WHO Regional Committee 74th session

Professor Sharynne McLeod represented the International Association of Communication Sciences and Disorders (IALP) at the seventy-fourth session of the World Health Organization Regional Committee for the Western Pacific (#RCM74), 16 to 20 October 2023 in Manila, Philippines https://www.who.int/westernpacific/about/governance/regional-committee/session-74. The Regional Committee for the Western Pacific represents 1.9 billon people across 37 countries and areas. The region is extremely diverse including China (1.4 billon population) and Niue (< 2000 population). This year marks the 75th anniversary of the World Health Organization. The agenda of RCM74 included: Investing in health and universal health coverage; health security; health innovation; communication for health; and the health workforce. Prof McLeod submitted two interventions on behalf of IALP and had many rich discussions, particularly about the Regional Action Framework Communication for Health (C4H).

Congratulations Marie Ireland

Congratulations to Marie Ireland who has had an exciting week. First she learned the excellent result of her PhD by Prior Publication. Second, she learned that the following manuscript based on a chapter in her PhD has been accepted for publication: 

Ireland, M., McLeod, S, & Verdon, S. (2023, in press). Eligibility determinations for speech and language services in United States public schools: Experiences and tensions. Language, Speech, and Hearing Services in Schools. 

Here is the abstract: 

Purpose: To examine school speech-language pathologists’ (SLPs) experiences regarding students’ eligibility for services in public schools within the United States. 

Method: Fifteen school SLPs participated in online focus groups to examine the complex nature of SLPs’ participation within decision-making teams and describe practice experiences in U.S. schools. SLPs worked in 1-10+ schools serving students from pre-K through 12th grade. Data were analyzed using Cultural Historical Activity Theory (CHAT) (Engeström, 2015). 

Results: School SLPs’ practice is impacted by rules, community, and division of labor in schools. Participants discussed: culture of the work setting; interaction between team members; desire to assist families and children; knowledge of regulations; evaluation practices; and the impact of poverty, cultural and linguistic differences. Nine major tensions were identified: SLPs’ concerns regarding outcomes of eligibility decision-making; documentation of educational impact; need for greater SLP empowerment and advocacy; complexities of students learning English as an additional language; overuse of the diagnosis of speech-language impairment (SLI) for students who do not qualify; administrators’ adherence to rules; parents’ involvement in decision making; disagreement between team members; and concerns about evaluation data for decision making. 

Conclusion: Within the schools, the CHAT framework was useful to identify tensions and opportunities for change at the individual and institutional level impacting team decision-making for eligibility, SLPs provision of services, and student outcomes. Acknowledgment of tensions and opportunities for change regarding students’ eligibility for services may guide public policy, pre-service training, and individual, local and national advocacy.

Congratulations Dr Belinda Downey

While at the Early Childhood Interdisciplinary Research Group Retreat, Belinda Downey learned the news of her successful PhD outcome. She has been approved for graduation - after receiving outstanding examiners' reports. Congratulations Belinda.

Belinda Downey's PhD is now available online. It is titled: Staying in Early Childhood: Struggle, Hope and Connection. Here is the link: https://researchoutput.csu.edu.au/en/publications/staying-in-early-childhood-struggle-hope-and-connection 

Belinda with her supervisors A/Prof Will Letts,
Dr Leanne Gibbs and Prof Sharynne McLeod

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.

Congratulations Van Tran, Vietnamese Ambassador

On 8 September, which is the Vietnamese Language Day (for Vietnamese overseas), ECIR member Van Tran attended the conference on Teaching Vietnamese Overseas. In the evening, Vietnam Television and the State Committee of Overseas Vietnamese organised a Gala to celebrate Vietnamese as the Mother Tongue, which was broadcast live on Vietnam Television (VTV2, VTV4) from 8-9.30pm. At this event, they awarded 5 people with the Title/award “Ambassador of Vietnamese” (Van was one of them) for their contribution to maintaining Vietnamese overseas. Van was interviewed by newspapers and media and talked about the CSU VietSpeech project related to home language maintenance. 

Further details:

https://tuoitre.vn/lan-dau-tien-ton-vinh-su-gia-tieng-viet-o-nuoc-ngoai-20230908115232771.htm?fbclid=IwAR3Cr0ZamWKCvxMbm3NEITv6bGOS2NuxRJv7mAf2pX4snyG8dm5UQFxUlD0

https://baoquocte.vn/hanh-trinh-cua-su-gia-tieng-viet-tai-australia-241200.html&amp=1?fbclid=IwAR1az0CwlnYzvb6y4C8FHBzn3-dnON7-IfHNOmBdyaFqeKgcd38YhrNeCtw

https://phapluat.tuoitrethudo.com.vn/kieu-bao-no-luc-duy-tri-va-lan-toa-tieng-viet-o-nuoc-ngoai-84446.html?gidzl=ncm8QnFiLXl2Smne7FPI6y9o0MeBzLWVs7O6FblpN1cC80LhMQXOIeSj2ZrL_GTEq2a8RsBdiMj54kbQ70

https://phapluat.tuoitrethudo.com.vn/no-luc-gin-giu-va-phat-huy-ban-sac-van-hoa-thong-qua-day-va-hoc-tieng-viet-84447.html

https://thoidai.com.vn/4-giai-phap-gin-giu-phat-trien-tieng-viet-trong-cong-dong-nvnonn-190884.html?gidzl=4tLj3YFnKGmNQcaDBEjL31TgQWuxwL493MvjMcllLGzPE6uFQRHHN58rOLbbuGvO1J5Z2s82jGat8lHT2m

https://nld.com.vn/chinh-tri/chon-5-su-gia-tieng-viet-o-nuoc-ngoai-20230909111805049.htm?fbclid=IwAR3l02_ZCQ_b2sWJGSJqyStREFnNgCQ69hV4qFkvFATa83gKpAhamns1Jhw

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=I00qaa4_dtY

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BfXaH5n_4dc&ab_channel=VNEWS-TRUY%E1%BB%80NH%C3%8CNHTH%C3%94NGT%E1%BA%A4N

https://fb.watch/n0PRtdi737/

 

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.

Congratulations Associate Professor Azizur Rahman – Highly Commended, Acceleration Fellowship

 

Congratulations ECIR member Associate Professor Azizur Rahman who was awarded the Highly Commended Fellowship Prize, 2023-24 Acceleration Fellowships in artificial intelligence and cybersecurity research, Charles Sturt University. With his project on ‘Developing health modelling tools with big data from Southeast Asia’, Professor Rahman stands at the intersection of data science and real-world application   https://news.csu.edu.au/latest-news/artificial-intelligence-acceleration-fellows-harness-the-power-of-interdisciplinary-research

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.

Members of the Early Childhood Interdisciplinary Research Sturt Scheme in New Zealand

Members of the Early Childhood Interdisciplinary Research (ECIR) Sturt Scheme attended the 32nd World Congress of the International Association of Communication Sciences and Disorders (IALP) in Auckland New Zealand. https://ialpauckland2023.org/. There were 1000 delegates from 48 countries in attendance.  Members who were present included: • Prof Sharynne McLeod • Dr Suzanne Hopf • A/Prof Sarah Verdon • Kate Margetson • Holly McAlister • Josephine Bampoe • Dr Laura Hoffman • Dr Helen L. Blake • A/Prof Ben Pham (from Vietnam).

Each of the ECIR members presented papers, workshops, chaired sessions and networked. ECIR and CSU presentations included: 

1. Children’s speech development across the world: Sharynne McLeod & Helen Blake (co-ordinators) 
2. Fiji English children’s speech development Holly McAlister, Australia: Suzanne Hopf, Paul A. Geraghty, Fiji; Sharynne McLeod, Australia 
3. Vietnamese + English children’s speech development: Kate Margetson, Sharynne McLeod, Sarah Verdon, Van H. Tran, Australia; Ben Phạm, Vietnam 
4. Speech-language pathology and its contribution to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals: Sharynne McLeod & Julie Marshall 
5. Listening to children’s voices in the Pacific: Holly McAlister, Suzanne C. Hopf, Sharynne McLeod 
6. Cross-linguistic transfer in multilingual children’s speech: Kate Margetson, Sharynne McLeod, Sarah Verdon 
7. Dental extractions and children’s speech: Caitlin Hurley, Robert, Sharynne McLeod 
8. Intelligibility and speech accuracy of Vietnamese-speaking children suspected to speech sound disorders: Ben Phạm et al. 
9. Developing normative data for The Vietnamese Language Assessment (VLA) for four-year-old children in Thua Thien Hue - Thi Thu Hang Dang, Sarah Verdon, Ben Pham
10. SLTs’ current practices and challenges for treating children with communication disorders across three Southeast Asian countries - Smith, G., Verdon, S., Chu, S. Y., Razak, R., Chow, D., Ruzli, Y.A., Pham, B., Triantoro, H. & Garraffa, M.
11. Evaluation of Vietnam’s first speech and language therapy degrees: perspectives of multiple stakeholders - Lindy McAllister, Sally Hewat, Adriana Penman, Sarah Verdon, Van Tran, Thuy Thi Thanh Nguyen, Dung Pham, Marie Atherton, Gwendalyn Webb, Joanne Walters
12. Validity and reliability of the Vietnamese version of the UTBAS-6 scale on adults who stutter - Hanh Tran Thi Bich, Nguyen Do, Laura Hoffman, Rachael Unicomb, Sally Hewat
13. A qualitative systematic review of speech-language pathologists’ practice with people from humanitarian migrant backgrounds - Sarah Verdon & Olivia Clark
14. Social justice in action in speech-language pathology: Exploring sustainable and culturally responsive international development through the first university degrees in Vietnam - Sarah Verdon, Sally Hewat, Lindy McAllister, Adriana Penman, Van Tran, Marie Atherton, Gwendalynn Webb, Joanne Walters

Additionally, Sharynne McLeod was the Chair of the Child Speech Committee and on the IALP Executive Board and Sarah Verdon is a member of the Child Speech Committee.

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/ 

Communication is a human right – but not everyone can communicate effectively

Sharynne McLeod has shared thoughts after her CSU Provocations Lecture: "Children should be seen AND heard: the importance of communication so children can thrive" Public Lecture on 20th April 2023.  Read them here https://provocationsqa.csu.edu.au/communication-is-a-human-right-but-not-everyone-can-communicate-effectively/

Provocations blog coming soon

Charles Sturt University will be launching a Provocations blog at Professor Ganna Pogrebna Provocations Public Lecture at Bathurst on 16 August. Professor Pogrebna will discuss behavioural data science as a game changer for understanding the interface between human and digital systems in the new digital economy. Tickets are available from  https://research.csu.edu.au/engage-with-us/provocations

Provocations will be a series of blogs written by prominent thinkers that seek to address the grand challenges confronting regional Australia and the world. How can we mitigate climate change and build climate proof, safe and sustainable communities?  Can First Nations ways of knowing, being and doing guide sustainable development? How can we reinforce Australia’s supply chains and sovereign manufacturing capability in a post-Covid world? Is it possible to achieve productive and circular agriculture? How can we reduce income inequality between urban and regional Australia and build more inclusive communities? Does liberal democracy need to be redefined in a post-Covid world? How can we build a knowledgeable, inclusive and resilient citizenry prepared for the challenges of the future? Does Australia’s relationship with China require a radical rethink? Is there a role for faith in contemporary democratic thought? 

Provocations will challenge orthodoxy through new thinking but will also revive policy ideas and political thought from the past for one more encore.

Further details to come.