Dr YUEN, Chi Pun    袁志彬 博士
Associate Professor
Department of Special Education and Counselling
Contact
ORCiD
0000-0003-2587-0419
Phone
(852) 2948 7603
Fax
(852) 2948 7794
Email
cpyuen@eduhk.hk
Address
10 Lo Ping Road, Tai Po, New Territories, Hong Kong
Website
https://pappl.eduhk.hk/rich/web/person.xhtml?pid=117529&name=YUEN, Chi Pun
Scopus ID
7202333756
Research Interests
Specialisation
Audiology, Speech-Language Pathology, Speech Acoustics, Hearing Impairments (HI), Central Auditory Processing Disorders (CAPD), Speech Recognition, Dichotic Listening, Cochlear Implant and hearing aid sound processing outcomes

Research Interests

Speech recognition and central auditory processing test development
Screening, assessment and re/habilitation of children with HI and CAPD
Speech, language, hearing, learning and communication challenges of children with HI and CAPD
Cantonese and Mandarin speech and lexical tone recognition in children with normal hearing and HI


External Appointments

Adjunct Assistant professor, Department of Otorhinolaryngology, Head & Neck Surgery, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2010-.

Chairperson, Continuing Professional Development Board, Hong Kong Society of Audiology, 2014-.

Personal Profile

Dr. Kevin YUEN Chi Pun is an Associate Professor at the Department of Special Education and Counselling, Faculty of Education & Human Development, The Education University of Hong Kong (EdUHK).

Dr. Yuen has dual professional qualifications as an audiologist and a speech-language pathologist (or speech therapist). He is also an experienced cochlear implant clinical specialist audiologist.

Dr. Yuen received his undergraduate degree in Speech and Hearing Sciences and master’s degree in Audiology from The University of Hong Kong, and Doctor of Philosophy degree from the Faculty of Medicine, The Chinese University of Hong Kong.

Dr. Yuen has a strong research interest in sound perception and speech recognition of children with normal hearing and children with deafness and hard-of-hearing (DHH) in both quiet and noise environments. He investigated the contribution of frequency-specific temporal envelope and periodicity components (without any fine structure components) for lexical tone recognition in normal hearing and DHH listeners. Dr. Yuen developed the Cantonese Lexical Neighborhood Test, the Computerized Cantonese Disyllabic-word Lexical Tone Identification Test in Noise, and the Computerized Mandarin Pediatric Lexical tone & Disyllabic-word Picture identification test in Noise to serve the Cantonese- and Mandarin- speaking populations in Hong Kong and Mainland China.

One of Dr Yuen's new research areas is to identify and remediate young individuals in the Chinese communities with (Central) Auditory Processing Disorders [(C)APD] and to investigate the impact of (C)APD on speech and language development, learning. The latest innovative test development from his research team is The Cantonese Pediatric Lexical Tone Dichotic Listening Test (CaPeLeTo DLT) which was developed for the identification of young children with (C)APD.

Research Interests
Specialisation
Audiology, Speech-Language Pathology, Speech Acoustics, Hearing Impairments (HI), Central Auditory Processing Disorders (CAPD), Speech Recognition, Dichotic Listening, Cochlear Implant and hearing aid sound processing outcomes

Research Interests

Speech recognition and central auditory processing test development
Screening, assessment and re/habilitation of children with HI and CAPD
Speech, language, hearing, learning and communication challenges of children with HI and CAPD
Cantonese and Mandarin speech and lexical tone recognition in children with normal hearing and HI


External Appointments

Adjunct Assistant professor, Department of Otorhinolaryngology, Head & Neck Surgery, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2010-.

Chairperson, Continuing Professional Development Board, Hong Kong Society of Audiology, 2014-.

Research Outputs
Scholarly Books, Monographs and Chapters
Chung, K. K. H., Yuen, K. C. P., & McInerney, D. M. (Eds.) (2014). Understanding developmental disorders of auditory processing, language and literacy across languages: International perspectives.. Charlotte, NC: Information Age Publishing.
Yuen, K. C. P. (2013). Twice-exceptional students with deafness or hard-of-hearing and giftedness. In S. N. Phillipson, H. Stoeger & A. Ziegler (Eds.), Exceptionality in East-Asia: Explorations in the Actiotope model of giftedness (212-231). London: Routledge.

Journal Publications
Xi, X., Li, J. N., Yuen, K. C. P., Chen, A. T., Li, S. Q., Hong, M. D., Wang, Q., Ji, F., Dillon, H., & Ching, T. Y. C. (2023). List equivalency and critical differences of a mandarin Bamford-Kowal-Bench sentence in babble noise test for adults and preschool children with normal hearing. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, 66 (12), 5061-5071. https://doi.org/10.1044/2023_JSLHR-23-00025
Lui, M., Lau, G. K. B., Han, Y. M. Y., Yuen, K. C. P., & Sommer, W. (2022). Strong relationship between rapid auditory processing and affective prosody recognition among adults with high autistic traits. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-022-05600-4
Yuen, K. C. P., Mak, C. C. Y, Fung, F. K. H., Mou, H. Y., Cheung, C. M. K., Qiu, X. Y., & Sam,S. K. L. (2019). The Cantonese Pediatric Lexical Tone Dichotic Listening Test(CaPeLeToDLT) detects abnormal auditory processing and within-participant ear advantage in very young children. Journal of Hearing Science. Paper Presented at The 14th Congress of the European Federation of Audiology Societies, 22-25 May, 2019, 9(1), 67.
Yuen, K. C. P., Qiu, X. Y., Mou, H. Y., & Xi, X. (2019). The MAndarin spoken word—Picture IDentification test in noise—Adaptive (MAPID-A) measures subtle speech-recognition-in-noise changes and spatial release from masking in very young children. PLoS ONE, 14(1), e0209768.
Yuen, K. C. P. (2015). Developing a new generation of speech-language pathologists (SLPs) with competences in the management of literacy disorders and learning disabilities in Hong Kong. Folia Phoniatrica et Logopaedica, 66, 197-205.
Yuen, K. C. P. (2015). Training a new generation of speech-language pathologists with competences in the management of literacy disorders and learning disabilities in Hong Kong. Folia Phoniatrica et Logopaedica, 66(4-5), 197-205.
Lim, L. H. Y., Xiang, L., Wong N. L. Y., Yuen, K. C. P., & Li, R. J. L. (2014). Validation of the Pediatric Hearing Impairment Caregiver Experience Questionnaire. Annals of the Academy of Medicine, Singapore, 43 (7), 362-370.
Yuen, K. C. P., & Yuan, M. (2014). Development of spatial release of masking in Mandarin-speaking children with normal hearing (doi: 10.1044/2014_JSLHR-H-13-0060). Journal of Speech, Language and Hearing Research, 57 (5), 2005-2023.
Yuen, K. C. P. (2012). The development of a lexical tone dichotic listening test for Cantonese-speaking chidlren - a research proposal. Journal of the Speech-Language-Hearing Association of Taiwan, 29, 23-44.
Yuen, K. C. P. (2011). Normal hearing and cochlear-implanted Mandarin-speaking children's word and lexical tone recognition in noise under spatially mixed versus spatially separated conditions: An account on the development of spatial separation advantage. International Journal of Pediatric Otorhinolaryngology, 75(S1), 44.
Lee, A. T., Tong, M. C., Yuen, K. C. P., Tang, P. S., & van Hasselt, C. A. (2010). Hearing impairment and depressive symptoms in an older Chinese population. Journal of Otolaryngology – Head and Neck Surgery, 39(5), 498-503.
Yuan, M., Lee, T., Yuen, K. C. P., Soli, S. D., van Hasselt, C. A., & Tong, M. C. (2009). Cantonese tone recognition with enhanced temporal periodicity cues. Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 126 (1), 327-337.
Yuen, K. C. P., Cao, K. L., Wei, C. G., Luan, L., Li, H., & Zhang, Z. Y. (2009). Lexical tone and word recognition in noise of Mandarin-speaking children who use cochlear implant and hearing aids in opposite ears.. Cochlear Implants International, 10 (S1), 120-129.
Yuen, K. C. P., Luan, L., Li, H., Yuan, M., Wei, C. G., Cao, K. L., & Lee, T. (2009). Development of the Computerized Mandarin Pediatric Lexical tone & Disyllabic-word Picture identification test in Noise (MAPPID-N). Cochlear Implants International, 10 (S1), 138-147.
Yuen, K. C. P., Tong, M. C., van Hasselt, C. A., Yuan, M., Lee, T., & Soli, S. D. (2009). Cantonese lexical tone recognition from frequency-specific temporal envelope and periodicity components in the same versus different noise band carriers.. Cochlear Implants International, 10 S1, 145-158.
Yuen, K. C. P., Yuan, M., Lee, T., Tong, M., Soli, S., & van Hasselt, C. A. (2009). Development of the Computerized Cantonese Disyllabic-word Lexical Tone Identification Test in Noise (CANDILET-N). Cochlear Implants International, 10 (S1), 130-137.
Yuen, K. C. P., Ng, I. H. Y., Luk, B. P. K., Chan, S. K. W., Chan, S. C. S., Kwok, I. C. L., Yu, H. C., Chan, T. M. Y., Hung, T. C. W., & Tong, M. C. F. (2008). The development of Cantonese Lexical Neighborhood Test – A pilot study. International Journal of Pediatric Otorhinolaryngology, 72, 1121-1129.
Chan, V., Tong, M., Yue, V., Wong, T., Leung, E., Yuen, K. C. P., & van Hasselt, C. A. (2007). Performance of older adult cochlear implant users in Hong Kong. Ear and Hearing, 28 (2 Suppl), 52S-55S.
Yuan, M., Lee, T., Yuen, K. C. P., Soli, S. D., Tong, M. C., & van Hasselt, C. A. (2007). Band-specific temporal periodicity enhancement for Cantonese tone perception with noise-excited vocoder. Conf Proc IEEE Eng Med Biol Soc., 1, 694-697.
Yuen, K. C. P., Yuan, M., Lee, T., Tong, M., Soli, S., & van Hasselt, C. A. (2007). Frequency-specific temporal envelope and periodicity components for lexical tone identification in Cantonese. Ear and Hearing, 28 (2S), 107S-113S.
Yuen, K. C. P., Kam, A. C. S., & Lau, P. S. H. (2006). Comparative performance of an adaptive directional microphone system and a multi-channel noise reduction system. Journal of the American Academy of Audiology, 17(4), 241-252.
Tang, T. P. Y., McPherson, B. Yuen, K. C. P., Wong, L. L. N. & Lee, J. S. M. (2004). Auditory neuropathy/auditory dys-synchrony in school children with hearing loss: frequency of occurrence. International Journal of Pediatric Otorhinolaryngology, 68(2), 175-183.
Yuen, K. C. P., & McPherson, B. D. (2002). Audiometric configurations of hearing impaired children in Hong Kong: implications for amplification. Disability and Rehabilitation, 24(17), 904-913.
Lee, J. S. M., McPherson, B., Yuen, K. C. P., & Wong, L. L. N. (2001). Screening for auditory neuropathy in a school for hearing impaired children. International Journal of Pediatric Otolaryngology, 61, 39-46.
Stokes, F. S., Whitehill, T. L., Yuen, K. C. P., & Tsui, A. M. Y. (1996). EPG treatment of sibilants in two Cantonese-speaking children with cleft palate. Clinical Linguistics & Phonetics, 10, 265-280.

Conference Papers
Yuen, K. C. P. (2022, June). The development of the Cantonese Pediatric Lexical Tone Dichotic Listening Test (CaPeLeToDLT) computerized testing platform to identity young children with central auditory processing disorders. Paper presented at EDTECH Conference 2022: Inspiring & Emerging EDTECH in Special Education, Hong Kong.
Yuen, K. C. P., Qiu, X. Y., Ma, M. K. H., & Lee, T. (2021, October). Intra-participant spatial release from masking and ear advantage measured by The CANtonese DIsyllabic Word Identification Test in Noise – Adaptive (CANDIWIT-N-A) in adolescents and adults.. 15th European Symposium on Pediatric Cochlear Implantation (ESPCI 2021), Budapest, Hungary.
Qiu, X. Y., Yuen, K. C. P., & Mou, H. Y. (2019, October). The Binaural Redundancy, Binaural Squelch and Head Shadow Speech-recognition-in-noise Benefits in Unilateral Cochlear Implanted Preschool Children with Hearing Aids Fitted in Contralateral Ears - An Intra-participant Statistical Investigation. Paper presented at the 14th European Symposium on Pediatric Cochlear Implantation, Bucharest, Romania.
Yuen, K. C. P., Mak, C. C. Y, Fung, F. K. H., Mou, H. Y., Cheung, C. M. K., Qiu, X. Y., & Sam,S. K. L. (2019, May). The Cantonese Pediatric Lexical Tone Dichotic Listening Test (CaPeLeToDLT) Detects Abnormal Auditory Processing and Within-Participant Ear Advantage in Very Young Children. Paper presented at the 14th Congress of the European Federation of Audiology Societies, Lisbon, Portugal.
Yuen, K. C. P. (2018, November). How to assess the best level of auditory processing skills in children and adolescents with comorbid central auditory processing disorder and developmental disabilities affecting language, learning and communication?. Keynote speech presented at The HongKong Speech & Hearing Symposium, 3-4 Nov, 2018, Hong Kong.
Qiu, X. Y., Yuen, K. C. P., & Mou, H. Y. (2018, October). Binaural versus monaural speech-recognition-in noise performance in prelingually-deafened Mandarin-speaking children fitted with cochlear implant and hearing aid in contralateral ears, and in those fitted with bilateral hearing aids. Paper presented at The 34th World Congress of Audiology, 27-31 Oct, 2018, Cape Town.
Yuen, K. C. P., Mak, C M. C., Fung, F. K. H., Cheung, C. M. K., Qiu, X. Y., Sam, S. K. L. (2018, October). Development of The Cantonese Pediatric Lexical Tone Dichotic Listening Test (CaPeLeToDLT) based on the Item Response Theory Model – a step towards identifying preschoolers with central auditory processing disorders (CAPD). Paper presented at The 17th International Clinical Phonetics and Linguistics Conference (ICPLA), 23-25 October, Malta.
Yuen, K. C. P., Qiu, X. Y., & Mou, H. Y. (2018, October). Speech-recognition-in-noise and spatial-release-from-masking performance under energetic and informational maskers in young Mandarin-speaking children with normal hearing from age 2 and above. Paper presented at The 34th World Congress of Audiology, 27-31 Oct, 2018, Cape Town.
Huen, J. Y. H., Yuen, K. C. P., & Kwan-Chen, L. L. W. (2018, February). Typical listeners’ recognition of monosyllabic words carrying Cantonese contour lexical tones produced by speakers with Parkinson's disease. Paper presented at Nineteenth Biennial Conference on Motor Speech, Savannah, Georgia.
Yuen, K.C. P., Qiu, X. Y., Ma, M. K. H., & Lee, T. (2017, September). The CAntonese DIsyllabic Word Identification Test in Noise – Adaptive (CANDIWIT-N-A) detects subtle speech-recognition-in-noise changes in adolescents. 10th Biennial Asia Pacific Conference on Speech, Language and Hearing, Narita, Japan.
Yuen, K. C. P., Mou, H. Y., Yuan, M., Fu, Y. & Xi, X. (2016, August). The MAndarin Spoken word - Picture IDentification Test in noise - Adaptive (MAPID-A) detects subtle speech-recognition-in-noise performance changes in young children. 30th World Congress of the International Association of Logopedics and Phoniatrics, Dublin, Ireland.
Yuen, K. C. P., Yuan, M., Mou, H. Y. & Lam, S. S. K. (2016, August). Using the item response theory model to select sensitive test items for the new “Mandarin lexical tone dichotic listening test. 30th World Congress of the International Association of Logaoedics and Phoniatrics, Dublin, Ireland.
YUEN, K. C. P. (2015, September). Developing a new clinical education training and assessment system for the Master of Science Programme in Educational Speech-Language Pathology & Learning Disabilities in Hong Kong. International Association of Logopedics and Phoniatrics Education Committee for SLP Composium, Lubin, Poland.
Yuen, K. C. P. (2015, April). Benefits of new pre-processing/ sound coding strategies: hard facts or sheer fictions? In J. Patrick & X. Q. Chen (Chair), New algorithm/ cochlear implant mapping. Round table conducted at the 10th Asia Pacific Symposium on Cochlear Implants & Related Sciences, Beijing, China.
Yuen, K. C. P. (2015, April). Measuring sound and speech perception outcomes In K. C. P. Yuen (Chair). Round table conducted at the 10th Asia Pacific Symposium on Cochlear Implants & Related Sciences, Beijing, China.
Yuen, K. C. P. (2015, April). Speech coding strategies and languages with lexical tones. Where are we? Where can/ should we go? In B. Wilson (Chair), New directions in sound coding and pre-processing strategies.. Round table conducted at the 10th Asia Pacific Symposium on Cochlear Implants & Related Sciences, Beijing, China.
Yuen, K. C. P., Fu, Y., Qiu X. Y., Xin, X., Shi, Y., Hong, M. D., Mou, H. Y., & Yuan, M. (2015, April). Spatial release from masking of children with unilateral cochlear implant (CI) fitting or bimodal fitting with CI and hearing aid in contralateral ears. Invited paper presented at the 10th Asia Pacific Symposium on Cochlear Implants & Related Sciences, Beijing, China.
Yuen, K. C. P., Qiu X. Y., Fu, Y., Xin, X., Shi, Y., Hong, M. D., Mou, H. Y., & Yuan, M. (2015, April). Development of Mandarin Spoken Word – Picture Identification Test (Adaptive Version) [MAPID-A v1.0]. Paper presented at the 10th Asia Pacific Symposium on Cochlear Implants & Related Sciences, Beijing, China.
Yuen, K. C. P., Yuan, M., Mou, M., & Sam., S. K. L. (2013, December). Development of a Mandarin lexical tone dichotic listening test based on a two-parameter logistic item response theory model – a step towards identifying individuals with auditory processing disorders. Invited paper presented at the Audiology for Tomorrow - International Conference on Recent Developments in Audiology, Hong Kong.
Yuen, K. C. P. & Yuan, M. (2013, November). Spatial release from masking in Mandarin-speaking children and adults with normal hearing. Paper presented at the Audiology for Tomorrow - International Conference on Recent Developments in Audiology, Hong Kong.
Yuen, K. C. P. (2013, August). Developing a new generation of Speech-Language Pathologists (SLPs) with competence in the management of Literacy and Learning Disorders in Hong Kong. Invited paper presented at the Education for Speech and Language Pathology Committee Symposium 2 - Educating Speech-Language Pathologists for Professional Practice in Different Environments, 29th World Congress of The International Association of Logopedics and Phoniatrics, Turin, Italy.
Yuen, K. C. P. (2013, August). Development of Cantonese lexical tone dichotic listening test – a step towards identifying individuals with auditory processing disorders.. Paper presented at the Audiology Short Seminar 5, 29th World Congress of The International Association of Logopedics and Phoniatrics, Turin, Italy.
Yuen, K. C. P. (2013, June). How do we assess sound perception and speech recognition in hearing-impaired children?. Invited paper presented at The 3rd Forum on the Development of Speech Perception Assessment Tools – Focused on Outcome Measurement of Pediatric Cochlear Implantation in China, Dalin, China.
Yuen, K. C. P. (2013, June). The development of Mandarin Pediatric Lexical Tone and Disyllabic-word Picture Identification Test in Noise (MAPPID-N). Invited paper presented at The 3rd Forum on the Development of Speech Perception Assessment Tools – Focused on Outcome Measurement of Pediatric Cochlear Implantation in China, Dalin, China.
Yuen, K. C. P. (2012, October). Development of a lexical tone dichotic listening test – a pilot study on young adults. Paper presented at the Hong Kong Speech & Hearing Symposium, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong.
Yuen, K. C. P. (2012, October). The Development of a lexical tone dichotic listening test – a step towards identifying individuals with auditory processing disorders. Keynote paper presented at the International Association of Logopedics and Phoniatrics Taiwan Composium, The Speech-Language-Hearing Association of Taiwan, Tainan, Taiwan.
Yuen, K. C. P. (2011, November). Clinical aspects of Chinese language learning among school-aged children - How to maximize the availability of speech and other meaningful sounds for hearing-impaired children to develop speech and language learning?. Invited paper presented at the International Conference on Chinese Language and Teaching in the Digital Age, Hong Kong.
Yuen, K. C. P. (2011, August). Deaf and hard-of-hearing students with double exceptionality. Invited paper presented at the Symposium on Giftedness in East-Asia: Explorations in the Actiotope Model of Giftedness, The Hong Kong Institute of Education, Hong Kong.
Yuen, K. C. P. (2011, May). Benefits of new pre-processing/ sound coding strategies in cochlear implants for children: fact or fiction?. Invited paper presented in K. Yuen (Chair), Deaf children today: new issues in audiology, device fitting, rehabilitation and speech & language outcomes. Round table conducted at the 10th European Symposium on Paediatric Cochlear Implantation, Athens.
Yuen, K. C. P. (2011, May). Selection and fitting of hearing aids. Invited paper presented at the Audiology day – hearing aids workshop at the 10th European Symposium on Paediatric Cochlear Implantation, Athens.
Yuen, K. C. P. (2010, October). Mandarin-speaking children’s word and lexical tone recognition in noise under spatially mixed and spatially separated conditions. Paper presented at the Advanced audiological rehabilitation for better rehabilitation workshop of the Advances in otology and related sciences 2010 conference, Hong Kong.

All Other Outputs
鄒嘉彥、袁志彬及錢志安 (2011)。 從「兩文三語」和「融合教育」環境下看香港學生語言問題 , 《教協報》, 第587期。香港

Projects
Efficacy of a novel auditory-working-memory training program in improving speech-in-noise perception, cognitive functions, and subcortical encoding of pitch in older adults with untreated hearing impa
The aim of this project is to design a novel auditory-working-memory training program and examine the effectiveness of this training program in older adults with untreated hearing impairment
Project Start Year: 2024, Principal Investigator(s): CHEN, Yuan (YUEN, Chi Pun as Co-Investigator)

 
Digit-in-noise test for screening older adults with mild cognitive impairment in a community setting – a pilot validation study
To validate the Cantonese Digit in Noise Test (CDINT) for screening individuals with mild cognitive impairment in the community.
Project Start Year: 2023, Principal Investigator(s): KAM, Chi Shan (YUEN, Chi Pun as Co-Investigator)

 
Digit-in-noise test for screening older adults with mild cognitive impairment in a community setting – a pilot validation study
Objectives: To validate the Cantonese Digit in Noise Test (CDINT) for screening individuals with mild cognitive impairment in the community.
Hypothesis to be tested: The psychometric properties of the newly developed automated CDINT should be comparable to those in the Hong Kong version of Montreal Cognitive Assessment (HK-MoCA) in screening for cognitive impairment.
Design and subjects: This is a cross-sectional study on 260 adults aged 60 or above.
Instruments: CDINT, HK-MoCA, pure-tone audiometry
Main outcome measures: 1) speech reception threshold of CDINT; 2) average response time of CDINT; 3) HK-MoCA scores
Data analysis: Test-retest reliability of CDINT will be assessed using the intraclass correlation coefficient; correlation analysis will be performed between CDINT results and HK-MoCA scores to examine the convergent validity; ROC analysis will be used to test the criterion validity, and a cut-off at an optimal combination of sensitivity and specificity will be derived.
Expected results: It is expected that the psychometric properties of the CDINT will be comparable to those obtained with HK-MoCA in screening mild cognitive impairment in the community-dwelling older adults.
Project Start Year: 2023, Principal Investigator(s): KAM, Chi Shan (YUEN, Chi Pun as Co-Investigator)

 
The Implementation of Emergent Literacy Tele-Intervention Programme for Preschool Children with Special Educational Needs and Low Socioeconomic Status – A Randomized Control Trial
• To examine the effects of tele-therapy in delivering speech, language and literacy intervention to preschool children aged between 2.5 and 5 years old, in view of the suspension or lack of face-to-face training during the COVID19 pandemic.
• To examine the effects of integration of two intervention approaches: (1) adult-child dialogic reading, and (2) metalinguistic training on the early Chinese language and literacy skills of preschool children at-risk of diverse learning needs. This integration aims to foster Chinese language acquisition and later literacy development of at-risk children for learning to read when they enter elementary education in the future.
• To develop a parent-oriented emergent literacy tele-therapy facilitation training kit (with suggested books, instructions on dialogic reading and evidence-based tele-therapy resources developed by the Research Team) with “training-the-trainers” community engagement to enhance future reading interest and metalinguistic skills of at-risk pediatric population in the community.
• To articulate the applied research and KT (Knowledge Transfer) impact of this project from FEHD to not just local and international academia but to the much wider Chinese-speaking community in Hong Kong and other major cities around the world including the education and social welfare sectors concerned about effective early intervention tools and activities to equip children with low SES and at-risk of diverse learning, literacy and communication needs, be it about children with diagnosed or suspected autism spectrum disorders (ASD), ADHD or learning difficulties.
Project Start Year: 2021, Principal Investigator(s): YUEN, Chi Pun

 
Can Wideband Acoustic Energy Absorbance Testing be Reliably Used to Differentially Diagnose Transient Conductive Hearing Loss from Permanent Sensory Hearing Loss in Chinese Neonates in a Two-year Longitudinal Investigation?
Neonatal hearing screening is key to early diagnosis and intervention. It is, therefore, important to have information as accurate as possible on an infant’s hearing status for timely and appropriate intervention whenever necessary. Newborn hearing screening protocol consists usually of two stages: an initial screening, and a rescreening if the infant does not pass the initial one. Otoacoustic emission (OAE) and/or automated auditory brainstem response (AABR) test are the most common measures adopted in newborn hearing screening programs. Transient outer or middle ear conditions, which is commonly observed in neonates, could affect the conduction of auditory stimuli of OAE and AABR measurement. The type of hearing impairment is left in question without assessing the middle ear status of the neonate, if s/he does not pass OAE and/or AABR tests in a newborn hearing screening program.
Tympanometry assesses middle ear status and mobility of eardrum in response to changes in air pressure. Common clinical measures include 226-Hz tympanometry and high-frequency tympanometry (usually using 1000 Hz as probe tone) (HFT). While 226-Hz tympanometry is known to be not sensitive and specific enough to assess middle ear condition in infants aged 6 months or younger with its high false positive and false negative rates, HFT provides a more accurate and promising assessment. Reports questioning the results of HFT were however also noticed. Wideband acoustic energy absorbance is another emerging technique for a spectral analysis of ear canal and middle ear transfer functions. It was reported to be beneficial in evaluating sound conduction function of outer and middle ear in infants, and in the interpretation of the OAE findings in UNHS programs.
Middle ear anatomical changes and hence acoustics changes due to maturation and ethnicity differences were reported to affect the transfer of sound energy, and thus wideband energy absorbance (WA). WA were noticed to vary significantly in different age groups and in individuals of different ethnic groups. Previous studies established normative data of Caucasian infants, Caucasian adults and Chinese adults. It is therefore crucial to develop normative data for Chinese children for a more precise interpretation and a more accurate evaluation of middle ear status for this population in Hong Kong. The predictability of wideband absorbance measurement on middle ear dysfunction will also be investigated via receiver-operating characteristic curve analyses.
Project Start Year: 2019, Principal Investigator(s): YUEN, Chi Pun 袁志彬

 
Can the Cantonese Pediatric Lexical-tone Dichotic Listening Test Identify Macro- and Micro-structural Corpus Callosum Deficits in Very Young Cantonese Speakers by Structural MRI Investigation?
This study adopted the structural MRI technique to cross-evaluate the sensitivity and reliability of the Cantonese Pediatric Lexical-Tone Dichotic Listening Test in very young Cantonese speakers with SLI.
Project Start Year: 2019, Principal Investigator(s): LAU, Kwok Wai 劉國威 (YUEN, Chi Pun 袁志彬 as Co-Investigator)

 
Outcome Evaluation on Hang Seng - YMCA Balloon Twisting Programme for SEN Students
This is a service research project invited by Chinese YMCA of Hong Kong (YMCA); it aims to serve the SEN students with Attention Deficit/ Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), or Specific Learning Disability (SLD), or Hearing Impairment (HI) by providing the Balloon Twisting Training and other trainings (provided by YMCA). After the completion of the trainings, including (a) the Concentration Training (provided by Occupational Therapist), (b) Balloon Twisting Training and (c) Balloon Exhibition, the participants’ fine motor ability, executive function, attention, emotional management, motivation of learning, self-confidence are expected to be enhanced. This project aims to evaluate the effectiveness of the training programme.
Project Start Year: 2019, Principal Investigator(s): YUEN, Chi Pun 袁志彬

 
Examining Affective Prosody Recognition among Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders and the Effectiveness of an Auditory Intervention Using a Mobile App
In human interaction, the success with which a person communicates with others depends on the ability to identify emotional signals from both verbal and non-verbal communication. Individuals with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) are characterized by social and communication difficulties, and the decoding of emotional signals is particularly challenging for them. This has negative consequence on their interactions with others in school, leisure activities, and career settings. The proposed study aims to examine the impact of auditory training on improving recognition of emotional tones of voice – also known as affective prosody – among children with ASD. Some recent findings suggest that individuals with ASD may rely heavily on their psychoacoustic abilities to analyze perceptual differences between different emotional stimuli (e.g. Lyons et al., 2014). There is evidence suggesting that some psychoacoustic abilities – including rapid auditory processing (Demopoulos et al., 2015) and pitch direction recognition (Globerson et al., 2014) – are significantly correlated with affective prosody recognition performance among individuals with ASD. Therefore, we propose that interventions targeting the improvement of psychoacoustic abilities may benefit affective prosody recognition among individuals with ASD.

In the proposed study, 40 children with ASD and 40 typically developing (TD) children between 10-12 years will be recruited. The psychoacoustic abilities and affective prosody recognition performance of the two groups will be assessed in the pretest. We hypothesize that psychoacoustic abilities are stronger predictors of affective prosody recognition among children with ASD than among TD children. The ASD children will then be randomly assigned to two groups: one group will complete 12 hours of computerized auditory training via a mobile app; the other will be an active control group that receives cognitive training unrelated to auditory perception. The children will be assessed again in the posttest. We hypothesize that only the auditory training group participants (not the active control group participants) will show a significant improvement in their psychoacoustic abilities following the training; we further hypothesize that these improvements will be significantly associated with better affective prosody recognition in the posttest.

In terms of significance, this proposal is an initial step in developing an evidence-based intervention for improving affective prosody recognition among children with ASD. It is hoped that by improving their ability to decode emotional signals in voices, children with ASD will be able to communicate more effectively with others, which may improve their quality of life throughout their lifespan.
Project Start Year: 2019, Principal Investigator(s): LIU, Ming (YUEN, Chi Pun 袁志彬 as Co-Investigator)

 
Are Lexical Tones Important for Cantonese Sentence Perception?
..
Project Start Year: 2018, Principal Investigator(s): CHEN, Yuan 陳源 (YUEN, Chi Pun 袁志彬 as Co-Investigator)

 
Modeling Relationships Among Cognitive, Psychoacoustic, and Speech Perception Skills in Mandarin Speaker with Normal Hearing
The aim of this study is to model the relationships among cognition, psychoacoustic abilities and speech perception in Cantonese-speaking adults with normal hearing. Results will be compared with those from individuals with hearing impairments in the future studies.
Project Start Year: 2017, Principal Investigator(s): CHEN, Yuan 陳源 (YUEN, Chi Pun 袁志彬 as Co-Investigator)

 
Intervention Efficacy of Assistive Listening Devices for Chinese Children with Dyslexia - A Randomized Controlled Trial (Health and Medical Research Fund, Food and Health Bureau, 2017-2020)
This project aims to investigate the efficacy in providing personal frequency modulation (FM) systems to children with dyslexia at school. 120 Cantonese-speaking primary school students who are being diagnosed as dyslexic will be recruited to join the study. Free FM systems will be provided to them for one academic year. The results of this rigorous randomized controlled trial will provide strong evidence that supports clinical-decision-making in the provision of appropriate and cost-effective interventions for children with dyslexia. The information will also be useful for future health policy making related to the provision of remediation and support service to these children.
Project Start Year: 2017, Principal Investigator(s): KAM, Chi Shan 甘志珊 (YUEN, Chi Pun 袁志彬 as Co-Investigator)

 
A Developmental Study of Spatial Release from Masking of Lexical Tone Recognition in Mandarin-Speaking Children (General Research Fund, Research Grants council, 2016-2017)
Children’s learning through the auditory channel is optimal if the auditory signal is free from noise and competing sounds. However, children rarely learn in a quiet environment. Starting from their early preschool years they are exposed to complex auditory environments such as classrooms where a lot of learning takes place. Different competing sounds from various directions are simultaneously presented including the voices of adults and peers, environmental sounds and reverberation. The ability to segregate different acoustic streams coming from different directions, requiring complex computations that involve both monaural (one ear) and binaural (both ears) processing, is critical for children to selectively attend to important information out of the competing signals for speech and language learning. Children’s recognition of speech information in the presence of competing signals is degraded, when compared with that in quiet, this may severely affect auditory learning in everyday life (1-3). They need a higher signal-to-noise ratio in order to reach adult performance level (2, 4).

One way to study auditory stream segregation is to see how well an individual improves from recognizing the target acoustic stream from (1) when it is spatially mixed with the competing acoustic stream, e.g. both coming from the front, to (2) when it is spatially separated from the competing acoustic stream, e.g. the target stream is coming from the front and the competing stream from one side, e.g. the left side. This improvement is called spatial release from masking (SRM).

Consider the complexity of the neural processing for auditory stream segregation, there is no convincing evidence to suggest that children have already reached adult SRM level early in life. The study conducted by our team was one of the very first studies which found a clear development of SRM with age in young children which was recently published in the Journal of Speech, Language and Hearing Research (5). Our results showed that the developmental course of SRM in typically developing Mandarin-speaking children was indeed significantly longer than previous studies suggested, and the results are consistent with two different types of test materials. Therefore we propose a large scale developmental study to investigate the typical developmental trajectory of SRM in children and from which to delineate normal and disordered performance in SRM from preschool to mid elementary school years. Such a large scale developmental study is lacking in the international literature. This proposed study will contribute to the early identification of children who have a significantly weaker auditory stream segregation ability compared with their peers, revealed by SRM, which can lead to auditory processing, language, and other learning difficulties, so that timely interventions can be initiated.

With the unique advantage of using lexical tones, which are acquired by age 2 or earlier, to test native Mandarin-speaking children, we will be able to investigate the development of SRM at a much earlier time window in children speaking tonal languages in this study than those speaking non-tonal languages from previous studies. SRM is baseline corrected by the difference between two data points obtained from the spatially separated and spatially mixed conditions, which can minimize the interference of linguistic knowledge, working memory, attention and task-related factors. Such a baseline correction makes SRM essentially a clean measure of sensory processing for spatial stream segregation, with those non-sensory factors teased out, to delineate individuals with normal and disordered SRM, and makes SRM potentially a universal auditory stream segregation test measure for cross-language comparisons.
Project Start Year: 2016, Principal Investigator(s): YUEN, Chi Pun 袁志彬

 
Identification of Young Cantonese-speaking Children with Language Learning Disorders via Lexical Tone Dichotic Listening by Profiling Their Instructional-driven (top-down) and Stimulus-driven (bottom-up) Information Processing Abilities. (Health and Medical Research Fund, Food and Health Bureau, 2015-2017)
This study aims to generate developmental norms on lexical tone dichotic listening (DL, the ability to recall acoustic stimuli with one stimulus presented to the right ear and another stimulus presented to the leaf ear simultaneously) profiles of the top-down instructional-driven and bottom-up stimulus-driven information processing capabilities of young Cantonese-speaking children. Those norms have a promising potential to identify children with language learning disorders; such potential has been confirmed in a pilot study.
Project Start Year: 2015, Principal Investigator(s): YUEN, Chi Pun 袁志彬

 
Development of computer-based tools for clinical assessment of speech, hearing and language disabilities
This project aims at establishing the infrastructure for computer-assisted assessment of speech, hearing and language disabilities and developing a series of assessment tools for Chinese-speaking population. The R&D methodology includes linguistic analysis, reliability validation, audio signal processing, text processing, design and implementation of computer software.
Project Start Year: 2015, Principal Investigator(s): Dr Tan Lee (YUEN, Chi Pun 袁志彬 as Co-Investigator)

 
A Developmental Study of Spatial Release from Masking from Lexical Tone Recognition in Mandarin- and Cantonese- speaking Children
Children’s learning through the auditory channel is optimal if the auditory signal is free from noise and competing sounds. However, children rarely learn in a quiet environment. Starting from their early preschool years they are exposed to complex auditory environments such as classrooms where a lot of learning takes place. Different competing sounds from various directions are simultaneously presented including the voices of adults and peers, environmental sounds and reverberation. The ability to segregate different acoustic streams coming from different directions, requiring complex computations that involve both monaural (one ear) and binaural (both ears) processing, is critical for children to selectively attend to important information out of the competing signals for speech and language learning. Children’s recognition of speech information in the presence of competing signals is degraded, when compared with that in quiet, this may severely affect auditory learning in everyday life (1-3). They need a higher signal-to-noise ratio in order to reach adult performance level (2, 4).
One way to study auditory stream segregation is to see how well an individual improves from recognizing the target acoustic stream from (1) when it is spatially mixed with the competing acoustic stream, e.g. both coming from the front, to (2) when it is spatially separated from the competing acoustic stream, e.g. the target stream coming from the front and the competing stream from one side, e.g. the left side. This improvement is called spatial release from masking (SRM),
Consider the complexity of the neural processing for auditory stream segregation, there is no convincing evidence to suggest that children have already reached adult SRM level early in life. The study conducted by our team was one of the very first studies which found a clear development of SRM with age in young children (5). Our results showed that the developmental course of SRM in typically developing Mandarin-speaking children was indeed significantly longer than previous studies suggested, and the results were consistent with two different types of test materials. Therefore we propose a large scale developmental study to investigate the typical developmental trajectory of SRM in children and from which to delineate normal and disordered performance in SRM from preschool to mid elementary school years. Such a large scale developmental study is lacking in the international literature. This proposed study will contribute to the early identification of children who have a significantly weaker auditory stream segregation ability compared with their peers, revealed by SRM, which can lead to auditory processing, language, and other learning difficulties, so that timely interventions can be initiated.
With the unique advantage of using lexical tones in the two Chinese tonal languages, which are acquired by age 2 or earlier, to test native Mandarin- and Cantonese- speaking children, we will be able to investigate the development of SRM at a much earlier time window in children speaking tonal languages in this study than those speaking non-tonal languages from previous studies. SRM is baseline corrected by the difference between two data points obtained from the spatially separated and spatially mixed conditions, which can minimize the interference of linguistic knowledge, working memory, attention and task-related factors. Such baseline correction makes SRM essentially a clean measure of sensory processing for spatial stream segregation, with those non-sensory factors teased out, to delineate individuals with normal and disordered SRM, and makes SRM potentially a universal auditory stream segregation test measure for cross-language comparisons.
Project Start Year: 2013, Principal Investigator(s): YUEN, Chi Pun 袁志彬

 
A Pediatric Developmental Study of Lexical Tone Dichotic Listening in Divided Attention versus Directed Attention Modes: A Step towards Identifying Cantonese- Speaking Children with Auditory Processing Disorder
Some children have more difficulties in understanding spoken messages than their peers. This problem is exacerbated in the presence of background noise, or when speech is rapid or degraded. If their problems in understanding spoken messages cannot be explained by either peripheral hearing loss, language disorder, attention deficit, or other higher cognitive or related dysfunctions, then such children may be considered at risk for Auditory Processing Disorders (APD) [1, 2]. Based on the estimation of Moore [3], among 1.37 million Hong Kong children up to 19 years of age [4], up to 96,500 children are suffering from APD. Nevertheless, the services offered to children with APD are scarce due to the inadequacy of diagnostic clinical tools. There is behavioral [5, 6] and electrophysiological [7, 8] evidence on the association between auditory processing difficulties and language or learning difficulties. Even mild APD, if left undiagnosed and untreated in early childhood years, may exert a significant negative effect on children’s social, communication, language and academic competencies and other life functions [9]. Unfortunately, if they reach adolescence before the auditory processing problem surfaces, they may experience problems in coping with high academic demands. Without locally developed standardized materials, identifying and diagnosing children with APD, or effectively intervening would be very difficult, if not impossible. In Hong Kong, there is only one set of test materials dedicated to the assessment of auditory processing function in children [10]. However, the diagnostic value of these materials has been questioned due to test reliability issues and the sampling methods used. In addition, these materials only apply to children aged 6 years and above.

Dichotic listening (DL) tests are key diagnostic tools for APD [11]. In DL tests, two different acoustic stimuli are presented to each ear simultaneously. To the best of our knowledge, lexical tones have not been used in any developmental studies on DL. Cantonese words with the same phonemic composition but different pitch patterns often represent totally different meanings. For example, /ji1/ and /ji6/ with high- and low-level pitch patterns are two different lexical tones meaning clothing and two, respectively. The degree to which the right ear outperforms the left in DL tests is known as right ear advantage (REA). REA decreases with age, reflecting the maturation of left hemisphere dominance for language [12].

We propose a large-scale cross-sectional developmental study on lexical tone DL in Cantonese children to offer highly valuable and reliable data to benchmark normative performance on this important auditory processing skill. In addition, the developmental data would reveal children’s development of top-down cognitive attentional modulation processing on bottom-up perceptual auditory processing [13, 14]. The normative data gathered are of potential diagnostic value to identify children whose dichotic listening skills are significantly impaired, and if they are, to differentiate which auditory processing difficulty is predominant in these children – a bottom-up perceptual processing deficit, a top-down attentional modulation processing deficit, or both. The DL norms will be compared against essentially pure auditory processing derived measures of temporal resolution and frequency resolution, which are non-speech based, with minimized cognitive and task demands [15].

Lexical tones are acquired early at around age two [16-18], so they can be used to reveal DL development beginning at a much younger age than in previous developmental studies. We have developed an innovative behavioral testing procedure which has been proven feasible from a pilot study in testing children as young as 2-3 years of age.
Project Start Year: 2011, Principal Investigator(s): YUEN, Chi Pun 袁志彬

 
Global conference on disorders in auditory processing, literacy, and related sciences
The conference is aimed at positioning Department of Special Education & Counselling (SEC) as a leader on the investigation of auditory processing disorder, visual processing disorders, and literacy disorders in the Asia Pacific region. The conference signify that Department of SEC of HKIEd is committed towards investigating the educational and educational profiles of childhood disorders in auditory processing, visual processing, and literacy, and their effects on childhood development in speech, language, hearing, reading, writing and academic attainment.

To the best of our knowledge, this is first global conference with cross-disciplinary foci on issues in identifying and remediating childhood disorders in auditory processing, visual processing, literacy and related areas. The conference would position Department of SEC as a global hub for the Asia Pacific region the in these research areas. It is anticipated that more than 300 participants will attend this conference mainly from the Asia Pacific regions
Project Start Year: 2011, Principal Investigator(s): YUEN, Chi Pun 袁志彬

 
Croucher Foundation Sponsorship for Conferences 2011-2012: First Conference on Developing Assessment Tools and Intervention Programs for Childhood Auditory Processing Disorders in the Chinese Communities
Some children have more difficulties in understanding spoken messages than their peers. This problem is exacerbated in the presence of background noise, or when speech is rapid or degraded. If their problems in understanding spoken messages cannot be explained by either peripheral hearing loss, language disorder, attention deficit, or other higher cognitive or related dysfunctions, then such children may be considered at risk for Auditory Processing Disorders (APD) (ASHA, 2005; Jerger & Musiek, 2000). The American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA) has defined APD as difficulties in the neural processing of auditory information in the central nervous system, with poor performance in one or more of the following skills: sound localization and lateralization; auditory discrimination; auditory pattern recognition; temporal aspects of audition, including temporal integration, temporal discrimination, temporal ordering, and temporal masking; auditory performance in competing acoustic signals (including dichotic listening); and auditory performance with degraded acoustic signals (ASHA, 2005).Based on the estimation of Moore (2006), among 1.37 million Hong Kong children up to 19 years of age (Census and Statistics Department of The Government of the Hong Kong Special Administration Region, 2007), up to 96,500 children are suffering from APD. Nevertheless, the services offered to children with APD are scarce due to the inadequacy of diagnostic clinical tools. There is behavioral (Bellis & Ferre, 1999; Moncrieff & Musiek, 2002) and electrophysiological (Kraus et al., 1996; Wible, Nicol, & Kraus, 2005) evidence on the association between auditory processing difficulties and language or learning difficulties. Even mild APD, if left undiagnosed and untreated in early childhood years, may exert a significant negative effect on children’s social, communication, language and academic competencies and other life functions (Heine & Slone, 2008). Unfortunately, if they reach adolescence before the auditory processing problem surfaces, they may experience problems in coping with high academic demands. Without locally developed standardized materials, identifying and diagnosing children with APD, or effectively intervening would be very difficult, if not impossible.

The proposed conference is aimed at bringing in international experts in the field of APD to support the development of assessment and diagnostic tools for identifying children in the Chinese communities in Hong Kong, Mainland China, Taiwan, and Southeast Asia. Research teams of tertiary institutions in the aforementioned regions/ countries who are interested in develop assessment tools and intervention programs for children with APD will be invited to submit a preliminary research proposal. A panel of international experts will review the proposals. The research teams will revise the proposals accordingly and prepare for a revised proposal and oral presentation during the conference.
Project Start Year: 2011, Principal Investigator(s): YUEN, Chi Pun 袁志彬

 
Using spatial separation advantage from The Computerized Mandarin Pediatric Lexical Tone & Disyllabic- Word Picture Identification Test in Noise (MAPPID-N) to assess the spatial hearing functions of normal hearing and hearing-impaired children - A step towards identifying Mandarin-speaking children with Auditory Processing Disorder
Some children have more difficulties in understanding spoken messages than their peers. This problem is exacerbated in the presence of background noise, or when speech is rapid or degraded. If their problems in understanding spoken messages cannot be explained by either peripheral hearing loss, language disorder, attention deficit, or other higher cognitive or related dysfunctions, then such children may be considered at risk for Auditory Processing Disorders (APD)(ASHA, 2005; Jerger & Musiek, 2000). Based on the estimation from Moore (2006), of the 1.37 million Hong Kong children up to 19 years of age (Census and Statistics Department of The Government of the Hong Kong Special Administration Region, 2007), up to 96,500 children are suffering from APD. Nevertheless, services offered to children with APD are scarce due to a lack of diagnostic clinical tools. There are behavioral (Bellis & Ferre, 1999; Moncrieff & Musiek, 2002) and electrophysiological (Kraus et al., 1996; Wible, Nicol, & Kraus, 2005) evidences on the association between auditory processing difficulties and language or learning difficulties. Even mild APD, if left undiagnosed and untreated in early childhood years, may have significant impact on social, communication, language and academic competences and other life functions (Heine & Slone, 2008). Unfortunately, if the child reaches adolescence before the auditory processing problem surfaces, there may be a problem in coping with high academic demands. Over the whole China diagnostic tools to identify children with APD are scare and the only available tool (Fluente et al., 2007) had test reliability issues and is not applicable for Mandarin-speaking children.
This research project is aimed at using spatial separation advantage(SSA) as a measure to assess the development of spatial hearing functions in children, which is one of the indicators of auditory processing function. SSA is a measure of the improvement in speech recognition from the condition with noise spatially mixed with speech to the condition with noise spatially separated from speech (Cameron, Dillon, & Newall, 2006). I developed the Mandarin Pediatric Picture Identification Test in Noise (MAPPID-N) which offered preliminary normative data (Yuen et al., 2009) on the development of spatial separation advantage. MAPPID-N was one of the first tools in Mainland China designed to assess the spatial hearing functions in children especially the younger ones starting from preschool years.
The proposed project is aimed at leading a China National research collaboration in the area of APD which is a relatively untapped area in the Chinese communities. There are very limited tools to identify children with APD in the Chinese Communities, and up-to-date there are no standardized tools dedicated to assess the auditory processing functions of Mandarin-speaking young children.
The three proposed research sites in Shanghai and Beijing will participate in collecting a large cohort of normative data in normal hearing children. The normative development in SSA will be used as a reference benchmark for children with suspected auditory processing disorder, with hearing loss using hearing prosthesis (including hearing aids and cochlear implants), and other disorders affecting spatial hearing abilities.
With early identification of children with spatial hearing difficulties, which is an indicator for APD, the impact on speech and language development, learning and educational performance would be minimized. This research collaboration would help develop SEC/IEd towards becoming a key centre for APD research in the Chinese communities.
Project Start Year: 2011, Principal Investigator(s): YUEN, Chi Pun 袁志彬

 
Piloting divided-attention versus directed attention dichotic listening and alternating inter-aural listening development in children: a step towards identifying Cantonese-speaking children with auditory processing disorder
Some children have more difficulties in understanding spoken messages than their peers. This problem is exacerbated in the presence of background noise, or when speech is rapid or degraded. If their problems in understanding spoken messages cannot be explained by either peripheral hearing loss, language disorder, attention deficit, or other higher cognitive or related dysfunctions, then such children may be considered at risk for Auditory Processing Disorders (APD) (ASHA, 2005; Jerger & Musiek, 2000). Based on the estimation from Moore (2006), of the 1.37 million Hong Kong children up to 19 years of age (Census and Statistics Department of The Government of the Hong Kong Special Administration Region, 2007), up to 96,500 children are suffering from APD. Nevertheless, services offered to children with APD are scarce due to a lack of diagnostic clinical tools. There are behavioral (Bellis & Ferre, 1999; Moncrieff & Musiek, 2002) and electrophysiological (Kraus et al., 1996; Wible, Nicol, & Kraus, 2005) evidences on the association between auditory processing difficulties and language or learning difficulties. Even mild APD, if left undiagnosed and untreated in early childhood years, may have significant impact on social, communication, language and academic competences and other life functions (Heine & Slone, 2008). Unfortunately, if the child reaches adolescence before the auditory processing problem surfaces, there may be a problem in coping with high academic demands. In Hong Kong diagnostic tools to indentify children with APD are scare and the only available tool (2007) had test reliability issues.
Dichotic listening (DL) tests are key diagnostic tools for APD (Jerger, 2007). In DL tests, two different acoustic stimuli are presented one to each ear simultaneously. To our knowledge, lexical tones have not been used in any developmental studies on DL. Cantonese words with the same phonemic composition but different pitch patterns represent totally different meanings. For example, /ji1/ and /ji6/ with high level and low level pitch patterns are two different lexical tones meaning clothing and two, respectively. The degree to which the right ear outperforms the left ear in DL tests is known as the right ear advantage (REA). REA decreases with age, reflecting the maturation of left hemisphere dominance for language.
We propose a pilot cross-sectional developmental study on lexical tone dichotic listening in Cantonese-speaking children for planning a large-scale normative developmental study. The outcomes will offer valuable and reliable normative data to contribute to the test battery for differentially diagnose APD in children. We have developed an innovative behavioral testing procedure which has been proven feasible to engage children for the required testing conditions.
Project Start Year: 2011, Principal Investigator(s): YUEN, Chi Pun 袁志彬

 
Piloting divided-attention versus directed-attention dichotic listening and alternating inter-aural listening development in children: A step towards identifying Cantonese- speaking children with Auditory Processing Disorder
Some children have more difficulties in understanding spoken messages than their peers. This problem is exacerbated in the presence of background noise, or when speech is rapid or degraded. If their problems in understanding spoken messages cannot be explained by either peripheral hearing loss, language disorder, attention deficit, or other higher cognitive or related dysfunctions, then such children may be considered at risk for Auditory Processing Disorders (APD) (ASHA, 2005; Jerger & Musiek, 2000). Based on the estimation from Moore (2006), of the 1.37 million Hong Kong children up to 19 years of age (Census and Statistics Department of The Government of the Hong Kong Special Administration Region, 2007), up to 96,500 children are suffering from APD. Nevertheless, services offered to children with APD are scarce due to a lack of diagnostic clinical tools. There are behavioral (Bellis & Ferre, 1999; Moncrieff & Musiek, 2002) and electrophysiological (Kraus et al., 1996; Wible, Nicol, & Kraus, 2005) evidences on the association between auditory processing difficulties and language or learning difficulties. Even mild APD, if left undiagnosed and untreated in early childhood years, may have significant impact on social, communication, language and academic competences and other life functions (Heine & Slone, 2008). Unfortunately, if the child reaches adolescence before the auditory processing problem surfaces, there may be a problem in coping with high academic demands. In Hong Kong diagnostic tools to indentify children with APD are scare and the only available tool (2007) had test reliability issues. Dichotic listening (DL) tests are key diagnostic tools for APD (Jerger, 2007). In DL tests, two different acoustic stimuli are presented one to each ear simultaneously. To our knowledge, lexical tones have not been used in any developmental studies on DL. Cantonese words with the same phonemic composition but different pitch patterns represent totally different meanings. For example, /ji1/ and /ji6/ with high level and low level pitch patterns are two different lexical tones meaning clothing and two, respectively. The degree to which the right ear outperforms the left ear in DL tests is known as the right ear advantage (REA). REA decreases with age, reflecting the maturation of left hemisphere dominance for language. We propose a pilot cross-sectional developmental study on lexical tone dichotic listening in Cantonese-speaking children for planning a large-scale normative developmental study. The outcomes will offer valuable and reliable normative data to contribute to the test battery for differentially diagnose APD in children. We have developed an innovative behavioral testing procedure which has been proven feasible to engage children for the required testing conditions.
Project Start Year: 2011, Principal Investigator(s): YUEN, Chi Pun 袁志彬