Lexical tone perception, production and awareness in Chinese children with developmental dyslexia

Abstract

Lexical tone is an essential component in tone languages and substantial studies suggested that children with dyslexia exhibited significant deficits in tone perception and awareness. Yet, few studies have examined different aspects of lexical tone abilities in same group of dyslexic children. This study systematically investigated the multifaceted abilities of dyslexic children in perceiving, producing and processing lexical tones. Fifteen 8-year-old and fifteen 10-year-old Cantonese-speaking children with dyslexia were compared to 30 chronological-age-matched (CA) children and 15 reading-level-matched (RL) children for 10-year-old dyslexic children on tone perception, tone production, metalinguistic skills (tone, segmental phonological and morphological awareness), rapid automatized naming, memory (verbal short-term and working memory) and literacy skills (word reading, reading fluency and word writing). Results showed that dyslexic children performed significantly worse than CA and RL children on tone perception but similarly on tone production. Meanwhile, dyslexic children performed worse than CA children but similar to RL children on tone awareness and nearly all other measures. Tone awareness could uniquely contribute to literacy skills beyond tone perception and segmental phonological awareness, and predict word writing beyond other reading-related skills. Tone perception and awareness were the only reliable indicators distinguishing children with and without dyslexia.