• The Early Childhood Voices 2020 online conference showcases innovations to improve the lives of children, families and practitioners working in the early childhood sector
• Already more than 1,600 registrations from more than 50 countries, and eight keynote presentations and 90+ oral presentations from 17 countries
• Online conference starts Monday 16 to Friday 20 November – register to participate

The conference co-convenors are Professor of Speech and Language Acquisition Sharynne McLeod and Dr Tamara Cumming, Senior Lecturer and Research Fellow in the Charles Sturt University School of Teacher Education in Bathurst.

They are supported by an organising committee of academics and PhD students from the Charles Sturt Early Childhood Research Group from the School of Teacher Education, School of Education, and School of Community Health, and staff from the Faculty of Arts and Education.

Professor McLeod said, “The Early Childhood Voices 2020 conference is about children’s voices in the broadest sense.

“We’re delighted to already have more than 1,600 registrations from more than 50 countries, which is far more participants than we originally expected or planned for.

“It’s free to register and access, so it’s a great opportunity for students, researchers and practitioners to engage with the very latest in early childhood research.

“Once people register they can access all presentations, starting from 16 November, on an ongoing basis.

“It is an asynchronous conference, so people can access the presentations at any time of the day or night. Most of the presentations will be available after the conference finishes, and those who register will receive a free conference book as a pdf.”

Each paper presented at the conference is aligned with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals and with these topics: children’s voices; families’ voices; professionals’ voices; Indigenous voices; COVID-19; wellbeing; workforce; leadership; communication, speech and language; rural issues; disability; and innovation.

Dr Cumming said researchers will be talking about ways of investigating and documenting experiences, challenging the status quo, and how people in the early childhood sector have managed during COVID-19.

“This conference is significant because it brings together research from a range of professions including early childhood education and speech pathology, and from all over the world,” Dr Cumming said.

“The online format makes it borderless, so it doesn’t matter at all that we are located outside a major city in Australia, because people from Zambia, Brazil, Oman, Bulgaria and Iceland can all contribute and benefit.

“This makes it diverse and maybe more democratic than conferences that can require the money and time that not all researchers have.”

The conference keynote speakers are Australian early childhood researchers Australian Laureate Fellow Professor Marilyn Fleer, Professor Sheila Degotardi, Professor Bob Perry, and Professor Sue Dockett.

Other leading international presenters include Professor Laura Lundy, a world expert in children’s rights; Professor Gail Gillon, who will be speaking about improving young children’s early literacy; and Professor Jayne Osgood and Professor Ann Merete Otterstad, who will present new materialist perspectives on established early childhood practices.

Ms Jacqui Emery from Royal Far West will talk about their work improving services and outcomes for children with developmental challenges.

“It’s exciting for us as researchers too because we have had far fewer opportunities to share research because of COVID-19, and because it gives us the opportunity to put the Charles Sturt Early Childhood Research Group on the world map,” Dr Cumming said.

“We are all about innovation in our research, and now, in the way we promote it too.”

To find out more information and to register, view the link to the conference website https://earlychildhoodresearch.csu.domains/early-childhood-voices-conference-2020/