• Charles Sturt University Early Childhood Voices Conference 2022 (ECV2022) invites children’s drawings of ‘talking’ for display on its global online gallery
• Organisers seek children to ‘speak’ to the world through their drawings
• Submission deadline is Monday 7 November for display from Monday 5 December when the online conference starts

Organisers of the online conference Early Childhood Voices Conference 2022 (ECV2022) at Charles Sturt University invite children everywhere to draw a picture and submit it for display in the conference’s global online gallery.

Professor of Speech and Language Acquisition Sharynne McLeod (pictured) is conference co-chair with Lecturer in Early Childhood Education Dr Shukla Sikder, both in the Charles Sturt School of Education in Bathurst, and Professor McLeod is chairing the Children’s Voices Committee for the Early Childhood Voices 2022 (ECV2022) conference.

Professor McLeod said the conference follows the success of their 2020 online conference during the COVID-19 pandemic and the wholly online ECV2022 will be held from Monday 5 to Friday 9 December with participation and registration free.

“We invite children from across the world to ‘draw a picture of you talking to someone’, then answer a few quick questions to describe their drawing,” Professor McLeod said.

“We are seeking children to ‘speak’ to the world, and ECV2022 participants, through their drawings. The drawings are not supposed to be a work of art – whatever a child draws is perfect!

“We will display all of the drawings on the ‘Children Draw Talking Global Online Gallery’ featured at ECV2022 and opening on Monday 5 December.”

Professor McLeod said there are currently more than 1,400 registrations from more than 60 countries for ECV2022 and organisers have accepted 100 abstracts from presenters from 25 countries.

Professor Linda Harrison from Macquarie University will be a keynote speaker at ECV2022 and will speak about how children can speak to us through their drawings.

Professor McLeod said members of the ECV2022 Children’s Voices Committee previously have undertaken a lot of research with children, including asking them to ‘draw talking’.

“Some of the ways our Early Childhood Interdisciplinary Research team have listened to children through their past drawings includes analysis and translation that has resulted in three book chapters, seven journal articles, and five conference presentations,” she said.

“A number of years ago, our Children Draw Talking Art Exhibition was created as part of an Australian Research Council Discovery Grant which was displayed in Norway, Hawaii, USA, UK and Australia.”

Professor McLeod said the call for drawings is not part of a current research project but may be used for research in the future.

Submit a drawing by Monday 7 November or see the ECV2022 website for more information.