Relation between general vocabulary knowledge and early numeracy competence: The mediating role of mathematical language.

Early language skills are considered important precursors of early mathematical development. Prior research extensively explored the association between vocabulary and early numeracy. However, few studies have delved into the specific impact of mathematical language on this association.

Online assessment in young children: Challenges and considerations.

In the years following the COVID-19 pandemic, online assessment has emerged as an increasingly popular method for testing children. This review aims to review key advantages and disadvantages of online assessment in young children, specifically in the area of literacy and mathematics assessment. We first consider the recent history of online assessment and give evidence from our own experiences with online assessments in both Cebu, Philippines and Hong Kong.

The cognitive-linguistic profiles and academic performances of Chinese children with dyslexia across cultures: Beijing, Hong Kong, and Taipei.

This study examined the cognitive-linguistic and literacy-related correlates of dyslexia in three Chinese cities and the English word reading and mathematics performances of Chinese children with dyslexia. Chinese children with/without dyslexia were measured with an equivalent test battery of literacy and mathematics in Beijing, Hong Kong, and Taipei. Univariate analysis results suggested that phonological sensitivity distinguished those with and without dyslexia across all three cities in group comparisons.

Dyslexia-related loci are significantly associated with language and literacy in Chinese-English bilingual Hong Kong Chinese twins.

A recent genome-wide association study on dyslexia in 51,800 affected European adults and 1,087,070 controls detected 42 genome-wide significant single nucleotide variants (SNPs). The association between rs2624839 in SEMA3F and reading fluency was replicated in a Chinese cohort. This study explores the genetic overlap between Chinese and English word reading, vocabulary knowledge and spelling, and aims at replicating the association in a unique cohort of bilingual (Chinese-English) Hong Kong Chinese twins.

Neural specialization to English words in Chinese children: Joint contribution of age and English reading abilities.

N1 tuning to words, a neural marker of visual word recognition, develops by an interaction between age and ability. The development of N1 tuning to a second learnt print is unclear. The present study examined the joint contribution of age and English reading abilities to N1 amplitude and tuning to English print in Chinese children in Hong Kong.

WordSword: An Efficient Online Word Reading Assessment for Global English.

The development of efficient and reliable online assessments has become increasingly important in the digital era. We developed a 10-min online word reading assessment of global English based on the existing paper-and-pencil version of our English silent word reading test. The test includes two parts, namely, random word recognition and contextual word reading.

Predicting the developmental trajectories of Chinese reading, English reading, and mathematics: Evidence from Hong Kong Chinese children.

We examined the developmental trajectories and cognitive predictors of first language Chinese reading, second language English reading, and mathematics skills in Hong Kong children in Grades 1-5. We used longitudinal data of 1,000 children ( = 7.59 years) assessed on phonological awareness, rapid naming, and morphological awareness in Grade 1 and Chinese word reading, English word reading, and arithmetic calculations in Grades 1-5.

What explains children's digital word reading performance in L2?

Word reading fluency is crucial for early L2 development. Moreover, the practice of digital reading has become increasingly common for both children and adults. Therefore, the current study investigated factors that explain digital word reading fluency in English (L2) among Chinese children from Hong Kong.

Exercise is associated with younger methylome and transcriptome profiles in human skeletal muscle.

Exercise training prevents age-related decline in muscle function. Targeting epigenetic aging is a promising actionable mechanism and late-life exercise mitigates epigenetic aging in rodent muscle. Whether exercise training can decelerate, or reverse epigenetic aging in humans is unknown.

Invented spelling in English and pinyin in multilingual L1 and L2 Cantonese Chinese speaking children in Hong Kong.

This research examined the relations among Cantonese phonological awareness, invented spelling in Pinyin (in Mandarin), and invented English spelling in 29 first language (L1) and 34 s language (L2) Cantonese-speaking second and third graders in Hong Kong. The purpose of this study was to understand how phonological awareness skills across languages are associated in multilinguals. We compared the phonological skills in the two groups (i.

Reduction in right lateralized N2 error response to stroke order violations in poor Chinese word spellers: A study on event-related potential markers for Chinese reading and spelling.

Stroke order knowledge is critical for Chinese reading and spelling acquisition. Previous studies have demonstrated enhancements of the N2 and P3 event-related potential (ERP) components at the Pz electrode to stroke order violations of Chinese characters in younger adults. However, it remained unclear whether similar ERP responses could be found in children.

Effectiveness of parent coaching on the literacy skills of Hong Kong Chinese Children with and without dyslexia.

Literacy skills are important for children's development. The present study explored the effectiveness of a parent coaching approach on the reading and spelling skills and compared cognitive-linguistic skills performances between Chinese children with and without dyslexia. Participants were 33 children with dyslexia and 77 children without dyslexia, as well as their parent, in Hong Kong.

Construct validity of international literacy measures: implications for dyslexia across cultures.

Construct validity is essential to evaluate the generalizability of findings on literacy and dyslexia. Operational definitions of reading literacy determine the measurement method, yielding territory or country-wide literacy rates. This practice echoes the norm in diagnosis and prevalence estimates of dyslexia.

Spelling as a way to classify poor Chinese-English literacy skills in Hong Kong Chinese children.

Previous work has predominantly focused on word reading in studying literacy difficulties; very little work has focused on spelling difficulty instead. The present study adopted spelling (dictation) as the criterion to classify poor literacy skills in Hong Kong Chinese-English bilingual children. We examined the cognitive-linguistic skills profiles across four groups of children with different spelling abilities.

Quantitative multidimensional phenotypes improve genetic analysis of laterality traits.

Handedness is the most commonly investigated lateralised phenotype and is usually measured as a binary left/right category. Its links with psychiatric and neurodevelopmental disorders prompted studies aimed at understanding the underlying genetics, while other measures and side preferences have been less studied. We investigated the heritability of hand, as well as foot, and eye preference by assessing parental effects (n ≤ 5028 family trios) and SNP-based heritability (SNP-h, n ≤ 5931 children) in the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (ALSPAC).

Exploring the Genetic and Environmental Etiologies of Phonological Awareness, Morphological Awareness, and Vocabulary Among Chinese-English Bilingual Children: The Moderating Role of Second Language Instruction.

This study investigated the associations among bilingual phonological awareness, morphological awareness, and vocabulary by focusing on their genetic and environmental etiologies. It also explored the influence of family socio-economic status (SES) and language exposure amount on the genetic and environmental effects. A twin study was conducted with 349 pairs of Chinese-English bilingual twins (mean age = 7.

Resting state EEG network modularity predicts literacy skills in L1 Chinese but not in L2 English.

EEG network modularity, as a proxy for cognitive plasticity, has been proposed to be a more reliable neural marker than power and coherence in predicting learning outcomes. The present study examined the associations between resting state EEG network modularity and both L1 Chinese and L2 English literacy skills among 90 Hong Kong first to fifth graders. The modularity indices of different frequency bands were highly correlated with one another.

How do phonological awareness, rapid automatized naming, and vocabulary contribute to early numeracy and print knowledge of Filipino children?

The current study investigated the contributions of phonological awareness, rapid automatized naming (RAN), and vocabulary to early numeracy and print knowledge developmental trajectories. A total of 128 young Filipino children were tracked three times at mean ages of 4.5, 5.

Home Literacy and Numeracy Environments in Asia.

The home learning environment includes what parents do to stimulate children's literacy and numeracy skills at home and their overall beliefs and attitudes about children's learning. The home literacy and numeracy environments are two of the most widely discussed aspects of the home learning environment, and past studies have identified how socioeconomic status and parents' own abilities and interest in these domains also play a part in shaping children's learning experiences. However, these studies are mostly from the West, and there has been little focus on the situation of homes in Asia, which captures a large geographical area and a wide diversity of social, ethnic, and linguistic groups.

Reciprocal effects of morphological awareness, vocabulary knowledge, and word reading: A cross-lagged panel analysis in Chinese.

There are strong correspondences among syllable, morpheme, and orthographic representations in Chinese. For this reason, bidirectional relationships have been hypothesized among morphological awareness, vocabulary knowledge, and word reading from an early age. Our study examined the reciprocity of these skills among Hong Kong Chinese primary school children.

The transferability of handwriting skills: from the Cyrillic to the Latin alphabet.

Do handwriting skills transfer when a child writes in two different scripts, such as the Latin and Cyrillic alphabets? Are our measures of handwriting skills intrinsically bound to one alphabet or will a child who faces handwriting difficulties in one script experience similar difficulties in the other script? To answer these questions, 190 children from grades 1-4 were asked to copy a short text using both the Cyrillic and Latin alphabets on a digital tablet. A recent change of policy in Kazakhstan gave us an opportunity to measure transfer, as the Latin-based Kazakh alphabet has not yet been introduced. Therefore, pupils in grade 1 had a 6-months experience in Cyrillic, and pupils in grades 2, 3, and 4 had 1.

A Model of Chinese Spelling Development in Hong Kong Kindergarteners.

Copying characters presented previously (delayed copying) is an important skill in Chinese literacy acquisition. The relations of delayed copying and a set of literacy-related skills (including vocabulary knowledge, rapid automatized naming, phonological awareness, morphological awareness, and orthographic awareness), visual-orthographic judgment, motor coordination, pure copying of foreign scripts, and delayed copying to Chinese spelling were examined among 294 typically developing Hong Kong kindergarteners. With all other variables statistically controlled, rapid automatized naming, phonological awareness, morphological awareness, orthographic awareness, motor coordination, and delayed copying all uniquely explained Chinese spelling.

Different Cognitive Correlates of Early Learning of Spelling of Different Target Types in Korean Hangul Among First Language Children and Adult Foreign Language Learners.

This study examined whether different cognitive correlates are associated with spelling of different target types, such as phonologically consistent and inconsistent syllables, of Korean Hangul among 94 five-year-old first language (L1) Korean children and 41 foreign language (FL) learners who are Hong Kong Chinese college students. Korean children performed tasks of spelling, along with measures of syllable and phoneme coda awareness, phonological and orthographic working memory, morphological awareness, vocabulary, and orthographic knowledge. Among Korean 5-year-old children, coda awareness and orthographic working memory explained unique variance in spelling of phonologically consistent syllables, whereas syllable and coda awareness, orthographic working memory, orthographic knowledge, and vocabulary all explained unique variance in spelling of inconsistent syllables.