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Longitudinal associations of phonological processing skills, Chinese word reading, and arithmetic

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Abstract

This 13-month longitudinal study investigated whether different phonological processing components independently predicted individual differences in Chinese word reading and arithmetic. Three phonological processing skills [phonological awareness, phonological memory, and rapid automatized naming (RAN)], word reading, and arithmetic were assessed among eighty-eight Hong Kong Chinese first graders (Mean age = 79.88 months, SD = 4.71), along with vocabulary and nonverbal intelligence. These abilities were measured again at second grade (Mean age = 92.89 months, SD = 5.14). Simple correlations showed that phonological awareness and RAN at grade one were significantly associated with word reading and arithmetic both at grade one and at grade two, while phonological memory at grade one was associated with arithmetic, but not word reading, at both grades. Among the three phonological skills, RAN at grade one uniquely predicted 4% of the variance in children’s reading performance and 15% of the variance in arithmetic at second grade, beyond autoregressive effects, vocabulary, and nonverbal intelligence (model 3a). In contrast, neither phonological awareness nor phonological memory significantly predicted children’s later reading and arithmetic performance. There was also a reciprocal influence of Chinese word reading, rather than arithmetic skills, on later RAN performance.

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Acknowledgements

This research was supported by the Collaborative Research Fund from the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Research Grants Council, University Grants Committee (C4054-17W) to Catherine McBride, Connie Suk-Han Ho, Kevin Kien Hoa Chung, and colleagues.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Psychology, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, China

    Xiujie Yang

  2. Department of Psychology, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shatin, N.T., Hong Kong, China

    Catherine McBride

  3. Department of Psychology, The University of Hong Kong, Pokfulam, Hong Kong

    Connie Suk-Han Ho

  4. Department of Early Childhood Education and Centre of Child and Family Science, The Education University of Hong Kong, Tai Po, Hong Kong

    Kevin Kien Hoa Chung

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Yang, X., McBride, C., Ho, C.SH. et al. Longitudinal associations of phonological processing skills, Chinese word reading, and arithmetic. Read Writ 33, 1679–1699 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11145-019-09998-9

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