Marleen Westerveld, PhD, is an Associate Professor in Speech Pathology at the School of Allied Health Sciences at Griffith University. She has a solid track record in applied research in the areas of (emergent) literacy and oral language development in typically developing children, children with developmental language disorders, and children with language disorders associated with biomedical conditions, such as Down syndrome and autism spectrum disorder. Dr Westerveld has attracted over $1.5 million in research funding as principal investigator and has published more than 60 peer-reviewed research papers on topics of language and literacy. Dr Westerveld is currently the chair of the Child Language Committee of the International Association of Logopedics and Phoniatrics.Rebecca Armstrong, PhD, is a lecturer in Speech Pathology at the University of Queensland in Australia. She worked as a clinical speech pathologist for the Department of Education (Queensland) prior to commencing her academic appointment at the University of Queensland. Dr Armstrong researches in the areas of language and literacy for school-aged populations, including children with autism spectrum disorders. She also has a track record in population-based research examining the early life predictors and long-term outcomes of language impairment.Georgina Barton, PhD, is a Professor at the School of Education at the University of Southern Queensland in Australia, where she is Associate Head of School – Research and discipline lead for literacies and pedagogy. Dr Barton has taught English, literacy, and arts education in higher education. She has attracted over $1.4 million in research funding as both a project leader and team member. With over 120 publications, Dr Barton has utilised a range of methodologies, including arts-based research, case-study design, ethnography and narrative inquiry. Her latest book is Developing Literacy and the Arts in Schools, published by Routledge.
