Taking a long time to produce their first words and mixing up similar sounding words like "mother" and "horse" in Cantonese may be indicators of developmental language problems that impact children's social and emotional development as well as academic performance later in life. Therefore, early detection is important, as it allows for early intervention to be prescribed. CUHK has developed a new algorithm to forecast infants’ future language development.

Scared kids gagging on swabs probing into noses and throats or embarrassed old folk trying to heave up saliva has been the unhappy side of COVID-19 testing. Now, a nasal strip sampling for COVID-19 test that is gentle, fast, easy and accurate is on its way for all ages, equaling one of the standard test methods and out-performing the other.