Phonological processing in reading Chinese among normally achieving and poor readers

Ninety-four children in grades one to six (7 to 12 years old) in Hong Kong were individually administered a Chinese reading test consisting of 80 characters that varied in frequency (high or low) and orthographic structure (simple or complex). Phonological processing tasks, including short-term memory, pseudo-character recognition, and tone discrimination, were also administered. During reading, younger normal and poor readers made more semantic and visual errors, whereas older and normally achieving children made more phonologically related errors. Normally achieving readers also performed at a higher level than poor readers on short-term memory, pseudo-character recognition, and tone discrimination tasks. Phonological processing apparently plays a significant part in the development of reading skills in Chinese.