title: Early oral language markers of poor reading performance in Hong Kong Chinese children.
abstract: This study investigated the extent to which language skills at ages 2 to 4 years could discriminate Hong Kong Chinese poor from adequate readers at age 7. Selected were 41 poor readers (age M = 87.6 months) and 41 adequate readers (age M = 88.3 months). The two groups were matched on age, parents' education levels, and nonverbal intelligence. The following language tasks were tested at different ages: vocabulary checklist and Cantonese articulation test at age 2; nonword repetition, Cantonese articulation, and receptive grammar at age 3; and nonword repetition, receptive grammar, sentence imitation, and story comprehension at age 4. Significant differences between the poor and adequate readers were found in the age 2 vocabulary knowledge, age 3 Cantonese articulation, and age 4 receptive grammar skill, sentence imitation, and story comprehension. Among these measures, sentence imitation showed the greatest power in discriminating poor and adequate readers.
authors.affiliation: Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shatin, N.T. Hong Kong, China.
authors.forename: Phil D
authors.initials: PD
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.forename: Catherine
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: McBride-Chang
authors.forename: Anita M-Y
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: Wong
authors.forename: Twila
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Tardif
authors.forename: Stephanie F
authors.initials: SF
authors.lastname: Stokes
authors.forename: Paul
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Fletcher
authors.lastname: Hua Shu
mesh_terms: D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D004410:Dyslexia / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000523:psychology; D005260:Female; D006723:Hong Kong; D006801:Humans; D007804:Language Development; D007807:Language Tests; D016015:Logistic Models; D008297:Male; D011932:Reading; D012307:Risk Factors; D013060:Speech; D013062:Speech Articulation Tests; D014825:Vocabulary