June 28, 2010

International Clinical Phonetics and Linguistics Conference, Oslo Norway

The 13th International Clinical Phonetics and Linguistics Conference, was held in Oslo Norway. It was an extremely stimulating conference with attendees from 26 different countries speaking even more languages. Speech acquisition around the world was a topic that was discussed frequently both within formal sessions and during the breaks.
I co-presented the following papers/posters:
  • McLeod, S., Harrison, L. J., Holliday, E. L., McCormack, J., McAllister, L. (2010, June). Children draw talking: Art exhibition. International Clinical Phonetics and Linguistics Association, Oslo, Norway.
  • McLeod, S., McCormack, J., McAllister, L., & Harrison, L. J. (2010, June). Severity and nature of speech impairment in a community sample of 4- to 5-year-old children. International Clinical Phonetics and Linguistics Association, Oslo, Norway.
  • Aldum, I. & McLeod, S. (2010, June). Afrikaans: Phonology, acquisition and assessment. International Clinical Phonetics and Linguistics Association, Oslo, Norway.
A number of my research students were in attendance and I enjoyed having time to talk about their research face-to-face (since most of my students are distance education students).
Sharynne with students and colleagues Inge Aldum (Perth, Australia),
Karla Washington (Canada), and Sandra Neumann (Germany)
ICPLA President: Sara Howard, ICPLA Vice President: Sharynne McLeod,
ICPLA Ex-president and editor of Clincial Linguistics and Phonetics: Martin Ball
I also worked on a number of books with colleagues, including Electropalatography for speech assessment and intervention, the second edition of the International guide to speech acquisition,  and  Multilingual speech sound disorders.
The City of Oslo hosted a welcome reception for us at the Oslo City Hall where the Nobel Peace Prize is awarded each year.
The conference was held at a magnificent venue, the Holemkollen Park Hotel. We were there for the summer solstice, so experienced the very long summer days, and very short nights. Here is a view of the hotel taken at midnight, just as the sun had set, and just after the conference dinner/boat cruise on the Oslo fjord.