Guest Lecture - Interagency Speech Pathology Community of Practice

I was honoured to be invited to present a lecture to the Interagency Speech Pathology Community of Practice across NSW focussed on listening to children. These speech pathologists work in the Department of Communities and Justice. What an inspiring group.

Taking time to understand the true history of our country

Today was the 200th anniversary of the declaration of Martial Law in Bathurst. A sad day in the history of our nation. To mark this occasion, "Dhuluny: The war that never ended", a  thought-provoking exhibition, is at the Bathurst Art Gallery https://bathurstart.com.au/exhibitions-events/dhuluny-the-war-that-never-ended/

"Dhuluny means the direct or gospel truth, and the commemoration offers visitors the opportunity to share and understand the true history of our country and celebrate the resilience of the Wiradyuri Nation."

The Wiradyuri Traditional Owners Central West Aboriginal Corporation are hosting a series of events this week. I decided it was very important attend one of these events today. This afternoon I attended Dhuluny and sat with Wiradjuri woman Jessika Spencer (Ngurru: First Nationss Weaving) and learned how to weave as her grandmother had taught her.

My weaving

Wiradjuri weaving

Wiradjuri weaving

Possum skin arm bands

Ready for this afternoon's corroboree

 

 

Meeting with Audrey re Once Upon A Time research grant

 Today Dr Audrey Wang and I met to discuss the data from our Once Upon A Time research grant considering the experiences of children with childhood apraxia of speech (CAS) undertaking intensive intervention using an approach called Dynamic Temporal and Tactile Cueing (DTTC). As a psychologist, Audrey has knowledge about children's subjective, psychological and emotional experiences, cognitive and emotional development, and children’s ability to reflect on internal experiences.

Research planning with Catholic Education Tasmania

We are getting closer to finalising our research plans to support Catholic Education Tasmania (CET) and their screening of children's speech. This is an extremely important project and we look forward to the next steps.

Colleagues from CET, Sharynne, Nicola, Sarah V

Translating and sharing research - videos and posters

Today I met with A/Prof Belinda Cash for our monthly mentoring meeting. One of the topics we discussed was how important it is to translate our Q1 journal articles to user-friendly formats (videos, posters, resources etc.).

Here are some examples of ways that we have translated our research into user-friendly formats

1. VIDEO "The Lifelong Effects Of Speaking Multiple Languages" Multilingualism is a superpower! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wBrXmRW7lwg

Based on:

Blake, H. L., McLeod, S., Verdon, S., & Fuller, G. (2018). The relationship between spoken English proficiency and participation in higher education, employment and income from two Australian censuses. International Journal of Speech-Language Pathology, 20(2), 202–215. https://doi.org/10.1080/17549507.2016.1229031 

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

2.  RESOURCES "VietSpeech SuperSpeech - Maintaining home languages" https://www.csu.edu.au/research/vietspeech/info

Based on: 

McLeod, S., Verdon, S., Tran, V. H., Margetson, K., & Wang, C. (2022). SuperSpeech: Multilingual speech and language maintenance intervention for Vietnamese-Australian children and families via telepractice. Language, Speech, and Hearing Services in Schools, 53(3), 675-697. https://doi.org/10.1044/2021_LSHSS-21-00146

3.  POSTERS "Learning English consonants"https://www.csu.edu.au/research/multilingual-speech/speech-acquisition

Based on:

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

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/10.1044/2020_AJSLP-19-00168

4. VIDEO "ON-TRAC - transitioning to residential aged care" https://youtu.be/DKPSTt4ihyk

Based on: 

Fealy, S., McLaren, S., Nott, M., Seaman, C.E., Cash, B., & Rose, L. (2024). Psychological interventions designed to reduce relocation stress for older people transitioning into permanent residential aged care: A systematic scoping review. Aging and Mental Health. https://doi.org/10.1080/13607863.2024.2340731

(Created by Gareth Smart - CSU digital media technologist - DLT)

Lecture to fourth year Bachelor of Dental Science (BDSc) students

Tonight it was my pleasure to give a lecture to the fourth year Bachelor of Dental Science (BDSc) students. Dr Winey Wan invited me - and is an enthusiastic supporter of her students learning about speech, language and communication.

Impact of our research with siblings

Some time ago we undertook research with siblings of children with disabilities, including communication disabilities:

Barr, J., & McLeod, S. (2010). They never see how hard it is to be me: Siblings' observations of strangers, peers and family. International Journal of Speech-Language Pathology, 12(2), 162–171. https://doi.org/10.3109/17549500903434133

Our paper has just been cited here:

Strohm, K. (2024). Recommendations of the Disability Royal Commission fail to recognise families, siblings in particular, as natural lifelong supports for people with intellectual disabilities. Research and Practice in Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities, Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1080/23297018.2024.2364340

New book: Communication and Sensory Loss: Global Perspectives

I am so proud of my colleague A/Prof Kate Crowe who has just had her edited book published by Routledge.

It is titled: Communication and Sensory Loss: Global Perspectives

https://www.routledge.com/Communication-and-Sensory-Loss-Global-Perspectives/Crowe/p/book/9781032211626

Here is the CSU news release: https://news.csu.edu.au/latest-news/sensory-loss-and-communication-a-unique-new-book-to-guide-professionals

I was very honoured to write the foreword for the book. Here is a segment of my foreword:

Communication and sensory loss: Global perspectives is a rich resource for governments, professionals, students, communities and families sharing insights about the communication of children and adults with hearing and/or vision differences. The book contains 11 chapters. The first part (chapters 1 and 2) eloquently sets the scene, by clearly articulating terminology, frameworks, and intersectionality to support the strengths and participation of people with sensory loss. The second part focuses on sensory loss in childhood, specifically for children with hearing loss (chapter 3), visual impairment (chapter 4), deafblindness (chapter 5), and with complex communication needs (chapter 6). The third part focuses on sensory loss in adulthood, specifically acquired communication impairment in adults with sensory loss from childhood (chapter 7), adults with hearing loss (chapter 8), vision loss (chapter 9), deafblindness (chapter 10), and complex communication needs (chapter 11). What is remarkable about each of these chapters, is that they are co-authored by people from different professions, different parts of the world, and with different lived experiences so that each chapter acknowledges communication rights of “everyone”. The case studies challenge pre-conceived notions of people with sensory loss, uniquely focussing on the, lives, strengths and challenges of a diverse range of children and adults from across the world. 

This remarkable book is written by 31 different authors who work in Asia, Oceania, North America, South America, Europe, and Africa. All of the authors have professional experience supporting the communication of children and adults with hearing and/or vision differences. Uniquely, a number of the authors also have with lived experience of hearing and/or vision differences, and use their experiences and knowledge to advocate within their own countries and across the world...

Readers can approach this book like they would approach the world‘s most inclusive icecream shop. Readers can find foundational knowledge (vanilla) to understand overarching issues relating to communication and sensory loss. They can find common flavours (chocolate and strawberry) that are included in most books about sensory loss. However, they also can find unique insights about sensory loss from across the world (e.g., lychee, turmeric, durian, honeycomb, rosewater). The case studies provide exquisite additions (e.g., chocolate chips, sprinkles). And, there is attention to everyone – providing a strengths-based approach to inclusion (e.g., lactose free sorbets and gluten free alternatives to icecream cones). Indeed, this book can be read from beginning to end (e.g., like an enormous sundae), or can be revisited again and again gaining a unique combination of insights...

As a result - Kate and I celebrated with icecream!

Congratulations Plural Publishing - 20 years

Plural Publishing has marked their 20 year anniversary with the launch of a video.

https://vimeo.com/992289920

I am honoured to be included with Plural Publishing's founder Dr. Sadanand Singh.

We coauthored:

• McLeod, S., & Singh, S. (2009). Speech sounds: A pictorial guide to typical and atypical speech. Plural Publishing. 
• McLeod, S., & Singh, S. (2009). Seeing speech: A quick guide to speech sounds. Plural Publishing. 

 

3MT - Kate Margetson - finalist, runner-up and people's choice winner

Congratulations to Kate Margetson who was a finalist in the Three Minute Thesis (3MT) competition at Charles Sturt University this evening. She was flown to Port Macquarie to compete as one of the seven finalists from CSU.

See CSU News story: https://news.csu.edu.au/in-brief/phd-candidates-present-research-in-port-macquarie-in-three-minutes

Kate won the People's Choice Award ($500) AND runner-up ($750) CONGRATULATIONS!

Kate Margetson presenting her 3MT in Port Macquarie

Winner of the People's Choice Award!

Kate practicing her 3MT presentation

Allied health assistants - a valuable resource

Today we have had a wonderful yarn with people from OAMS regarding allied health assistants (AHAs) - a very valuable resource to support professionals such as speech pathologists in their work with children and families.

Sarah B, Katrina, Anna, Emily-Jane, Sharynne

CSU Brand - Creating The Treehouse and our new centre

I have had some wonderful meetings with CSU Brand to create a new subbrand for The Treehouse and our new centre. Today's meeting was with Brodie Miller. She has taken our ideas about using the image of a leaf/speech bubble and the suite of colours we were interested in - and has created a wonderful vision for our new centre. We now send it out for comment.

CSU webteam - Creating the web presence for our new centre and the virtual Treehouse

I have had many fantastic meetings with the CSU webteam to created web presence for our new centre and the virtual Treehouse. The team include:

• Boram Kwon
• Lindsey Ting
• Alex Moore

They have listened carefully, have looked at our current web presence - and have come up with some fantastic ideas. We have worked through the wireframe stage - and are about to start building the first stage (horse stage) - before we launch into the zebra and unicorn stages.

First meeting with the CSU webteam

CSU webteam showing the wireframe design

Preparing to present in Hong Kong

Kate Margetson and I have been invited to present a workshop in Hong Kong titled: Children's speech assessment and intervention: What works? What's new? What's the evidence?

It is exciting to begin to develop the content with our colleagues Dr Thomas Law in Hong Kong.

 https://speechearing.org/en/products/speech-sound-disorder 

ECV2024 Whole Team Meeting

Today our ECV2024 whole team met to continue preparing for our conference.

Here are the current statistics for the Early Childhood Voices Conference (ECV2024) to be held online 25-28 November 2024

• 452 registrations from 45 countries
• 76 abstracts for review from 23 countries
• 46 videos for the Multilingual Children's Speech Development stream
  
• 4 keynotes
• 15 drawings

Keynotes.

• Prof. Tony Dreise (Australia), Pro Vice-Chancellor First Nations Engagement, Charles Sturt University. 
• Prof Elizabeth Shuey (USA), a policy analyst at the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), where she works primarily on issues related to early childhood. 
• Professor Jenny Gibson (UK), Faculty of Education, The University of Cambridge, UK 
• Dr Tamara Cumming (Australia), Macquarie University and Charles Sturt University, Australia

Registration: https://www.csu.edu.au/ecv2024

Children Draw Playing invitation to children: https://www.csu.edu.au/ecv2024-children

Dhuluny

Today Olebeng and I visited Dhuluny: The war that never ended - a powerful and thought-provoking exhibition at the Bathurst Art Gallery

https://bathurstart.com.au/exhibitions-events/dhuluny-the-war-that-never-ended/

"The exhibition is part of The Dhuluny Project – a series of events commemorating the 200-year anniversary of the declaration of Martial Law on 14 August 1824 in the Bathurst region and the ensuing frontier violence. Dhuluny means the direct or gospel truth, and the commemoration offers visitors the opportunity to share and understand the true history of our country and celebrate the resilience of the Wiradyuri Nation...This project has been developed and supported with the Wiradyuri Traditional Owners Central West Aboriginal Corporation."

Visitors to the exhibition were given the chance
to reflect on the exhibition and write on a gum leaf

"Returning stolen goods" - artwork addressing the stolen generation

Books containing the Wiradjuri language on display
(I also own a number of these)

Olebeng's visit to Bathurst

It was my pleasure to host Dr Olebeng Mahura in Bathurst this weekend. I first met Olebeng at the ICPLA conference in 2016 in Halifax, Canada. We have kept in touch - and Olebeng co-authored four chapters in The Oxford Handbook of Speech Development in Languages of the World that I edited. 

• Setswana speech development
• Xhosa/isiXhosa speech development
• Zulu/isiZulu speech development
• English (South African) speech development.

It was great to show her around Charles Sturt University and Bathurst.

Olebeng saw 144 kangaroos at CSU and Mt Panorama
including the rare albino and a wallaby

Olebeng visiting the TRex in the Fossil and Mineral Museum

Sharynne and Olebeng next to the replica of the
largest gold nugget ever found in the world (near Bathurst)

Olebeng in my office at CSU

Olebeng visited The Treehouse

Olebeng is working on a website - SpeechOn - to provide resources in indigenous African languages (Setswana, isiZulu, isiXhosa).

SpeechOn: https://www.speechon.co/about

Indigenous Australian children’s speech and language in early childhood: Parent report as a predictor of school-age academic outcomes

Prof Linda Harrison and I have been working on revisions for our co-authored paper titled "Indigenous Australian children’s speech and language in early childhood: Parent report as a predictor of school-age academic outcomes". This is part of our current research with the Rural Health Research Institute.

SUBMITTED - Two papers for the International Conference on Sustainable Development (ICSD)

Today I submitted two 9 page papers for the International Conference on Sustainable Development (ICSD). Our abstracts were accepted for presentation some time ago, and today was the submission date for the full papers. The conference will be held in September. Our papers are titled: 

• Communication for all: Amplifying all voices for SDG achievement 
• Listening to children’s communication: Partnership for the goals (SDG17)

New door sign

A nice surprise!