Role
Lai-Sang is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Psychology. She is the Course Leader for MSc Applied Child Psychology. She is a module leader of modules on developmental psychology and developmental conditions at both undergraduate and postgraduate levels. She also teaches undergraduate tutorials, research methods and analytical thinking in Educational and Developmental Psychology. She is also a project supervisor supervising research projects at both undergraduate and postgraduate levels, including BSc, MSc and PhD.
PhD supervision
- Dr John Levick: Implicit Learning in Autism
- Lucy Smith: Self-help Guide for Parents of Children With Autism and ADHD
- Chloe McGovern: Lego Intervention for Autistic Learners
- Michelle Dodd: Coordinating Body Movements in Autistic and Non-autistic Social Interactions
- George Rudkin: Healthcare Communication Barriers for Neurodivergent Children and Young People
- Colin Howard: Understanding Problematic or Harmful Sexual Behaviours in Children and Adolescents
- Ciara Wild: Theoretical and Treatment Model for Forensic Populations With Restricted Interests
Research areas
Lai-Sang’s primary research focus is autism. Her research interests include social and cognitive development within and beyond the autism spectrum, early screening for autism, and mental health in autistic people and their caregivers. As the Lead of the Autism and Neurodiversity Research Group, she is committed to empower academics, students, and stakeholders to actively conduct transformational research on autism and neurodiversity and create positive changes and better outcomes for autistic people, neurodivergent people and their families.
External activity
Lai-Sang engages in a range of external activities, she is currently a/an/the:
- Chartered Psychologist
- Associate Fellow of the British Psychological Society
- Fellow of the Higher Education Academy
- Lead External Examiner for BSc (Honours) Psychology with Criminology at Northumbria University
- External Examiner for BSc (Hons) Psychology (delivered at Newcastle and Kaplan)
- Research Consultant for Hokkaido University in Japan
- Lead Topic Editor of Wellbeing in Parents of Neurodivergent Children for Frontiers in Psychiatry
- Peer reviewer for a number of journals
- Right to Read Volunteer
Sponsors and collaborators
- Professor Chin-chin Wu (Kaohsiung Medical University, Taiwan)
- Professor Yuh-Ming Hou (Ditmanson Medical Foundation Chia-Yi Christian Hospital, Taiwan)
- Dr Gary Yu-Hin Lam (Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong)
- Dr Satoshi Okada (Hokkaido University, Japan)
- Dr Kazuhiro Ohtani (Hokkaido University, Japan)
- Dr Feiying Wang (Affiliated Maternity and Child Health Care Hospital of Nantong University, China)
- Dr Yan Li (DePaul University, United States)
- Dr Nicolás Ruiz Robledillo (University of Alicante, Spain)
- Dr Brian Lovell (Northumbria University)
- Dr Paige Davis (York St John University)
Lai-Sang has contributed to the TKCOM project, led by Dr Lucy Betts in the Department of Psychology at NTU, funded by the Erasmus+ scheme led by Dr Elena Cano (University of Barcelona, Spain). This project involves international collaborations led by:
- Dr Maria Pessoa (University of Coimbra, Portugal)
- Dr Jianping Xu (Beijing University, China)
- Professor Aibao Zhou (Northwest Normal University, China)
- Professor Yule Jin (Southwest Normal University, China)
Lai-Sang has also worked with a number of schools in the UK on various research projects.
Publications
Lai-Sang has contributed to many journals, books and conferences;