The development and discussion of computerized visual perception assessment tool for Chinese characters structures - Concurrent estimation of the overall ability and the domain ability in item response theory approach.
Taiwan now has a validated, computerized test to pinpoint which Chinese-character features trip up 4- to 6-year-olds’ visual perception.
01Research in Context
What this study did
The team built a 58-item computer test for Taiwanese preschoolers.
Kids looked at Chinese characters on a screen and picked answers.
The program used item-response theory to score overall skill and four sub-skills: basic strokes, single parts, compound tops, compound bottoms.
What they found
The test fit the IRT model and showed solid reliability.
Scores rose with age; boys edged girls on strokes and compounds.
Clinicians can now see exactly which character features trip up a 4- to 6-year-old.
How this fits with other research
Leung et al. (2013) also made a Chinese preschool scale, but for mastery motivation instead of vision.
Lawer et al. (2009) did the same kind of validation in Vietnam with the Vineland.
Sunde et al. (2022) and Saini et al. (2018) show that clear visual-inspection rules give 98% rater agreement; Huey-Min’s test uses similar tight rules for judging character items.
Yeung et al. (2023) later found that English phonics helps Chinese reading, hinting that early visual-perception data could guide cross-language plans.
Why it matters
If you work with Chinese-speaking preschoolers, you now have a quick, normed screen that tells you whether a child struggles with strokes, single parts, or compound structures.
Use the sub-scores to pick visual-discrimination games that target the weak piece, not the whole character.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
Visual perception is the fundamental skill required for a child to recognize words, and to read and write. There was no visual perception assessment tool developed for preschool children based on Chinese characters in Taiwan. The purposes were to develop the computerized visual perception assessment tool for Chinese Characters Structures and to explore the psychometrical characteristic of assessment tool. This study adopted purposive sampling. The study evaluated 551 kindergarten-age children (293 boys, 258 girls) ranging from 46 to 81 months of age. The test instrument used in this study consisted of three subtests and 58 items, including tests of basic strokes, single-component characters, and compound characters. Based on the results of model fit analysis, the higher-order item response theory was used to estimate the performance in visual perception, basic strokes, single-component characters, and compound characters simultaneously. Analyses of variance were used to detect significant difference in age groups and gender groups. The difficulty of identifying items in a visual perception test ranged from -2 to 1. The visual perception ability of 4- to 6-year-old children ranged from -1.66 to 2.19. Gender did not have significant effects on performance. However, there were significant differences among the different age groups. The performance of 6-year-olds was better than that of 5-year-olds, which was better than that of 4-year-olds. This study obtained detailed diagnostic scores by using a higher-order item response theory model to understand the visual perception of basic strokes, single-component characters, and compound characters. Further statistical analysis showed that, for basic strokes and compound characters, girls performed better than did boys; there also were differences within each age group. For single-component characters, there was no difference in performance between boys and girls. However, again the performance of 6-year-olds was better than that of 4-year-olds, but there were no statistical differences between the performance of 5-year-olds and 6-year-olds. Results of tests with basic strokes, single-component characters and compound characters tests had good reliability and validity. Therefore, it can be apply to diagnose the problem of visual perception at preschool.
Research in developmental disabilities, 2015 · doi:10.1016/j.ridd.2014.10.020