RIPPLE Effect showcases work from SLL strand

The final RIPPLE Effect for 2015 has been released and showcases a great year of work, particularly from our Speech, Language and Literacies Strand. 

There is a great wrap up on the achievements of our group throughout the year, plus special features on: 

Tessa Daffern, PhD Student, about the importance of learning to spell and write. 


Noella Mackenzie, on a new writing tool for classrooms.


Suzanne Hopf, on understanding communication diversity in Fiji.


Helen Blake, on her recently endorsed PhD investigating multilingual speaker's intelligibility. 


Sarah Verdon, reflecting back on her PhD journey in time for graduation.



Full articles can be found here http://www.csu.edu.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0020/1832204/The-RIPPLE-Effect-Issue-2-2015.pdf 

PhD Graduation

This week saw a very happy end to the academic year with 3 RIPPLE PhD students graduating. 
Below is a photo of our new graduates Dr. Tamara Cumming, Dr. Sarah Verdon and Dr. Tina Stratigos with some of their supervisors and the Vice Chancellor at the Bathurst graduation ceremony.

L-R: Professor Sharynne McLeod, Dr Tina Stratigos, Dr Sarah Verdon, CSU Vice Chancellor Andy Vann, Dr Tamara Cumming, Professor Jennifer Sumsion, Dr Sandie Wong.

New publication

A paper arising from the Embracing Diversity-Creating Equality study, undertaken as part of Sarah Verdon's PhD research and co-written with Professor Sharynne McLeod and Dr Sandie Wong of RIPPLE has recently been published online.

Reference:
Verdon, S., McLeod, S., & Wong, S. (2015, early online). Supporting culturally and linguistically diverse children with speech, language and communication needs: Overarching principles, individual approaches. Journal of Communication Disorders. doi:10.1016/j.jcomdis.2015.10.002

Abstract:
Speech-language pathologists (SLPs) are working with an increasing number of families from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds as the world’s population continues to become more internationally mobile. The heterogeneity of these diverse populations makes it impossible to identify and document a one size fits all strategy for working with culturally and linguistically diverse families. This paper explores approaches to practice by SLPs identified as specialising in multilingual and multicultural practice in culturally and linguistically diverse contexts from around the world. Data were obtained from ethnographic observation of 14 sites in 5 countries on 4 continents. The sites included hospital settings, university clinics, school-based settings, private practices and Indigenous community-based services. There were 652 individual artefacts collected from the sites which included interview transcripts, photographs, videos, narrative reflections, informal and formal field notes. The data were analysed using Cultural-Historical Activity Theory (Engeström, 1987). From the analysis six overarching principles of culturally competent practice (PCCP) were identified. These were: (1) identification of culturally appropriate and mutually motivating therapy goals, (2) knowledge of languages and culture, (3) use of culturally appropriate resources, (4) consideration of the cultural, social and political context, (5) consultation with families and communities, and (6) collaboration between professionals. These overarching principles align with the six position statements developed by the International Expert Panel on Multilingual Children’s Speech (2012) which aim to enhance the cultural competence of speech pathologists and their practice. The international examples provided in the current study demonstrate the individualised ways that these overarching principles are enacted in a range of different organisational, social, cultural and political contexts. Tensions experienced in enacting the principles are also discussed. This paper emphasises the potential for individual SLPs to enhance their practice by adopting these overarching principles to support the individual children and families in diverse contexts around the world. 

PhD Endorsement - Natalie Thompson

On the 11th of November at 10:30am, PhD student Natalie Thompson will be presenting her doctoral research proposal for endorsement by the university.

The title of Natalie's research proposal is:

Children’s perspectives of their literacy experiences in and out of school in the 21st century: A mixed-methods study 

Natalie will present her proposal in Albury from the Barb Sparrow Room in the School of Education building. 
A VC connection to Wagga (SoE downstairs) will also be available, or you can join by telephone. 
If you wish to join the presentation via telephone/MS Communicator please check http://csu.edu.au/vcbookings/ for booking information. 
You will need to be logged into CSU to access this page. 

I encourage all strand members to attend if possible to hear about Natalie's research which will contribute to the research produced by the Speech, Language and Literacies strand.

Best of luck Natalie!

School of Education research seminar by Brooke Scriven

Brooke Scriven is presenting a seminar this Wednesday, 20th September at 3-4pm in the School of Education research seminar series. The seminar can be attended in person in Wagga Wagga, and via video conference in Albury.

Brooke's presentation draws on her doctoral research investigating how a young child accomplishes digital literacy practices through family interactions during technology use at home. She recently delivered a version of her presentation at the International Institute of Ethnomethodology and Conversation Analysis conference in Kolding, Denmark.

Title: "Hello Barbie": The social organisation of a young child's telephone conversation in pretend play with digital technologies

Abstract: Conversation analytic research of telephone conversations has generated significant discoveries of the orderly and sequential nature of talk. Recent findings of video recorded telephone conversations have shown how talk is connected to ongoing activity continuing beyond the call (Mondada, 2008). However, little is known about how young children orient to the orderliness of talk in pretend telephone conversations, or how their talk relates to the ongoing activity of their play. This presentation considers a young child's pretend telephone call as she views the music video Queen of the waves (from the film Barbie in a mermaid's tale) on YouTube. Data are drawn from a video recording made by the child's mother in their home. The perspective of ethnomethodology and the analytic method of conversation analysis were used to sequentially examine the child's pretend telephone conversation with Barbie. The child dials Barbie's telephone number and talks to her using a toy mobile phone. Her talk is touched off by objects onscreen and named in the song lyrics of the music video. Discussion considers how the child orients to and uses the digital technologies (the YouTube video on the laptop and the toy mobile phone), and draws on her understandings of how people interact over the telephone, to socially organise a telephone conversation with Barbie in her pretend play.

Reference:

Mondada, L. (2008). Using video for a sequential and multimodal analysis of social interaction: Videotaping institutional telephone calls. Forum: Qualitative Social Research, 9(3). Retrieved from www.qualitative-research.net 
 

New Research: NAPLAN testing regime failing students with speech and language difficulties

Speech Pathology Australia (SPA) is releasing ground-breaking research (conducted by RIPPLE researchers Professor Sharynne McLeod, Professor Linda Harrison and Dr Cen Wang) based on thousands of Australian children from the Longitudinal Study of Australian Children that shows NAPLAN is failing children with speech and language disorders.
The research shows that students with speech and language problems achieve significantly lower scores on every NAPLAN test (reading, writing, spelling, grammar and numeracy) for school years (grades) 3, 5 and 7, than students without these problems.
The research also exposes for the first time that students with speech and language problems are more likely to be excluded from NAPLAN testing than those without these problems. 

Sharynne McLeod has been advocating for changes at the policy level to support children with speech language and literacy needs. Today she presented the above research to a public hearing of the Senate Education and Employment Committee.

Sharynne was interviewed for articles in today’s Sydney Morning Herald http://bit.ly/1MLXyYs

The Age

http://m.theage.com.au/nsw/education-naplan-testing-regime-failing-students-with-speech-language-disorders-20150923-gjsy39.html

The Courier Mail  

http://www.couriermail.com.au/news/queensland/naplan-bias-schools-exclude-children-with-communication-impairments/story-fnihsrf2-1227542706620

and a number of other media outlets.
Well done on this great  advocacy work for children with speech, language and literacy needs.

Gaenor Dixon (SPA President) and Sharynne McLeod presenting at the Senate Inquiry

New publication - Multilingualism and speech-language competence in early childhood: Impact on academic and social-emotional outcomes at school

Congratulations to RIPPLE members Professor Sharynne McLeod and Professor Linda Harrison (and their colleagues at the Queensland University of Technology) on their recent publication in Early Childhood Research Quarterly titled:

Multilingualism and speech-language competence in early childhood: Impact on academic and social-emotional outcomes at school

This large-scale longitudinal population study provided a rare opportunity to consider the interface between multilingualism and speech-language competence on children’s academic and social-emotional outcomes and to determine whether differences between groups at 4–5 years persist, deepen, or dis-appear with time and schooling. Four distinct groups were identified from the Kindergarten cohort of the Longitudinal Study of Australian Children (LSAC) (1) English-only + typical speech and language(n = 2012); (2) multilingual + typical speech and language (n = 476); (3) English-only + speech and language concern (n = 643); and (4) multilingual + speech and language concern (n = 109). Two analytic approaches were used to compare these groups. First, a matched case-control design was used to randomly match multilingual children with speech and language concern (group 4, n = 109) to children in groups 1–3 on gender, age, and family socio-economic position in a cross-sectional comparison of vocabulary, school readiness, and behavioral adjustment. Next, analyses were applied to the whole sample to determine longitudinal effects of group membership on teachers’ ratings of literacy, numeracy, and behavioral adjustment at ages 6–7 and 8–9 years. At 4–5 years, multilingual children with speech and language concern did equally well or better than English-only children (with or without speech and language concern) on school readiness tests but performed more poorly on measures of English vocabulary and behavior. At ages 6–7 and 8–9, the early gap between English-only and multilingual children had closed. Multilingualism was not found to contribute to differences in literacy and numeracy outcomes at school; instead, outcomes were more related to concerns about children’s speech and language in early childhood. There were no group differences for socio-emotional outcomes. Early evidence for the combined risks of multilingualism plus speech and language concern was not upheld into the school years.

The full text can be access here:

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0885200615000678

Full citation:

McLeod, S., Harrison, L. J., Whiteford, C., & Walker, S. (2016). Multilingualism and speech-language competence in early childhood: Impact on academic and social-emotional outcomes at school. Early Childhood Research Quarterly, 34, 53-66. doi: 10.1016/j.ecresq.2015.08.005