This study examined visual orthographic skills in Chinese primary school students with spelling difficulties. One hundred and fourteen children with spelling difficulties from grades one, three and five were compared to 114 non-disabled children matched with sex, same school enrollment and grade. All participants were asked to perform on four visual orthographic tasks. Findings revealed significant difference between those with spelling difficulties and those without in various aspects of visual orthographic skills. Data indicated that students with spelling difficulties, in general, tended not to be aware of features of strokes within a Chinese character and not to be aware of the constructional legalities within an unfamiliar radical over different grades. It was also noted that these students in grade one had difficulties with the spatial position of a radical within a Chinese character and lacked knowledge about positional legality of a radical. The findings led to the conclusion that deficits of visual orthographic skills were apparent among Chinese students with spelling difficulties when compared to those without such difficulties. 本研究探討香港小學一、三、五年級，有中文書寫困難學生(n=114)，及對照組非殘障生(n=114) 的視覺拼字能力。對照組學生有性別、就讀學校、及年級之相同組成。全體學生(N=228) 均做四項視覺拼字能力測驗。結果發現兩組學生有顯著差異。一般而言，所選各不同年級，有中文書寫困難的學生，均較缺中文字筆劃和組成方面的基本概識。而一年級學生，已面對中文字體結構空間與方位上的困難。總結是中文書寫困難比對照組學生有較多的視覺拼字能力缺陷。
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The purpose of this paper is to find out the underlying difficulties of students with learning difficulties in Hong Kong. Based on the dual-route model of reading, words may be read by either a lexical (words are recognized as wholes) or a sub-lexical (words are recognized through grapheme-phoneme correspondence) procedure to read. Castles & Coltheart (1993) and Jimenez (2000) provided evidence for the existence of these two mechanisms in English reading and Spanish reading respectively. They suggested that deficits in one and/or the other mechanism would lead to different patterns of reading disability. Surface dyslexia results from impairment of the lexical procedure with an intact phonologyical route to reading. Phonological dyslexia results from a highly selective deficit in the grapheme-phoneme transformation mechanism. It was found that surface and phonological dyslexic reading patterns were also found in the Chinese children with learning difficulties. 本文主要目的是找出存在於有學習困難的學生的一些閱讀困難的模式。本於雙軌閱讀模式理論，讀者可依循義的途徑或聲的途徑來認字。Castles & Coltheart (1993) 及 Jimenez (2000) 的研究中，分別顯示英語及西班牙語系中，有部份讀者在運用義的途徑時會有障礙，而聲的途徑則沒有問題，部份讀者的情況則剛好相反。前者稱之為有表層閱讀障礙，後者為有聲層閱讀障礙。本文研究結果亦證明表層及聲層閱讀障礙模式存在於中文讀者之中。
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This paper reports on a treatment program for children with developmental dyslexia (specific reading disability) administered at the Developmental Dyslexia Clinic of the University of Hong Kong. Recent research attempts to relate poor reading abilities of dyslexics to the poor development of metalinguistic awareness (an awareness about the structure of orthography). The basic hypothesis behind this treatment program is that by fostering the flexible application of phonological regularity and consistency rules in reading, the reading performance of dyslexia children will improve. The training program is divided into three phases: the establishment of phonological regularity awareness in the first phase, the building of phonological consistency awareness in the second phase and the flexible application of regularity and consistency rules in the third phase. Results indicate that there is an overall improvement in post-treatment reading scores of the Hong Kong Graded Chinese Character Naming Test (HKGCNT). The probe results also reveal the corresponding effect of manipulating treatment materials on performance. The results suggest that the program is affecting the reading strategies used by the clients and is effective in improving reading performance. 本文報告在香港大學兒童讀寫障礙診所進行的三組療程。近期的研究指出，讀障學童的閱讀能力是由於元語言意識的發展不足所致。元語言意識是指讀者對文字結構的意識。讀者自行分析字型、語言和語義之間的關係，整理出一套形音義規則，再將規則靈活地應用在閱讀上。本療程的基本假設是︰如學童能靈活地運用中文字的語音規則性 (phonological regularity) 和語音一貫性 (phonological consistency) 規則，他們的閱讀能力會得以提升。療程分為三個階段:第一階段建立語音規則性的意識；第二階段建立語音一貫性的意識；第三階段促進語音規則和一貫性意識的靈活運用。結果顯示在治療後，學童在《香港中文單字閱讀測試》的表現有明顯的進步。在每節治療後進行的測驗則顯示，治療中所選用的字詞類別直接影響學童的元語言意識發展和閱讀策略，有提升閱讀能力的效果。
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Dyslexia has received increasing professional and public awareness in Hong Kong over the past decade. The goal of understanding dyslexia is to provide effective prevention and remediation programs possible in order to ameliorate the disabling effects of the conditions. Students with dyslexia are often characterized by significant difficulties in reading and spelling despite access to conventional teaching and adequate formal education. Systematic evidence-based approaches to identify, assess and support have been developing and researching. First the core concepts of dyslexia: its definition, prevalence and developmental course are reviewed. Next the cognitive characteristics of dyslexia and its manifestations in Chinese students are discussed. To date the preponderance of reading interventions that might be used within a response-to-intervention (RTI) framework are also addressed.

One of the recent developments in the education of speech-language pathology is to include literacy disorders and learning disabilities as key training components in the training curriculum. Disorders in reading and writing are interwoven with disorders in speaking and listening, which should be managed holistically, particularly in children and adolescents. With extensive training in clinical linguistics, language disorders, and other theoretical knowledge and clinical skills, speech-language pathologists (SLPs) are the best equipped and most competent professionals to screen, identify, diagnose, and manage individuals with literacy disorders. To tackle the challenges of and the huge demand for services in literacy as well as language and learning disorders, the Hong Kong Institute of Education has recently developed the Master of Science Programme in Educational Speech-Language Pathology and Learning Disabilities, which is one of the very first speech-language pathology training programmes in Asia to blend training components of learning disabilities, literacy disorders, and social-emotional-behavioural-developmental disabilities into a developmentally and medically oriented speech-language pathology training programme. This new training programme aims to prepare a new generation of SLPs to be able to offer comprehensive support to individuals with speech, language, literacy, learning, communication, and swallowing disorders of different developmental or neurogenic origins, particularly to infants and adolescents as well as to their family and educational team.
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