Yahua is a lecturer in Department of Psychology, Ningbo University, China. He obtained his PhD in Educational Psychology from Beijing Normal University in 2015. His Doctor’s thesis examined the development of morphological awareness in Chinese children. In recent years, his research mainly focuses on language and literacy acquisition and development in Chinese children. As a principal investigator, He has developed and run three funded research projects. His research has been published in Reading Research Quarterly,Instructional Science, Reading and Writing, Journal of Research in Reading, Journal of Child Language, and Acta Psychologica Sinica (in Chinese).

Cherry Jing Zhang is a Visiting Professor from China who will be collaborating with our lab this academic year. Her CV is provided below:

Cherry Jing Zhang CV

I am an associate professor in the Institute of Psychology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China. The overall goal of my research is to understand the neural basis and development of reading and learning of Chinese language by using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) technique. A series of my studies have shown that some brain regions (such as inferior frontal gyrus) are universally involved in reading, but that there are some cross-language differences in other areas (such as specific role of superior parietal cortex in Chinese reading). As a principal investigator, I have developed and run six funded research projects, and have published more than twenty papers in peer-review academic journals. Currently, I am visiting Dr. Becky Chen’s Lab and working on the development of reading in bilingual children.

Lidia Correia works as a Professor Master at Universidade Federal do Ceara (UFC), Brazil, where she deals with writing and reading in Portuguese language. She holds three diplomas: 1) Graduation in Tourism; 2) Guaduation in Language (English and Portuguese) and 3) Master in Applied Linguistics. Her Master research focused on phonological acquisition and language development. Currently, Lidia Correia courses her PhD course in the Postgraduate Program in Applied Linguistics, also in Brazil. Her current research focus on reading comprehension of people with Autistic Spectrum Disorders (ASD), as well as the importance of reading strategies for the development of reading comprehension, under the supervisor of Prof. Dr. Wilson Carvalho. At University of Toronto (UofT), Lidia Correia studies under the supervision of Prof. Dr. Becky Xi Chen (OISE). She is a visiting student in her lab, in her Project in the area of language and literacy development and disabilities. Lidia's intention is developing a proposal of teaching autistic people to help them better comprehend texts.