Developmental trajectories of reading development and impairment in Chinese young children

In a 6-year longitudinal study, 261 native Chinese children in Beijing were tested on seven language-related skills, relating to word reading accuracy and fluency.

Across the years, seven language-related skills were examined in relation to children’s subsequent reading skills; early predictors of reading were focused on performances at the ages of 3 -6 years.

In this research, four developmental trajectories were classified as follows:
A. Typical Group -- control
B. Catch-up Group -- with low initial cognitive performances but adequate subsequent reading
C. Literacy-related-cognitive-delay Group -- with difficulties in morphological awareness, phonological awareness, speeded naming and subsequent word recognition
D. Language-delay Group -- relatively low performance across all tasks

This research suggested that a combination of phonological awareness, rapid naming and morphological awareness are important longitudinal predictors of later reading difficulties in Chinese children. This may help parents and teachers to develop early remediation efforts for children at-risk for reading difficulties early in development, before they actually manifest reading difficulties. Indeed, remediation efforts are maximized in early childhood.

Lei, L., Pan, J., Liu, H., McBride-Chang, C., Li, H., Zhang, Y., Chen, L., Tardif, T., Liang, W., Zhang, Z., & Shu, H. (2011). Developmental trajectories of reading development and impairment from ages 3 to 8 years in Chinese children. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, vol. 52 (2), 212-220.