March 19, 2024

ECIR Report for School of Education School Board Meeting

Early Childhood Interdisciplinary Research (ECIR) Sturt Scheme 

Presented by Prof Sharynne McLeod, Co-lead ECIR 

  • https://earlychildhoodresearch.csu.domains 
  • ECIR presents a transformative research program promoting social justice for children, families and practitioners within early childhood. 
  • ECIR’s research emphasises enhancing children’s access to, participation in and outcomes from equitable, quality early childhood programs and services, workforce sustainability, children’s rights, communication rights, and transformation of the social, policy and organisational conditions that enable social justice.

We build capacity for engaging in transformative research within our group and with other researchers.

CSU Research Excellence Award Winners 

  • Research Winners: Early Childhood Interdisciplinary Research Group (ECIR) 
  • Recognises and celebrates outstanding contributions of individuals and teams who engage in research excellence that contributes to the success of Charles Sturt and drives regional outcomes with global impact. 
  • What the nomination was for: This nomination is for excellence in research capacity building. ECIR provides an internship model where early career researchers are well supported by more experienced researchers in a wide range of research activities including organising conferences, editing books, writing book chapters, running research projects, analysing data, writing journal articles, and applying for promotion and grants. Members work collaboratively on projects such as the hosting of the Early Childhood Voices Conference (ECV2022), recent submission of an edited book arising from ECV2020 presentations, and analysis of children’s drawings from across the globe. These joint projects develop knowledge, skills and experience for members to pursue their own research interests.

BOOK Early Childhood Voices (Springer)

  • Mahony, L., McLeod, S., Salamon, A., Dwyer, J. (Eds.) (in press). Early childhood voices: Children, families, professionals. Springer. https://link.springer.com/book/9783031564833 
  • 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. 
  • 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"

United Nations Human Rights 75 Youth Declaration

Early Childhood Voices Conference (ECV2024) 

  • 25-28 November 2024 
  • Call for abstracts opens in April 2024 
  • Opportunities for CSU staff and research students to submit abstracts, be on conference committee, attend the conference, encourage children to participate. 
  • “Children draw/create playing” will be one way children’s voices are profiled. 
  • See ECV2022 https://earlychildhoodresearch.csu.domains/early-childhood-voices-conference-2022/ The conference attracted 1,956 registrations from 72 countries as well as 6 keynote presentations and 95 oral presentations from 25 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. • ECV2022 was included in CSU's 2022 Sustainable Development Goals report 
  • ECV2024 website is coming soon.

The Treehouse 

  • UNDER DEVELOPMENT. Virtual and physical child-focussed space for research, teaching and the community. 
  • Building 1451 on Bathurst campus.

March 16, 2024

Invited lectures in 2024 (so far)

I am very honoured to be speaking to a wide range of people across the world during 2024. Here is my invited lecture/keynote schedule so far (in reverse chronological order): 

  1. McLeod, S. et al (2024, December). Culturally appropriate assessment in international contexts. [Invited 1-hour session]. American Speech-Language-Hearing Association Convention, Seattle, WA, USA. https://convention.asha.org/ 
  2. McLeod, S. (2024, September 12-14). Multilingual children’s speech development, assessment and interventions [Invited keynote]. 23rd Congress of Otorhinolaryngology Foundation [23o Congresso da FORL], Sao Paulo, Brazil https://www.congressoforl.org/ 
  3. McLeod, S. (2024, September 12-14). Communication rights and the Sustainable Development Goals [Invited keynote]. 23rd Congress of Otorhinolaryngology Foundation [23o Congresso da FORL], Sao Paulo, Brazil https://www.congressoforl.org/ 
  4. McLeod, S., Blake, H. L. & Margetson, K. (2024, June 27-29). Multilingual speech development and disorders: A contemporary perspective of children’s speech development in languages of the world [Invited presentation]. 100th Anniversary Celebration of the International Association of Communication Sciences and Disorders (IALP), Vienna, Austria (online). https://ialp-org.com/event/9853/ 
  5. McLeod, S. (2024, June). Are we really listening to children? [Invited keynote]. Child Language Teaching and Therapy 2024 Summer Lecture, London, UK (online). 
  6. McLeod, S. (2024, May 23). Multilingual children’s speech. [Invited lecture]. Bristol Benjamin Meaker Distinguished Visiting Professor Presentation. Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Bristol, Bristol, UK. https://www.bristol.ac.uk/international-research-development/visiting-researchers/visitors-for-202324/sharynne_mcleod/ 
  7. McLeod, S. (2024, May 15). Communication professionals need to advocate for communication rights and the Sustainable Development Goals. [Seminar]. School of Arts, Culture and Language, Bangor University. Bangor, UK. https://www.bangor.ac.uk/arts-culture-language/dlelb 
  8. McLeod, S. (2024, May 3). Communication rights and social justice: Enhancing communicative participation for children with speech, language and communication needs. [Seminar]. Faculty of Education, University of Cambridge. Cambridge, UK. https://www.educ.cam.ac.uk/ 
  9. McLeod, S. (2024, April 30). All children should be seen AND heard: The importance of communication so children can thrive. [Invited lecture]. Bristol Speech and Language Therapy Research Unit and Underwood Trust Annual Lecture, Bristol, UK. https://www.nbt.nhs.uk/Bristol-Speech-Language-Therapy-Research-Unit 
  10. McLeod, S. (2024, April 29). Speech, language and communication: An overview for dentists. [Invited lecture]. Bristol Benjamin Meaker Distinguished Visiting Professor Presentation. Bristol Dental School, University of Bristol, Bristol, UK. https://www.bristol.ac.uk/international-research-development/visiting-researchers/visitors-for-202324/sharynne_mcleod/ 
  11. McLeod, S. (2024, April 24). Communicating with children and families in a multilingual world. [Invited lecture]. School of Sport and Health Sciences, Cardiff Metropolitan University Lecture, Llandaff, Wales, UK. 
  12. McLeod, S. (2024, April 18). Multilingual children's right to communicate. [Invited keynote]. XI LLDI Universidade de Lisboa, Lisbon, Portugal.  
  13. McLeod, S. (2024, February). Supporting monolingual and multilingual children’s phonological development. [Invited keynote]. 2024 Nancy McKinley Lecture organised by the American Board of Child Language & Language Disorders (online).  https://www.speechpathology.com/slp-ceus/course/supporting-monolingual-and-multilingual-children-10849 
  14. McLeod, S. (2024, February). PhD by Publication (or prior publication). [Invited presenter] Charles Sturt University Faculty of Arts and Education, Canberra

Two chapters published in Health and Wellbeing in Childhood 4th edition

Jane McCormack and I have just had two chapters published in the fourth edition of Health and Wellbeing in Childhood

  • McCormack, J., & McLeod, S. (2024). Classifying health and wellbeing: Applying the International Classification of Functioning Disability and Health to early years learners. In S. Garvis & D. Pendergast (Eds.), Health and wellbeing in childhood (4th ed., pp. 18-32). Cambridge University Press. 
  • McCormack, J., & McLeod, S. (2024). Communication development. In S. Garvis & D. Pendergast (Eds.), Health and wellbeing in childhood (4th ed., pp. 123-138). Cambridge University Press. 


March 14, 2024

Are public funding models for speech-language pathology reflecting recommended evidence?

I enjoyed speaking with Tristan Nickless at the IALP conference in Auckland about his research into policies and practices impacting speech pathology services in Australia. He has just informed me about the publication of this important article: 

Nickless, T., Davidson, B., Finch, S., Gold, L., & Dowell, R. (2024). Aligned or misaligned: Are public funding models for speech-language pathology reflecting recommended evidence? An exploratory survey of Australian speech-language pathologists. Health Policy OPEN, 100117. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.hpopen.2024.100117

Acknowledgments: The authors wish to thank all participants who shared their experiences and time for this study. In addition, the authors would also like to acknowledge the following colleagues for their assistance with identifying differential treatment intensity studies: Associate Professor Suze Leitao and Dr Samuel Calder (language); Professor Tanya Serry, Professor Pamela Snow and Dr Lisa Furlong (literacy); Dr Katherine Sanchez and Ms Carly Veness (infant feeding); Professor Sharynne McLeod (speech); and Associate Professor Debra Phyland (voice).

Australian definitions of a "child"

There is variance in how State and Territory Legislation defines a child. 

Australian Institute of Family Studies. (2024). Australian legal definitions: When is a child in need of protection? https://aifs.gov.au/resources/resource-sheets/australian-legal-definitions-when-child-need-protection 

Here are the definitions: 

  • NSW: Section 3 of the Children and Young Persons (Care and Protection) Act 1998 No 157 (NSW) defines a child as a person who is under the age of 16 years and a young person as a person who is aged 16 years or above but who is under the age of 18 years. 
  • VIC:  Section 3 of the Children, Youth and Families Act 2005 (Vic.) defines a child as: ‘(a) in the case of a person who is alleged to have committed an offence, a person who at the time of the alleged commission of the offence was under the age of 18 years but of or about the age of 10 years but does not include any person who is of or above the age of 19 years when a proceeding for the offence is commenced in the Court’ and ‘(b) in any other case, a person who is under the age of 17 years or, if a protection order, a child protection order within the meaning of Schedule 1 or an interim order within the meaning of that Schedule continues in force in respect of him or her, a person who is under the age of 18 years’ 
  • NT: Section 13 of the Care and Protection of Children Act 2007 (NT) defines a child as a person less than 18 years of age, or a person apparently less than 18 years of age if the person's age cannot be proved. 
  • WA: Section 3 of the Children and Community Services Act 2004 (WA) defines a child as a person who is under 18 years of age, and in the absence of positive evidence as to age, means a person who is apparently under 18 years of age. 
  • SA: Section 16 of the Children and Young People (Safety) Act 2017 (SA) defines a child or young person as a person who is under 18 years of age. 
  • TAS: Section 3(1) of the Children, Young Persons and Their Families Act 1997 (Tas.) defines a child as a person under 18 years of age. 
  • ACT: Section 11 of the Children and Young People Act 2008 (ACT) defines a child as a person who is under 12 years old, and section 12 defines a young person as a person who is 12 years old or older but not yet an adult. The Children and Young People Act 2008 (ACT) refers to the Legislation Act 2001 that defines an adult as a person who is at least 18 years old. 
  • QLD: Section 8 of the Child Protection Act 1999 (Qld) defines a child as an individual under 18 years. 

Thanks to Dr. Helen L. Blake for this information

March 13, 2024

Nord University - Visit to CSU and conversations about the future

We have been honoured to have visitors from Nord University (https://www.nord.no/en) at Charles Sturt University in Bathurst over the past three weeks. Susanne Francisco has coordinated the visit of 

  • Professor Wenche Rønning and 
  • Associate Professor Kathrin Olsen 

from Fakultet for lærerutdanning og kunst- og kulturfag [Faculty of Teacher Education and Arts and Culture]. We look forward to working on a Memorandum of Understanding between the two universities.

Dr Susanne Francisco, Prof Wenche Rønning, A/Prof Kathrin Olsen,
Dr Kate Smithers, Prof Sharynne McLeod and Dr Leanne Gibbs

Kathrin and Sharynne saw 9 kangaroos near CSU.


 

Preparing to be the Bristol Benjamin Meaker Distinguished Visiting Professor

I am looking forward to being the Bristol Benjamin Meaker Distinguished Visiting Professor in April/May 2024. https://www.bristol.ac.uk/international-research-development/visiting-researchers/visitors-for-202324/sharynne_mcleod/

 


During my visit, I will be presenting a number of lectures in England and Wales, as well as undertaking collaborative research with colleagues at the University of Bristol including:

"...this year’s BSLTRU Underwood Trust Annual lecture is taking place on Tuesday 30th of April. We are thrilled to announce that our guest speaker this year is Professor Sharynne McLeod from Charles Sturt University, Australia who will be speaking on Communicating with Children and Families in a Multilingual World."
 


 

BBC News: 'A wonderful opportunity': The adventure of raising bilingual children

BBC News: 'A wonderful opportunity': The adventure of raising bilingual children https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20240307-how-to-raise-bilingual-children

Thank you for wonderfully supportive colleagues

I am so honoured to work with wonderfully supportive colleagues. Here are a few who have encouraged and inspired me today.

Prof Julian Grant and Dr Emmaline Lear

Arifa Rahman


March 12, 2024

The Treehouse - a long journey - and we are getting there

This afternoon I had an important meeting with DVC-R Mark Evans and HOS Will Letts about many topics. They were very supportive of The Treehouse as a venue for our research with young children.



 

Once Upon a Time - Children's perspectives of DTTC intervention - Data are arriving

Our Once Upon a Time - Children's perspectives of DTTC intervention research team met today and had the first look at some of the submitted data. What a great milestone!

A/Prof Jane McCormack, Prof Sharynne McLeod, Dr Marie Ireland, Dr Anna Cronin


March 7, 2024

Celebrating International Women's Day

International Women's Day is celebrated on 8 March 2024. 

From Charles Sturt University's What's New and News

The theme of International Women's Day 2024 is “Count Her In: Invest in Women. Accelerate Progress". It brings attention to the fact that women's economic empowerment is central to a gender-equal world. When women are given equal opportunities to earn, learn and lead, entire communities thrive. 

This year we are celebrating women at Charles Sturt who are accelerating the progress of gender equity. From Monday, 4 March, profiles will be shared of women in the University who are leading the way in creating change by role modelling, breaking down barriers and supporting and advocating for others. These include: 

  • Professor Renée Leon, Vice-Chancellor 
  • Heather McGregor, Pro Vice-Chancellor, Student Success 
  • Professor Sally Totman, Head of School, Social Work and Arts 
  • Professor Sharynne McLeod, Professor of Speech and Language Acquisition 
  • Dr Donna Bridges, Senior Lecturer in Sociology, Lead - Gender and Feminist Studies Network. 

On Friday 8 March, from 10am, there will be a panel discussion moderated by Michelle Crosby, Chief Operating Officer. Featuring each of our profiled staff members, the panel will focus on the impacts of gender on career trajectory, women in non-traditional roles and women supporting women. 

All Charles Sturt staff are invited to attend. 

You can find the calendar invitation to the panel discussion and profiles on the Respect, Equity and Diversity webpage: https://www.csu.edu.au/division/people-culture/current-staff/respect-equity-and-diversity/gender

Blog: https://thinkspace.csu.edu.au/diversityinclusion/ 


Here is my input for the CSU blog: https://thinkspace.csu.edu.au/diversityinclusion/2024/03/07/distinguished-professor-school-of-education-sharynne-mcleod/

  • Profile questions for International Women’s Day 2024 
  • Name: Sharynne McLeod 
  • Role at the University: Distinguished Professor, School of Education 
  • What was your first paid job? Working in my parents’ shoe store 
  • The Science and Gender Equity Agency (SAGE) uses the analogy of a career as a pathway with open and closed gates. Can you tell us about your career pathway and some of the gates, or unexpected turns you have experienced? The Early Childhood Interdisciplinary Research Sturt Scheme is a wonderful example of a way that Charles Sturt University has opened gates for many early and mid career researchers and HDR students to grow as researchers, academics and people (https://researchoutput.csu.edu.au/en/organisations/early-childhood-interdisciplinary-research-group). Over the three years of funding (2021-2024) our 5-woman strong leadership team  have worked with over 40 people across Charles Sturt in fields such as early childhood education, speech pathology, nursing, psychology, physiotherapy, and data science (https://earlychildhoodresearch.csu.domains/researchers-and-publications/).
  • Inclusion and gender equity are such hot topics today, but it hasn’t always been that way. What changes to these have you experienced or noticed during your career? I have a background in speech pathology and early childhood. Therefore, I have spent a lot of my career undertaking research about and advocating for inclusion of people with disabilities – particularly those with invisible disabilities that impact speech, language, hearing, communication as well as other invisible reasons that impact people’s ability to fully participate (e.g., mental health, cancer treatments etc.). I am passionate about everyone’s right to communicate. During my career I have been able to co-create opportunities to advocate for inclusion. For example, I have advocated for communication rights at the United Nations and the World Health Organization and many other places across the world.
  • To allow us to get to know you better, what is something, besides gender equity of course, that you are passionate about? I think that children have a lot to teach us. Our recent submission to the United Nations has many examples of their wisdom: https://www.ohchr.org/sites/default/files/documents/issues/youth/hr75/submissions/subm-views-youth-led-cso-early-childhood-interdisciplinary-resear.pdf

 


Thank you Arifa for your generous gift "Dare to dream: A new journey is ready to begin" "Let your cup always be full of happiness"

Arifa Rahman and Sharynne


March 4, 2024

Three years between acceptance and publication of a journal article

This paper was accepted for publication in March 2021 – and finally has been published with volume and page numbers in March 2024!

 Tran, V. H., McLeod, S., Verdon, S. & Wang, C. (2024). Vietnamese-Australian parents: Factors associated with language use and attitudes towards home language maintenance. Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development, 45(2), 489-506. https://doi.org/10.1080/01434632.2021.1904963 

50 free online copies of are available here: https://www.tandfonline.com/eprint/KWECZQYPTHTETRGFWTZY/full?target=10.1080/01434632.2021.1904963

The Oxford Handbook of Speech Development in Languages of the World - getting closer to submission

The Oxford Handbook of Speech Development in Languages of the World is an important book - but very time intensive book to edit. There will be ~ 80 chapters in the final version. We have been working very hard:

  • 30 chapters are completely finalised and ready for OUP
  • 11 chapters are with the authors to answer the copyeditor's queries
  • 12 chapters are with the copyeditor
  • 19 chapters are with the authors after my editorial review
  • the ~8 remaining chapters are undergoing editorial review/author finalisation

March 3, 2024

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.