Linguistic correlates of Chinese children with developmental dyslexia: a systematic review

Developmental dyslexia can negatively affect children's cognitive, emotional, and academic development. This systematic review synthesizes findings from cross-sectional studies on linguistic correlates of developmental dyslexia in Chinese children. A total of 50 studies comprising 185 effect sizes were synthesized using a random-effects model to identify key linguistic correlates. Four significant correlates were identified: morphological awareness (Hedges's g = -1.14), phonological awareness (Hedges's g = -1.14), orthographic awareness (Hedges's g = -0.99), and rapid automatic naming (Hedges's g = 0.93). Short-term memory showed a moderate association (Hedges's g = -0.59) relative to age-matched typically developing children. Moderation analyses revealed that phonological awareness was more strongly associated with Chinese developmental dyslexia in older children, under comprehensive diagnostic criteria (character recognition + comprehension), and in self-designed tasks. While orthographic awareness showed stronger associations with developmental dyslexia in regions using traditional Chinese (Hong Kong and Taiwan). However, age, location, diagnostic criteria and task designs did not emerge as moderators of morphological awareness, rapid automatic naming and short-term memory. Implications for identification and intervention for Chinese children with developmental dyslexia were discussed.