Early predictors of dyslexia in Chinese children: Familial history of dyslexia, language delay, and cognitive profiles

This study examined the rates at which Chinese children with either language delay or familial history of dyslexia at age 5 manifested dyslexia at age 7, identified which cognitive skills at age 5 best distinguished children with and without dyslexia at age 7, and examined how these early abilities predicted subsequent literacy skills.

47 at-risk children (with either language delayed or familial risk) and 47 control children were tested twice. At age 5, they were tested on a variety of reading-related cognitive tasks. At age 7, they were tested for dyslexia on a standard Hong Kong measure.

Result showed that 62% of children tested with language delay at age 5 manifested dyslexia, whereas the rate of dyslexia was 50% for those with familial risk. There were moderate correlations among tasks of morphological awareness, rapid automatized naming, and word reading. For the at-risk group, a test of visual skills was a unique predictor of literacy skills, while for the control group, tone and syllable awareness were unique predictors of literacy skills.

Both early language delay and familial risk strongly overlapped with subsequent dyslexia in Chinese children. In a test of longitudinal predictors using the entire sample, rapid automatized naming and morphological awareness showed relatively strong correlations with developmental dyslexia in Chinese.

McBride-Chang, C., Lam, F., Lam, C., Chan, B., Fong, C. Y.-C., Wong, T. T.-Y., & Wong, S. W.-L. (2011). Early predictors of dyslexia in Chinese children: Familial history of dyslexia, language delay, and cognitive profiles. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, vol. 52 (2), 204-211.