Early oral language markers of poor reading performance in Hong Kong Chinese children

The current study aimed at establishing the early predictors that can distinguish poor readers from normal readers. Our sample consisted of 41 good and 41 poor readers, all of whom were Hong Kong Chinese children who had been participating in our longitudinal study for at least 6 years. Several linguistic and cognitive abilities, such as non-word repetition, sentence imitation, Cantonese articulation, vocabulary, receptive grammar, and story comprehension, were tested when the participants were 2 – 4 years old, and Chinese word reading ability was assessed when the participants were approximately 7 years old. Based on the results of the reading test, two groups were identified at age 7, i.e., good and poor readers. Analyses revealed that vocabulary knowledge at age 2, Cantonese articulation at age 3, and sentence imitation at age 4 particularly and significantly distinguished the two reading groups at age 7. These results may be useful in exploring very early identification of those Chinese children at-risk for reading difficulties.

 

 

Liu, P. D., McBride-Chang, C., Wong, A. M.-Y., Tardif, T., Stokes, S. F., Fletcher, P., & Shu, H. (in press). Early oral language markers of poor reading performance in Hong Kong Chinese children.