A Screening Platform for Dysphonia in Teachers: Early Identification and Prevention

1 April 2022 – 30 September 2023, funded by Knowledge Transfer Project Fund

The proposed project aims to develop an online screening platform that can (i) act as screening tool to continuously monitor for voice disorders; (ii) provide preventative exercise for teachers at risk of voice disorders; and (iii) provide indication to teachers on when further referral is required.

Multilingual E-Resources for Vocabulary Acquisition: Enhancing Learning Cantonese as an Additional Language and Maintaining Home (Heritage) Languages

1 April 2022 – 31 September 2024, funded by Social Innovation and Entrepreneurship Development Fund

This project therefore aims at developing vocabulary e-resources that can be used by children and their families as well as SLTs and teachers, and NGOs. The following languages will be included: English, Cantonese, Urdu, Tamil and Punjabi. The e-resources will be web-based and include live vocal simulation for each of the languages and vocabulary identified.

Construction and Validation of a Comprehensive Perceptual Assessment of Cleft Palate Speech-Cantonese (PACS-C) for the Evaluation of Speech and Velopharyngeal Function in Cantonese-speaking Children

30 November 2022 – 29 November 2024, funded by Health and Medical Research Fund

Cleft lip and/or palate (CLP) is the second most common congenital structural anomaly with a higher incidence rate in Hong Kong at 1 per 1000 live births. The condition can impact on functional outcomes including speech, facial growth and psychosocial wellbeing with speech being one of the most often investigated and reported on outcomes of CLP surgery. It is therefore imperative that the assessment and measurement of speech outcomes are comprehensive, clinically meaningful and scientifically sound especially in the face of the complex nature of cleft speech. At present, there is no validated cleft speech assessment tool for Cantonese-speakers and considering the importance of perceptual speech assessment in CLP, there is therefore a clear indication and need for a well-constructed and validated cleft speech assessment tool to be developed for use with Cantonese-speakers. The tool will be evaluated for its reliability, validity as well as acceptability by an international group of clinicians and researchers in the field. The clinical impact is that the PACS-C will subsequently be used in the assessment of speech outcomes of children with CLP, differential diagnosis, determination of nature and type of speech intervention required, measurement of surgical outcomes and monitoring of speech changes following treatment. The tool will also adhere to international guidelines and will also include speech outcomes that adhere to the speech standard set defined by the International Health Outcome Measures (ICHOM) which will lend itself to international and cross-linguistic comparisons.