ACCEPTED for publication - Children draw talking around the world

What wonderful news. Our innovative interdisciplinary Children Draw Talking paper has been accepted for publication today:

McLeod, S., Gregoric, C., Davies, J., Dealtry, L., Delli-Pizzi, L., Downey, B., Elwick, S., Hopf, S. C., Ivory, N., McAlister, H., Murray, E., Rahman, A., Sikder, S., Tran, V. H., & Zischke, C. (2025, in press). Children draw talking around the world. Language, Speech, and Hearing Services in Schools. Manuscript accepted for publication. 

Here is the short summary

200 children from 24 countries drew who they talk to (friends, family, animals, professionals), when and where they talk (outside, at home), what they talk about (toys, animals, friends, family), and how they feel about talking (happy). These insights promote understanding of children’s communication and inform how children’s insights can be included in assessment and intervention.

Here is the abstract

Purpose. The purpose of this study is to determine how children from across the world draw themselves talking and to apply an interdisciplinary analysis to understand children’s perspectives to improve delivery of services at school.
Method. Participants were 200 children from 24 countries who submitted a drawing of themselves talking to someone using the Early Childhood Voices Drawing Protocol. Drawings were uploaded to Charles Sturt University’s Children Draw Talking Global Online Gallery. The participants were 2–12 years (M = 6.13), spoke 23 languages, and 28.5% of caregivers reported concerns about their children’s talking. A 16-member interdisciplinary research team analyzed the drawings using: descriptive, developmental, focal point, meaning making, and systemic functional linguistics transitivity analysis frameworks.
Results. Children could draw themselves talking. The participants’ age and ability to draw a human figure was strongly correlated. Most participants reported they felt happy about talking and drew themselves talking to one or more conversational partner(s), with focal points that included body parts and facial expressions, talking and listening, proximity to others, relationships and connections, and positivity and vibrancy. The cultural-historical meaning making analysis identified ten themes: relationships, places, actions, natural elements, human-made elements, cultural experiences, logical thinking, emotion, imagination, and concepts. The systemic functional linguistics transitivity analysis identified 71 processes, 134 participants, and 48 circumstances indicating richness in the children’s depictions of talking.
Conclusions. Children across the world can use drawing to communicate who they talk to (friends, family, animals, professionals), when and where they talk (outside, at home), what they talk about (toys, animals, friends, family), and how they feel about talking (happy). These insights promote understanding of children’s communication and inform how children’s insights can be included in assessment and intervention.

 
The children’s drawings are available here:  

• Children Draw Talking Global Online Gallery via the Children’s Voices Centre https://www.csu.edu.au/research/childrens-voices-centre/research/childrens-voices
• YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLRXcSAl_dA7YoGpVsg-oyKe3et80WnfVl
• Submission to the United Nations: https://www.ohchr.org/sites/default/files/documents/issues/youth/hr75/submissions/subm-views-youth-led-cso-early-childhood-interdisciplinary-resear.pdf

200 children from 24 countries drew themselves talking

ECV2022-FINAL DATA

Congratulations to everyone on ECV2022

https://earlychildhoodresearch.csu.domains/early-childhood-voices-conference-2022/

Here are the final numbers during our conference (5-11 December 2022)

• 1,956 registrations 
• Registrations from 72 countries: Argentina, Armenia, Australia, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Belgium, Bolivia, Botswana, Brazil, Cambodia, Canada, Chile, China, Cook Islands, Costa Rica, Croatia, Cyprus, Denmark, Ethiopia, Fiji, France, Germany, Ghana, Granada, Greece, Hong Kong, Hungary, Iceland, India, Indonesia, Iraq, Iran, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Jamaica, Korea, Latvia, Luxembourg, Malta, Mexico, Moldova, Myanmar, Nepal, Netherlands, New Zealand, Nigeria, Oman, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Qatar, Réunion, Rwanda, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Slovenia, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, Thailand, Tonga, Turkey, United Arab Emirates (UAE), United Kingdom (includes England, Regno Unito, Northern Ireland, Scotland), United States of America, Vanuatu, Vietnam, Zambia, Zimbabwe

*Google Analytics

• 6,431 views from 1,358 users
• A total of 51 countries viewed the ECV2022 website that were registered using Google Analytics. The top 10 countries were: Australia (681 users), UK (125), US (105), Ghana (77), Bangladesh (73), Ireland (48), Canada (38), Indonesia (28), Iceland (15) and Netherlands (14). The remaining countries were: Latvia, New Zealand, Spain, Vietnam, Philippines, Fiji, China, Croatia, Germany, South Africa, Iran, Luxembourg, Belgium, Greece, Hong Kong (SAR China), Turkey, Bolivia, Finland, France, Portugal, Singapore, Sweden, Armenia, Denmark, Hungary, India, Myanmar (Burma), Saudi Arabia, Switzerland, Austria, Brazil, Cambodia, Chile, Italy, Nigeria, Norway, Poland, Serbia, Slovenia, Thailand, Uganda.
  
• Top 20 pages: Children Draw Talking Gallery 1 (277), Keynote 1 (261), Keynote 5 (143), Keynote 6 (142),  Children Draw Talking Gallery 3 (138), Keynote 2 (124), Keynote 3 (116), Keynote 4 (116), Yarning circles (99), Paper 224 (66), Paper 202 (65), Children Draw Talking Gallery 4 (58), Paper 265 (57), Paper 201 (55), Paper 212 (55), Paper 211 (49), Paper 278 (49), Paper 283 (49), Paper 243 (47), Paper 228 (45), Paper 272 (41), Paper 225 (40).
  
• People went to ECV2022 directly (1,402 sessions), via social media (462), by searching (192), referral (169), and other means.
• People viewed via web/mobile (697), web/desktop (640), web/tablet (22)
  

*YouTube data

• 3,517 views (1,284 unique views) - 243 hours of viewing
• Top videos: Keynote 1 (175), Children Draw Talking Gallery 1 (156), Keynote 6 (148), Keynote 5 (106), Keynote 2 (105), Paper 220 (99), Keynote 3 (83), Paper 224 (78), Paper 269 (74), Children Draw Talking Gallery 3 (70), Keynote 4 (69), Paper 289 (62)
   

*Yarning circle summary (attendees/registrations) 

• YC1 Families  - 13/65 
• YC2 Communication  - 23/67 
• YC3 Professional  - 13/50 
• YC4 Children  - 15/50 
• YC5 Children's rights and Sustainable Development Goals  - 12/47
  

*Children Draw Talking Global Online Gallery https://earlychildhoodresearch.csu.domains/early-childhood-voices-conference-2022/children-draw-talking-gallery-1-the-world/

• 191 drawings
• 21 countries: (Africa), Armenia, Australia, Bangladesh, Canada, China, Croatia, Fiji, Ghana, Greece, Hong Kong SAR, Hungary, Indonesia, Iran, Latvia, Netherlands, New Zealand, Poland, Spain, United Kingdom, United States
  

All the videos will remain online – so everyone is able to continue viewing the content.

 

 

Children Draw Talking - Panel presentation at the ASHA convention in Seattle

At the ASHA convention in Seattle I chaired an exciting panel titled Children Draw Talking: Understanding Children's Functioning with Arts-Based Methods.

Here are the presentations

1. Communication rights, listening to children, and arts-based methods

Sharynne McLeod – Australia

2. Children draw talking across the world: Insights from the Early Childhood Voices Global Online Gallery

Sharynne McLeod, Carolyn Gregoric, Suzanne C. Hopf, Van H. Tran, and Holly McAlister et al. – 24 countries

3. Children draw talking in Jamaica: Insights from children with and without communication disorders

Karla N. Washington, Nicole Bazzocchi, Lauren Choi, and Katarina Miletic – Canada and Jamaica

4. Children draw talking in Canada: Insights from children about their multilingualism

Andrea A.N. MacLeod and Jessica A. Harasym – Canada

5. Drawing together: Enabling families to talk with children about intervention experiences

Marie Ireland, Jane McCormack, Anna Cronin, Sharynne McLeod, and Cen Wang – USA and Australia

6. Children’s participation: Children draw talking is the first step

Holly McAlister, Suzanne C. Hopf, and Sharynne McLeod – Australia and Fiji

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.

ECIR Children Draw Talking - Last official meeting

This afternoon was the last official meeting of the ECIR Children Draw Talking team before we submit our manuscript at the ECIR Research Retreat on 9th October. 

This research was undertaken by members of the Early Childhood Interdisciplinary Research Group funded by the Charles Sturt University Sturt Scheme. The following people contributed to the research and analysed the data: Jessamy Davies, Lysa Dealtry, Laura Delli-Pizzi, Belinda Downey, Sheena Elwick, Julian Grant, Carolyn Gregoric, Suzanne C. Hopf, Nicola Ivory, Holly McAlister, Sharynne McLeod, Elizabeth Murray, Azizur Rahman, Shukla Sikder, Van H. Tran, and Cherie Zischke. The Children Draw Talking Around the World Global Online Gallery was profiled at the Early Childhood Voices Conference 2022 (ECV2022) https://earlychildhoodresearch.csu.domains/early-childhood-voices-conference-2022/children-draw-talking-gallery-1-the-world/.

Carolyn Gregoric, Sharynne McLeod, Cherie Zischke, Suzanne Hopf, Nicola Ivory, Jessamy Davis, Libbey Murray, Belinda Downey, and Van Tran

Here is how we will reference our journal article once we submnit it: McLeod, S., Gregoric, C., Davies, J., Dealtry, L., Delli-Pizzi, L., Downey, B., Elwick, S., Hopf, S. C., Ivory, N., McAlister, H., Murray, E., Rahman, A., Sikder, S., Tran, V. H., Zischke, C., & Grant, J. (2023). Children draw talking around the world [Manuscript submitted for publication]. Early Childhood Interdisciplinary Research Group, Charles Sturt University.

Voice of Children Framework consultation

I was invited by Prof Fran Press, Dr Jenny Cartmel and colleagues at Griffith University to be part of the consultation on the Voice of Children Framework. 

It was an important meeting with key people across Australia. I was able to add insights to their analysis paper including our work about listening to children whose voices are often marginalized including:

• Children with diverse abilities, including communication disabilities
• Children who speak non-dominant languages, including multilingual children
  
• Children who live in rural and remote locations 

Our new Children's Voices Centre will focus on listening to children and will draw on the previous work of the Early Childhood Interdisciplinary Research Group. For example

• ECV2022 Children Draw Talking Global Online Gallery included drawings from 200 children from 24 countries- https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLRXcSAl_dA7YoGpVsg-oyKe3et80WnfVl. 
• These children’s insights were shared with the United Nations: https://www.ohchr.org/sites/default/files/documents/issues/youth/hr75/submissions/subm-views-youth-led-cso-early-childhood-interdisciplinary-resear.pdf

Here is a selection of the work we have published to listen to children:

Books

• Mahony, L., McLeod, S., Salamon, A., & Dwyer, J. (Eds.). (2024). Early childhood voices: Children, families, professionals. Springer. https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-031-56484-0 
• Roulstone, S., & McLeod, S. (Eds.). (2011). Listening to children and young people with speech, language and communication needs. J&R Press. http://www.jr-press.co.uk/communication-needs.html 
  

Communication rights for all

• McLeod, S. (2018). Communication rights: Fundamental human rights for all. International Journal of Speech-Language Pathology, 20(1), 3–11. https://doi.org/10.1080/17549507.2018.1428687
• Mahony, L., McLeod, S., Salamon, A., Dwyer, J. (2024). Why the voices of young children matter. In L. Mahony, S. McLeod, A. Salamon, & J. Dwyer (Eds.) Early childhood voices: Children, families, professionals.  Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-56484-0_1  
• McLeod, S., Gregoric, C., Cumming, T., Downey, B. (2024). Refusing to silence early childhood voices: The establishment of the Early Childhood Voices Conference. In L. Mahony, S. McLeod, A. Salamon, & J. Dwyer (Eds.) Early childhood voices: Children, families, professionals.  Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-56484-0_18
• Sumsion, J., Harrison, L. J., Press, F., McLeod, S., Goodfellow, J., & Bradley, B. S. (2011). Researching infants' experiences of early childhood education and care. In D. Harcourt, B. Perry, & T. Waller (Eds.), Researching Young Children's Perspectives: Debating the Ethics and Dilemmas of Educational Research with Children (pp. 113–127). Routledge. 
  

Children with communication disability

• McCormack, J., McLeod, S., Harrison, L. J., & Holliday, E. L. (2022). Drawing talking: Listening to children with speech sound disorders. Language, Speech, and Hearing Services in Schools, 53(3), 713-731. https://doi.org/10.1044/2021_LSHSS-21-00140 
• McLeod, S. (2011). Listening to children and young people with speech, language and communication needs: Who, why and how? In S. Roulstone & S. McLeod (Eds.), Listening to children and young people with speech, language and communication needs. (pp. 23–40). J&R Press.
• McCormack, J., McLeod, S., McAllister, L., & Harrison, L. J. (2010). My speech problem, your listening problem, and my frustration: The experience of living with childhood speech impairment. Language, Speech, and Hearing Services in Schools, 41(4), 379–392. https://doi.org/10.1044/0161-1461(2009/08-0129)
  
• McLeod, S., Daniel, G., & Barr, J. (2013). “When he's around his brothers … he's not so quiet”: The private and public worlds of school-aged children with speech sound disorder. Journal of Communication Disorders, 46(1), 70-83. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jcomdis.2012.08.006 
• McLeod, S., Kelly, G., Ahmed, B., & Ballard, K. J. (2023). Equitable access to speech practice for rural Australian children using the SayBananas! mobile game. International Journal of Speech-Language Pathology, 25(3), 388-402. https://doi.org/10.1080/17549507.2023.2205057  
  

Children who speak languages other than English

• McLeod, S., Verdon, S., & Theobald, M. (2015). Becoming bilingual: Children’s insights about making friends in bilingual settings. International Journal of Early Childhood, 47(3), 385–402. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13158-015-0148-7
•  Washington, K. N., Wright Karem, R., Macaluso, C., Schwartz, C., & McLeod, S. (2024). Jamaican Children’s drawings of talking in Jamaican creole and English. In L. Mahony, S. McLeod, A. Salamon, & J. Dwyer (Eds.), Early childhood voices: Children, families, professionals (pp. 117–133). Springer.

Children with disabilities and their families

• 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
• Barr, J., McLeod, S., & Daniel, G. (2008). Siblings of children with speech impairment: Cavalry on the hill. Language, Speech, and Hearing Service in Schools, 39(1), 21–32. https://doi.org/10.1044/0161-1461(2008/003)

Methods of listening to children

• The Speech Participation and Activity Assessment of Children (SPAA-C): https://www.csu.edu.au/research/multilingual-speech/speech-assessments/spaa-c
  
• Children Draw Talking: McCormack, J., McLeod, S., Harrison, L. J., & Holliday, E. L. (2022). Drawing talking: Listening to children with speech sound disorders. Language, Speech, and Hearing Services in Schools, 53(3), 713-731. https://doi.org/10.1044/2021_LSHSS-21-00140 
• McLeod, S., McCormack, J., McAllister, L., Harrison, L. J., & Holliday, E. L. (2011). Listening to 4- to 5-year-old children with speech impairment using drawings, interviews and questionnaires. In S. Roulstone & S. McLeod (Eds.), Listening to children and young people with speech, language and communication needs. (pp. 179–186). J&R Press. http://www.jr-press.co.uk/communication-needs.html
• Mosaic Approach: Press, F., Bradley, B. S., Goodfellow, J., Harrison, L. J., McLeod, S., Sumsion, J., Elwick, S., & Stratigos, T. (2011). Listening to infants about what life is like in childcare: A mosaic approach. In S. Roulstone & S. McLeod (Eds.), Listening to children and young people with speech, language and communication needs. (pp. 241–250). J&R Press. http://www.jr-press.co.uk/communication-needs.html
• BabyCam  Sumsion, J., Bradley, B., Stratigos, T., & Elwick, S. (2014). 'Baby cam' and participatory research with infants: A case study of critical reflexivity. In M. Fleer & A. E. Ridgway (Eds.), Visual methodologies and digital tools for researching with young children: Transforming visuality (pp. 169–191). Springer-Verlag.
  

Meeting with Australian advisors about our new research project with the World Health Organization

This morning I met with Elsie (11), Zach (9) and Chloe (8) who were Australian advisors for the Children Draw Talking Project that now appears on the United Nations (UN) website:
https://www.ohchr.org/sites/default/files/documents/issues/youth/hr75/submissions/subm-views-youth-led-cso-early-childhood-interdisciplinary-resear.pdf
 
The World Health Organization in Geneva Switzerland saw our submission on the UN website – and want us to do something like this again – but this time about children’s insights into health, being healthy, and accessing healthcare services (hospital, doctor, dentist, nurse, vaccinations, optometry, audiology, speech pathology, physiotherapy, psychology, social work, occupational therapy,  etc.). The WHO especially want to learn about the insights of children who have a disability. 

This morning Zach, Elsie, and Chloe gave me advice about how to approach our new research project with the World Health Organization. They are going to brainstorm with their friends and family about "what makes you healthy". Here are some of their initial ideas: a carrot, exercise, sport, netball, medicine, bikes. We also talked about accessing healthcare. I will chat with them and more of my Australian advisors during January to prepare documentation for WHO in February.

Thanks Chloe, Zach and Elsie!

This work will be part of our new Children’s Voices Centre https://www.csu.edu.au/research/childrens-voices-centre/home

Zach, Chloe and Elsie chatting via Zoom

Elsie, Chloe, Zach, Sharynne

Here are some of the things that Elsie, Zach and Chloe's advice (+ others in their family) have helped us with in the past:

• Children’s Voices Centre: https://www.csu.edu.au/research/childrens-voices-centre/home
• The Treehouse: https://www.csu.edu.au/research/childrens-voices-centre/the-treehouse
• Early Childhood Voices Conference: https://earlychildhoodresearch.csu.domains/early-childhood-voices-conference-2024/
• Children Draw Playing: https://earlychildhoodresearch.csu.domains/early-childhood-voices-conference-2024/children-draw-playing/
• Children Draw Talking: https://earlychildhoodresearch.csu.domains/early-childhood-voices-conference-2022/children-draw-talking-gallery-3-australia/

Here is a page that summarizes lots of our work: https://www.csu.edu.au/research/childrens-voices-centre/research/childrens-voices

Children draw talking: Art exhibition on tour

Children Draw Talking is an art exhibition of illustrations produced by 157 4- to 5-year-old children in the Sound Effects Study. 143 children who had difficulty talking and making speech sounds were invited to draw themselves talking to someone. The resulting drawings have been identified with six focal points, including enlarged ears on the listeners and smaller mouths on the speakers.

The art exhibition has already been shown at the opening session of the 2009 Speech Pathology Australia Conference in Adelaide and the 2009 Asia Pacific Speech Language Hearing Association Conference in Hawai'i.

In 2010 it has been shown in the following venues:

June 7 to 11, 2010: Johnson City, TN, USA

East Tennessee State University (ETSU) at the Slocumb Art Gallery

Receptions: June 10, Thursday, 5 p.m. and June 11, Friday, 11 a.m.


Lecture: June 10, 5:30 to 8 p.m. and June 11, 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m., Ball Hall Auditorium

Hosted by ETSU Center of Excellence in Early Childhood
http://www.etsu.edu/cas/art/slocumb/exhibitions/students.aspx

Slocumb Gallery, East Tennessee State University, Johnson City, TN, USA

June 23, 2010: Oslo, Norway

International Clinical Phonetics and Linguistics Assocation Conference
Approximately 200 people attended the opening session of the ICPLA conference and listened to a half hour presentation about our research with children and the background to the Children Draw Talking art exhibition. The exhibition was displayed throughout the conference.

ICPLA conference Holmenkollen Park Hotel, Oslo, Norway

July: Bristol, United Kingdom

University of the West of England

“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

CSU Media: Playtime! Inaugural International Day of Play promotes play for a better world

 

CSU Media have just posted the following news item: https://news.csu.edu.au/latest-news/playtime!-inaugural-international-day-of-play-promotes-play-for-a-better-world

"Charles Sturt University academics organising the Early Childhood Voices Conference (ECV2024) in November are joining the celebrations of the inaugural International Day of Play on Tuesday 11 June by inviting children to draw themselves playing.

• Organisers of the Early Childhood Voices Conference (ECV2024) in November are inviting children to ‘draw themselves playing’ in recognition of the importance of play and International Day of Play on Tuesday 11 June
  

• Play is a universal language spoken by people of all ages, transcending national, cultural and socio-economic boundaries
  

• ECV2024 is a free interdisciplinary international conference to share research about innovative methods, theories, and partnerships with children, families and practitioners
  

Charles Sturt University academics organising the Early Childhood Voices Conference (ECV2024) in November are joining the celebrations of the inaugural International Day of Play on Tuesday 11 June by inviting children to draw themselves playing.

Conference co-chair Dr Belinda Downey (pictured left, below with co-organisers) in the Charles Sturt School of Education said the first-ever International Day of Play marks a significant milestone that encourages all people, especially children, to prioritise playing and reap the beneficial rewards offered though play. “Play has the power to transcend geographic, linguistic, cultural and socio-economic boundaries as it is a universal language,” Dr Downey said. “Play can foster relationships, a sense of community, and national pride while supporting well-being and skill development.” Dr Downey said research since the late 1800s has argued the role of play is fundamental in children’s learning and development.

“Through play, children can learn to solve their problems, with support from adults and independently. Play also assists children to develop agency in their lives, cultivate their resilience by overcoming fears, acquire conflict resolution skills essential for navigating life, and build their empathy and communication skills which are crucial for all their ongoing interactions and relationships,” she said. “Early childhood professionals, including teachers and allied health practitioners, have long understood that engaging with play intentionally supports children’s cognitive, social, emotional and physical skill development.”

Researchers have found that intentional, guided play offers an optimal space for children to learn. Intentional, guided play can occur through various activities like modelling, demonstrating, open-ended questioning, speculating, explaining and participating in shared problem-solving and thinking tasks with other children and adults. Dr Downey explained that play environments that are engaging, welcoming and reflective of children’s interests and cultural backgrounds serve to stimulate their curiosity and promote meaningful and challenging experiences. These environments and the relationships children develop through play facilitate the interactions that foster high-level thinking.

“Intentional and guided play are important but open-ended, spontaneous and child-centred play also hold an important role in children’s development,” she said. “Play with peers provides children the necessary space and time to engage in critical thinking, problem-solving, and creativity, form friendships, and learn to communicate effectively. “These crucial skills set children up for academic success and lifelong learning and are developed during play.”

In celebration of International Day of Play, the organisers of the ECV2024 Conference are creating a global online gallery of children’s drawings titled Children Draw Playing. This will be similar to the Children Draw Talking Global Online Gallery that was created in 2022 for ECV2022 where 200 children from 24 countries submitted drawings. “Drawing is a form of play that offers children an inclusive way to teach adults about children’s perspectives and experiences of the world,” Dr Downey said. “We want to share the voices of children from around the world in our international gallery by asking them to draw about their play.” Parents can enter their child’s drawing here. ECV2024 is a free interdisciplinary international conference focused on sharing research about innovative methods, theories and partnerships with children, families, and practitioners. It supports social justice during early childhood and within the early childhood sector. International speakers will present research or commentary in a virtual online space. Presentations will share innovations to improve the lives of children and families and support the evidence-based practice of early childhood educators. The ECV2024 conference will be held online from Monday 25 to Thursday 28 November and registrations can be made online at the conference website. Presentation submissions from early childhood researchers are welcome. Please submit an Abstract here.

Media Note: To arrange interviews with Dr Belinda Downey, contact Bruce Andrews at Charles Sturt Media on mobile 0418 669 362 or via news@csu.edu.au Photo: (left to right) Dr Belinda Downey (ECV2024 chair), Dr Carolyn Gregoric (ECV2024 conference secretary), Professor Sharynne McLeod (ECV2024 chair)

 

Advancing the Sustainable Development Goals by listening to children’s voices across the globe

Our Children's Voices Centre has collaborated to write another paper based on the informative Children Draw Talking data set - and it has just been accepted for publication. Hooray!

Gregoric, C., McLeod, S., Hopf, S. C., Downey, B., Rahman, A., Sikder, S., Zischke, C., Tran, V. H., Murray, E., McAlister, H., Ivory, N., Delli-Pizzi, L., Elwick, S., Dealtry, L., Davies, J. (2025, in press November). Advancing the Sustainable Development Goals by listening to children’s voices across the globe. Child Language Teaching and Therapy. https://doi.org/10.1177/02656590251406102 

Here is the abstract:

The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) (United Nations, 2015) represent a global agenda for achieving a sustainable future for people and the planet to inform decision and policy making at all levels. Children should have a significant voice in shaping the world they will inherit; indeed, SDG 17 is focussed on partnership for the goals. The aim of the present study was to investigate which SDGs are depicted in children’s drawings of themselves talking to provide researchers and policy makers insights into their perceptions about, and solutions for, the SDGs. The Children Draw Talking Global Online Gallery (https://www.csu.edu.au/research/childrens-voices-centre/research/childrens-voices) included 200 drawings from children from 24 countries. Children aged 2–12 years responded to the online prompt “draw yourself talking” and submitted their drawing and explanation. A 15-member interdisciplinary research team analysed the drawings to determine their alignment with the seventeen SDGs. Most of the 200 drawings (n = 191, 95.5%) could be coded with at least one SDG. Overall, there were 359 representations of SDGs coded across the data set of 200 drawings. Many children highlighted access to green public spaces and housing (SDG11), education (SDG 4), and decision-making (SDG 16) while others portrayed reducing inequality (SDG 10) and addressing poverty (SDG 1). This research demonstrated that children may be implicitly aware of factors related to the Sustainable Development Goals across their lives and provides an exemplar of how children’s voices could be included by inviting them to contribute drawings.  

Big Voices

Today I visited the Big Voices exhibition at the Queensland State Library https://www.slq.qld.gov.au/bigvoices. 

The exhibited artwork was created by children in Australia, Vietnam and China collected by Dr Barbara Piscitelli in her Children's Art Archive. There were a number of correlations with the Children Draw Talking project we undertook between 2009-2013.

Big Voices celebrates this courage and creativity of children sharing their stories through art.

Dr Piscitelli's archive is available here: https://collections.slq.qld.gov.au/guide/7116/details

There are collections about children's rights and other collections titled "Children's Picture Diaries" that depicts "children’s ideas of who they are, where they live and what they like to do" https://collections.slq.qld.gov.au/guide/7116/details#SR00007116-13

 This exhibit reminded me of our Children Draw Talking research: https://speakingmylanguages.blogspot.com/search?q=Children+draw+talking

Children's Voices Centre - Strategic Planning Week

This week we spent three days in a strategic planing meeting for the Children's Voices Centre focusing on research with, for, and about children.

Monday: Kathy, Tamara, Sharynne 

We began with an acknowledgment of country from Kathy's children on Darkinjung Country thinking of the green and blue of the land and the sky. At the end of the day six kangaroos on Wiradjuri Country bounded past the window of The Treehouse! 

We focused on two drivers for our research:

1. Identifying gaps where children's voices are absent
2. Working with CVC affiliates to grow research, and create opportunities for collaboration, mentoring, and learning together  

We discussed past, current and future research projects, publications (books, special issues), and grants. 

Children's Voices 

Throughout the day we were able to chat with children presenting their vision for the world. They exhorted us to "be more careful with small things" and discussed topics such as homelessness, biodiversity, technology (AI, holograms etc.), and respecting Aboriginal people. Dreams for the future included "Everyone is kind. You can't get sick or hurt. Magic is real. If you get lost you can teleport to your family. You can eat paper." They outlined examples where "the progress we have made throughout history is astonishing" (clean water, roads, respect for people), giving us hope for future progress. 

The children also gave us great ideas for names for sections of The Treehouse that are currently unnamed (we currently have The Billabong, The Nest, The Beehive, The Flowerpatch). Ideas included The Canopy. The Saplings. We need more tadpoles.

Ideas for The Treehouse from children with Kathy, Sharynne and Tamara listening

CSU Advancement

We met with Carly Evans and Justin Williams from CSU Advancement who are profiling the Children's Voices Centre and garnering support for our research and vision. They proposed a high profile event called UNHEARD with key speakers from the CSU alumni. They also identified a number of funding possibilities and key people to connect with.

Justin Williams, Sharynne, Tamara, Kathy, Carly Evans

Tuesday: Lorraine, Carolyn, Tamara, Kathy, Sharynne 

Our whole CVC staff group went through the 12 key performance indicators (KPIs) set for the CVC in our Business Plan and worked through our gains over the past 6 months and what we need to do in the next six months (see below). 

Lorraine, Tamara, Sharynne, Kathy and Carolyn

Voice of the Child Toolkit (MCRI) and Voice of the Child Framework (Australian Government/Griffith Uni)

In the middle of the day, we joined the Murdoch Children's Research Institute (MCRI) webinar who launched the Voice of the Child Toolkit:

• https://www.ccch.org.au/our-work/project/voice-of-the-child/
• https://www.ccch.org.au/2186

One of the speakers was Janaya Cox who spoke about the Voice of the Child Framework launched by the Federal goverment.

Wednesday: Kathy, Tamara and Sharynne 

We continued our planing and discussions with  two sets of visitors during our day. First Dr Emmaline Lear from the Research Office and second PVCR Indigenous Prof Tony Dreise and Nicole Simone.

Lorraine Bennet, Sharynne  McLeod, A/Prof Tamara Cumming, A/Prof Kathy Cologon, Prof Tony Dreise, and Nicole Simone

Dr Emmaline Lear, A/Prof Tamara Cumming, Prof Sharynne McLeod, A/Prof Kathy Cologon

Throughout our planing week we continued work to build The Treehouse as the physical centre of the Children's Voices Centre to support our resaerch with children. We received a $30K philanthropic grant to support this transformation and appreciated the work already completed with this money - planning the next steps.

We celebrated the achievements we have made to date with our  CVC key performance indicators for 2025. To date our CVC affiliates have 101 unique entries in CRO (125 entries) including: published 2 books, 4 chapters, 51 journal articles, and 2 theses.

The following collaborative research projects are currently underway at the Children's Voices Centre for CVC affiliates and adjuncts to collaborate as editors, authors, reviewers, data analysts, etc.:

1. BOOK: The Oxford Handbook of Speech Development in Languages of the World (Editor: Sharynne  McLeod. Publisher: Oxford University Press). 
   1 CVC editor and 9 CVC affiliates are chapter authors on 11 chapters.
2. BOOK: Multilingual Aspects of Children's Speech Sounds (Editors: Helen L. Blake, Sharynne McLeod, Kate Margetson & Brian Goldstein. Publisher: Multilingual Matters) 
   3 CVC editors and 10 CVC affiliates are chapter authors on 10 chapters.
3. BOOK: Early Childhood Educators' Emotional Labour (Editors: Tamara Cumming & Mari Saha. Publisher: Routledge)
   1 CVC editor. 
4. SPECIAL ISSUE: Child Language Teaching and Therapy (Q1) (Editors: Sharynne McLeod and Holly McAlister). SPECIAL ISSUE: Child Language Teaching and Therapy (Q1) (Editors: Sharynne McLeod and Holly McAlister). 2 CVC editors, 17 CVC affiliates have submitted 5 papers and 8 CVC affiliates have reviewed papers.
5. SPECIAL ISSUE: Language, Speech, and Hearing Services in Schools (Q1) (Editors: Sharynne  McLeod, Kathy Cologon, Helen L. Blake)
   3 CVC editors. Submissions close in October.
6. RESEARCH PROJECT: Children Draw Talking. 15 CVC affiliates involved
   **McLeod, S., Gregoric, C., Davies, J., Dealtry, L., Delli-Pizzi, L., Downey, B., Elwick, S., Hopf, S. C., Ivory, N., McAlister, H., Murray, E., Rahman, A., Sikder, S., Tran, V. H., & Zischke, C. (2025). Children draw talking around the world.  Language, Speech, and Hearing Services in Schools, https://doi.org/10.1044/2025_LSHSS-23-00190 
7. RESEARCH PROJECT: Children Draw Playing. Team: Carolyn Gregoric, Sharynne McLeod, Belinda Downey 
8. RESEARCH PROJECT: Children Draw Health (to inform WHO)
9. RESEARCH PROJECT: Children's Insights into the Sustainable Development Goals: Team: Carolyn Gregoric, Sharynne McLeod, Belinda Downey 
10. RESEARCH PROJECT: Children's Participation in Research: Carolyn Gregoric and Kathy Cologon  - 21 CVC affiliates signed up
11. RESEARCH PROJECT: Scoping Review: Children's Experiences of Healthcare (to inform WHO). Lead: Kate Freire
12.  RESEARCH PROJECT: Arts-based research (to inform WHO): Children's Experiences of Healthcare. Lead: Tamara Cumming

We have a program of visiting scholars where two scholars come and collaborate with our affiliates. Here are our 2025 scholars:

• Dr Red Ruby Scarlett
• Prof Lynn Williams

We have had a number of international PhD students visit, and look forward to welcoming more:

• Ida Wiik Sætherskar, Nord University, Norway 
• Lucy Rogers, City University London, UK funded by the Wellcome Trust
• Camilla Porsanger

 

Drawing talking: Listening to children with speech sound disorders

The following manuscript has just been accepted for publication in a special issue: 1. McCormack, J., McLeod, S., Harrison, L. J. & Holliday, E. L. (2021, in press). Drawing talking: Listening to children with speech sound disorders. Language, Speech, and Hearing Services in Schools.

Here is the abstract:

Purpose. Listening to children using age-appropriate techniques supports evidence-based clinical decision-making. In this paper we test the Sound Effects Study Drawing Protocol, an arts-based technique, to support children with speech sound disorder (SSD) to express their views about talking.

Method. Participants were 124 Australian children aged 4- to 5-years in the Sound Effects Study. Their parents and teachers were concerned about their talking and they were assessed as having SSD on the Diagnostic Evaluation of Articulation and Phonology. Drawings and children’s interpretations were elicited then analysed using the: (1) Who Am I? Draw-a-Person Scale and (2) Sound Effects Study Focal Points. 

Results. Drawings were developmentally typical for 4- to 5-year-olds. The six Sound Effects Study Focal Points were identified: Body parts and facial expressions, Talking and listening, Relationships and connection, Positivity, Negativity, and No talking. Participants portrayed talking and listening as an action requiring mouths and ears represented by symbols (letters, speech bubbles) or as an activity with a variety of people. Children typically portrayed themselves as happy when talking; however, some portrayed negativity and some chose not to draw talking. 

Conclusions. In keeping with Articles 12 and 13 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child (United Nations, 2009), this research demonstrated that 4- to 5-year-old children with SSD can express their views about talking via drawing. Professionals may use drawings as a child-friendly technique to support children to express views to guide holistic, evidence-based, child-centred speech-language pathology practice.

Nord University presentation - Children Draw Talking

This afternoon I presented a paper to Nord University colleagues about our Children Draw Talking Global Online Gallery. Here are the resources I shared: • Early Childhood Voices Global Online Gallery: https://earlychildhoodresearch.csu.domains/early-childhood-voices-conference-2022/children-draw-talking-gallery-1-the-world/ • Sound Effects Study Drawing Protocol (McCormack et al., 2022). Language, Speech, and Hearing Services in Schools, 53(3), 713-731. https://doi.org/10.1044/2021_LSHSS-21-00140 • Children’s voices communication rights advocacy with the United Nations https://www.ohchr.org/sites/default/files/documents/issues/youth/hr75/submissions/subm-views-youth-led-cso-early-childhood-interdisciplinary-resear.pdf Books • Mahony, L., McLeod, S., Salamon, A., & Dwyer, J. (Eds.). (2024). Early childhood voices: Children, families, professionals. Springer. • Roulstone, S., & McLeod, S. (Eds.). (2011). Listening to children and young people with speech, language and communication needs. J&R Press.

Children Draw Belonging: Children's insights

It has been a very special week with my young friends who have had such an influence on my research and how I listen to children. In the past, this group of children have initiated and shaped our research projects: Children Draw Talking, Children Draw Playing and  Children Draw Health. Today they participated in the Children Draw Belonging research. This is the first project that they have not initiated (this time another group of children initiated it). They had some good insights. I love learning from these children.

ECV2022 - Day 4

At 9:30am on Day 4 (Thurs 8th December) 

Eventbrite

• 1946 registations
• Participants from 70 countries Argentina, Armenia, Australia, Argentina, Armenia, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Belgium, Botswana, Brazil, Cambodia, Canada, Chile, China, Cook Islands, Costa Rica, Croatia, Cyprus, Denmark, Dubai, Ethiopia, Fiji, Germany, Ghana, Granada, Hong Kong (SAR China), Hungary, Iceland, India, Indonesia, Iraq, Iran, Ireland, Italy, Jamaica, Korea, Latvia, Luxembourg, Malta, Mexico, Moldova, Myanmar, Nepal, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Oman, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Qatar, Réunion, Rwanda, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Slovenia, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, Thailand, Tonga, Turkey, United Kingdom, United States, Vanuatu, Vietnam, Zambia, Zimbabwe

Google analytics report

• 4,807 views from 1,102 users
• Top hits: Children Draw Talking Gallery 1 (218), Keynote 1 (210), Keynote 6 (110), Keynote 5 (105), Keynote 2 (98), Keynote 3 (97), Keynote 4 (88), Yarning circles (79), Children Draw Talking Gallery 3 (77), Children Draw Talking Gallery 4, Paper 224 (45), Paper 201 (44), Paper 202 (44), Paper 243 (43)

Children draw talking across the world

The first meeting of our "Children draw talking across the world" team was held today. We are planning to undertake a descriptive analysis of the amazing drawings submitted to ECV2022 in our Children Draw Talking Global Online Gallery.

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights turns 75 next year

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights turns 75 next year. The Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) has put out a Call for input: 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 https://www.ohchr.org/en/calls-for-input/2023/call-input-views-youth-led-and-youth-focused-organizations-and-institutions

Our team has done a lot of work on Article 19 of the UDHR.

Article 19. Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers 

As part of our recent Early Childhood Voices conference we asked children across the world to draw themselves talking to someone. We listened to 200 hundred children (2-12 years) from 20+ countries (Armenia, Australia, Bangladesh, Canada, China, Croatia, Fiji, Ghana, Greece, Hong Kong SAR China, Hungary, Indonesia, Iran, Latvia, Malaysia, Netherlands, New Zealand, Poland, Slovakia, Spain, United Kingdom, United States, Vietnam). Their drawings are displayed in four Children Draw Talking Global Online Galleries. The majority of children (79%) felt happy about talking, 8% felt unsure, 1.5% felt sad, and some did not respond or said another feeling. The children drew themselves talking to a friend (22%), their mother (16%), father (14%), animals (9%), siblings (9%), other family members (5%), and teacher/speech pathologist (4%) (some unable to be classified). Parents of 28.5% of children had concerns about how their child talked or made speech sounds (similar to the Longitudinal Study of Australian Children, McLeod & Harrison, 2009). 

The Early Childhood Interdisciplinary Research Sturt Scheme at Charles Sturt University have put together a submission to the United Nations where children have provided “recommendations to decision and policymakers, including … the United Nations, and others, to advance human rights in the future”. 

A few years ago we documented communication as a human right in the special issue of IJSLP (free online). The lead article summarizing the special issue is here: 

McLeod, S. (2018). Communication rights: Fundamental human rights for all. International Journal of Speech-Language Pathology, 20(1), 3–11. https://doi.org/10.1080/17549507.2018.1428687 

We took this special issue to the United Nations in 2019.

Recently, we have published a special issue demonstrating how communication is central to the Sustainable Development Goals (free online). The lead article summarizing the special issue is here: 

McLeod, S., & Marshall, J. (2023). Communication for all and the Sustainable Development Goals. International Journal of Speech-Language Pathology, 25(1), 1-8. https://doi.org/10.1080/17549507.2022.2160494 

I have been encouraging my colleagues fro across the world to engage with the 75th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.  

Also, see Dr Suzanne Hopf reading Article 19 from Fiji - https://youtu.be/XlfonR_aQaQ. Her video is included in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights Multilingual Video Collection https://www.un.org/en/udhr-video/curated.shtml.

References 

Mahony, L., McLeod, S., Salamon, A., Dwyer, J. (Eds.) (in press). Early childhood voices: Children, families, professionals. Springer Nature. 

McCormack, J., McLeod, S., Harrison, L. J., & Holliday, E. L. (2022). Drawing talking: Listening to children with speech sound disorders. Language, Speech, and Hearing Services in Schools, 53(3), 713-731. https://doi.org/10.1044/2021_LSHSS-21-00140 

McLeod, S. (2018). Communication rights: Fundamental human rights for all. International Journal of Speech-Language Pathology, 20(1), 3–11. https://doi.org/10.1080/17549507.2018.1428687

McLeod, S., & Marshall, J. (2023). Communication for all and the Sustainable Development Goals. International Journal of Speech-Language Pathology, 25(1), 1-8. https://doi.org/10.1080/17549507.2022.2160494

CSU News - Children Draw Talking

Today CSU News published a story about our request for children to draw talking

https://news.csu.edu.au/latest-news/children-everywhere-invited-to-draw-talking-for-a-university-conference

Children from across the world are invited to “draw a picture of you talking to someone” and answer a few quick questions Drawings will be displayed at the Early Childhood Voices 2022 Global Online Gallery Submit by 7 Nov 2022: https://earlychildhoodresearch.csu.domains/go/22-drawing

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