Welcome to LEAP!


The Lab for Early Auditory Perception (LEAP) is headed by Dr. Christina Zhao and housed within the Institute for Learning & Brain Sciences (I-LABS) at the University of Washington.
LEAP focuses on understanding how the human brain learns to process complex sounds, such as speech and music, in infancy. Towards this goal, we are actively investigating several lines of research questions.
We rely on a wide range of experimental methods, including behavioral, physiological, and electrophysiological measurements in infants, children, and adults. You can find more details about our research here!

SEPTEMBER 25, 2025: Dr. Zhao presents "New Frontiers in Infant Speech Learning" at the first Seminars in Hearing and Communications Sciences (SHACS) talk of the year
AUGUST 4, 2025: LEAP goes kayaking in Lake Union!
JUNE 5, 2025: Christina presents her research at the NOMIS & Science Young Explorer Award Ceremony at the University of Zurich, Switzerland.
May 16, 2025: Eloise Schell presents her LEAP thesis project on speech rhythm and neural entrainment at the UW Undergraduate Research Symposium.
May 16, 2025: Helen Liu presents her LEAP thesis project on infants' auditory home environments at the UW Undergraduate Research Symposium.
May 16, 2025: Britney Pham presents her LEAP thesis project on norm-referenced test scores and language sample measures at the UW Undergraduate Research Symposium.
May 14, 2025: Britney Pham and Eloise Schell present their LEAP thesis projects at the UW Speech and Hearing Sciences Honors Colloquium.
May 12, 2025: Gina Goble presents the Sibling Language Development Study to the Institute on Human Development and Disability.
APRIL 11, 2025: Brittany Pham, Lindsay Hippe, and Zoe Cheng represent LEAP at a research open house.
MARCH 27, 2025: Dr. Zhao is featured as one of ParentMap's Superheroes of 2025: Champions for Change
MARCH 15, 2025: Lab members teach kids and adults about babies' brains during BrainFest at PacSci!
MARCH 14, 2025: The lab shows off their artistic skills at Paint the Town!
DECEMBER 6, 2024: Eloise Schell presents her LEAP project, How Does Rhythm Impact Entrainment to a Target Speaker in Multi-talker Situations?, at the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association Convention

DECEMBER 5, 2024: Dr. Zhao presents "Can We Predict Developmental Language Disorder in infancy?" at the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association Convention
NOVEMBER 7, 2024: Dr. Zhao's essay, Bringing music back to our children: Greater exposure to music can benefit language learning in infants, is recognized by the NOMIS & Science Young Explorer Award and published in Science.
JULY 25, 2024: Tori's last lab meeting and a full house for the summer!
JULY 18, 2024: The lab goes bowling!
MAY 17, 2024: Richard Nguyen presents his LEAP project, Bilingual Babies and Babbling Beats, at the UW Undergraduate Symposium
MAY 10, 2024: Helen Liu gives a talk on her LEAP project, Latinx Tots and Tunes
APRIL 6, 2024: Aditi Marehalli presenting results of a LEAP inter-rater reliability study at the Washington State Science and Engineering Fair
SEPTEMBER 10, 2023: Tori Hennessy presents ongoing LEAP project at the Fetal, Infant, & Toddler Neuroimaging Group (FIT'NG) conference in Santa Rosa, CA.
SEPTEMBER 1, 2023: Geared up for LEAP's End-of-Summer Adventure!
SEPTEMBER 1, 2023: Lab on the water!
SEPTEMBER 1, 2023: Dr. Zhao and Lindsay Hippe paddle their canoe (researchers by day, paddlers by night).
SEPTEMBER 1, 2023: Post-paddle picnic on the patio.
AUGUST 1, 2023: Dr. Zhao speaks to the Association of Washington Business (AWBi) and Children's Campaign Fund Action (CCFA) on their statewide bus tour, advocating for early learning and childcare.
MAY 22, 2023: Quanta Magazine discusses LEAP's latest publication. Click on this slide to read the article.
MAY 19, 2023: Dr. Zhao and LEAP student Lindsay Hippe at the UW Undergraduate Research Symposium.
MAY 19, 2023: Tori Hennessy, Lindsay Hippe, and Eloise Schell at the UW Undergraduate Research Symposium.
MAY 15, 2023: Lindsay Hippe presents her LEAP thesis project at the UW Speech and Hearing Sciences Honors Colloquium.
APRIL 20, 2023: New LEAP paper published in Scientific Reports: Encoding of speech in convolutional layers and the brain stem based on language experience. Click on the figure to read.
MARCH 29, 2023: Dr. Zhao is now a featured STEM Professional in the Pacific Science Center's "Career Corner". Head to our Resources page to watch the video.
MARCH 21, 2023: The new LEAP shared office space. Decorations (and post-doc) coming soon!
DECEMBER 5, 2022: One of three LEAP poster presentations at the 183th Meeting of the Acoustical Society of America in Nashville, Tennessee.
OCTOBER 10, 2022: Dr. Zhao presents “Music & Baby Brains: What’s Really Going On?” for the Oregon Music Teacher Association.