Abstract
This study examined the cognitive-linguistic and literacy-related correlates of dyslexia in three Chinese cities and the English word reading and mathematics performances of Chinese children with dyslexia. Chinese children with/without dyslexia were measured with an equivalent test battery of literacy and mathematics in Beijing, Hong Kong, and Taipei. Univariate analysis results suggested that phonological sensitivity distinguished those with and without dyslexia across all three cities in group comparisons. In Taipei and Hong Kong, morphological awareness, delayed copying, and spelling also distinguished the groups. Logistic regression analyses demonstrated that Chinese character reading, as directly compared to Chinese word reading, also distinguished the groups particularly well. In addition, in Beijing and Hong Kong, children with dyslexia performed significantly less well in English word reading than those without dyslexia. In Hong Kong and Taipei, children with dyslexia also had difficulties in mathematics performance. Findings highlight the fundamental importance of some cognitive-linguistic skills for explaining Chinese dyslexia across cultures, the utility of recognizing the individual Chinese character as a foundational unit of analysis in Chinese across cultures, and the generalizability of the comorbidity of both English as a second language (L2) and mathematics with dyslexia in Chinese children in both Beijing and Hong Kong.
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This research was supported by a General Research Fund of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Research Grants Council (14600818) to Catherine McBride, the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC: 32371141 and 31971039) to Xiangzhi Meng, and the Chinese Language and Technology Center of National Taiwan Normal University from the Featured Areas Research Center Program within the Higher Education Sprout Project framework by the Ministry of Education and the project MOST 107–2410-H-003–046 -MY3 funded by the Ministry of Science and Technology in Taiwan to Junren Lee.
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Pan, D.J., Meng, X., Lee, J.R. et al. The cognitive-linguistic profiles and academic performances of Chinese children with dyslexia across cultures: Beijing, Hong Kong, and Taipei. Ann. of Dyslexia (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11881-024-00301-2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11881-024-00301-2