• The Charles Sturt Children’s Voices Centre has co-edited a book, Early Childhood Voices: Children, Families, Professionals highlighting the diversity and culture of young children

A Charles Sturt University research group has co-edited a book giving a voice to the diversity, experiences and cultures of young children.

The book, Early Childhood Voices: Children, Families, Professionals (Springer, 2024 ), is the result of a collaboration between staff and student members of the Charles Sturt Children’s Voices Centre (CVC) (formerly known as the Early Childhood Interdisciplinary Research Group).

Following on from the internationally successful Early Childhood Voices conferences in 2020 and 2022, the book brought together professionals across multiple disciplines from 17 countries.

Distinguished Professor of Speech and Language Acquisition and Director of the Charles Sturt Children’s Voices Centre Sharynne McLeod co-edited the book with colleagues Dr Linda Mahony, Dr Andi Salamon and Ms Jenny Dwyer.

“This book explores theoretical and practical issues of listening to children, families and professionals who advocate for and work with young children to ensure no one is left behind,” Professor McLeod said.

“It aims to promote social justice and improve the lives of young children, so it has been an absolute pleasure to be a part of this and work alongside my co-editors, the chapter authors and our reviewers.”

The book highlights the practical application of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals in the context of the Convention on the Rights of the Child.

This was achieved by exploring innovations, theories and partnerships drawn from the voices of children, families, early childhood educators, speech-language pathologists and multidisciplinary teams from across 17 countries. Twelve of the 18 chapters were co-authored by Charles Sturt academics and research higher degree students.

Professor McLeod said the collaboration provided a shared vision for equity, peace and justice while integrating social, environmental and economic dimensions of sustainability.

“Topics in the book include giving children a voice; methods for listening to and documenting young children’s perspectives; listening to and working in partnership with families, educators and professionals; and wellness and wellbeing of young children and their families across multiple dimensions,” she said.

“Feedback so far from those who have read the book has been overwhelmingly positive, with one review saying, ‘Voice has been explored in early childhood before, but the focus of this book from a social justice perspective contextualises voice work in a powerful way’.

“Another noted the way the book tackles diversity of experience and culture, saying ‘It moves away from a privileged perspective on voice work and includes many chapters on complexity and challenges in life’.”

Early Childhood Voices: Children, Families, Professionals can be read online.