American Speech-Language-Hearing Association Convention in Orlando, FL

This week I am attending the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association Convention in Orlando, Florida, USA. 

Brian Goldstein and I were invited to Co-chair the  Cultural and Linguistic Considerations Across the Discipline committee and it is great to see the outcome of the past year of work to review/prepare/allocate 44 hours of presentations on this topic.

SLP Conference chair Lynn Williams announcing the topic co-chairs at the opening session

While at the convention my colleagues, students and I are presenting the following papers:

• Hopf, S. C. & McLeod, S.  Cross-cultural competencies for working with children with speech and language disorders from Fiji. Invited presentation.
• McLeod, S. & Crowe, K.When are speech sounds learned? A cross-linguistic systematic review. Technical paper.
• McLeod, S. (chair) (2014, November). Beyond Spanish II: Competencies for SLPs working with children from diverse cultures. 1 hour seminar.
• McLeod, S., Harrison, L. J., Whiteford, C., & Walker, S. (2014, November). The impact of being multilingual when 4-5 years on academic and social-emotional outcomes at 8-9 years. Technical paper
• Washington, K. N., McLeod, S., McFarland, A., Weisbarth, J. (2014).  Jamaican Creole-speaking children’s expressive language, emergent literacy & communicative-participation: SLP, parent, and teacher evaluations. Technical paper.
• Weisbath, J., Washington, K. N., McLeod, S., Samms-Vaughan, M., & Devonish, H. (2014, November). Print concept development in English: Comparing Jamaican preschoolers to US ELL and monolingual English-speaking preschoolers. Poster. 



Presenters in the Beyond Spanish session: Giang Pham (Vietnamese), Christina Gildersleeve-Neumann (Russian), Seyhun Topbas (Turkish), Sharynne McLeod (Fijian - with Suzanne Hopf)

Intelligibility in Context Scale: A parent-report screening tool translated into 60 languages

The following invited  manuscript has been accepted for publication:

McLeod, S. (2014, in press). Intelligibility in Context Scale: A parent-report screening tool translated into 60 languages. Journal of Clinical Practice in Speech-Language Pathology.

Here is the abstract:

The Intelligibility in Context Scale (ICS) is a free parent-report screening tool that has been translated into more than 60 languages. The creation of the 7-item scale was informed by the World Health Organization’s International Classification of Functioning, Disability, and Health (WHO, 2007). Translation and back translation into 60 languages has been undertaken internationally by speech pathologists, linguists and translators. Since the creation of the ICS, it has been validated on 120 English-speaking children in Australia and 74 Cantonese-speaking children from Hong Kong. The ICS has been normed on 804 Australian English-speaking children and additional validation, norming, and clinical studies have been conducted or are underway in countries including: Brazil, Croatia, Fiji, Iceland, Iran, Israel, Jamaica, Germany, New Zealand, Slovenia, South Africa, and Sweden. The ICS is a promising screening measure for speech pathologists to use to consider parental perceptions of children’s intelligibility with different communicative partners.

Learning from multilingual Fijians in Fiji

Over the past week I visited Suzanne Hopf in Fiji to support her PhD data collection and analysis. During the week we 

• visited a school
• assessed children's speech, language, and literacy
• conducted parent information sessions
• visited the market to collect data about people's perceptions of the causes of communication disability in children and adults and how best to support these people.

What a fascinating week! Fiji is a highly multicultural and multilingual society with the official languages being English, Fijian (also known as iTaukei Language, or Vosa Vakaviti), and Hindustani. In addition, there are speakers of: Fiji Hindi, other indigenous Fijian languages (e.g., Lauan); Rotuman; immigrant languages (e.g., Kiribati, Chinese, Punjabi); and Fiji sign language. We learned so much from the teachers, parents, children, and community members. 

As is the case for the rest of my blog, the people in the photographs have given permission for their photos to be used.

Beautiful Fiji

Fiji is a beautiful nation filled with very welcoming people. Vinaka (thank you) for the friendly greetings of bula (hello) each day.

Australia Awards Endeavour Postgraduate Scholarship and Postdoctoral Research Fellowship

Today Suzanne Hopf learned that she has received an Australia Awards Endeavour Postgraduate Scholarship for her research titled: “Supporting Fijian children's speech, language and literacy”. It was great to be in Fiji working with Suzanne when she received the news. 

Moments later, Sarah Verdon learned that she has received an Australia Awards Endeavour Postdoctoral Research Fellowship for her research titled: "A community-based approach to supporting Fijian children's communication development".

Suzanne and I celebrated the news in Fiji in Fijian style with fresh coconut juice.

Details of the awards are here
Details of all of the scholarship winners are here
The CSU media release is here
The brief story in the Fiji Times is here 
A long story in the Western Advocate is here

Sharynne and Suzanne celebrating the news in Nadi, Fiji

Normative data for the Intelligibility in Context Scale

Over the past few months Kate Crowe, Ameneh Shahaeian and I have been analysing parent-reported data about 804 Australian preschoolers regarding the Intelligibility in Context Scale. We have determined that for typically developing children the mean ICS score was 4.4 (SD = 0.7) of a possible total score of 5. Children’s speech was most intelligible to their parent, followed by their immediate family, friends, and teachers, and was least intelligible to strangers. Significant differences in scores were identified based on sex and age, but not socioeconomic status or the number of languages spoken. There were significant differences in scores between children whose parents had concerns about their child’s speech (M = 3.9) and those who did not (M = 4.6). The ICS had high internal consistency (α =.94), test-retest reliability, and criterion validity. We hope that this manuscript will be published in a journal some time in the future.

Kate Crowe, Ameneh Shahaeian and Sharynne McLeod

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Success: Research Grants Council of Hong Kong

Carol To recently informed me of the success of our grant submission:
To, C. K-S., Cheung, K. Y., Law, T., Lee, K. Y. S., McLeod, S., & Ng, M. L. (2014-2015). 利用存活分析調查構音問題的自然史 – 預後及誘發因素的研究 [Investigating prognosis and risk factors of speech sound disorder: A natural history study using a survival analysis approach]. General Research Fund, Research Grants Council (RGC) of Hong Kong, China (GRF 17409214). 

Here is the abstract:

Speech sound disorder (SSD) is a prevalent childhood communication disorder and forms a significant caseload of speech-and-language-therapy services in Hong Kong (To, Law & Cheung, 2012). SSD in preschool children can be persistent and may lead to long-term literacy difficulties. Emerging evidence indicates possible speech processing deficits that underlie SSD and later reading disorder. At the other end of the spectrum, a sizable subgroup of children originally demonstrates speech problems outgrow their speech errors without clinical attention and follow the typical growth trajectory in later years. Previous studies using simple correlation and the logistic regression have successfully identified risk factors that are significantly associated with the occurrence of SSD. However, these studies did not include time aspect and did not address the speech processing problems which can explicate different presentations of SSD, i.e., transient and persisting SSDs. Given the large variability in the growth trajectory of speech development and its disorder, previous studies may not provide much strong evidence on prognosis. This current study will employ a research technique of the survival analysis with the use of Cox's regression model to investigate the evolution of speech sound development along with children’s speech processing ability in those with SSD. The statistical analysis method is particularly for longitudinal designs and has taken into account the major problem of subject drop due to lost to follow up. We recruit Cantonese-speaking preschoolers who demonstrate the concern of speech problems without other known developmental problems in Hong Kong. To achieve adequate statistical power for analysis, 76 preschoolers with SSD aged at 5 years old will be recruited at the baseline using a validated parental questionnaire. Children who fit the inclusion criteria will be reassessed at a 6-month interval for a period of 2 years or until they master their sound inventory. Besides the child-related and family risk factors, the child’s speech processing ability will also be investigated in the present study. At the theoretical level, the findings result from the present study on the speech processing ability may dissect possible points of processing constraint in children with persisting SSD. At a clinical level, such a predictive model can contribute towards the evidence for speech-language therapists (SLTs) to better predict outcomes and estimate prognosis for children with SSD, and to decide on the appropriate treatment options. This will eventually lead to improved clinical estimation of prognosis SSD and better allocation of resources to early intervention provision.

 

Collaborative Research Network focus on Indigenous children

Over the past three days members of the Early Years Education Collaborative Research Network came from Brisbane, Melbourne, and Dubbo to meet in Bathurst. Guest presenters were Dr Jean Phillips (QUT), Professor Jeannie Herbert (CSU), Fiona Skelton and Deborah Kikkawa from the Longitudinal Study of Indigenous Children, Department of Social Services in Canberra. We learned a lot from these presenters and planned future research projects and grant applications.

L-R: Sue Grieshaber, Linda Harrison, Felicity McArdle, Sarah Verdon,
Kate Williams, Deborah Kikkawa, Fiona Skelton, Sharynne McLeod

The contribution of the ICF-CY to working with children with SSD

The following book chapter has been published:

McLeod, S. (2015). The contribution of the ICF-CY to working with children with SSD. In C. Bowen Children’s speech sound disorders (2^nd ed.) (pp. 5-7). Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell. 

Information about the book is here.
The impressive list of contributors within this book is here.

Useful resources on the web

Here are some useful resources I have learned about recently:

•  The languages you speak to your bilingual child. Blog post by François Grosjean about the work of Annick De Houwer: http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/life-bilingual/201410/the-languages-you-speak-your-bilingual-child
• Training to Enhance Services for English Language Learners http://www.tesell.org/

Our PhD community

My PhD students live in many different places, but are frequently in contact via email, Skype, and other electronic means of communication. Over the past few weeks we have had the pleasure of Kate Crowe (post doc) and Sarah Masso (PhD student) visiting Bathurst to work on data analysis and writing. Ben Pham and Sarah Verdon (PhD students who live in Bathurst) had time to share ideas and enjoy the company of our visitors. These are very productive times for us all.

Kate Crowe, Sarah Verdon, Ben Pham, Sharynne McLeod

Sarah Verdon, Ben Pham and Sarah Masso learning about PHON

American Speech-Language-Hearing Association Ad Hoc Committee on the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF)

Last week I was invited to be one of two international members on the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association Ad Hoc Committee on the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF). The committee comprises eight members and is charged with applying the ICF framework to goal setting and outcomes measurement, and helping ASHA members focus on function by advising, providing input, reviewing, and promoting the products and activities. I am honoured to have been invited and am looking forward to undertaking this important international role during 2014 and 2015.

Where to write a book (continued)

Writing has continued with two books being close to submission to the publishers. Last week I was writing and editing chapters while on leave at the beach!

Writing by the beach

Here is a previous post on the topic.

International Society for Cultural and Activity Research Conference

This week Sarah Verdon is presenting two papers from her PhD at the International Society for Cultural and ActivityResearch Conference in Sydney.

• Verdon, S., McLeod, S., & Wong, S. (2014, September). Using CHAT to explore speech-language pathology practices from around the world with culturally and linguistically diverse children. International Society for Cultural and Activity Research Conference, Sydney, Australia.
• Verdon, S., McLeod, S., & Wong, S. (2014, September). Imagining new possibilities for embracing cultural and linguistic diversity in children with communication difficulties. International Society for Cultural and Activity Research Conference, Sydney, Australia.

The continued mobility of people across geographic boundaries has made the world a melting pot of people from diverse linguistic and cultural backgrounds. As a result, monolingual and monocultural approaches to supporting the needs of children with communication difficulties are not effective among diverse populations. To address this issue, the International Expert Panel on Multilingual Children’s Speech was assembled in 2012. Fourteen members of this panel met in Cork, Ireland to discuss future aspirations for the transformation of the speech-language pathology profession in its provision of services to children from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds. Six hours of discussion were recorded and transcribed. Analysis of the transcribed data was undertaken using Cultural Historical Activity Theory (CHAT) as heuristic framework. The individual components of CHAT (object, subject, mediating artefact, rules, community and division of labour) were considered in relation to the panel’s discussion. This analysis revealed that within each component tensions existed between what panel members imagined as the ideal enactment of speech-language pathology practice, and the current reality of service provision. The findings of this analysis reflected a need to view children holistically, by acknowledging and incorporating their individual culture and exposure to language(s) into all aspects of planning and implementing strategies to support them to prosper in the context of their daily lives. Members of the panel advocated the use of the World Health Organization’s International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health - Children and Youth version (ICF-CY). This framework was seen by panel members as a transformative tool which could be used to empower speech-language pathologists in their practice by facilitating consideration of the many internal and external factors that may influence children’s speech and language development. This presentation will highlight the productivity of using CHAT to identify possibilities for influencing changes to complex activity systems by identifying inhibitory processes occurring within the system and identifying means to affect these changes. In making achievable changes to everyday practices, speech-language pathologists have the potential to challenge the existing constraints of practice and influence the transformation of the profession in working towards positive outcomes for culturally and linguistically diverse children.