Cognitive processing skills and developmental dyslexia in Chinese

Eye Movement Evidence for Simultaneous Cognitive Processing in Reading

Measuring simultaneous processing, a reliable predictor of reading development and reading difficulties (RDs), has traditionally involved cognitive tasks that test reaction or response time, which only capture the efficiency at the output processing stage and neglect the internal stages of information processing. However, with eye-tracking methodology, we can reveal the underlying temporal and spatial processes involved in simultaneous processing and investigate whether these processes are equivalent across chronological or reading age groups. This study used eye-tracking to investigate the simultaneous processing abilities of 15 Grade 6 and 15 Grade 3 children with RDs and their chronological-age controls (15 in each Grade). The Grade 3 typical readers were used as reading-level (RL) controls for the Grade 6 RD group. Participants were required to listen to a question and then point to a picture among four competing illustrations demonstrating the spatial relationship raised in the question. Two eye movements (fixations and saccades) were recorded using the EyeLink 1000 Plus eye-tracking system. The results showed that the Grade 3 RD group produced more and longer fixations than their CA controls, indicating that the pattern of eye movements of young children with RD is typically deficient compared to that of their typically developing counterparts when processing verbal and spatial stimuli simultaneously. However, no differences were observed between the Grade 6 groups in eye movement measures. Notably, the Grade 6 RD group outperformed the RL-matched Grade 3 group, yielding significantly fewer and shorter fixations. The discussion centers on the role of the eye-tracking method as a reliable means of deciphering the simultaneous cognitive processing involved in learning.

Executive functions in Chinese kindergarten children with early reading problems

Learning to read Chinese is a complex task that draws on a range of executive function (EF) skills since early development. However, no studies have examined EF as a potential contributing factor to early reading problems among Chinese children. The present longitudinal study identified 48 poor readers and 48 normal readers among a sample of 190 Chinese children at the end of kindergarten. Measures of EF skills (working memory, inhibition control, and cognitive flexibility) and reading outcomes (word reading, sentence reading fluency, and sentence reading comprehension) were administered to the children. The two groups were retrospectively compared on the EF measures after age and nonverbal IQ were considered. Poor readers were found to perform significantly worse than normal readers in all the examined EF skills. Correlation and regression results revealed a relatively different nature of the relationship between EF and reading in poor readers as compared with normal readers. Inhibition control predicted reading outcomes in poor readers only, while cognitive flexibility predicted reading outcomes in normal readers only. Working memory was significantly correlated to word reading in poor readers and to reading comprehension in normal readers. The results are discussed in terms of the special characteristics of the Chinese language.

Development and Evaluation of Orthographic Knowledge Awareness Scale for Children Aged 6–12 Years

Objective

This study primarily aimed to develop an orthographic knowledge awareness scale in Mandarin for children aged 6–12 years. Related factors affecting orthographic knowledge awareness in children were analyzed, and a basis for individualized intervention was provided to improve reading and writing.

Methods

A conceptual framework for orthographic knowledge awareness in children aged 6–12 years was determined through a detailed reading of the literature on Chinese character orthography, combined with qualitative interviews of the target population and consultation with experts. The orthographic knowledge awareness scale initially consisted of three versions: for grades 1–2 (210 items), grades 3–4 (207 items), and grades 5–6 (220 items), accumulating a total of 637 items. The initial scale was then used for the study involving children aged 6–12 years in Maanshan City, Jiangsu Province. Various approaches to screening items were comprehensively used to determine the formal version of the orthographic knowledge awareness scale. The official scale was ultimately used to conduct the third round of surveys among 1,354 children aged 6–12 years in ordinary primary schools located in 5 cities in Jiangsu Province, namely, Changzhou, Lianyungang, Nantong, Xuzhou, and Yangzhou. The reliability, validity, and discriminating power of the formal scale were evaluated.

Results

A total of 360 items were included in the formal version of the orthographic knowledge awareness scale. The formal scale was divided into three versions for grades 1–2, 3–4, and 5–6. Each grade version consisted of 120 items. The scale was composed of the stroke awareness test, radical awareness test, and left–right reversal test. The cumulative variance contribution rates of grades 1–2, 3–4, and 5–6 were 82.47, 61.71, and 64.19%, respectively. The Cronbach's α coefficients of the three-grade version of the scale were 0.989, 0.946, and 0.938; the split-half reliability coefficients were 0.925, 0.766, and 0.847; and the test–retest reliability coefficients were 0.847, 0.895, and 0.8928, respectively.

Conclusion

The proposed orthographic knowledge awareness scale for children aged 6–12 years exhibits good reliability and validity. The formal scale consisted of two dimensions: identification of left–right reversal at the stroke and radical levels and the left–right reversal at the whole character level. The two dimensions can more comprehensively reflect the ability of children to discriminate orthographic structures.

Two Morphological Awareness Components Have Different Roles in Chinese Word Reading Development for Primary Schoolers

Morphological awareness is multi-factorial by nature and consists of general morphological knowledge and morphological meaning analysis; the first refers to the recognition and manipulation of morphological structures, and the second refers to the inference of word semantics by utilizing morphological knowledge. Contrasting the roles of two morphological awareness components in word reading could help resolve the controversy about whether morphological awareness could independently contribute to Chinese word reading. Thus, the study explored how morphological awareness components contributed to word reading development in Chinese context. A group of 299 Chinese children in grades 3 and 4 were recruited and tested twice with the interval of half a year, by a series of tasks on morphological awareness components, word reading, and some control variables. Results showed that, after controlling for vocabulary and other linguistic variables, morphological meaning analysis could independently predict word reading, whereas general morphological knowledge could only indirectly predict word reading, a process mediated by morphological meaning analysis. This study showed independent contribution of morphological awareness to Chinese word reading development. By clarifying the ways of how different morphological awareness components support children’s word reading development, the findings enhance our understanding about the potential mechanism underlying the relation between morphological awareness and Chinese word reading.

The Percentages of Cognitive Skills Deficits among Chinese Children with Developmental Dyslexia: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

The current study was conducted to examine the percentages of cognitive skills deficits among Chinese children with developmental dyslexia. Via a systematic review, we collated twenty-two available studies on the proportion of cognitive skills deficits, including phonological awareness, rapid automatized naming, morphological awareness, orthographic knowledge, short-term memory and working memory, and visual and motor skills deficits, among Chinese children with developmental dyslexia. The results of a meta-analysis showed that the rapid automatized naming deficits are the core deficit of developmental dyslexia among Chinese children, with a pooled percentage of 44%. This is followed by orthographic knowledge deficits (43%), phonological awareness deficits (41%), morphological awareness deficits (40%), visual and motor skills deficits (33%), and short-term memory and working memory deficits (25%). At the same time, we compared the proportions of different locations, ages, standards and control groups.

Planning processing in ADHD with comorbid reading disabilities is worse than in ADHD: Based on Das-Naglieri Cognitive Assessment System

OBJECTIVE

To explore and compare the cognitive processing weakness of children with Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and comorbid reading disabilities (RD) (ADHD+RD) and children with ADHD only using the Das-Naglieri Cognitive Assessment System (DN:CAS).

METHODS

Eighty-eight children with ADHD who visited the hospital for the first time from September 2021 to November 2021 and had a Full scale intelligence quotient (IQ) of ≥85 on the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children revised in China (C-WISC) were selected (Age: 6-12 years; Grade: 2-6). Based on comorbidity with RD and the subtypes of ADHD (e.g., Inattention dominant type, ADHD-I, Hyperactivity/Impulse dominant type, ADHD-H and Combined type, ADHD-C), these children were divided into the ADHD+RD group (n = 30) and ADHD group (n = 58) as well as the corresponding subgroups. Clinical data on gender, age, grade, IQ scores, and DN:CAS processing scores were compared between both groups/subgroups. Spearman's correlation test was used for correlation analysis of results of interest.

RESULTS

No differences in age, grade, male-to-female ratio, verbal IQ, performance IQ, and full scale IQ were observed between the ADHD+RD group and ADHD group as well as the corresponding subgroups (P > 0.05). Children in the ADHD-C+RD subgroup had lower scores in Planning processing of DN:CAS than those in the ADHD-C subgroup (P = 0.040). However, there were no significant difference between the ADHD-I+RD subgroup and ADHD-I subgroup in Planning scores of DN:CAS assessment; The grade of ADHD-C+RD and ADHD-I+RD subgroups were positively correlated with the Planning scores of DN: CAS (r = 0.599, P = 0.030 and r = 0.508, P = 0.044, respectively). The grade of ADHD-C subgroup was positively correlated with the Planning and Simultaneous processing scores of DN: CAS (r = 0.409, P = 0.042 and r = 0.406, P = 0.044, respectively).

CONCLUSION

Our study confirmed that children of ADHD-C with comorbid RD have a more severe Planning processing weakness compared to children with ADHD-C only. Among the children of ADHD-C+RD, ADHD-I+RD and ADHD-C, such a Planning processing impairment may improve with increasing educational skills.

Is orthographic knowledge a strength or a weakness in individuals with dyslexia? Evidence from a meta-analysis

The purpose of this meta-analysis was to examine if individuals with dyslexia (DYS) have a deficit in orthographic knowledge. We reviewed a total of 68 studies published between January 1990 and December 2019, representing a total of 7215 participants. There were 80 independent samples in the chronological-age (CA)-DYS comparison and 33 independent samples in the comparison between DYS and reading-level (RL) controls. A random-effects model analysis revealed a large effect size (Cohen's d = 1.17) for the CA-DYS comparison and a small effect size (Cohen's d = 0.18) for the RL-DYS comparison. In addition, we found significant heterogeneity in the effect sizes that was partly explained by the level of orthographic knowledge (effect sizes being higher for lexical than sub-lexical orthographic knowledge). These results suggest that individuals with dyslexia experience an orthographic knowledge deficit that is as large as that of phonological awareness and rapid automatized naming reported in previous meta-analyses.

Cognitive-linguistic profiles of Chinese typical-functioning adolescent dyslexics and high-functioning dyslexics

Dyslexia is a developmental disability affecting the acquisition of reading and writing skills, and its developmental nature makes longitudinal research of great importance. This study therefore investigated the cognitive-linguistic profiles of the typical-functioning dyslexics and high-functioning dyslexics with longitudinal cohorts of Chinese-speaking adolescents diagnosed with childhood dyslexia. These two dyslexic groups of fifty students (with 25 typical-functioning dyslexics) were assessed in Grade 2 (Time 1) and in Grade 8 (Time 2), whereas 25 typically developing controls were assessed at Time 2. Students were administered measures of phonological awareness, morphological skills, visual-orthographic knowledge, rapid naming, verbal working memory, and literacy skills. Results showed that, at Time 2, both dyslexic groups performed less well than the control group on most of the measures. Deficits in rapid naming were particularly salient in both dyslexic groups. Comparing the two dyslexic groups, the typical-functioning dyslexics had more multiple deficits than the high-functioning dyslexics. Findings highlight the importance of rapid naming deficits as potential universal causes of dyslexia and the utility of targeting visual-orthographic knowledge and morphological skills in supporting the development of dyslexic adolescents.

Difficulties in Comprehending Affirmative and Negative Sentences: Evidence From Chinese Children With Reading Difficulties

Recent experimental results suggest that negation is particularly challenging for children with reading difficulties. This study looks at how young poor readers, speakers of Mandarin Chinese, comprehend affirmative and negative sentences as compared with a group of age-matched typical readers. Forty-four Chinese children were tested with a truth value judgment task. The results reveal that negative sentences were harder to process than affirmative ones, irrespective of the distinction between poor and typical readers. Moreover, poor readers performed worse than typical readers in comprehending sentences, regardless of whether they were affirmative or negative sentences. We interpret the results as (a) confirming the two-step simulation hypothesis, based on the result that the difficulty in processing negation has a general validity (persisting in pragmatically felicitous contexts), and (b) disconfirming that negation, as far as behavioral data are concerned, can be used as a reliable linguistic predictor of reading difficulties.

The role of rapid naming in reading development and dyslexia in Chinese

We examined in a series of studies the mechanism that may underlie the relationship between Rapid Automatized Naming (RAN) and reading (accuracy and fluency) in Mandarin Chinese. Study 1 examined the "arbitrary" connections hypothesis in a sample of Grade 2 children (N=182). Study 2 contrasted the phonological processing, orthographic processing, and speed of processing hypotheses in a sample of Grade 2 children followed until Grade 5 (N=72). Finally, Study 3 contrasted the same hypotheses in a sample of Grade 4 children with dyslexia (n=30) and chronological-age controls (n=30). The results indicated that (a) RAN is unrelated to Paired Associate Learning (PAL) tasks that tap the ability to form arbitrary connections between characters and their pronunciation, (b) controlling for nonverbal IQ and orthographic processing was sufficient to explain the RAN-reading accuracy relationship but not the RAN-reading fluency relationship, and (c) the observed differences between dyslexics and controls in RAN diminished after controlling for orthographic processing. Taken together, these findings suggest that RAN is related to reading accuracy (and partly to reading fluency) because children must access orthographic representations from long-term memory. Although accessing these representations is sufficient for accurate word recognition, it is not sufficient for fluent reading, which also requires efficient parafoveal processing.