• Charles Sturt University will host a major early childhood education and research conference online with more than 1,500 participants from 70 countries
• The conference features international experts from Luxembourg, Canada, the USA and Australia as keynote speakers, and participation registration is free
• Prevalence statistics vary between conditions, but two children in every classroom have developmental language disorder, approximately 25 per cent of parents are concerned about their children’s speech in the early years, and approximately one in 100 children are Autistic

Charles Sturt University is hosting a major early childhood education and research conference online featuring international experts from Luxembourg, Canada, the USA and Australia as keynote speakers.

The Early Childhood Voices 2022 (ECV2022) conference co-chairs are Lecturer in Early Childhood Education Dr Shukla Sikder and Professor of Speech and Language Acquisition Sharynne McLeod, both in the Charles Sturt School of Education in Bathurst.

Dr Sikder said the 2022 conference has more than 1,500 registrations from 70 countries and follows the success of the 2020 online conference staged during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“We are delighted to have highly respected international and Australian researchers as keynote speakers, and participants will benefit from listening to any and all of them,” Dr Sikder said.

While prevalence statistics vary between conditions, conference participants share concerns, for example, that two children in every classroom have developmental language disorder (DLD);  approximately 25 per cent of parents are concerned about their children’s speech in the early years; and approximately one in 100 children are Autistic.

The ECV2022 is wholly online so intending participants can view the presentations at any time during the conference from Monday 5 to Friday 9 December in any order they choose, and with free registration and participation. Registered participants can join in to live sessions (Yarning Discussions) between 5 to 9 December.

The keynote speakers and topics are:

1. ‘Young children’s learning by observing and pitching in’, by Professor Barbara Rogoff, the University of California-Santa Cruz Foundation Distinguished Professor of Psychology. Professor Rogoff investigates cultural variation in children’s learning processes and how communities organise opportunities to learn in everyday life, with a special interest in Mexican and Indigenous-heritage communities of the Americas.

2. ‘Resource-rich perspectives on children’s embodied engagement in science inquiry’, by Professor Christina Siry, Professor of Learning and Instruction at the University of Luxembourg. Professor Siry’s research interests are in early childhood science education and teacher education for science. Grounded in critical theories, she seeks to highlight the complex ways children engage in science. Together with her team, she investigates the multi-modal ways pluri-lingual children engage in science learning spaces to highlight the resources they bring to the interaction.

3. ‘Research in diverse linguistic and cultural contexts’, by Professor Barbara May Bernhardt, PhD, Professor Emerita. She was professor of speech-language pathology from 1990–2017 at the University of British Columbia, Canada, and a speech-language pathologist from 1972–2017. Professor Bernhardt’s research has focused on children’s speech development, assessment and intervention, general language development, and service delivery to First Nations peoples. With Dr. Stemberger and international colleagues, she has been conducting a cross-linguistic study in children’s speech development.

Professor Joseph Paul Stemberger, PhD, Professor Emeritus, was Professor of Linguistics from 1985–2001 at the University of Minnesota and at the University of British Columbia from 2001–2018. His primary research foci are children’s speech (and morphological) development and adult language processing.

4. ‘Valuing Indigenous peoples and their health and wellbeing in early childcare services’, by Dr Chontel Gibson, a Kamilaroi woman from north-western New South Wales, Australia. Dr Gibson graduated as an occupational therapist in 2000, was awarded a Master of Public Health in 2010, and a Doctorate of Philosophy relating to Aboriginal health and wellbeing in 2018. She has worked as an occupational therapist, policy officer and academic, and has held many leadership roles, including Board Director of Occupational Therapy Australia and the inaugural Deputy Chairperson for Indigenous Allied Health Australia.

Dr Gibson co-developed and continues co-chairing the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Occupational Therapy Network, which provides strategic advice on occupational therapy. She is currently managing the ‘Good for Kids. Good for Life’ team that supports early childhood education and care (ECEC) services in the NSW Hunter-New England region to implement health promoting practices in-line with ‘Munch and Move’.

5. ‘Learning from and with children through drawing’, by Professor Linda Harrison, a Professorial Research Fellow in Early Childhood Education at Macquarie University and Adjunct Professor of Early Childhood, Charles Sturt University. Her research focuses on studies of children’s learning, development, and wellbeing, educator-child relationships, and the factors influencing program quality in early childhood education and care (ECEC) contexts.

Professor Harrison has a long-standing interest in the use of drawing as a research methodology for understanding children’s experiences and relationships with others at home, in their ECEC settings, and during the transition to school. Her recent work has sought to gather children’s voices and perspectives to guide ECEC policy and practice.

6. ‘Innovations in early childhood: Understanding and responding to children’s needs through effective assessment’, by Associate Professor Cathrine Neilsen-Hewett who is the Academic Director of the Early Years, at the University of Wollongong. She has demonstrated leadership and scholarship in translational research with a strong record in supporting professional development initiatives across the early childhood education sector.

Associate Professor Neilsen-Hewett has co-led six large-scale transformational Early Start research projects across three Australian states, in over 450 ECEC services, with more than 3,500 children. Her current research projects focus is on quality early childhood environments and workforce development, integrated early childhood service platforms, approaches to assessment, and children’s self-regulation and wellbeing.