Early language and phonological difficulties of Chinese preschool children at familial risk for dyslexia

Abstract

The present study examined whether Chinese preschool children at familial risk for dyslexia had early language and cognitive difficulties. 99 high-risk and 44 low-risk Chinese 4-year-old children (Kindergarten first year, K1) were recruited at the beginning of a 4-year longitudinal study. Results of the first two years of this study showed that high-risk children performed significantly less well than low-risk children in language and phonological measures. Language, phonological, paired-associate learning (PAL), and rapid naming skills were found to have significant unique contribution to Chinese character reading in K2 even when the autoregressive effect of Chinese reading in K1 was controlled. However, only Chinese phonological skills and PAL had significant unique contribution to English word reading in K2. These results suggest that Chinese preschool children at familial risk for dyslexia have early difficulties in spoken language and phonological processing like their alphabetic counterparts. Phonological skills and PAL may be common to learning both Chinese and English at their early stage, but oral language and rapid naming skills in Chinese are relevant mainly for learning Chinese. (This study was funded by the Research Grants Council in Hong Kong, #HKU 7212/04H)