Children with Chinese dyslexia acquiring English literacy: Interaction between cognitive subtypes of dyslexia and orthographies

This study investigated the impact of Chinese dyslexia subtypes on English literacy skills (i.e., reading fluency and dictation) in Hong Kong children. Eighty-four Cantonese-speaking children officially diagnosed with dyslexia (M_age = 103 months) and 48 age-matched typical developing (TD) children were tested. Cluster analysis with performances on Chinese syllable awareness (CSA), Chinese phonemic awareness (CPA), Chinese phonological memory (CPM), Chinese orthographic awareness (COA), and matrix reasoning (MR) yielded three cognitive subtypes: the phonological deficit (PD) subtype, the orthographic deficit (OD) subtype, and the global deficit (GD) subtype. After controlling for English language experience, age, and gender, all three dyslexia subtypes performed significantly worse in English word reading fluency and dictation than TD children. In addition, PD performed worse in English PA; OD performed worse in English OA; and GD performed worse in all English skills except English PM. We compared the level of impairment in literacy between languages and dyslexia subtypes. In word reading fluency, all subtypes experienced less impairment in English than Chinese, while OD showed the largest English advantage. In dictation, only OD showed a significant language effect favoring English. The findings suggest that different subtypes of Chinese dyslexia bear different risks for difficulties in English literacy. Copyright © 2021 Hammill Institute on Disabilities.