Our Team
Professor TO, Carol K. S.
Lab Director
I'm Carol To, an Associate Professor at The University of Hong Kong and the Director of the Speech and Language Acquisition Laboratory."
My journey in the world of speech and language began as a speech-language pathologist, and it's led me to some fascinating research areas. I'm particularly interested in children with speech sound disorders and autism. My work focuses on understanding how these conditions affect speech and language processing, and exploring ways we can help through effective interventions.
What really drives me is clinical research that can lead to direct applications in the community. I believe strongly in bridging the gap between academic findings and practical, real-world solutions that can make a difference in people's lives.
I've been fortunate to work primarily with Chinese-speaking populations, thanks to support from various grants. It's been exciting to dive deep into how the unique features of Chinese languages influence speech and language development in both typical kids and those with communication challenges.
My educational background? I did my PhD and BSc in Speech & Hearing Sciences at HKU, and later picked up a Postgraduate Diploma in Epidemiology & Biostatistics from CUHK.
Lately, I've been publishing on a range of topics - from how Cantonese-speaking kids perform on speech tasks, to predicting which children might outgrow speech sound disorders without intervention. I've also been exploring how lifelong experience with tone languages affects pitch processing in individuals with autism.
In our lab, we're always pushing to understand more about how children acquire speech and language skills. We're particularly interested in how this process might differ in Chinese-speaking populations compared to what we see in other languages. Our ultimate goal is to translate our findings into practical applications that can benefit the community directly.
QI Xin
PhD Student
Qi Xin (Cynthia) is a fourth-year PhD student under the supervision of Dr. Carol To. She received her Bachelor's degree in Applied Psychology from Sun Yat-sen University and Master’s degree in Clinical Psychology from University of Macau. As a clinical psychologist, she has experience in providing psychological intervention services and psychological/psycho-educational assessment to school-age children. She is a registered psychologist at HKPS and certified in using ADOS-2 and ADI-R in assessing autism.
Her current research interests are developing social communication outcome measurement to evaluate the effectiveness of autism treatments, investigating the mechanisms of parent-implemented interventions for children with autism, and adaptation of autism assessment tools in the Chinese population.
GAO Ran
PhD Student
The photo was Ran learning Pinyin with her mother when she was a pupil. Her mother prepared a poster included vivid pictures matching each phoneme to help her with language learning.
About 20 years later, Ran is now a third-year Ph.D. student in the speech and language acquisition lab who also cares about children’s language development. But unlike her mother who only focusses on her own child, Ran works with hundreds of infants and toddlers. Ran’s research topic is speech development and disorders in children with a keen focus on perceptual narrowing in the first year of life. She is good at math and physics and is well trained in acoustic and Praat. Recently, she started learning about EEG and signal processing, and attempted to conduct EEG experiments on infants.
HUANG Xiuyan
PhD Student
Yan is a third-year PhD student in the Unit of Human Communication, Learning, and Development (HCLD) at The University of Hong Kong. Her research interests lie in the area of visual cognition, psycholinguistics and dyslexia. Employing eye tracking and EEG methodologies, her current research explores the behavioral and neural correlates of visual processing during natural Chinese reading among children with dyslexia.
WU Zixuan
PhD Student
Zixuan is a third-year PhD student of the lab. She is a psycholinguist studying how speech sound and meaning are learned and processed.
TSANG, Hiu Tung Josephine
PhD Student
Josephine is a first-year Ph.D. student at the Academic Unit of Human Communication, Learning, and Development at the University of Hong Kong, supervised by Prof. Carol To. She graduated from the University of Hong Kong with a Bachelor of Science in Speech and Hearing Sciences. She has worked as a qualified speech therapist in both adult rehabilitation and preschool service setting. Her area of research includes auditory processing and speech motor control in children with speech sound disorders/childhood apraxia of speech.
SO, Kwok Ho Kevin
Part-time PhD Student
Kevin So is a fifth-year part-time Ph.D. student. He graduated from the Division of Speech and Hearing Sciences and received his master’s degree in Epidemiology and Biostatistics. Working as a qualified speech therapist, he has expertise in providing assessment, diagnosis, and therapeutic management for children with special educational needs. He was also an Advisor for the Tier 2 services of the Tiered Autism Intervention model in Hong Kong. He now works as a full-time assistant lecturer. His research interest lies in the identification and etiology of language disorder, and rhythm processing in autism spectrum disorder.
GE, Yuhan Lexie
Research Assistant
GE Yuhan (Lexie) works as a research assistant at the Sala Lab, where she plays a role in a collaborative project with The Chinese University of Hong Kong titled "Neural Encoding of Speech in Children Learning Chinese." In this role, she is responsible for collecting EEG data and CCDI data to explore the relationship between children's neural responses to sounds and their future language development. Additionally, Lexie manages the Sala Lab's social media platforms and website. These resources are essential for recruiting participants, promoting the lab's mission, and facilitating academic conference activities.
TSE, Kwan Chun Chris
Part-time Technical Assistant
Chris is a dedicated technical assistant in the lab. Chris was diagnosed as autistic when he was 5. He is incredibly reliable and capable. As a master of transcription, Chris excels at using software like PHON, Jianying and PRAAT to independently transcribe audio and video recordings. In the past, he enjoyed drawing buses and trains, as well as creating vivid replicas of the classic "Old Master Q" comic series.
Chris's unique combination of talents and his positive attitude to life and cheerful personaliy make him an invaluable asset to the team, inspiring those around him.