This study examined whether visual-spatial attention could predict Chinese reading achievement longitudinally beyond some well-established reading precursors. A total of 257 second- and third-grade Hong Kong Chinese-speaking children participated in the study. Visual-spatial attention was measured by visual search tasks, which assessed the skills in highly inefficient and efficient searches. Chinese character reading, word reading fluency and reading comprehension skills were measured 1 year later. Latent variable path analysis showed that the skill in inefficient search uniquely predicted later word reading after the model controlled for phonological awareness, vocabulary knowledge, orthographic awareness, age and nonverbal IQ; while its effect on reading comprehension was completely mediated by word reading. Moreover, the skill in highly efficient search was not a unique predictor of both reading skills. The findings indicated the roles of top-down visual-spatial attention for word- and text-level Chinese reading. Copyright © Routledge.

This study examined the relation between the performance in a visual search task and reading ability in 92 third-grade Hong Kong Chinese children. The visual search task, which is considered a measure of visual-spatial attention, accounted for unique variance in Chinese character reading after controlling for age, nonverbal intelligence, vocabulary knowledge, morphological awareness, phonological awareness, orthographic knowledge, and rapid automatized naming. Visual search skill also explained unique variance in reading comprehension after further controlling for Chinese character reading. The findings of the present study underscore the importance of visual-spatial attention for Chinese reading, at both the character and text levels.
[Copyright of Scientific Studies of Reading is the property of Routledge. Full article may be available at the publisher's website:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/10888438.2015.1030749]

The present study investigated the relationships between socioeconomic status (SES) and word reading in both Chinese (L1) and English (L2), with children's cognitive/linguistic skills considered as mediators and/or moderators. One hundred ninety-nine Chinese kindergarteners in Hong Kong with diverse SES backgrounds participated in this study. SES explained unique variance in English word reading even after age, phonological processing, vocabulary and working memory were controlled. However, the effect of SES on Chinese word reading became nonsignificant when these control variables were included. Moreover, phonological awareness showed a full mediating effect on the relationship between SES and Chinese word reading. Both phonological awareness and vocabulary were found to partially mediate the association between SES and English word reading. These findings complement our understanding of the relation between SES and reading development in Chinese societies and may have policy or intervention development implications.
[Copyright © 2015 UKLA.]