RHRI and CVC membership and affiliate structures

Today Dr Carolyn Gregoric and I met with Prof Julian Grant and Wahid from the Rural Health Research Institute (RHRI) to discuss collaborations, membership and affiliate structures across the Children's Voices Centre (CVC) and RHRI. We have a long history of working together so it was a productive meeting.

 

Tasmanian speech study - data analysis and preparation for 2026 data collection

This week I have spent a lot of time on our Tasmanian speech study (CeTasSSD). I have undertaken data analysis with Dr Nicola Ivory - which involved more data cleaning therefore beginning all of the analyses again (a very typical scenario in quantitative data analysis). I have hired a new research assistant, Emma Scanlon and worked on finalising the International Speech Screen with Helen Blake.

Emma Scanlon

Nicola Ivory

 

Children Draw Playing - Journal article team leaders' meeting

 

Carolyn, Medhi, Belinda, Brendon and Sharynne 

Today was the first meeting for 2026 of the lead authors to write up our Children Draw Playing dataset and the journal article leads outlined their aims, data sets, team members and target journals and conferences. Thanks to Dr Carolyn Gregoric for preparing the data set and leading ~20 CVC members to analyse the data in 2025. Here are some of the proposed papers. The first one is almost ready to submit :)

1. Children draw playing around the world: Carolyn Gregoric and Sharynne McLeod (leads) with 20 CVC affiliates as co-authors
2. Children draw playing in Mongolia: Carolyn Gregoric (lead)
3. Talking during play: Sharynne McLeod (lead)
4. Concepts of play: Belinda Downey (lead)
5. Why is drawing good for the world: Belinda Downey (lead)
6. Drawing movement: How children depict and describe active play: Brendon Hyndman (lead) 
7. PEO analysis: Mehdi Rassafiani (lead)  
8. Cultural historical activity theory: Shukla Sikder (lead)   

Children Draw Play reliability analysis

Thanks to Azizur Rahman who has worked closely with Carolyn Gregoric to undertake the analyses to determine the reliability of our Children Draw Playing data. We met on a very hot day (42oC in some cities) to discuss and write up the Cohen's kappa analyses.

 

Farewell Lorraine

We are very sad to farewell Lorraine Bennett who has been the inaugural Senior Administration Officer for the Children's Voices Centre. She has been an amazing support as we have established the Centre and The Treehouse. We wish her well and will miss her very much. Thank you Lorraine.

 

Kathy Cologon, Carolyn Gregoric, Tamara Cumming, Lorraine Bennett

Tamara, Sharynne and Lorraine

Thank you Lorraine

Lorraine gave me permission to include her "heartfelt words" in my blog:

Subject: A Fond Farewell from Lorraine

Hello CVC Team,
As I sign off today for the final time as Senior Administration Officer with the Children’s Voices Centre, I wanted to take a moment to say thank you.

It has been an absolute privilege to be part of the CVC journey and to work alongside such passionate, thoughtful, and committed people. Being involved in a centre so deeply focused on research “with, for and about children”  — and ensuring that children’s voices are gen  heard, valued, and respected — has been incredibly meaningful to me.

I am so proud of what has been built: from the vision and values that guide the Centre, to the people who bring it to life every day, and the spaces (especially the Treehouse) that welcome children, families, researchers, and community. Watching CVC grow and flourish during 2025 has been such a wonderful experience.

I look forward  to following  your achievements and successes into the future, and will welcome any invitation to share in your successes and homecoming soup celebrations.

Always grateful for this experience 😊

Lorraine Bennett

Oxford Handbook page proofs

This year has begun with the arrival of 1500 pages of The Oxford Handbook of Speech Development in Languages of the World. Every word and page must be checked over the next few weeks to ensure that the entire book is ready for publication. It is a BIG job - but I am thrilled to finally see this fantastic resource in its close to final form. Thanks to Dr Helen Blake who is assisting me and to the diligent chapter authors who have checked the orthography and typesetting so carefully.

1500 pages - 9cm double sided!

Sharynne with the page proofs at the Children's Voices Centre @ The Treehouse in Bathurst, Australia

Helen with lot of paper to be read (this is double sided)

Helen and Sharynne online ready for the work ahead

Here is the OUP website for the book:
https://global.oup.com/academic/product/the-oxford-handbook-of-speech-development-in-languages-of-the-world-9780192868862
 
Published: 16 June 2026 (Estimated)
Length: 1552 Pages
 
VIDEOS and WEBSITE
Our videos will remain freely available on the Multilingual Children’s Speech website

• Multilingual Children's Speech Development (free videos): https://multilingual-childrens-speech-development.csu.domains/by-language/
• YouTube: https://research.csu.edu.au/multilingual-speech-playlist 
• Multilingual Children's Speech Website, under 'Speech Acquisition' and then ' Multilingual children's speech development' https://www.csu.edu.au/research/multilingual-speech/speech-acquisition/multilingual-childrens-speech-development

 
BOOK LAUNCH
Here are some lovely photos from our launch at the International Phonetics and Linguistics Association Conference in Greece in 2025: https://speakingmylanguages.blogspot.com/2025/06/launch-of-oxford-handbook-of-speech.html
 

PhD students in 2026

 I am excited to be supervising four wonderful PhD students in 2026:

At Charles Sturt University

• Holly McAlister: Primary supervisor A/Prof Suzanne Hopf. Co-supervisor Prof Sharynne McLeod
• Sarah Bartlett:  Primary supervisor Prof Sharynne McLeod. Co-supervisor Dr Carolyn Gregoric
• Sarah Bartlett:  Primary supervisor Prof Sharynne McLeod. Co-supervisor Prof Sarah Verdon 

 At Utrecht University in The Netherlands

• Anniek Van Doornik: Primary supervisor Prof Ellen Gerritts. Co-supervisor Prof Sharynne McLeod + others

Wishing you a productive year everyone!

Holly and Sharynne  in 2026

Sarah, Sharynne and Carolyn in 2026

 

 

CVC publications in 2025

Here are some graphics about the reach of the CVC publications in 2025 - we are very happy with our reach and collaborations in our Centre's first year.

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Journal articles published in 2025

 Here are the journal articles I co-authored with my students and colleagues that were published in 2025:

1. Margetson, K., McLeod, S., & Verdon, S. (2025). Cross-linguistic transfer in Vietnamese-English speech. Language, Speech, and Hearing Services in Schools, 56(4), 1192-1216. https://doi.org/10.1044/2025_LSHSS-25-00046
2. van Doornik, A., Franken, M. C., McLeod, S., Terband, H., & Gerrits, E. (2025). Children’s, parents’, and experts’ perception of speech and communication. Language, Speech, and Hearing Services in Schools, 56(4), 1042-1053 https://doi.org/10.1044/2025_LSHSS-24-00140
3. Bartlett, S. & McLeod, S. (2025). Caregivers’ insights into supporting their late talkers using Target Word™ Hanen® Parent Program.  International Journal of Speech-Language Pathology, 27(5), 702–716 https://doi.org/10.1080/17549507.2024.2438103
4. 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, 56(4), 1088-1109. https://doi.org/10.1044/2025_LSHSS-23-00190
5. Washington, K. N., Crowe, K., McLeod, S., Margetson, K., Bazzocchi, N. B. M., Kokotek, L. E., van der Straten Waillet, P., Másdóttir, T., & Volhardt M. D. S. (2025). Methods of diagnosing speech sound disorders in multilingual children. Language, Speech, and Hearing Services in Schools, 56(3), 469-487.  https://doi.org/10.1044/2025_LSHSS-24-00099
6. McLeod, S., Harrison, L. J., McMahon, C., Wang, C., & Evans, J. R. (2025). Parent-reported speech and language in early childhood is an early indicator of Indigenous Australian children’s literacy and numeracy outcomes. Language, Speech, and Hearing Services in Schools, 56(3), 730-746. https://doi.org/10.1044/2025_LSHSS-23-00200
7. Downey, B., Gibbs, L., Letts, W., & McLeod, S. (2025). Cultivating collaborative practice to sustain and retain early childhood educators. Education Sciences, 15(11), 1451. https://doi.org/10.3390/educsci15111451 
8. Hurley, C. R., McLeod, S., & Anthonappa, R. P. (2025). Extraction of primary maxillary incisors and children’s speech production: A case series. Clinical Linguistics and Phonetics, 39(4–5), 427–439. https://doi.org/10.1080/02699206.2024.2355481
9. van Doornik, A., Welbie, M., McLeod, S., Gerrits, E., & Terband, H. (2025). Speech and language therapists’ insights into severity of speech sound disorders in children for developing the speech sound disorder severity construct. International Journal of Language and Communication Disorders, 60, e70022. https://doi.org/10.1111/1460-6984.70022

Wonderful Children's Voices Centre staff retreat and commencement of 2026

This week the Children's Voices Centre staff came together for a 3-day retreat to celebrate our achievements for 2025 and plan for 2026. We met with DVC-R Neena Mitter and Monique Smith from the DVC-R's office. We also had pesentations from Carly Evans and Aimee Cook from CSU Advancement and Anna Grocholsky from the Research Office. 

 In 2025 we focused on the establishment of the Centre and The Treehouse. We hosted visiting scholars from USA, Norway and UK and many professionals, children and families who came to visit The Treehouse, We undertook impactful research with children that was presented to the World Health Organization (twice), and at an event with the United Nations Foundation and were one of only a handful of universities to be founding members of the WHO Disability Health Equity Network. 

In 2026 we are focusing on our people in order to undertake impactful research. Specifically, children and families; CVC affiliates, adjuncts and HDR students, and professionals, and policy makers. A focus on 2026 will be our Children's Voices Conference (CVC2026) - the fourth time we have run this online interdisciplinary conference. We will also be hosting weekly research seminars and weekly drop-in sessions. We have submitted a number of grants, books, and journal articles - and have more on the way.

Carolyn ready to work in The Beehive

Sharynne, Lorraine, Carolyn, Kathy and Tamara at The Treehouse

First morning

Tamara, Kathy, Lorraine, Carolyn and Sharynne 

Lunch with Anna

Meeting with Neena and Monique

Poppy popped in to start our morning with happiness

Mentoring Prof Jillian Marsh

Over the next six months I have the honour of mentoring Professor Jillian Marsh from the School of Indigenous Australian Studies. Most of our meetings will be online as she is based in Albury; however, next month she will be visiting Bathurst.

Jillian identifies as an Adnyamathanha Yuraartu [Aboriginal woman from the northern Flinders Ranges region of South Australia] and her language is Yura Ngawarla. She has expertise in language and linguistics, archeology and the environment.

 

Back to work for 2026

Today is my first day back at work for 2026. I had a productive and restful holiday spending time with family and friends. It was great to see Lorraine and Tamara - and to plan for our retreat tomorrow.

Tamara, Lorraine (and Sharynne in the background on the screen)

Italian book chapter has been published - Speech sound disorders: Evidenze scientifiche e buone prassi riabilitative

 I am very pleased to see that our invited chapter has been published (in Italian) in the following book:

Margetson, K., McLeod, S., & Blake, H. L. (2025). Gli Speech Sound Disorders nei bambini plurilingue [Speech sound disorders in multilingual children]. In S. Piazzalunga, R. Salvadorini, N. Pizzorni, F. Todaro, & A. Schindler (Eds.). Speech sound disorders: Evidenze scientifiche e buone prassi riabilitative [Scientific evidence and best rehabilitative practices] (pp. 415-432). Erickson University & Research. https://www.erickson.it/it/speech-sound-disorders

It is exciting to see that this book will be used across Italy. Congratulations to the editors on the compilation of this important book.

 Here is the email we received from the editors:

Dear Colleagues,

First of all, we would like to wish you all a very happy New Year.

We are pleased to let you know that the Italian book on Speech Sound Disorders has finally been published: https://www.erickson.it/it/speech-sound-disorders

... Thank you for this wonderful achievement. We hope that this volume will become a reference textbook for Italian undergraduate and postgraduate Speech and Language Therapy programmes. The book will also be officially presented at the Italian Congress of Phoniatrics and Speech and Language Therapy in the coming months.

Thank you once again, and best wishes from all of us.

Silvia, Renata, Francesca, Nicole and Antonio

Silvia Piazzalunga, PhD
Speech-Language Pathologist, Adjunct Professor
Department of Biomedical and Clinical Sciences "L. Sacco"
"L. Sacco" Hospital
University of Milano, Italy

 

Farewell Camilla Porsanger and family

We have loved having Camilla Porsanger and family visiting CSU from Nord University. We have learned so much, shared ideas, and had lots of fun. Farewell - and we hope that our collaboration continues. 

Hello Prof Bronwyn Hemsley

 It was wonderful to catch up with Prof Bronwyn Hemsley yesterday while she was visiting Bathurst. I was able to show her The Treehouse, talk about the Children's Voices Centre, and her new job as Head of the School of Health Sciences, University of Newcastle - starting in March.

Lorraine Bennett, Sharynne  McLeod, Bronwyn Hemsley at the Children's Voices Centre

 

 

CVC collaborative research just published - Advancing the Sustainable Development Goals by listening to children’s voices across the globe

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). Advancing the Sustainable Development Goals by listening to children’s voices across the globe. Child Language Teaching and Therapy, Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1177/02656590251406102

Scholar GPS Recognition

I received an email overnight to say that my research is #1 in the world for speech pathology (top 0.05% in the field). It is exciting to see four of the top six are from Australia (Deb Theodoros, Linda Worrall, Mark Onslow) and the other two are highly esteemed colleagues from UK and US.

The World Children's Day recording is now available

The World Children's Day recording is now available - WOW!

https://media-studio.csu.edu.au/w/x5lAkxJaPWK

http://clickemail.csu.edu.au/c/7/eyJhaSI6NTQzMjg4ODQsImUiOiJtZy1lbmM6Ry9BQWVKb3ZUYnVqWGNPL25CVWFSeWt2bjNSNm1hc0ciLCJyaSI6ImNvbnRhY3QtOWQ1ZmIwYTVjMTRiZTkxMWE5NzkwMDBkM2FkMWMzYWYtODgwMjdiNzYxY2VhNDk1Yzk1ZDA0NDBhZTdlOTQ1NTgiLCJycSI6IjAyLWIyNTM1Ny04YmE0OTFkZWI5ZmQ0NjNmYjg2M2M5MGJhNzhjMmMwYiIsIm0iOmZhbHNlLCJ1aSI6IjAiLCJ1biI6IiIsInUiOiJodHRwczovL21lZGlhLXN0dWRpby5jc3UuZWR1LmF1L3cveDVsQWt4SmFQV0s_a2V5PTI0NzI3ZjgxMGE0ODkxYzNmYTM0ODAxMWRlN2U2MmRiJl9jbGRlZT1nc3BabVJSUUdqSGppUTBPRDhfRDAyWUdkQW5iMDUyTGFGYmtNQlhVZzItSlhHekQwZlNNZHVYNU5GNWQta21nJnJlY2lwaWVudGlkPWNvbnRhY3QtOWQ1ZmIwYTVjMTRiZTkxMWE5NzkwMDBkM2FkMWMzYWYtODgwMjdiNzYxY2VhNDk1Yzk1ZDA0NDBhZTdlOTQ1NTgmZXNpZD04ODQzMGM0Zi0zZWQ2LWYwMTEtODU0NC03Y2VkOGQzNDQ4YWEifQ/f-y3A0yWKARtRVFEsqsQJQ 

 

Happy Christmas from CVC

 Happy Christmas from Sharynne, Tamara, Kathy, Carolyn and Lorraine

Congratulations to the CVC affilates who have been promoted this year

The 2025 promotions at Charles Sturt University have just been announced. Congratulations to our talented CVC affiliates
Level C - Senior Lecturer
Laura Hoffman – Allied Health, Exercise and Sports Sciences
Jessica Sears  - Education
Lucia Wuersch – Business
Level D – Associate Professor
Leanne Gibbs – Education
Suzanne Hopf – Allied Health, Exercise and Sports Sciences
Level E - Professor
Sarah Verdon – Allied Health, Exercise and Sports Sciences

Also, congratulations to Professor Jane McCormack - who was promoted at ACU.