Words in Japanese can be written using as many as four different ways: in kanji (Chinese characters), in kana (katakana and hiragana, which are 2 ways of writing the same syllabary), and in alphabetic letters. In the 2nd grade of Japanese elementary schools, reading words written in kana, as well as special morae, constitute basic skills for learning to read kanji. The present study examined the relation between performance of basic skills for learning kanji and verbal short-term memory. Defıcits in verbal short-term memory may cause severe low achievement in reading and writing kanji.The participants, 3,454 second-grade pupils, took tests of rapid searching of kana words, special morae, and auditory digit span, so that their basic skills for learning kanji and their verbal short-term memory could be evaluated. Previous research by the present authors had indicated that the test of rapid searching of kana words reflected performance of fluent reading of kana words. The children also took achievement tests of reading and writing kanji words. The results were as follows:The participants whose scores on the test of special morae were at a risk level (below the 10th percentile) showed signifıcantly severe low achievement of reading kanji, and were at a 16 times greater risk of showing severely low achievement in reading kanji at the maximum, compared to the children without such risk factors. The participants whose scores on the test of reading kanji were at a risk level showed signifıcantly severe low achievement in writing kanji, and were at a 49 times greater risk of showing severely low achievement in writing kanji at the maximum, compared to children without such risk factors. Early evaluation of risk factors for reading and writing kanji, as well as supportive intervention for avoiding risk factors, might be useful for preventing diffıculties in reading and writing kanji.
In the study, background factors involved in Kanji writing di culty in Japanese second to sixth graders (N=1398) were investigated. Children with both Kanji reading and writing di culties were grouped into those with low vocabulary attainment (Group A) and those without it (Group B). Children with only Kanji writing di culty were classi ed into those with low vocabulary attainment (Group C) and those without it (Group D). Because of the small number of children, Group C was removed from the analysis. In Group A's third and fourth graders, the contribution of verbal working memory was observed by employing multiple logistic analysis; Group A's odds ratio values were larger than those of Groups B and D. In Group B, the contribution of uent Hiragana reading was observed, which was not observed in Group D. ese results reveal that background factors involved in Kanji writing di culty might depend on a combination of Kanji reading di culty and low vocabulary attainment.
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