Prof. Hin Tat CHEUNG
Asia University
Title: Assessing Productive Syntax in Mandarin-speaking Children
Prof. Hin Tat CHEUNG is currently a Chair Professor in the Department of Audiology and Speech-Language Pathology at Asia University. His research focuses on first and second language acquisition as well as developmental language disorders. Additionally, he collaborates with researchers and professionals from various disciplines to investigate language acquisition in diverse learners, including those with special educational needs.
Before joining Asia University, he held several leadership roles at the Education University of Hong Kong, where he served as the founding Head of the Department of Linguistics and Modern Language Studies. Prior to that, he was the Director of the Audio-Visual Education Center and the director of the Graduate Institute of Linguistics at National Taiwan University.
Furthermore, he contributed to the linguistics community in Taiwan as President of the Linguistic Society of Taiwan from 2007 to 2009.
Abstract
Assessing the syntactic development of Mandarin-speaking children is vital for both research and clinical applications. This presentation introduces the Mandarin Assessment of Productive Syntax-Revised (MAPS-R), a tool designed to evaluate syntactic complexity in children aged 2 to 5 years. Building upon prior research, we propose a four-stage developmental model:
The MAPS-R effectively captures these developmental stages, offering a nuanced understanding of syntactic progression in Mandarin-speaking children. This structured framework provides valuable insights for speech-language pathologists and educators in designing targeted interventions and monitoring language development, particularly for children with special needs.
Prof. Zhuoming CHEN
Jinan University & The First Affiliated Hospital of Jinan University
Prof. Xin KANG
Chongqing University
Title: Predictive Language Processing by Individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorders
Prof. Xin KANG is a professor and principal investigator in the Research Center for Language Cognition and Language Application at Chongqing University. She works on the cognitive, neural, and genetic bases of native and foreign language learning and processing among typical and atypical populations. She obtained her Ph.D. degree in Psychology from the University of York, UK. Before joining Chongqing University, she was a postdoctoral researcher at the Brain and Mind Institute at the Chinese University of Hong Kong.
Abstract
Understanding predictive language processing in autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is crucial for unraveling the cognitive mechanisms behind communication challenges in this population. In this talk, I will first report results of a meta-analysis of existing empirical studies, which reveal that while individuals with ASD may anticipate upcoming linguistic information in simple contexts (Qi, Peng, & Kang, 2025). Nonetheless, most current research relies on eye-tracking paradigm with short sentences as stimuli and high-functioning ASD individuals as participants, raising questions about the limitation of research methods. I will outline critical directions for future research: (1) employing more naturalistic and complex linguistic stimuli, (2) using neural (e.g., EEG) and behavioral methods, and (3) including cross-cultural and cross-sectional comparisons. Next, I will present new empirical evidence that our team recently collected from preschool children with ASD and neurotypical children in disadvantaged rural China. Our findings suggest that while children with ASD show preserved predictive abilities in simple language tasks, they struggle with more complex real-time processing involving object-state changes. These insights help refine theoretical models of ASD and highlight the need for ecologically valid paradigms. This talk aims to bridge gaps between experimental research and clinical practice, fostering collaborative innovation in ASD language studies. By integrating diverse methodologies and populations, we may develop more effective, individualized interventions that leverage the strengths and address the challenges of predictive processing in ASD.
Prof. Bin LI
City University of Hong Kong
Title: From Perceptual Biases to Articulatory Dynamics: Research-informed Phonetic Strategies for Investigating and Rehabilitating Speech Disorders
Prof. Bin LI is an Associate Professor at the Department of Linguistics and Translation and the Linguistics Leader of the M.A. in Language Studies, City University of Hong Kong. She earned her Ph.D. in Linguistics from University of Florida, USA, where she specialized in experimental phonetics and cross-linguistic speech perception. Her research bridges theoretical and applied domains, focusing on three interconnected themes: (1) the perceptual and cognitive mechanisms underlying first (L1) and second language (L2) speech processing, (2) the efficacy of laboratory-based training paradigms in reshaping L2 phonetic acquisition and informing pronunciation pedagogy, and (3) the application of articulatory and acoustic phonetic methodologies to clinical and forensic contexts, including speech disorder diagnosis and rehabilitation, emotion-modulated speech production, forensic voice analysis, and speech technologies.
Prof. Li is a dedicated advocate for interdisciplinary collaboration. Her work extends beyond academia through partnerships with speech therapists, engineers, and educators to translate phonetic research into practical tools. She has held leadership roles in prominent academic organizations. She served as President of the Linguistic Society of Hong Kong (2022–2023) and contributed to councils for Chinese linguistics, modernization of the Chinese language education, and pronunciation teaching and research.
Abstract
The diagnosis and rehabilitation of speech disorders benefit from integrative approaches that bridge perception and articulation. At the perceptual level, directional asymmetries in vowel and tone perception offer novel insights for clinical applications. For instance, studies on Mandarin speakers reveal that perceptual preferences for high/low vowels correlate with tonal distinctions, while formant dispersion influence categorical boundaries in tone continuum perception. Similarly, experiments on Cantonese speakers demonstrate that the presentation order of Cantonese tones significantly affects perceptual accuracy and reaction times. These findings underscore the interaction between segmental (e.g., vowels) and suprasegmental (e.g., tones) elements in speech perception, highlighting opportunities to refine diagnostic protocols and tailor rehabilitation strategies for patients with speech disorders.
At the articulatory level, advancements such as ultrasound tongue imaging enable precise quantification of lingual kinematics by tracking tongue contours. Visualizing real-time tongue movement trajectories during articulation offers an accessible tool for children's speech rehabilitation, allowing clinicians to guide articulation training with concrete biofeedback. By making abstract articulatory gestures tangible, this approach empowers patients, especially young children, to actively monitor and adjust their tongue positioning, thereby enhancing engagement and motor learning efficacy.
Bridging perception and articulation, research-driven phonetic methodologies hold promise for advancing precision and personalization in speech diagnosis and rehabilitation. Evidence-based strategies—ranging from perceptual bias mapping to articulatory visualization—can optimize intervention outcomes and address the unique needs of people, particularly children, with speech disorders.
Prof. Qun LI
West China Hospital, Sichuan University
Title: Perception and Production of Voice Onset Time by Mandarin-speaking Children with Cochlear Implants
Prof. Qun LI holds a PhD. in Linguistics from the Chinese University of Hong Kong and currently works at the Department of Audiology and Speech-Language Pathology, West China Hospital of Sichuan University. Recognized as a high-level overseas returnee scholar in Sichuan Province, she serves as a Standing Committee Member of the Audiology Committee at the Sichuan Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery Association and Deputy Leader of the Youth Division under the Sichuan Rehabilitation Medicine Association's Hearing and Speech Rehabilitation Committee. She is also a committee member of the Language Disorder Rehabilitation Branch of the China Association of Rehabilitation for Persons with Disabilities and a member of the Developmental Speech-Language Disorders Group under the Chinese Rehabilitation Medical Association. Her research spans three key areas: (1) child language development, language disorder and language assessment; (2) speech and language rehabilitation for children with hearing impairments and developmental language disorder; (3) neurocognitive mechanisms and intervention strategies for developmental dyslexia in Chinese-speaking children.
Abstract
Cochlear implants (CIs) significantly improve auditory perception in children with severe to profound sensorineural hearing loss. However, electric hearing in CI users differs from normal acoustic hearing, as electrical speech signals lack fine spectral-temporal details, resulting in degraded speech transmission quality and subsequent challenges in auditory perception and speech clarity for CI children. Consonants, critical for speech intelligibility, are particularly affected. Voice onset time (VOT) is a key temporal acoustic parameter that quantifies the aspirated/unaspirated contrast in consonants, which is crucial for lexical differentiation in Mandarin. Due to limited access to spectral cues, CI children rely more heavily on temporal cues like VOT for speech perception compared to normal hearing (NH) children. This study systematically investigates the acquisition of Mandarin aspirated/unaspirated consonants (stops: /p/-/ph/, /t/-/th/, /k/-/kh/; affricates: /tɕ/-/tɕh/, /ʦ/-/ʦh/, /ʈʂ/-/ʈʂh/) by CI and NH children, with the aim to: (1) explore the developmental trajectory of NH children’s acquisition of consonant aspiration in terms of perception and production; (2) investigate CI children's perception and production abilities of aspirated/unaspirated consonants, compared to those of chronological age-matched and hearing age-matched NH children; (3) study factors that would affect CI children's development of aspirated/unaspirated consonants, including consonant characteristics (e.g., aspiration, manner of articulation, place of articulation) and individual characteristics (e.g., age at implantation, rehabilitation duration, auditory experience); and (4) examine the relationship between CI children’s perception and production of consonant aspiration.
Prof. Fang LIU
University of Reading
Title: Music and Language Processing in Mandarin-speaking Autistic Children: Implications for Language Development
Prof. Fang LIU is an Associate Professor in the School of Psychology and Clinical Language Sciences at the University of Reading. She holds a Ph.D. in Linguistics and an M.S. in Statistics from the University of Chicago. Before joining the University of Reading, she served as a lecturer in the Department of Language and Linguistics at the University of Essex and completed postdoctoral research at University College London, the Chinese University of Hong Kong, Stanford University, and Goldsmiths, University of London.
Prof. Liu's research focuses on how the human brain processes pitch information for both linguistic and musical purposes during production and perception. Using behavioural and EEG methods, she has published over 60 journal articles. Her comparative studies include neurodevelopmental conditions such as amusia, autism, and dyslexia, as well as research on tone language speakers and musicians.
Her work has been supported by the European Research Council (grants: 678733, CAASD, 2016-2023; 838787, MAP, 2019-2022) and the Economic and Social Research Council in the UK (grant: PTA-026-27-2480, 2009-2010).
Abstract
Previous research suggests that both tone language background and autism are associated with enhanced pitch and music processing (Chen et al., 2022; Liu et al., 2023). As part of our ERC-funded project, CAASD (https://cordis.europa.eu/project/id/678733), we explored how tone language background influences speech and music processing in Mandarin-speaking autistic children.
In this talk, I will present our findings on (i) mental representations of pitch contours in speech, complex tone, and melody (Wang, Ong, et al., 2023), (ii) lexical tone and intonation processing (Wang, Xiao, et al., 2023), (iii) vocal imitation of speech and song (Wang et al., 2024), and (iv) predictive processing of music and language (Zhao et al., 2024) in Mandarin-speaking autistic children.
Our results reveal that, compared to non-autistic children, Mandarin-speaking autistic children exhibit:
I will discuss the implications of these findings for understanding language development in Mandarin-speaking autistic children and provide a brief overview of our future research directions.
References
Chen, Y., Tang, E., Ding, H., & Zhang, Y. (2022). Auditory Pitch Perception in Autism Spectrum Disorder: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, 65(12), 4866–4886. https://doi.org/10.1044/2022_JSLHR-22-00254
Liu, J., Hilton, C. B., Bergelson, E., & Mehr, S. A. (2023). Language experience predicts music processing in a half-million speakers of fifty-four languages. Current Biology, 33(10), 1916-1925.e4. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2023.03.067
Wang, L., Ong, J. H., Ponsot, E., Hou, Q., Jiang, C., & Liu, F. (2023). Mental representations of speech and musical pitch contours reveal a diversity of profiles in autism spectrum disorder. Autism, 27(3), 629–646. https://doi.org/10.1177/13623613221111207
Wang, L., Pfordresher, P. Q., Jiang, C., & Liu, F. (2024). Atypical vocal imitation of speech and song in autism spectrum disorder: Evidence from Mandarin speakers. Autism, 13623613241275395. https://doi.org/10.1177/13623613241275395
Wang, L., Xiao, S., Jiang, C., Hou, Q., Chan, A. H. D., Wong, P. C. M., & Liu, F. (2023). The form and function processing of lexical tone and intonation in tone-language-speaking children with autism spectrum disorder. The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 154(1), 467–481. https://doi.org/10.1121/10.0020271
Zhao, C., Ong, J. H., Veic, A., Patel, A. D., Jiang, C., Fogel, A. R., Wang, L., Hou, Q., Das, D., Crasto, C., Chakrabarti, B., Williams, T. I., Loutrari, A., & Liu, F. (2024). Predictive processing of music and language in autism: Evidence from Mandarin and English speakers. Autism Research, 17(6), 1230–1257. https://doi.org/10.1002/aur.3133
Prof. Shuo LU
Shenzhen University
Title: Brain Network Development and Its Prediction on Speech Performance in Children with Cochlear Implants
Prof. Shuo LU is now a Distinguished Professor at Shenzhen University and the Founding Director of Neurolinguistics Laboratory, Shenzhen University. She obtained her PhD degree in linguistics at City University of Hong Kong and her Master's and Bachelor's degrees at Peking University. She is also an adjunct researcher at The Chinese University of Hong Kong. She is undertaking a Major Project of the National Social Fund of China as the principal coordinator. Her research interest includes language disorder, neural development, and brain functional network, neuroplasticity, etc. She has published over 30 research articles on IEEE TMI, NeuroImage, Learning and Instruction, Frontiers in Neuroscience, etc.
Abstract
Early auditory deprivation often leads to delayed speech development in children with prelingual hearing loss. After cochlear implantation, their speech outcomes vary widely. Therefore, accurate evaluation of speech abilities and related factors in these children is crucial. This study used a self-developed Mandarin-based assessment system for children's speech expression and a standardized listening comprehension scale to assess 162 cochlear-implanted (CI) children aged 3-8, compared with 460 age-matched typically developing peers. Results showed that CI children lagged behind their peers by 2-3 developmental years in listening comprehension and more than 3 years in expressive abilities. Among expressive features, speech intelligibility and productivity were the most delayed.
To further explore the neural basis of these speech difficulties, we examined the relationship between speech performance and auditory network connectivity using functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS), a child-friendly neuroimaging method. We recorded functional connectivity patterns in 54 children while they listen to four types of natural auditory stimuli (speech, pure tone, animal vocalization and music). Repeated Lasso regression analyses were subsequently performed to examine how these neural connectivity patterns related to expressive language scores in a subgroup of 32 children.
Our results revealed condition-specific network patterns in CI children. Notably, only during speech perception did we observe long-range interhemispheric connectivity between the left and right supramarginal gyri (SMG), whereas neural connections under all other auditory conditions remained confined to ipsilateral local-range connectivity within restricted cortical regions. Behaviorally, expressive speech productivity was the most impaired domain, aligning with earlier findings. Crucially, regressive analyses revealed that these productive deficits could be reliably predicted (p<0.001) by phase-locking value (PLV) connectivity between the left SMG, angular gyrus (AG), and right SMG specifically during speech perception. These findings highlight that the establishment of stronger long-distance neural connections plays a key role in facilitating expressive language development in CI children.
Prof. Wen MA
Shandong University
Title: Clinical Conversation Analysis in Childhood Communication Disorders
Prof. Wen MA, a Distinguished Professor of Linguistics at Shandong University, serves as Dean of both the School of Foreign Languages and Literature and the School of Translation Studies. As the founding Editor-in-Chief of the international journal Language and Health, he has established a pivotal platform for scholarly discourse at the intersection of language and medical science. Having spearheaded the establishment of the first doctoral program in clinical linguistics in the Chinese mainland, Professor Ma conducts a research program centered on clinical discourse analysis, applied conversation analysis, and evidence-based communication in healthcare settings. His seminal research has been published extensively in premier international journals, including Clinical Linguistics & Phonetics, Aphasiology, Social Science & Medicine, Health Communication, Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research (JSLHR), Patient Education and Counseling, Sociology of Health & Illness, Ear and Hearing, Current Psychology, and Health Expectations, among others.
Abstract
This study focuses on clinical conversation analysis in the field of childhood communication disorders, in order to apply theoretical research findings into effective tools for clinical practice. Through micro-analysis of the childhood conversation, it explores the atypical communicative performance and underlying mechanisms, and implements potential intervention strategies for the children. Employing qualitative methods, the research transcribes and interprets conversation clips of children with various types of communication disorders (e.g., hearing impairments and autism spectrum disorders) in clinical settings. It scrutinizes these conversations from multiple perspectives, including sequence organization, turn design, and social actions. Through this multi-faceted approach, it uncovers the unique challenges these children encounter in communication, such as difficulties in initiating and maintaining conversational turns, problems with understanding and responding to social cues, and deviations in the structure and content of their utterances. The study provides robust theoretical support and practical guidance for designing personalized intervention programs. It highlights the importance of considering the specific communicative needs and strengths of each child, and emphasizes the need for interventions that are tailored to their individual profiles. The findings indicate that clinical conversation analysis can effectively capture the communicative characteristics of childhood communication disorders. It offers clinicians, speech therapists, and other practitioners a novel assessment and intervention approach that centers on children’s natural language interactions.
Prof. Zhaoli MENG
West China Hospital, Sichuan University
Title: Study on the Characteristics of Auditory Processing, Cognition and Behavior in School-age Children with Slight-mild Sensorineural Hearing Loss
Abstract
Objective：
The purpose of this study was to investigate the differences in auditory processing task performance among children with slight-mild sensorineural hearing loss (SMHL), normal hearing (NH) children, and NH adults. Cognitive and behavioral outcomes were further compared between children with SMHL and NH children to examine the effects of slight-to-mild hearing loss on these developmental domains. To provide objective evidence for the need of intervention in children with SMHL.
Materials and Methods:
Auditory processing assessment tasks included: Word Recognition Score tests in quiet and different signal-to-noise ratios (SNR = 5, 0, -5) were used to assess speech recognition ability in quiet and noisy environments; pink noise source azimuth discrimination, pink noise source azimuth identification, and quiet/various signal-to-noise ratio (SNR = 5, 0, -5) speech source azimuth identification were used to assess the subject’s overall sound source localization ability; the Gap In Noise Test (GIN) was used to assess the subject’s time interval detection ability.
Cognitive-behavioral assessments tasks included: the Primary Test of Nonverbal Intelligence (PTONI) and the Theory of Mind (ToM) series of tasks were used to assess the children’s basic cognitive and social cognitive abilities; the Parent Symptom Questionnaire (PSQ) from the Conners Rating Scales was used to assess the behavioral development of the subjects; the Pediatric Vanderbilt Fatigue Scales (VFS) were used to assess the children’s auditory-related fatigue.
Statistical analysis methods: the entered data were statistically analyzed using R language and SPSS; descriptive and correlational analyses were conducted on demographic and test data; multivariate analyses, including Tobit regression, Bayesian generalized linear regression, and mixed-effects models, were used to compared group differences (SMHL vs. NH children; NH children vs. NH adults). Principal component analysis was used to extract the main components of auditory processing abilities and evaluate the overall auditory processing differences and related factors in the children's group.
Results:
The study enrolled 87 participants (29 SMHL children, 29 NH children, 29 NH adults; male-to-female ratio 15:14 in all groups).
For the children's group, there were no significant differences in bilateral WRS in quiet conditions and binaural WRS was significantly lower in the SMHL children than in the NH children’s group in noisy conditions.
There were significant differences in MAA between the SMHL children and NH children’s group. There were significant differences in Root Mean Square Error (RMSE) of source azimuth identification of pink-noise between the SMHL children and NH children’s group. No significant group differences in RMSE of speech source azimuth identification were found for the children's group. There were no significant differences in GDT between the children’s group.
There were no significant differences in PTONI and TOM task scores between SMHL and NH children. No significant differences were found in total PSQ scores, but SMHL children scored significantly higher than NH children in the “learning problems” dimension (P = 0.043). Fatigue-related assessments showed no significant differences in self-reported fatigue between the two groups, but parental assessments revealed significant differences in physical fatigue scores (P = 0.033) and total fatigue scores (P = 0.037).
Conclusion:
SMHL children remain at risk for delayed development in central auditory processing, including speech recognition under noisy conditions and source localization abilities. Nonverbal intelligence and social cognition remain unaffected.
Key words：
Slight-mild Hearing Loss; School-age children; Auditory processing; Cognition; Behavior
Prof. Li SHENG
The Hong Kong Polytechnic University
Title: Identifying Developmental Language Disorder in Mandarin-speaking Children: A Multi-phase Multi-method Study
Prof. Li SHENG is a Professor at the Department of Chinese and Bilingual Studies of the Hong Kong Polytechnic University. Prior to joining PolyU, she held faculty positions at the University of Texas Austin and the University of Delaware from 2007 to 2021. She conducts basic, translational, and clinical practice research with the goals of advancing understanding of the mechanisms of language development and improving the quality of life of individuals who have language disorders. She studies how learner-internal factors, such as learning capacity and executive functions, environmental factors, such as the quantity and quality of language input, and linguistic factors, such as properties of the to-be-learned languages jointly shape learning outcomes.
Abstract
Developmental language disorder (DLD) in under-identified in English speaking countries, partly due to low awareness among parents and teachers of the boundary between normal and impaired language development (McGregor, 2020). In this large-scale multi-phase study, we collected functional communication measures from parents (n=4664) using the Chinese Children's Communication Checklist-2 (CCC-2, Bishop, 2003; Tsao & Liu, 2021), performed universal language screening using a validated tool, the Mandarin Sentence Repetition Task (MSRT, Wang et al., 2022) (n=1459), completed comprehensive language testing (n=274), and conducted clinician consensus judgment of DLD using the protocol developed in the EpiSLI project (Tomblin et al. (1996) and the B-MAS project (Wang et al., 2024). We addressed three objectives: estimating prevalence of communication and language difficulties, examining the alignment between parent-reported communication skills and children's performance on standardized language tasks, and determining DLD prevalence per the EpiSLI and B-MAS approach. Results indicated that approximately 10% of children had communication and language difficulties according to CCC-2. Consistent with previous studies (e.g., Hendricks et al., 2019), parent reports and standardized testing outcomes showed weak correlations. Lastly, consistent with previous DLD prevalence estimates (e.g., Norbury et al., 2016; Tomblin et al., 1997; Wu et al., 2023), 8.02% of the 1459 children who participated in the current screening were identified as DLD by clinician consensus diagnosis. These findings replicated previous studies and highlighted the need of universal screening for early identification of DLD. Funded by Hong Kong Research Grants Council General Research Fund [15613323].
Prof. Yi SU
Central South University
Title: Online Processing of Grammatical Structures in Preschool Mandarin-exposed Autistic Children
Prof. Yi (Esther) SU is a Professor of Psycholinguistics at Central South University (CSU), China. She received her PhD in Cognitive Science from Macquarie University and PhD in Psychology from the Second Xiangya Hospital of CSU. Her primary research areas include child language acquisition and autistic language development. Supported by the National Natural Science Foundation and the National Social Science Fund of China, research in the Su lab aims to investigate the role of human language faculty in acquiring core aspects of language in children across languages and etiologies. Moreover, the lab wants to understand how linguistic environment and neurodiversity influence language acquisition. In the past decade, we have collaborated with the University of Connecticut (UCONN) Child Language Lab to compare early language development in Mandarin-exposed vs. English-exposed preschool autistic children to inform the underlying mechanisms of autistic language acquisition learning typologically different languages. In addition, we wish to establish reliable language assessment and facilitate language intervention for young autistic children across languages.
Abstract
Grammatical comprehension remains a strength in autistic preschoolers across languages, yet limited research has investigated how autistic children process grammatical structures in real-time in any language. This talk introduces our recent studies on the online processing of subject–verb–object (SVO) order and grammatical aspect (i.e., the perfective -le and the durative -zhe) in diverse samples of Mandarin-exposed autistic preschoolers. Both studies have adopted the eye-movement measures of Intermodal Preferential Looking to assess children's language processing; moreover, the total autistic group was divided into a high verbal (HV) group (matched on expressive language levels with a younger typically developing (TD) group) and a low verbal (LV) group. We found that all three groups (TD, HV, LV) looked longer at the match during the test trials than the control trials for the two grammatical structures, testifying to their solid comprehension abilities. Moreover, all three groups looked faster at the matching scenes than the non-matching scenes during the test trials for sentences with the SVO order; the TD and LV groups also exhibited such patterns for sentences with the perfective -le. Although slight differences exist, time course analyses revealed similar processing patterns across groups. Finally, autistic children's processing efficiency was positively related to their language production skills via the standardized language assessment. The findings confirm the strength of processing grammatical structures in subsamples of autistic preschoolers spanning a wide range of language functioning. The results suggested that diverse groups of autistic preschoolers could surmount at least some challenges of grammatical acquisition, such as delayed expressive language skills and pragmatic deficits. The comparable processing patterns between the autistic and TD groups add to the growing evidence that some aspects of language development in autistic children are qualitatively similar (though delayed) to those in TD children.
Prof. Ping TANG
Nanjing University of Science and Technology
Title: The Acquisition of Mandarin Tone and Intonation by Children with Cochlear Implants
Prof. Ping TANG is an Associate Professor in School of Foreign Studies, Nanjing University of Science and Technology. He is also a key member of MIIT Key Lab for Language Information Processing and Applications (LIPA). His research primarily focuses on language development by typically developing children and children with hearing impairment, using behaviour approaches such as acoustic analysis (speech production) and eye-tracking paradigms (speech perception). His work has been published on various international journals including Developmental Psychology, Journal of Child Language, Ear and Hearing, JSLHR, JASA, Speech Communication, Journal of Pragmatics, Applied Psycholinguistics, etc.
Abstract
Cochlear implants (CIs) have made oral speech communication possible for many children with profound hearing loss. However, children with CIs still face challenges in perceiving pitch information in speech, as a consequence of the restricted number of channels used in these devices to decode a wide range of speech frequencies. This challenge is particularly pronounced in Mandarin Chinese, where pitch not only differentiates word meaning through lexical tones at the syllabic level, but also conveys a host of discourse functions at the sentence level (e.g., contrastive focus, verbal affects, and sentence types) via intonation variations. In this talk, I will present a series of perception and production studies investigating how children with CIs perceive and produce lexical tones, signal contrastive focus, and comprehend verbal affects. I will illustrate the critical role of early implantation, which promotes the acquisition of the above pitch-based phenomena and brings performance levels closer to those of typically hearing peers. I will also discuss how visual cues (e.g., facial expressions and articulatory movements) play a compensatory role in enhancing these children's speech perception when auditory information is limited. These results collectively underscore the importance of early implantation and the integration of multimodal strategies to optimize pitch-related speech perception and production in children with CIs, underscoring the need for targeted clinical strategies and educational interventions to maximize their speech communication outcomes.
Prof. Virginia YIP
The Chinese University of Hong Kong
Title: Bilingual Advantages in Typically and Atypically Developing Children
Prof. Virginia YIP received her BA in Linguistics from the University of Texas at Austin and PhD in Linguistics from the University of Southern California. She is Professor in the Department of Linguistics and Modern Languages at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. She is the Director of the Childhood Bilingualism Research Centre and Chinese University of Hong Kong – Peking University Joint Research Centre for Language and Human Complexity. Her research interests include child language development, bilingualism, bilingual acquisition, second language acquisition, Cantonese and Chinese grammar, psycholinguistics and cognitive neuroscience. She is the author of Interlanguage and Learnability: from Chinese to English (John Benjamins) and co-author of a series of works on Cantonese grammar published by Routledge: Cantonese: A Comprehensive Grammar, Basic Cantonese and Intermediate Cantonese. Her monograph The Bilingual Child: Early Development and Language Contact, co-authored with Stephen Matthews (Cambridge University Press) received the Linguistic Society of America's Leonard Bloomfield Book Award in 2009. She has served as editor of Journal of Chinese Linguistics and has served on the editorial board of Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, Journal of Child Language, International Journal of Bilingualism, Linguistic Approaches to Bilingualism, Second Language Research and Multilingual Education.
Abstract
Does exposure to two languages impose an additional burden on children in language acquisition? Or is it possible that bilingual exposure brings advantages to children? Contrary to popular views, research shows that bilingualism does not constitute a burden for typically developing children, and bilingualism may even confer certain 'bilingual advantages' in children for example in cognitive abilities and executive functions of the brain (see review in Yurtsever et al. 2023). In the Chinese context, for example, children exposed to Mandarin and English perform better than monolinguals in tasks investigating word learning and metalinguistic awareness (Yow et al. 2017, Zhang and Yip 2025).
The question arises as to whether the same applies to atypically developing children such as those with Autism Spectrum Disorder. A research gap involves whether and to what extent autistic children also benefit from bilingualism. A recent study conducted by Ge et al. (2024) found that Cantonese-English bilingual autistic children outperformed their monolingual autistic peers, producing object focus with higher accuracy. Not only does bilingual exposure impose no detrimental effect on the language skills of autistic children but it actually enhanced the production of focus in bilingual autistic children's L1 Cantonese. The findings suggest a bilingual advantage in autistic children in conveying contrastive information in sentences. I will discuss some practical implications including early bilingual exposure and provision of rich bilingual environments. Clinicians, educators and other professionals may consider adding bilingual training programmes to support families raising autistic children and other atypically developing children in a bilingual context.
References:
Ge, Haoyan, Albert Lee, Hoi Kwan Yuen, Fang Liu, and Virginia Yip. 2024. Bilingual exposure might enhance L1 development in Cantonese–English bilingual autistic children: Evidence from the production of focus. Autism 28.7. 1795-1808. https://doi.org/10.1177/13623613231207449
Yow, W. Quin, Xiaoqian Li, Sarah Lam, Teodora Gliga, Yap Seng Chong, Kenneth Kwek, Birit F. Broekman. 2017. A bilingual advantage in 54-month-olds' use of referential cues in fast mapping. Developmental Science 2017 Jan;20(1). doi: 10.1111/desc.12482. Epub 2016 Nov 23. PMID: 27882635
Yurtsever, Asli, John A.E. Anderson, John G. Grundy. 2023. Bilingual children outperform monolingual children on executive function tasks far more often than chance: An updated quantitative analysis. Developmental Review Volume 69.
101084, ISSN 0273-2297, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.dr.2023.101084
Zhang, Hecheng and Virginia Yip. 2025. Exploring the influence of bilingualism and language distance on phonological awareness: a study on Mandarin-English and Mandarin-Cantonese bilingual children. Poster presented at the International Symposium of Psycholinguistics, Barcelona, Spain.
Prof. Caicai ZHANG
The Hong Kong Polytechnic University
Title: The Neurocognitive Bases of Developmental Language Disorders: Combining Theory-driven and Machine Learning Approaches
Prof. Caicai ZHANG is the Director of the Neurocognition of Language, Music and Learning Lab and an Associate Professor in the Department of Chinese and Bilingual Studies at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University. She is also a member of the Research Centre for Language, Cognition and Neuroscience, as well as an affiliated member of the Speech Therapy Unit. Her work broadly concentrates on how language is processed and represented in the human brain, and how it interacts with other domains such as music and cognition. At a more specific level, her research focuses on: (1) the relationship between language and music, investigated through how tone deafness and musical training experience affect speech and reading processes; (2) the contribution of sleep to language learning and memory consolidation in children and adults; and (3) the neurocognition of neurodevelopmental disorders of language and communication. Dr. Zhang has received numerous grants awarded by the Ministry of Science and Technology of P.R.C., the National Natural Science Foundation of China, the Hong Kong Research Grants Council, and the Food and Health Bureau of Hong Kong. She is currently an Associate Editor/Academic Editor for Scientific Reports, PLOS ONE, and Frontiers in Psychology.
Abstract
Despite their importance, competence at language and literacy is not universal. Various neurodevelopmental disorders of language can impact these critical abilities in children, including developmental language disorder (DLD) and developmental dyslexia (DD). Each of these disorders affect a significant portion of children; they also co-occur frequently. However, the neurocognitive bases of these disorders and their relationships with each other are not well-understood, which have impeded the development of evidence-based diagnostic and intervention approaches. In this talk, I will report initial findings from a project that investigated how procedural and declarative learning, including their behavioral manifestations, brain anatomy, and memory consolidation, contribute to typical and atypical language development in Chinese children. Combining theory-driven and machine learning approaches, the preliminary results yielded some support for the hypothesized procedural circuity deficit in Chinese children with these disorders but also suggested a nuanced picture of their neurocognitive difficulties. The findings have the potential to advance our understanding of the neurocognition of these deleterious disorders and their brain-cognition-language interrelations in Chinese children. Clinical implications for advancing the diagnostic and intervention approaches for these disorders are discussed.
Dr. Haoyan GE
Hong Kong Metropolitan University
Title: Can we speak two languages to autistic children? Evidence from Cantonese-English Bilingual Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder
Dr Haoyan GE received her B.A. in English Language and Literature from Shanghai International Studies University, and both her M.Phil. and Ph.D. in Linguistics from the Chinese University of Hong Kong. She is currently Assistant Professor in the School of Education and Languages and Deputy Director of the Research Institute for Bilingual Learning and Teaching (RIBiLT) at Hong Kong Metropolitan University (HKMU). Her research focuses on language and cognitive development in both typical and atypical populations, including autistic children, bilingual children, and second language learners.
Dr. Ge has led and conducted externally funded research projects, including those supported by the Research Grants Council (RGC) and Health and Medical Research Fund (HMRF). Her work has been published in SSCI-indexed journals, including Autism, Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, Studies in Second Language Acquisition, and Applied Psycholinguistics. Dr. Ge has the qualification to administer and code the Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule Second Edition (ADOS-2), a gold-standard instrument for diagnosing autism) for clinical and research reliability. Over the years, she has provided professional assessments and diagnoses to autistic children in Hong Kong.
Abstract
Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is characterised by challenges in social interaction, as well as a tendency toward repetitive behaviours and restricted interests. Among some professionals and parents, there is a prevailing assumption that exposure to two languages might place an additional burden on children with ASD. However, there is limited empirical evidence to either support or refute this belief. With the rising prevalence of ASD and an increasing number of children growing up bilingual, it is essential to understand how bilingualism interacts with ASD. This talk examines the effects of bilingualism on the language development and cognitive skills of Cantonese-English bilingual autistic children. Our findings indicate that bilingual autistic children generally perform on par with their typically developing peers and, in some cases, surpass monolingual autistic children in specific language skills. Moreover, bilingual exposure does not negatively affect their executive functions. These findings highlight the benefits of bilingual environments for children with ASD, encouraging parents to provide their children with access to rich bilingual experiences. Clinicians, educators, and other professionals are also encouraged to incorporate bilingualism into training programs to better support families raising bilingual autistic children.
