ACQ Vol 12 no 1 2010

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ACQ Volume 12, Number 1 2010 15
Jane McCormack is completing her PhD at Charles Sturt
University, investigating the experience and impact of childhood
speech impairment. She is also the project officer for the Sound
Effects Study.
Sharynne McLeod, PhD, is professor of speech and language
acquisition at Charles Sturt University and is a primary researcher (with
A/Profs Harrison and McAllister) conducting the Sound Effects Study.
Linda J. Harrison, PhD, is the Associate Professor of Early
Childhood at Charles Sturt University.
Lindy McAllister, PhD, is the Deputy Head (Teaching and
Learning) of the Medical School at the University of Queensland, and
past president of Speech Pathology Australia.
Erin L. Holliday is a school teacher who completed her Bachelor
of Education (Primary) at Charles Sturt University in 2008 with
Class 1 Honours. Her honours project incorporated the analysis of
drawings collected for the Sound Effects Study.
Correspondence to:
Jane McCormack
PhD student and Project Officer
Charles Sturt University
PO Box 789, Albury, NSW, 2640, Australia
tel: +612 6051 6835
fax: +612 6051 6772
email: ;
influenced at all times by contextual factors (Daniel &
McLeod, 2006). Furthermore, the authors recognise the
importance of multi-method approaches when researching
with young children, in order for the research to reflect the
different perspectives of those children.
Conclusions
The findings from this research exemplify the valuable
information that children can provide and support the
inclusion of children in research about them. The findings
also support the use of a range of methods to understand
children’s views, when verbal communication may be
difficult. This study revealed that children perceive talking as
a happy experience and may hold different views from their
parents, teachers and speech pathologists regarding their
speech impairment.
Acknowledgment
The Sound Effects Study was supported by Australian
Research Council Discovery Grant (DP0773978). Drawings
from the 143 children were displayed at the Speech
Pathology Australia National Conference in Adelaide in 2009
and will be published in a book titled Children Draw Talking.
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The Sound Effects Study research team (L-R): Prof. Sharynne
McLeod, Jane McCormack, A/Prof. Lindy McAllister and A/Prof.
Linda Harrison.