This study investigates the Chinese reading patterns of students with learning disabilities (LD). The performances of students with LD in reading the three categories of Chinese characters were particularly analysed: regular, irregular, and pseudo-characters. Fifty-three students with LD in reading and 44 students without LD of Year 4 were selected from five Hong Kong primary schools. Their abilities for reading Chinese characters were measured using Rasch analysis. Both types of students found regular characters as the easiest to read. Students without LD showed better performance in reading irregular characters than pseudo-characters, whereas students with LD exhibited no significant performance difference in reading these two categories. The implication of these results is that the students without LD might rely on using the orthographic processing than that of phonological processing to read. On the other hand, students with LD might not have the preference of using the orthographic processing.
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http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/01443410.2013.785060]

Caring for a child with Specific Learning Disabilities or Difficulties (SLD) can be both rewarding and difficult experience; however, little is known about the experience of mothers in caregiving children with SLD in Hong Kong as well as other countries. The present study aimed at exploring the perceived health needs and ways of coping among mothers with caregiving to their children with SLD in Hong Kong via qualitative interviews. Particular interest was laid on (1) the parental experiences of caregiving to a child with SLD; (2) the sources of stress and perceived health needs among the mothers concerning caregiving; (3) the supports and utilization of available health care services by the mothers having a child with SLD; and (4) the coping strategies employed by the mothers in caring for their SLD children in daily living. This study adopted a qualitative research approach. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews with nine mothers having a child with SLD. All interviews were audiotape recorded and transcribed. Content analysis with a constant comparative approach was used to analyze the interview data. During the data analysis, five categories emerged from the data collected. All nine in-depth interviews were held between December 2009 and November 2010. The research findings suggested that the stress related to the care of children with SLD was multi- faceted. A lot of difficulties in caregiving, concerns with the SLD child, negative experience with school personnels, and limited support resources were reported by the mothers in the study. The researcher also found that there were significant psychosocial impacts on the mothers due to caregiving to their children with SLD. In addition, active seeking information, acceptance and positive wishful thinking were the few coping strategies employed by the mothers to cope with the stress in caregiving. This study set out to contribute to the understanding of the stress and ways of coping among Chinese mothers