The award-winning Charles Sturt paper that ‘broke’ the internet

Speech and language acquisition researchers at Charles Sturt University have received The Editor’s Award for the best paper published in a prestigious US journal in 2018. The award recognises the most “impactful” works that also feature both outstanding research design and presentation. The authors’ paper, entitled Children’s consonant acquisition in 27 languages: a cross-linguistic study, studied 27 languages and concluded that most children can pronounce nearly all consonants correctly by the age of five. The article appeared in the American Journal of Speech-Language Pathology and was selected by the journal’s editor-in-chief and the editors for the award. Professor of Speech and Language Acquisition in the Charles Sturt School of Teacher Education Sharynne McLeod and colleague Dr Kate Crowe were conferred the award at the recent American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA) Convention in Orlando, Florida. McLeod and Crowe examined a wealth of material for their article, reviewing 60 studies of consonant acquisition and in more than 26,000 children in 27 languages, including Icelandic. After winning the award, Professor McLeod said: “The American Speech-Language-Hearing Association has more than 204,000 members, publishes four journals, and more than 15,000 people attended the convention, so it was a great honour to receive this award. “Our team also received an Editor's Award last year for another ASHA journal. “Our paper not only won the Editor's Award but has been described as the paper that ‘broke’ the speech-language pathology (SLP) internet due to the discussion about the impact it would have on speech and language pathologists’ daily practices.” McLeod and Crowe’s aim in writing the paper was to provide general information to speech pathologists, educators and families about children’s consonant acquisition across languages. In doing so, they were able to show that by age five most have acquired the majority of consonants spoken in their environment. McLeod said families who are concerned about their child’s speech sounds or inability to be heard by others can contact their local speech pathologist. They can also get support through Speech Pathology Australia or view the Waiting for Speech Pathology website. The researchers' award-winning article can be read here. You can also view the discussion that ‘broke’ the internet. Dr Crowe is now a postdoctoral researcher in speech pathology at the University of Iceland and also a Charles Sturt Adjunct Research Fellow. Crowe obtained her doctorate at Charles Sturt and is a former Fulbright Scholar.