Dyslexia in Chinese language: An overview of research and practice

Abstract

Dyslexia appears to be the most prevalent disability of students with special educational needs in many mainstream classes, affecting around 9.7% of the school population in Hong Kong. The education of these students is therefore of great concern to the community. In the present paper research into dyslexia in the Chinese language is briefly reviewed, with emphasis on the cognitive characteristics of dyslexia and its manifestations, in the hope that understanding the profiles of students with dyslexia may help to lay a solid foundation for assessment, curriculum development and intervention. Recent progress in the study of the cognitive deficits of Chinese-speaking readers with dyslexia in Hong Kong and the development of assessment and intervention framework for early identification and intervention is presented. These developments shed light on dyslexia in the Chinese language and provide grounds for further work on research and practice.

Acknowledgements

This research was supported in part by a General Research Fund to Kevin. K. H. Chung from Research Grants Council (HKIED: 840308 and 8402/05H) and Hong Kong Jockey Club of Charities Trust. The authors thank the members of Hong Kong Specific Learning Difficulties Research Team for their involvement in many projects mentioned in this paper. We thank Mrs Sue Lea, the editors and two anonymous reviewers for their suggestions for improving the manuscript.