Developmental trajectories of reading development and impairment from ages 3 to 8 years in Chinese children.
BACKGROUND
Early prediction of reading disabilities in Chinese is important for early remediation efforts. In this 6-year longitudinal study, we investigated the early cognitive predictors of reading skill in a statistically representative sample of Chinese children from Beijing.


METHODS
Two hundred sixty-one (261) native Chinese children were administered seven language-related skills over three years between the ages of 3 and 6 years. Performances on these skills were then examined in relation to subsequent word reading accuracy and fluency. Individual differences in developmental profiles across tasks were then estimated using growth mixture modeling.


RESULTS
Four developmental trajectories were classified - the typical (control), catch-up (with low initial cognitive performances but adequate subsequent reading), literacy-related-cognitive-delay (with difficulties in morphological awareness, phonological awareness, and speeded naming and subsequent word recognition), and language-delay (relatively low across all tasks) groups.


CONCLUSIONS
Findings suggest that the combination of phonological awareness, rapid naming and morphological awareness are essential in the early prediction of later reading difficulties in Chinese children.
Lei
Lin
L
State Key Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience and Learning, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, China.
Pan
Jinger
J
Liu
Hongyun
H
McBride-Chang
Catherine
C
Li
Hong
H
Zhang
Yuping
Y
Chen
Lang
L
Tardif
Twila
T
Liang
Weilan
W
Zhang
Zhixiang
Z
Shu
Hua
H
D002648:Child; D002681:China; D004410:Dyslexia / Q000523:psychology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007804:Language Development; D007805:Language Development Disorders / Q000523:psychology; D007807:Language Tests; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D008297:Male; D011932:Reading; D014706:Verbal Learning