Reading disabilities of Chinese elementary school students: Beyond the phonological deficits of single-character identification

This study investigated the contributions of single-word identification and compound word categorization to Chinese students' reading achievement among 31 students with reading difficulties and 20 students without reading difficulties. The results suggested that, deficiency in single characters identification is not the primarily reason for dysfunction in reading Chinese. This is different from alphabetic language readers. Chinese students' difficulty in accessing the meaning of compound words in a specific context contributes greatly to students' reading achievement. The results call for researchers' and school teachers' attention to focus on teaching compound words during Chinese instruction. The results also suggested the need for further research on compound words. Copyright © 2010 International Journal of Special Education.