Protective Factors for Chinese Children with Dyslexia: A Longitudinal Study of Cognitive Profiles in relation to Reading Development

Individuals with developmental dyslexia display persistent reading and spelling difficulties regardless of extraneous circumstances. Despite the cognitive risks, some of them manage to achieve positive literacy outcomes after proper intervention and they are known as compensated readers. It has been demonstrated that their reading compensation could be realized via multiple protective factors, in which morphological skill is highlighted across various orthographies. However, it remains unknown whether the findings concerning reading development and compensation could be generalized to the population of Chinese character readers. Most current research on Chinese children with dyslexia is characterized by a risk-centered perspective, neglecting the potential factors for reading compensation at multiple levels, and thus restrains the potential of educational practitioners to support Chinese children with dyslexia.

To fill the gaps in knowledge, this doctoral project firstly aims to investigate the cognitive reading profiles of Chinese pupils. The second goal is to examine the protective and risk factors related to reading development by analyzing the links between reading achievement and the covarying cognitive skills in Chinese children in general and those with (a risk of) dyslexia. As the third goal, we will scrutinize the interaction between morphological skills and the other covarying dimensions in Chinese reading at multiple levels and examine if the Chinese pupils with dyslexia benefit from morphological skills. Given the lack of evidence-based and empirical knowledge on protective factors for reading problems, this doctoral project will not only be of clinical value to support at-risk children, but also enrich our insights into the reading science, with a focus on developmental dyslexia and compensatory, protective factors. As a consequence, children with dyslexia will be able to benefit from novel reading interventions and accommodations and develop the strengths for compensated reading.