Visual Processing Matters in Chinese Reading Acquisition and Early Mathematics

Abstract

The main purpose of the present study was to investigate whether visual processing uniquely contributed to character reading and early mathematics in Chinese children. Eighty-two Chinese kindergarteners at K3 (mean age = 68 months, SD = 0.30) were followed up to grade one (mean age = 82 months, SD = 0.35) with an interval of 14 months. Nonverbal intelligence, inhibitory control, sustained attention, character reading, and mathematics were measured at kindergarten. Character reading and mathematics were assessed again at grade one. Results showed visual processing at kindergarten significantly predicted character reading at grade one after controlling for prior reading performance, inhibitory control, sustained attention, age, gender, and nonverbal IQ. Similarly, visual processing at kindergarten explained unique variance in early mathematics at grade one when prior mathematics performance and other covariates at kindergarten were controlled. These findings suggest that visual processing should serve as a domain-general precursor of children's performance in character reading and early mathematics and an important cognitive factor for later academic learning.

Direct effects of visual skills and working memory on Chinese character reading in young children

“…Specifically, verbal working memory, rather than visuospatial working memory, explained the unique variance in children's learning of character reading. These findings were consistent with those cross‐sectional studies revealing that character reading was associated with visual skills (Li et al, 2012) and some longitudinal research showing that visual skills (X. Yang & Meng, 2020) and working memory (Aguilar‐Vafaie, Safarpour, Khosrojavid, & Afruz, 2012) significantly predicted word recognition. Our study further confirmed that the influences of visual skills and verbal working memory in Chinese reading were independent of children's age, gender, inhibitory control, decision speed, and attention.…”

“…The present study revealed the significant contributions of visual skills to Chinese character reading among kindergarten children. This finding confirmed the results of another study of mainland Chinese young children (X. Yang & Meng, 2020). Indeed, children with visual processing impairments usually demonstrated reading difficulties, and training visual skills would promote the reading performance of children with developmental dyslexia (Meng, Cheng‐Lai, Zeng, Stein, & Zhou, 2011).…”

“…Therefore, a more consistent positive relation between visual skill and Chinese character recognition is expected among mainland young Chinese children. However, there are still some controversial findings among children at different reading phases (e.g., X. Yang & Meng, 2020). Especially, studies are strongly needed to clarify how visual skills contribute to reading, especially when children need support at young ages when visual skills are more likely to be required by these children to acquire the orthographic knowledge of Chinese characters (Li et al, 2012).…”

“…Second, we intended to address whether visual skills and working memory were significant predictors of reading skill while controlling for general cognitive abilities, such as decision speed, inhibitory control, and attentional flexibility. We chose to focus on children who are beginning readers because visual skills might be more important when children are at the early stage of reading development (e.g., X. Yang & Meng, 2020) than in primary school (Huang & Hanley, 1997). A standard block design task, one of the most frequently used instruments for assessing children's visual skills that is independent from culture (Wechsler, 2003), was employed in the present study.…”

Is the Science of Reading Just the Science of Reading English?

“…Chinese semantic‐phonetic character compounding typically positions the semantic component to the left of the phonetic, but this component can also appear above, below, after, or surrounding the phonetic. Learning the many positional regularities (and exceptions) of a script appears to tax visuospatial skills (McBride, 2016; Yang & Meng, 2020), a factor that the science of reading has concluded is unimportant in English reading (Vellutino, Fletcher, Snowling, & Scanlon, 2004).…”