Yi-Ling LI

Provide weekly one-on-one piano instruction to children aged 4–12 from all backgrounds and learning profiles — from typically developing beginners to children with sensory sensitivities, attention-regulation challenges, and coordination differences. Have taught more than 100 students individually since 2021, across this studio practice and independent online lessons. Design individualized lesson plans matched each student's learning pace and developmental stage, and track progress over months and years, adapting methods based on direct behavioral observation.

Five years of that observation revealed a consistent pattern: young children do not fail multi-step routines because they lack motivation — they cannot yet hold a sequence in mind. They forget instructions immediately, lose track of their place in a task, and lack the vocabulary to express what went wrong. Errors not corrected in the moment harden into habits that are far harder to undo later. I also learned that anchoring a step to something a child can physically locate — the high notes are the right hand, the low notes are the left — makes sequences automatic, and that children master routines fastest in a short, structured, distraction-free environment, practiced regularly.

Working with the widest possible range of learners also showed me a consistent truth: methods designed to work for the most distraction-sensitive children turn out to work better for every child.

Deliver one-on-one online piano instruction to children aged 7–14 from many countries and cultural backgrounds, extending my teaching practice to an international student base.

Drawing on the observation base built through years of in-person teaching, I translate field-tested insights into product design: strip away visual clutter, guide one step at a time, confirm each step's completion, and correct errors immediately — before they harden into habits. This design philosophy drives my current work developing screen-free oral care guidance systems for young children. I hold a Red Seal–endorsed General Machinist certification from roughly a decade of precision manufacturing experience, so the solutions I design are grounded both in how children learn and in what can be efficiently manufactured.

Directed all musical programming for a community congregation over a nine-year tenure: selected and arranged repertoire, led weekly rehearsals, conducted performances, and coordinated volunteer musicians — a sustained weekly program requiring long-range planning, adaptability, and consistent delivery. Later invited as guest organist (Grace United Church, July 2019) and guest pianist (New Apostolic Church Canada, October 2024).

Coordinating volunteer musicians — each with different schedules, skill levels, and learning styles — honed the adaptable, individual-centered guidance approach that now underpins both my teaching and my product design work.

Held contract and term positions across multiple manufacturing environments over a twelve-year period — from small job shops to large production facilities. This breadth meant continuous exposure to different materials, equipment, and processes: operating manual and CNC machinery, working to close tolerances, and on several jobs fabricating custom precision tooling when standard setups could not achieve the required tolerances. Included a quality-control role in a large production shop, responsible for first-article inspection and tolerance verification. This period is the practical basis for the manufacturing literacy described in this profile and certified through the Red Seal–endorsed General Machinist designation.

Today, this background directly shapes my product design work: concepts developed within real production constraints, with realistic assembly and cost expectations, and the ability to collaborate fluently with engineering teams from the first conversation.

Four-year Bachelor of Arts in Psychology with a concentration in Educational Psychology. Core coursework directly relevant to my current work: cognition, memory, perception, learning, and habit formation (social psychology), supported by statistical research methods. Fourth-year independent thesis examined rhythm recognition and mathematical ability — cognitive research into how timing, pattern recognition, and attention shape skill acquisition. Music minor: piano performance in weekly masterclasses, music theory (harmony and counterpoint), and music history.

This academic foundation — how humans learn, remember, and build patterns — continues to directly inform my design of habit-forming daily-care products for young children.

Independently conceived, developed, and filed a U.S. patent application for a real-time guidance system that helps young children build and complete routine behaviors. The invention is not limited to any single routine: it is designed as a general framework for supporting habit formation in young children, applicable across a range of daily-care routines — with children's oral care as the initial commercial application proposed under this platform.

The invention synthesizes academic training in educational psychology and learning theory with years of direct observation of how young children acquire routine habits, applied to a product designed for practical, large-scale manufacture. A U.S. application filed June 2025; currently unpublished and under review. Further details available following execution of a mutual NDA.

Nationally recognized trade certification under Canada's Red Seal Program, certifying qualification to practice the machining trade across every Canadian province and territory. Covers precision machining and production manufacturing: milling, turning, grinding, and finishing operations; blueprint interpretation and geometric dimensioning and tolerancing (GD&T); work holding and fixture setup; tool selection and cutting parameters; metallurgy and material properties; and quality inspection to specified tolerances. This background grounds my product design work in real-world production constraints — concepts developed for integration into existing consumer device platforms with minimal hardware modification.

Advanced-level certification in piano performance and theory. Requires sustained multi-year training, memorized repertoire performance, and formal examinations in harmony and music history. Earliest formal evidence of the long-term disciplined training that underpins my professional record.