Identification of the patterns of Chinese character recognition in students with learning disabilities requiring tier-2 support: A Rasch analysis

Background: Dr Fuk-chuen Ho is Assistant Professor in the Department of Special Education and Counselling and the associate director in the Centre for Special Needs and Studies in Inclusive Education at the Hong Kong Institute of Education. He was formerly an inspector in the Special Education Inspectorate of the Hong Kong Education Bureau. He is now the project leader of three external funded projects in the areas of dyslexia, Theory of Mind and collaborative mode of professional development for teachers in special schools respectively. ([email protected]) Dr Zi Yan is Assistant Professor in the Department of Curriculum and Instruction at the Hong Kong Institute of Education. He has a research interest in educational measurement and inclusive education. He is now participating in a commissioned project on the evaluation of the inclusive education in Macau. ([email protected]) Aims and Keywords: This study investigates the Chinese reading patterns of students with learning disabilities (LD). The performances of students with LD in reading the three categories of Chinese characters were particularly analyzed: regular, irregular, and pseudo-characters. Sample: Fifty-three students with LD in reading and 44 average students at age 9 were selected from five Hong Kong primary schools. Method: Their abilities for reading Chinese characters were measured using Rasch analysis. Results: Both types of students found regular characters as the easiest to read. Average students showed better performance in reading irregular characters than pseudo-characters, whereas students with LD exhibited no significant performance difference in reading these two categories. Conclusions: Students with learning disabilities and students without disabilities have different preferences for the phonological and orthographic routes to read Chinese characters.