Rate My Professor Shu Yau

Dr. Shu Yau is a Senior Lecturer in Developmental Psychology (Research and Teaching, tenured) in the School of Psychology at Murdoch University, where she serves as Director of the Cognition in Autism Research Lab and Fellow of the Higher Education Academy. She co-chairs the Gender and Diversity working party for her discipline. Her research centers on child cognition in autism spectrum disorder, utilizing behavioral and cognitive paradigms and mobile neuroimaging to investigate language, auditory perception, and cognition, with particular attention to nonspeaking and minimally verbal individuals. The lab encompasses three streams: neurocognition, including auditory perception and hypersensitivities in autism; mental health, such as screen time in youth and yoga interventions for anxiety; and support for non-speaking individuals via co-designed community training on complex communication needs. Emphasizing co-design and participatory action research, Yau incorporates input from autistic individuals and allies, partnering with the Telethon Kids Institute and Rocky Bay to adapt studies for participants.

Prior to Murdoch University since 2019, Yau was a tenured Assistant Professor (Research and Teaching) and coordinator of the Neuroscience and Education programme at the University of Bristol, UK, co-directing the Bristol Autism Research Group. She held a Marie Curie Postdoctoral Fellowship developing a receptive language mapping MEG paradigm for children and clinical populations with Professors Joel Talcott, Stefano Seri, and Dr. Caroline Witton. Notable awards include GEMM Leadership Grants (2022, with T. Loftus), Lotterywest Building Communities Grant ($97,502, 2021, with Rocky Bay) for Community TechTalkers, University Citations for Enhancing Student Learning (2021), University of Bristol Public Engagement Award (2017), Jean Golding Institute Seed Corn Funding (2017), Macquarie University Research Excellence Awards Highly Commended in Innovative Technologies (2015), and multiple 3-Minute Thesis accolades (2013) plus Best Presentation at the Australasian Society for Autism Research (2012). Key publications feature Yau et al. (2024) 'Comparing and contrasting barriers in augmentative alternative communication use' in Frontiers in Psychiatry; Petit et al. (2020) 'Toward an Individualized Neural Assessment of Receptive Language' in Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research; Ruiz-Martinez et al. (2020) 'Impaired P1 habituation and mismatch negativity in children with autism' in Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders; and Yau et al. (2016) 'Spoken language and speech/nonspeech processing in children with autism' in Developmental Science, advancing insights into autism cognition and educational neuroscience.