Postgraduate Student Profiles

Anne Fulcher - April 2012

For 32 years we have had an annual family muster Santa photo. I see it as a special chance to record and count my blessings. Our children have not always been so agreeable! One thing they have been consistently part of and continually supported, has been my work with infants with congenital hearing impairment. I regard this 38 year marathon as another blessing in my life. My work has taken me to job sites around the world and speaking engagements at highly motivating international conferences. It was exciting to be a therapist in one of the first cochlear implant centres in the world, the Sydney Children’s Cochlear Implant Centre. However, the bulk of my working life has been with The Shepherd Centre, a charity early intervention service dedicated to assisting infants with hearing impairment to learn to listen and speak.

I have witnessed the evolution from cumbersome, irritating, whistling and grossly inadequate hearing aid boxes worn on the chest to micro aids and the miracle of our own Professor Graeme Clark’s amazing cochlear implant invention now available even for tiny infants. I have listened to mostly unintelligible speech being transformed to such a high quality that some of our graduates earn public speaking prizes and achieve career milestones that can even encompass that of medical practitioner. This revolution in outcomes for babies with hearing impairment is truly inspiring. Children are now able to reach their full potential, regardless of level of hearing loss.

In 2006, when the government threatened to cease their 30% contribution to The Shepherd Centre’s running costs unless we could produce convincing data to support our outcomes, my knee jerk reaction was to immediately offer assistance. Encouraged by my extraordinary team of supervisors, Alison Purcell, Elise Baker and Natalie Munro, not to mention MANY wonderful and inspiring staff and post-grad colleagues from The Faculty of Health Sciences, I am now approaching the completion of my part-time PhD project. The data are very exciting and indicate that if diagnosis of hearing impairment, fitting of appropriate amplification and enrolment in auditory-verbal early intervention occurs prior to 6 months of age then there is a significantly positive impact on speech/language outcomes. Moreover, it is apparent that even babies with substantial severe/profound hearing impairment who are fitted with a cochlear implant prior to 12 months of age can reach age appropriate speech/language outcomes as early as 3 years of age. Indeed, these babies are doing as well and sometimes better than children with far less hearing impairment. So thank you, University of Sydney for the opportunity to now sing this success to the rafters. The much needed evidence can now be provided to the government, but even more importantly, we are now able to advise the majority of families, “Yes, research does indeed indicate that it is possible for you to look forward to chatting with your child…just like their hearing peers ”. This advice became all the more pertinent when our first grandson was recently diagnosed with moderate/ severe hearing impairment at just 4 days old.

Samantha Warhurst - August 2011

Having a background as a singer, I have always been intrigued by the human voice and it was this urge to know more about the voice that drew me towards a career as a speech pathologist. It was not until I completed my honours thesis in 2009 however that I realised voice research was so fascinating and diverse. My eyes were opened to a world in which we could actually measure and explain the way a voice sounds and works.
So I decided that I would take voice research further and do a PhD. I specifically wanted to use the state-of-the-art equipment at the University of Sydney to measure the voices we hear on the radio. Radio presenters and voice over artists really interest me as they are one of the few professions who communicate and entertain with only their voice.
And so began my journey as a PhD candidate, supported by the Australian Postgraduate Award and the Deidre Russell Memorial Scholarship. My supervisors Dr. Cate Madill, Dr. Tricia McCabe and Professor Edwin Yiu from the University of Hong Kong have provided unwavering support and have really challenged me to reach my potential as a speech pathologist and researcher. At the moment we’re in the thick of data collection; sixteen radio presenters and nine normal controls have attended voice assessments in our Voice Research Laboratory. These voice assessments involve a voice recording as well as an examination of the vocal folds with a high-speed laryngoscope (that lets us look at the vocal folds vibrating by taking 4000 pictures per second). It’s quite exciting to meet people I’ve listened to frequently on the radio and see their amazement when they see their vocal folds vibrating in slow motion.
We’re hoping to finish data collection in a few months time and then I’ll be off on the long and winding road of data analysis and thesis writing. In the meantime however we’re still looking for participants. If you know someone who speaks on radio and might be interested in participating, or if you’re a healthy adult with no vocal performance experience and you’d like to participate yourself please email me at

Elizabeth Murray - March 2011

Childhood Apraxia of Speech (CAS) is the topic of my PhD and I’ve just started the second year of my degree. After growing up with 2 of my siblings with CAS, I understand firsthand how difficult the years of speech pathology and constant practice is – I was often one of the family members doing the work with them. After graduating, I needed a break from CAS and never really thought I’d do a PhD. I found when doing my honours research there was a belief from my peers that if you do research you’re giving up on clinical or you are not a real clinician. For me, doing my honours made me a much better clinician and doing my PhD in a clinical topic continues to improve my clinical skills. As I am still a practicing clinician, my clients are getting the benefits of what I am learning in my research. I have worked considerably with children with CAS and other speech disorders as a clinician. In addition I worked as the Rater’s Network Manager on the speechBITE team. My time with speechBITE allowed me to further my skills in searching and critiquing literature– I was surprised at the lack of evidence out there for CAS. It was no wonder there were no easy answers for children with CAS, their families or clinicians. Although further work needs to be done on setting firmer diagnostic criteria, I decided to focus on treatment.
My supervisors, Dr. Tricia McCabe and Associate Professor Kirrie Ballard have developed the Rapid Syllable Transition Treatment (ReST) based on principles of motor programming. We are comparing 2 treatments – the ReST treatment and the Nuffield Dyspraxia Programme 3rd edition (NDP3) in a Randomised Control Trial with hopefully 20+ participants to provide some answers for families, clinicians and researchers on how to treat CAS. I am funded by a Douglas and Lola Douglas Scholarship on Child and Adolescent Health as well as a Nadia Verrall Memorial Scholarship through Speech Pathology Australia. A Randomised Control Trial sounds daunting and it is a lot of work but I have great support and assistance from my supervisors, Tricia and Kirrie, colleagues in the Department and my PhD room-mates. I also could not have returned to uni without the unwavering support from my husband and family. Overall I cannot believe how much I have learnt and how rewarding the process has been so far. The speech pathology discipline is certainly a building full of dynamic and intelligent people!
To date we have completed a pilot of 4 participants and our first treatment block, which involved pre-assessments, intensive 3 week therapy and immediate post assessments for 9 participants. The treatment has been conducted by year 3 undergraduate student clinicians who have all done a fabulous job! I can’t wait to see how the children all went with the treatment but I’m waiting on results from blinded independent assessors!! All being well we will have all our data collected by this time next year.
If you would like to refer a child for the research or would like further information or to observe some of the assessment or treatment sessions – please contact me at Elizabeth.murray@sydney.edu.au. There are also paid positions to be blinded independent assessors, so keep an eye out for these opportunities.

Selena Young - August 2010

Having worked as a speech pathologist in Singapore for 12 years since graduating from Cumberland in 1998, I never thought I would ever return to being a full-time postgraduate student again – much less one focussing on RESEARCH. Upon graduation, I worked with a mixed caseload at the Singapore General Hospital and concurrently completed a Master of Health Science Education. With a keen interest in paediatrics, I was offered a fellowship in Craniofacial and Velopharyngeal Anomalies at the Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children (London) in 2002, with the subsequent task of streamlining all the Craniofacial Speech Pathology protocols in Singapore. Since the official opening in 2005, I have been working at the national Cleft and Craniofacial Centre in Kandang Kerbau Women’s and Children’s Hospital. My boss had always encouraged me to pursue a PhD but I never gave it serious thought, as I loved being a clinician, travelling with our team on international Operation Smile missions, and had also just started lecturing full-time at the National University of Singapore. What then transpired was a series of events in quick succession in 2007: I received an email from Alison Purcell, sent on from Michelle Lincoln, both eagerly proposing I try for a PhD scholarship. I had one frantic week to put in the application, and within one month, had the news that I was accepted and had a University of Sydney International Research Scholarship to commence study in 3 months. Needless to say, there were mixed feelings, but with the utmost support and love from my family and colleagues, I packed up and returned to Cumbo! My PhD study aims to profile the language and cognitive characteristics of Chinese Singaporean preschoolers and their parents, and is supported by a generous 3-year grant from the Singapore Ministry of Health. It has been an absolute luxury to immerse myself in full-time reading and writing…and with a semester left to go, I hope I can complete THE BOOK on schedule. I have learnt so much from my main supervisory team – Alison Purcell, Kirrie Ballard, Rob Heard; Susan Rickard Liow in Singapore; as well as my fellow postgraduate room-mates. I would like to thank everyone in the Discipline for their good humour and hospitality, especially tolerating me taking up half of the precious fridge space to house my weekly supply of packed lunches and snacks!

Nisrine El-Choueifati - August 2009

I am currently working as the Speech Pathology Project Co-coordinator at Bankstown Community Resource Group (BCRG) which is a community organisation that provides training, consultation and speech pathology services to children in local childcare centres. My masters research project is part of a 4 year, action research project "Training in Interaction, Communication and Literacy- the TICL program". TICL is funded by the Department of Community Services, Western Sydney Area Assistance Scheme (WSAAS). The project will last 4 years and include training of child care workers from 10 childcare centres in the Bankstown area. To date we have completed the program in four centres. My research focuses on evaluating the effectiveness of the TICL program in developing the skills of child care workers to support the language and literacy of all children and their families. So far, I have developed the training package, implemented training in two childcare centres, and also coordinating data collection from child care workers, children and families. At the moment, I am attempting to write a journal article and I am trying to bring the same amount of clarity, creativity and passion that I have in practice to scientific writing. The commitment to be involved in research has provided me with a great number of opportunities. The highlights so far, include attending and presenting for the first time at this year’s Speech Pathology Australia Conference in Adelaide. The TICL program is closely linked with the Federal Government's Early Childhood Plan. The connection between the research and the political context, gave me the opportunity to present the aims of this project to the Honorary Maxine Mc Kew, The Parliamentary Secretary for Early Childhood. At this point in the journey, I hope that I can have "craft and science intertwine"; Laura Justice at the 2009 SPAA conference suggested that the craft comes from our interest, experience, innovation and creativity. When they intertwine, the science should provide the tools, approaches and language for us to make decisions, build capacity, share and make this craft replicable. I'd like to acknowledge BCRG, Rebecca Galea, the executive officer and Monique Hines, TICL Speech Pathologist and my supervisors - Dr Alison Purcell, Dr Tricia McCabe and Dr Natalie Munro who have undertaken to support my professional development and for the skills, expertise and encouragement they have bought to the project. Email address nelc6620@uni.sydney.edu.au

Julia Starling - January 2009

Becoming a full time postgraduate student at this stage of my professional career was both completely unforeseen, yet quite inevitable. I wish I could say that I have always been interested in working with adolescents, however the reality is that I had spent a large part of my career actively avoiding any direct contact with them! But, to quote John Lennon, “Life is what happens to you while you’re busy making other plans”, and a special interest in school-age and adolescent language disability took a gradual, but firm hold. What happened next was that every time I found myself berating our profession for having minimal clinical and research focus in this area, and encouraging other clinicians to contribute their valuable experience and resources to the field of research, a niggly little voice would be saying “Well, and what are YOU going to do about it?”. So here I am, a full-time postgraduate student, with a golden opportunity to become completely focused on the issues of adolescents with language disability, in particular looking into the possibilities of speech pathologists and secondary teachers working as collaborative support teams. The study is being funded by a full-time postgraduate research grant, the Jack Bloomfield Scholarship, awarded by SPELD NSW, and I have also recently been awarded a postgraduate student research grant by Speech Pathology Australia. However, apart from the much-appreciated tolerance of my family, it is the fundamental support of some key people in the department that really makes this happen, from the initial encouragement of Tricia McCabe, Kerrie Lee and Michelle Lincoln to apply for a research grant in the first place, and now to my amazing “team” of supervisors, Leanne Togher, Natalie Munro and Joanne Arciuli. Even though I am immersed in the area of language ability and disability, I find the language of statistics and methodology quite incomprehensible, and this is just one area where their input is invaluable. I soon learned that the actual traits needed when taking on a research study are not so much academic as the ability to be very stubborn, to not be afraid to ask a gazillion questions, to be prepared for a roller coaster ride of highs and lows, and to keep a humorous perspective at all times. So a word of encouragement to any budding researchers out there is this: don’t be put off if you don’t know your ordinals from your nominals, or your End Notes from your ANOVAs! Just be ready for a steep learning curve in ways you never imagined. My main message though, is that research in all aspects of communication disorders is vital to our profession, and I am so thankful to have this opportunity to be directly involved in the process. It’s quite an adventure!

Emma McLaughlin - June 2008

I had a stressful couple of weeks three years ago. From my home in Melbourne, I applied to do a PhD project through the University of Sydney investigating attrition and retention in the speech pathology workforce. Then, I got married. Two days later, while on my honeymoon, I had a phone interview about the project. While my husband and I were on the way home from our honeymoon, I found out that I was the successful applicant. Being a PhD student in Melbourne with my supervisors (Michelle Lincoln and Barbara Adamson) in Sydney has been challenging and fantastic. I have loved sitting at my laptop in my trakkie dacks with my cat on my lap in the backyard while I do my PhD: a stark contrast to running between my office and the wards in a rehabilitation hospital! It has been tough not having academic people and atmosphere around to keep me driven and inspired, and doing most of my communication via email. However, trips up to Cumberland have helped me to feel more like a "real" (not a "virtual") PhD student. Another support mechanism that helped me greatly was the Occupational Health Labour Force Trends research group meetings, which I participated in via teleconference. This group was comprised of post graduate students from several health sciences disciplines. It was an energizing relief to be able to share the triumphs and frustrations of study with these peers, some of whom I travelled with to overseas conferences or stayed with in Sydney. So, even though I was by myself, I was never alone. I was also fortunate to be funded by an Australian Post Graduate Industry Award and to have the support of Speech Pathology Australia throughout my research, which allowed me to focus on the task at hand. I have grown in so many ways during my PhD. I know much more about the speech pathology workforce (including how dedicated and passionate they are about helping people), and challenges that face them. I know that stats are not as scary as I once thought. I know that I can present at an international conference while "gurus" in my field look on. I know that with the support of many wise, compassionate, generous and encouraging people, I can complete a research project and thesis that will hopefully make a difference to the speech pathologists of the future. I am not sure what I will do after I submit my thesis, but my desire to do research and support the speech pathology workforce has only been strengthened. I hope I am fortunate enough to be able pursue these interests in the future.

Bronwyn Hemsley - November 2007

In 1999 I was very fortunate to have the opportunity for secondment from my clinical position working with adults with cerebral palsy to a research project led by A/Prof. Sue Balandin, only to discover a sparkling new horizon - research. Suitably inspired and assured by Sue that the main ingredient to completing a PhD might be tenacity, I enrolled in postgraduate research at The University of Sydney. Gaining the financial support of an NHMRC public health scholarship enabled me to concentrate full time over the past two and a half years to complete my studies. Now as I prepare to submit the final thesis I can’t quite believe the sharpening in focus that postgraduate study has brought to my career and to my enthusiasm in working in the field of disability. It is difficult to explain all of the things I have gained from my postgraduate adventure. Put simply, I have really, and thoroughly, enjoyed it. Here, I will simply try to highlight two things that have been very important to me in the process of postgraduate study. One is the experience of working with others in ‘doing’ research, and the other is the excitement of writing about and ‘sharing’ the outcomes of research with others. I’ve been very lucky to have strong support from my supervisors Susan Balandin and Leanne Togher. Their enthusiasm for research and the pursuit of excellence in their work and the work of their students continually renewed my energies in progressing my own. It was through their support, and the financial support of the University, that I was able to travel overseas to attend conferences, have many opportunities to present my work, be inspired by the work of others in the field, and develop strong links with other researchers and clinicians. Having an opportunity to do this was important in focussing my efforts on not only doing research, but also on disseminating the outcomes effectively and making an impact on the community. Another thing that I have really enjoyed is working alongside my fellow students. Together, Sue and Leanne developed and nurtured a vibrant network of postgraduate research students with similar research agendas and facing similar experiences, to learn as a group and to actively support one another in making progress to completion. I plan now to develop my academic career in research in the field of lifelong disability and working with adults with complex communication needs. I look forward to continuing my association with the University, and particularly the Faculty of Health Sciences and the Discipline of Speech Pathology, that I have enjoyed so much as a postgraduate student.