with Dr Hazel Dalton and Dr Liz Pressick at RHRI. They then accompanied us to OAMS where we were welcomed by Jamie Newman (CEO), Sarah Griffiths-Lanser (Medical Administration Lead) and Ebony Hay (Child Health Navigator).

Charles Sturt University Orange Campus

Sharynne McLeod, Jamie Newman, Hazel Dalton, Liz Pressick, Emily-Jane Woodhead, Sarah Griffiths-Lanser, Ebony Hay

CSU RHRI: Liz, Sharynne, Hazel and Emily-Jane

Invited Nancy McKinley Lecture - Supporting Monolingual and Multilingual Children’s Phonological Development

This morning I was honoured to present (online) the 2024 Nancy McKinley Lecture organised by the American Board of Child Language & Language Disorders that was attended by 711 people across the USA.

https://www.speechpathology.com/slp-ceus/nancy-mckinley-lecture-series/

 Supporting Monolingual and Multilingual Children’s Phonological Development 

By age 5, most children worldwide have acquired most consonants, vowels (and tones), and are intelligible. Respectful assessments that analyze children’s speech in all thei r home languages, and consider standard and dialect forms relevant to the child’s family, are described in this course. Free, evidence-based resources to support SLPs working with monolingual and multilingual children are also shared.

https://www.speechpathology.com/slp-ceus/course/supporting-monolingual-and-multilingual-children-10849

 

https://www.childlanguagespecialist.org/specialist/sharynne-mcleod/

Arabic pronunciation

 

Over the past few days I have had some fascinating conversations with Arabic speakers. First with Sara Kablaoui, who is undertaking her PhD with Dr Suzanne Hopf and Dr Helen Blake, and second with Dr Catherine Weiss who is a new French-Arabic-English-speaking staff member at CSU.