Effect of syntactic and morphological processing skills on reading in Chinese dyslexic adolescents

Purpose - The present study investigated the extent and nature of syntactic and morphological processing deficits in Chinese adolescents with dyslexia. Method - A total of 78 Chinese junior secondary school students, 26 dyslexics, 26 chronological age (CA) and 26 reading level (RL) controls, participated and were administered measures of IQ, word reading, reading comprehension, verbal working memory, vocabulary knowledge, syntactic and morphological processing skills. Results - Dyslexic adolescents scored significantly lower than CA but similarly to RL controls in most measures, especially in the areas of syntactic and morphological processing skills. In regression analyses, syntactic and morphological processing skills were the strongest predictors of ability in word reading and reading comprehension measures. Conclusion - This study highlights important correlates of syntactic and morphological processing skills in Chinese reading acquisition and impairment.