ECIR Research Retreat in Bathurst and online (9-11 October, 2023)

Our ECIR research retreat was a wonderful time of building bonds, collaborative conversations and robust interdisciplinary discussions. Members travelled to Bathurst + joined online. What a wonderful time together celebrating our achievements, learning together, planning our grant writing and holding preliminary discussions about ECV2024. Thank you to Holly McAlister and Belinda Freizer for making us think about how to listen to children, to the Research Office (Dr Emmaline Lear, Dr Lisa Limbrick, Dr Dale Curran) for your excellent workshops and FOAE Admin team for joining us to begin planning ECV2024.

Presentation to the Western NSW Health Research Network

Congratulations to Cathie Matthews who presented her Masters' research to the Western NSW Health Research Network (WNRN) Symposium in Dubbo Monday 11 and Tuesday 12 September 2023 (https://whrnnetwork.wordpress.com/) 

The title of her presentation was "Advancing rural children’s communication, partnering with parents, early educators and child and family health nurses". 

Cathie Matthews is undertaking her Masters research at CSU supervised by Julian Grant, Sharynne McLeod, Libbey Murray. She is also undertaking a Health Education and Training Institute (HETI) Grant supervised by Kerith Duncanson (HETI) and  Georgina Luscombe from The University of Sydney.

ECIR report 2022-2023

 Here is a summary of the outputs of the ECIR team in mid 2022-mid 2023 

• Grants: $5.7million awarded 
• Journal articles: 55 accepted + 16 submitted 
• Conference papers: 59 presented/accepted for presentation (+18 conference workshops/seminars etc) + 4 submitted 
• Book chapters: 29 published/in press + 1 submitted 
• Books: 3 published/in press + 1 under contract 
• Conference proceedings: 1 published
• High level of community engagement: 3 events hosted/training delivered, 22 media coverages, 4 media contributions, social media profile, 5 public lectures/presentations, 19 community consultations. 
• Members well recognised for their achievements: 3 individual and 1 group awards, leadership/membership of professional associations and editorial boards, invited working party and advisory participants. 
• 2 PhD completions and 2 PhD submissions by ECIR members, HDR support to 17 students.

32nd World Congress of the International Association of Communication Sciences and Disorders (IALP)

Congratulations ECIR members presenting at the 32nd World Congress of the International Association of Communication Sciences and Disorders (IALP) in Auckland, New Zealand: https://ialpauckland2023.org/

There are 950 delegates from 48 countries in attendance. Sharynne McLeod is the Chair of the Child Speech Committee and on the Executive Board.

ECIR member presentations:

• Children’s speech development across the world: Sharynne McLeod & Helen Blake (co-ordinators) 

• Speech-language pathology and its contribution to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals: Sharynne McLeod & Julie Marshall

• Listening to children’s voices in the Pacific: Holly McAlister, Suzanne C. Hopf, Sharynne McLeod

• Cross-linguistic transfer in multilingual children’s speech: Kate Margetson, Sharynne McLeod, Sarah Verdon 

• Dental extractions and children’s speech: Caitlin Hurley, Robert, Sharynne McLeod

Holly McAlister's presentation

Sharynne McLeod

Early Childhood Voices 2022 Conference (ECV2022)

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

Over five days from 5 – 9 December 2022, the Charles Sturt University Early Childhood Interdisciplinary Research (ECIR) Sturt Scheme held a global online conference titled Early Childhood Voices. It was their second bi-annual conference to share research about innovative methods, theories and partnerships with children, parents/carers and professionals that supported social justice and Sustainable Development Goals during early childhood or within the early childhood sector. ECV2022 was an opportunity for international researchers to present research in a virtual online space.

The six keynote presentations and 99 oral presentations from 25 countries were aligned with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), especially SDG 3, SDG 4, SDG 10, and SDG 17. The conference program and proceedings were searchable using the SDGs.

The conference attracted 1,956 registrations from 72 countries. During the week of the conference there were 6,431 page views from 1,358 users. In addition, there were over 3,517 YouTube views of the presentations and 243 hours of viewing.

A popular initiative was the Children Draw Talking Global Online Gallery (https://earlychildhoodresearch.csu.domains/early-childhood-voices-conference-2022/children-draw-talking-gallery-1-the-world/), which enabled children from across the globe to share images of themselves talking to someone, emphasising Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. These galleries collectively were viewed more than any other presentation at ECV2022. Five yarning circles were held for synchronous conversations between conference participants on pre-determined topics.

The conference was free for presenters and attendees; drawing on Charles Sturt University’s motto “for the public good”. Conference presentations can still be viewed online https://earlychildhoodresearch.csu.domains/early-childhood-voices-conference-2022/ 

18th World Congress for the World Association for Infant Mental Health

 There were two fabulous presentations by ECIR members at the 18th World Congress for the World Association for Infant Mental Health, Dublin, Ireland.

• Belinda Friezer; Linda J. Harrison; Sheena Elwick: Researcher and educator interpretations of microanalytic observations of infant sociality (Brief Oral Presentation), presented on the 18th July, 2023, SOURCE-WORK-ID: fe63c5dd-20d3-4b05-803c-6775bf92c8f7.
• Belinda Friezer; Linda J. Harrison; Sheena Elwick: Infant-peer triads in the caregiving context of childcare, presented on the 16th July 2023, SOURCE-WORK-ID: fe63c5dd-20d3-4b05-803c-6775bf92c8f7.

Congratulations!

ICPLA19 - Poster presentations

ECIR members presented three posters at the International Clinical Phonetics and Linguistics Association (ICPLA) symposium:

• Poster #17 Caitlin Hurley, Sharynne McLeod and Robert Anthonappa: Children’s speech and premature loss of primary maxillary incisors
• Poster # 27 Sharynne McLeod and Julie Marshall: Accomplishment of the Sustainable Development Goals requires communication
• Poster #36 Kate Crowe, Harpa Stefánsdóttir, Egill Magnússon, Mark Guiberson, Thora Másdóttir, Ösp Vilberg Baldursdóttir and Inga Ágústsdóttir: How is speech intelligibility measured for children who are d/Deaf or hard of hearing

Congratulations!

Kate Crowe and Sharynne McLeod

ICPLA19- Day2- Multilingual Children's Speech in 70+ languages

Today Sharynne coordinated a panel of 18 presentations over 5 hours titled "Children’s speech development in 70+ languages and dialects"

1. Children’s speech development: Cross-linguistic considerations – Sharynne McLeod, Helen L. Blake, Australia; Kathryn Crowe, Iceland and Australia
2. Danish children’s speech development – Marit Carolin Clausen, Denmark
3. Dutch children’s speech development – Anniek van Doornik, Ellen Gerrits, Paula Fikkert, Mieke Beers, The Netherlands
4. English English children’s speech development – Robert Mayr, Rachael-Anne Knight, Sally Bates, Yvonne Wren, and Sara Howard, United Kingdom
5. Irish English speech development – Joan Rahilly, Jill Titterington, United Kingdom
6. Scottish English children’s speech development –James M. Scobbie, Joanne Cleland, Eleanor Lawson, Sonja Schaeffler, Scotland, United Kingdom
7. Canadian French children’s speech development – Andrea MacLeod, Daniel Bérubé, Susan Rvachew, Canada; Francoise Brosseau-Lapré, USA
8. Swiss French children’s speech development – Margaret Kehoe, Nathalie Niederberger, Switzerland 
9. German children’s speech development – Annette Fox-Boyer, Sigrun Lang, Germany 
10. Standard Greek children’s speech development – Areti Okalidou, Greece; Elena Babatsouli, USA
11. Cypriot Greek children’s speech development – Kakia Petinou, Cyprus; Elena Babatsouli, USA; Spyros Armostis, Cyprus Hungarian children’s speech development – Krisztina Zajdó, Hungary 
12. Jamaican Creole children’s speech development – Karla N. Washington, Canada; Kathryn Crowe, Iceland and Australia; Melanie Basinger, Joseph Farquharson, USA
13. Laki children’s speech development –Akram Ahmadi, Zahra Malmir, Iran; Michelle Pascoe, South Africa; Talieh Zarifian, Marjan Larimian, Iran
14. Maltese children’s speech development – Helen Grech, Malta 
15. Norwegian children’s speech development – Kristian E. Kristoffersen, Nina Gram Garmann, Hanne Gram Simonsen, Norway
16. European Portuguese children’s speech development – Maria João Freitas, Marisa Lousada, Ana Margarida Ramalho, Portugal 
17. Swedish children’s speech development – Sofia Strömbergsson, Inger Lundeborg Hammarström, Sweden 

It was followed by a rich discussions which considered:

• What are the common threads you noticed?
• Are there any surprises (AHA! moments)?
• What are general trends across languages? How many languages follow universal trends and what languages go against those trends?
• What will be your takeaway message for families?
• What will be your takeaway message (clinical implications) for SLPs/educators/other professionals?
• What theories does this speak to?

Thank you to the amazing authors who presented their languages and research so concisely yet comprehensively.

International Symposium on Bilingualism (ISB14) - presentations from CSU

 There were three presentations from CSU at this week's International Symposium on Bilingualism (ISB14) at Macquarie University in Sydney:

• Keynote - "Cross-linguistic perspectives on children’s speech development" - Sharynne McLeod
• Workshop - "Home language maintenance: Connecting children, families and classrooms" - VietSpeech (Sharynne McLeod, Kate Margetson, Van Tran) and Little Multilingual Minds (Paola Escudero, Gloria Pino Escobar, Chloé Diskin-Holdaway)
• Poster - "Speech sound development of Fijian school-aged children" - Holly McAlister, Suzanne Hopf & Sharynne McLeod

VietSpeech superheros ready for the workshop
 Kate Margetson, Sharynne McLeod, Van Tran

ECIR members at SPA conference in Hobart

ECIR members include speech-language pathologists from across the world. At the recent Speech Pathology Australia National Conference, held in Hobart 21-24 May 2023, Charles Sturt University ECIR members along with students presented the following papers/posters:

1. Hugo Farrant & Suzanne Hopf: Who are the caregivers in paediatric caregiver training: A review.
2. Suzanne Hopf: A comparison of the self-reported learning outcomes of speech-language pathology students attending either a virtual study abroad or standard virtual work-integrated learning experience
3. Alex Long & Suzanne Hopf: Speech Pathology and Police collaboration to assist people with speech, language, and communication needs
4. Kate Margetson, Sharynne McLeod & Sarah Verdon: Non-English sounds in English speech assessment: Patterns of cross-linguistic transfer in Vietnamese-Australian children’s speech
5. Sharynne McLeod: What you’ve always wanted to ask about treating speech sound disorders: and open panel discussion
6. Sharynne McLeod: Children's speech development, assessment and intervention in 50 languages
7. Sharynne McLeod & Julie Marshall: Communication, swallowing and the Sustainable Development Goals
8. Rebecca Shields & Suzanne Hopf: Intervention for residual speech errors in adolescents and adults: a systematized review

The team were particularly proud of our PhD and MSpeechPath students who presented on diverse fields of practice with confidence and skill beyond their years. This was a great showing for our team. Importantly, some of the above already have associated publications, whilst the remainder are in preparation or under review. With multiple projects finishing up, you’ll be seeing plenty more publications and presentations from other ECIR team members and students in the year ahead. 

Author – Dr Suzanne Hopf, CSU

Rebecca Shields

Alex Long, Suzanne Hopf, Sharynne McLeod

ECIR successes in 2022

ECIR successes in 2022

• 5 grants (+3 in submission)

• 2 books (+ 2 books in preparation)

• 16 book chapters

• 29 journal articles

• 37 conference presentations

• 23 HDR students (PhD, Masters, Honours) supervised by ECIR members

Congratulations and thank you everyone.