Understanding Chinese students with dyslexia: From basic research to intervention

Dyslexia has received increasing professional and public awareness in Hong Kong over the past decade. The goal of understanding dyslexia is to provide effective prevention and remediation programs possible in order to ameliorate the disabling effects of the conditions. Students with dyslexia are often characterized by significant difficulties in reading and spelling despite access to conventional teaching and adequate formal education. Systematic evidence-based approaches to identify, assess and support have been developing and researching. First the core concepts of dyslexia: its definition, prevalence and developmental course are reviewed. Next the cognitive characteristics of dyslexia and its manifestations in Chinese students are discussed. To date the preponderance of reading interventions that might be used within a response-to-intervention (RTI) framework are also addressed.