What are the early indicators of persistent word reading difficulties among Chinese readers in elementary grades?

To identify the indicators of persistent reading difficulties among Chinese readers in early elementary grades, the performance of three groups of Chinese children with different reading trajectories ('persistent poor word readers', 'improved poor word readers' and 'skilled word readers') in reading-related measures was analysed in a 3-year longitudinal study. The three groups were classified according to their performance in a standardized Chinese word reading test in Grade 1 and Grade 4. Results of analysis of variance and logistic regression on the reading-related measures revealed that rapid naming and syntactic skills were important indicators of early word reading difficulty. Syntactic skills and morphological awareness were possible markers of persistent reading problems. Chinese persistent poor readers did not differ significantly from skilled readers on the measures of phonological skills.

Prediction of Chinese Reading Fluency by Verbal and Non-verbal Visual Attention Span Measures.

This study explored (1) the relationship between verbal and non-verbal visual attention span measures and (2) the relationship between visual attention span and reading fluency in traditional Chinese, among 101 university students in Hong Kong. The participants' visual attention span was assessed using verbal measures (i.e., a global report task and a partial report task) and non-verbal measures (i.e., visual 1-back task with Chinese characters and visual 1-back task with symbols). The results of the confirmatory factor analysis indicated that the single latent factor model, composed of the global report task, the partial report task, the visual 1-back task with Chinese characters, and the visual 1-back task with symbols, was a good fit for the data. The results of the regression analysis showed that the global report task significantly predicted traditional Chinese reading fluency. Structural equation modeling revealed a significant predictive relationship between the single latent factor composed of verbal and non-verbal visual attention span measures and traditional Chinese reading fluency. Overall, the results indicate that visual attention span contributes to reading fluency in traditional Chinese.

Modeling the relationships between cognitive-linguistic skills and writing in Chinese among elementary grades students.

The present study is a four-year longitudinal study examining the important predictors of writing of 340 Chinese children in elementary grades. Children's transcription skills (handwriting skills and spelling), and syntactic skills in grade 1 were significant predictors of text writing in grade 1-4 while ideation in grade 1 only contributed to text writing in grade 2. Stroke order knowledge was shown as an important handwriting skill in Chinese reflecting the characteristics of the Chinese orthography. A model of Chinese writing in early elementary grades was proposed. In the model, orthographic knowledge, morphological awareness and handwriting skills are proposed to contribute to spelling which is correlated with text writing. Handwriting skills, ideation, and syntactic skills were found to contribute to text writing. Path analysis results suggest that the longitudinal relationship between spelling and text writing is bidirectional.

Contribution of discourse and morphosyntax skills to reading comprehension in Chinese dyslexic and typically developing children.

This study aimed at identifying important skills for reading comprehension in Chinese dyslexic children and their typically developing counterparts matched on age (CA controls) or reading level (RL controls). The children were assessed on Chinese reading comprehension, cognitive, and reading-related skills. Results showed that the dyslexic children performed significantly less well than the CA controls but similarly to RL controls in most measures. Results of multiple regression analyses showed that word-level reading-related skills like oral vocabulary and word semantics were found to be strong predictors of reading comprehension among typically developing junior graders and dyslexic readers of senior grades, whereas morphosyntax, a text-level skill, was most predictive for typically developing senior graders. It was concluded that discourse and morphosyntax skills are particularly important for reading comprehension in the non-inflectional and topic-prominent Chinese system.