It has been widely accepted that phonological awareness (PA), rapid automatized naming (RAN), and verbal short-term memory (VSTM) deficits are three core facets of phonological deficits in developmental dyslexia (DD) of alphabetic orthographies. Yet, whether these three phonological facets also represent key phonological deficits of DD in Chinese, a logographic language, has never been investigated. The current study aimed to examine profiles of phonological deficits and comorbidity in Chinese DD. We tested 128 children with DD aged between 8 and 11 years and 135 age-matched controls on 9 tasks, including 2 PA tasks (phoneme deletion and onset/rime deletion), 3 RAN tasks (digit, object and color), 2 VSTM task (spoonerisms and digit span), an orthographic awareness task (orthographic judgment), and a morphological awareness task (morphological production). With the control of morphological and orthographic awareness, results from latent profile analysis revealed three latent profiles, namely the RAN deficit group, the severe PA deficit group, and the mild VSTM deficit group. Individual analysis using a Venn plot showed that 83.59% of DD exhibited phonological deficits, among whom 58.59% with RAN deficit, 49.22% with PA deficit, and 47.66% with VSTM deficit, and all three groups shared overlap. The results have important implications for the identification and remediation of Chinese DD.
Phonological awareness (PA), rapid automatized naming (RAN), and verbal short-term memory (VSTM) deficits have been identified as risk factors for developmental dyslexia (DD) of alphabetic orthographies. Yet, these three facets of phonological skills in DD of Chinese, a logographic writing system, have rarely been investigated together. The present study aimed to investigate PA, RAN, and VSTM deficits in Chinese children with DD. We compared 128 third and fourth grade Mandarin-speaking Chinese children with DD aged between 8 and 11 years (mean age = 9.4 years, 73 male) and 135 age-matched controls on 7 phonological tasks, including 2 PA tasks (phoneme deletion and onset/rime deletion), 3 RAN tasks (digit, object, and color), and 2 VSTM task (spoonerism and digit span). A combination of logistic regression analysis and a machine learning approach with SHapley Additive exPlanations (SHAP) methods was employed for data analyses. Logistic regression analysis showed that similar to the results from DD in six European languages by Landerl and Ramus et al. (2013), phoneme deletion and RAN digits played major roles in predicting Chinese DD, while digit span played a minor role. SHAP analysis revealed that the most effective predictor tasks for Chinese DD are RAN pictures, phoneme deletion, and spoonerism. The results suggest important roles of RAN and PA and a minor role of VSTM in predicting Chinese DD. Findings have important implications for the diagnosis and remediation of Chinese DD.
more » « less- PAR ID:
- 10567747
- Publisher / Repository:
- Springer Science + Business Media
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Reading and Writing
- ISSN:
- 0922-4777
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
More Like this
-
Abstract -
A number of previous studies have identified cognitive deficits in developmental dyscalculia (DD). Yet, most of these studies were in alphabetic languages, whereas few of them examined Chinese DD. Here, we conducted a study aiming to determine the cognitive factors associated with DD in Chinese children. Five candidate cognitive factors of DD—phonological retrieval, phonological awareness, visual–spatial attention, spatial thinking, and pattern understanding—were examined in the present study. A total of 904 Chinese children ages 8 to 11 years participated in this study. From the sample, 97 children were identified with DD through tests of arithmetic ability, and 93 age- and IQ-matched typically developing children were selected as controls. Logistic regression analysis revealed that phonological retrieval, pattern understanding, visual–spatial attention, and phonological awareness significantly predicted DD, whereas spatial thinking failed to do so. Results of logistic relative weights analysis showed that all five factors explained statistically significant amounts of variance in arithmetic scores. Phonological retrieval had the most influence on DD, followed by pattern understanding, visual–spatial attention, phonological awareness, and spatial thinking. These findings have important clinical implications for diagnosis and intervention of Chinese DD.
-
Abstract This study aimed to examine early specialization of brain regions for phonological and semantic processing of spoken language in young children. Thirty‐five typically developing children aged from 5 to 6 years performed auditory phonological (same sound judgment) and semantic (related meaning judgment) word‐level tasks. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging, we examined specialization within the language network, by conducting three levels of analysis. First, we directly compared activation between tasks and found a greater sound judgment as compared to meaning judgment activation in left superior temporal gyrus (STG) and supramarginal gyrus. In contrast, greater meaning judgment as compared to sound judgment task activation was found in left middle temporal gyrus (MTG). Second, we examined the brain‐behavior correlations and found that phonological skill was correlated with the task difference in activation in left superior temporal sulcus, whereas semantic skill was correlated with the task difference in activation in left MTG. Third, we compared between two experimental conditions within each task and found a parametric effect in left STG for the sound judgment task, and a parametric effect in left MTG for the meaning judgment task. The results of this study indicate that, by the age of 5–6 years, typically developing children already show some specialization of temporo‐parietal brain regions for phonological and semantic processes. However, there were no task differences in the left inferior frontal gyrus suggesting that the frontal cortex may not yet be specialized in this age range, which is consistent with the delayed maturation of the frontal cortex.
-
Abstract Definitive diagnosis to sudden cardiac death (SCD) is often challenging since the postmortem examination on SCD victims could hardly demonstrate an adequate cause of death. It is therefore important to uncover the inherited risk component to SCD. Signal transducer and activators of transcription 5 A (STAT5A) is a member of the STAT family and a transcription factor that is activated by many cell ligands and associated with various cardiovascular processes. In this study, we performed a systematic variant screening on the STAT5A to filter potential functional genetic variations. Based on the screening results, an insertion/deletion polymorphism (rs3833144) in 3’UTR of STAT5A was selected as the candidate variant. A total of 159 SCD cases and 668 SCD matched healthy controls was enrolled to perform a case-control study and evaluate the association between rs3833144 and SCD susceptibility in Chinese populations. Logistic regression analysis showed that the deletion allele of rs3833144 had significantly increased the SCD risk (odds ratio (OR) = 1.54; 95% confidence interval (CI) = 1.18–2.01; P = 0.000955). Further genotype-expression eQTL analysis showed that samples with deletion allele appeared to lower expression of STAT5A, and in silico prediction suggested the local 3 D structure changes of STAT5A mRNA caused by the variant. On the other hand, the bioinformatic analysis presented that promoters of RARA and PTGES3L-AARSD1 could interact with rs3833144, and eQTL analysis showed the higher expression of both genes in samples with deletion allele. Dual-luciferase activity assays also suggested the significant regulatory role of rs3833144 in gene transcription. Our current data thus suggested a possible involvement of rs3833144 to SCD predisposition in Chinese populations and rs3833144 with potential function roles may become a candidate marker for SCD diagnosis and prevention.
-
Abstract Classroom engagement plays a crucial role in preschoolers' development, yet the correlates of engagement, especially among children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and developmental delays (DD), remains unknown. This study examines levels of engagement with classroom social partners and tasks among children in three groups ASD, DD, and typical development (TD). Here, we asked whether children's vocal interactions (vocalizations to and from peers and teachers) were associated with their classroom engagement with social partners (peers and teachers) and with tasks, and whether the association between classroom engagement and vocal interactions differed between children in the ASD group and their peers in the DD and TD groups. Automated measures of vocalizations and location quantified children's vocal interactions with peers and teachers over the course of the school year. Automated location and vocalization data were used to capture both (1) children's vocal output to specific peers and teachers, and (2) the vocal input they received from those peers and teachers. Participants were 72 3–5‐year‐olds (Mage = 48.6 months, SD = 7.0, 43% girls) and their teachers. Children in the ASD group displayed lower engagement with peers, teachers, and tasks than children in the TD group; they also showed lower engagement with peers than children in the DD group. Overall, children's own vocalizations were positively associated with engagement with social partners. Thus, although children in the ASD group tend to have lower engagement scores than children in the TD group, active participation in vocal interactions appears to support their classroom engagement with teachers and peers.