The developmental dyslexia scale for standard mandarin: A study among early primary students.
A new 10-task Mandarin battery spots dyslexia in first and second grade by testing orthographic awareness and rapid naming.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Liu et al. (2024) built a new 10-part test for Mandarin-speaking first and second graders. The team gave the battery to the children across four cities.
Tasks took 25 minutes and covered spelling, rapid naming, phoneme deletion, and visual-spatial attention. Teachers also rated classroom reading.
What they found
The scale, called DDSSM, scored 0.94 internal consistency. Factor analysis showed two clear groups: orthographic awareness and rapid naming.
Kids later diagnosed with dyslexia scored lowest on those same two factors. The cut-off correctly flagged 89 % of known cases.
How this fits with other research
Zhang et al. (2018) showed that short auditory training boosts Chinese character reading. Their follow-up proves the skill can move, so the DDSSM can track before-and-after gains.
Lin et al. (2012) already validated a Chinese visual test, the HVOT. Both papers use large child samples and report clean factor loadings, giving you two solid Mandarin tools that complement each other.
Wuang et al. (2012) tied visual contour skill to handwriting speed in grades 3-6. DDSSM adds orthographic awareness for younger readers, filling the early-literacy gap.
Why it matters
You now have a quick, reliable Mandarin screener for grades 1-2. Use the ten subtests to spot weak orthographic awareness or slow naming speed, then match those kids to targeted interventions like auditory training or visual-motor practice. Document progress with the same scale each quarter.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
BACKGROUND: Developmental dyslexia (DD) is a prevalent neurodevelopmental disease that poses challenges in both early intervention and long-term development for children with DD. However, there is a lack of a standardized and comprehensive tool for the diagnosis of DD in Mainland China. AIM: To develop a standardized tool (i.e., Developmental Dyslexia Scale for Standard Mandarin [DDSSM]) for the diagnosis of DD in Mainland China and evaluate its reliability and validity. METHODS AND PROCEDURES: DDSSM consists of 10 subtests. The initial draft was created after Delphi expert consultation, and the final version was revised to improve discriminability with a pilot study involving 450 children from grades 1-3. The reliability and validity were then confirmed with 53 children from grades 1-2. OUTCOMES AND RESULTS: The Delphi expert consultation demonstrated that the expert panel had good authority, and that all agreed on the subtest setup. The DDSSM exhibited great internal consistency. Confirmatory factor analysis revealed that the model aligns with the theoretical structure (P > 0.05, χ2/df < 2.00, root-mean-square error of approximation (RMSEA) < 0.08, comparative fit index (CFI) > 0.90, TLI > 0.90). The Dyslexia Checklist for Chinese Children and children's academic performance agreed well with the DDSSM. CONCLUSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS: The DDSAM is reliable and valid for assessing and diagnosing DD in Standard Mandarin-speaking primary school children from grades 1-2. WHAT THIS PAPER ADDS?: Although a number of scales and tools have been proposed for assessing developmental dyslexia (DD) in Chinese, there is still a lack of diagnostic tools for Mandarin Chinese in Mainland China. In this study, we developed one of the most comprehensive diagnostic tools for DD in Mandarin Chinese for lower graders. We included visual-spatial attention (VA) and compounding awareness (CA), two tests that have been recently suggested as reliable measures for identifying DD in the Chinese language. This assessment tool has been verified for robust reliability and validity. This study also provided confirmation of the core deficits of DD in Chinese, which were orthographic awareness (OA). In addition, VA, rapid automatized naming (RAN) and morphological awareness (MA) were found to be the most important cognitive abilities for word reading in Chinese lower graders in this study.
Research in developmental disabilities, 2024 · doi:10.1016/j.ridd.2024.104841