The performance and predictors of Chinese character writing in children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.
Test both dictation and copying when a child with ADHD struggles with Chinese characters—each taps a different deficit.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Hung et al. (2022) watched kids write Chinese characters.
Some kids had ADHD. Some did not.
Each child copied characters and also wrote them from dictation.
The team scored the writing and looked for what predicted poor scores.
What they found
Kids with ADHD scored lower on both tasks.
For dictation, poor orthographic awareness and high inattention were the big predictors.
For copying, weak manual dexterity was the main predictor.
Same writing system, different skills needed.
How this fits with other research
Perez et al. (2015) used brief experimental analysis to pick reading fixes for kids with ADHD.
Like Yi-Fang, they showed academic failure can stem from different weak spots per child.
Demirci et al. (2025) later proved an AI OT program can greatly lift handwriting speed and legibility in 8- to 12-year-olds at risk for DCD.
Their strong results hint that dexterity training, not spelling drills, may be the first move for copying problems seen in Yi-Fang’s ADHD group.
Why it matters
Before you teach writing, test both dictation and copying.
If dictation fails, target orthographic awareness and attention.
If copying fails, target fine-motor warm-ups or refer to OT.
Picking the right path saves minutes each session and keeps the child from practicing the wrong skill.
Want CEUs on This Topic?
The ABA Clubhouse has 60+ free CEUs — live every Wednesday. Ethics, supervision & clinical topics.
Join Free →Give one dictated and one copied Chinese character probe; score errors to see if you need an orthographic or a motor plan.
02At a glance
03Original abstract
Writing difficulties are common in children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Preliminary evidence suggests that early character writing ability is fundamental for later writing composition and academic achievement. Critical factors of different character writing tasks in children with ADHD, however, remain unclear. This study aims to describe the performance and identify predictors of Chinese character writing in children with ADHD. Thirty Mandarin Chinese-speaking children with ADHD (7.16 ± 0.59 years) and thirty matched peers (7.21 ± 0.57 years) were recruited from northern Taiwan. They were evaluated with the Battery of Chinese Basic Literacy (BCBL); the Chinese version of the Test of Nonverbal Intelligence, fourth edition (C-TONI-4); the Chinese version of the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test-Revised (C-PPVT-R); orthographic awareness test; character naming test; and the Bruininks Oseretsky Test of Motor Proficiency, second edition (BOT-2). The results showed that Mandarin Chinese-speaking children with ADHD scored lower than their typically developing peers on both dictation and copying subtests. After controlling for age, orthographic awareness and inattention were identified as important predictors of character dictation; while, manual dexterity was a critical predictor of character copying in children with ADHD. The results demonstrated that character writing problems may exist in Mandarin Chinese-speaking children with ADHD, and cognitive-linguistic and fine-motor skills have varying contributions to Chinese character writing tasks.
Research in developmental disabilities, 2022 · doi:10.1016/j.ridd.2022.104244