Conclusion and implications
The early childhood years are critical for children in acquiring
fundamental language and literacy skills. The findings of the
present study provide evidence for early developmental differences
in the acquisition of reading and writing in Chinese kindergarteners.
Theoretically, Chinese word reading and writing development
were broadly consistent with the models of alphabetic orthographies.
We found thatthere is a separation between Chinese reading
and writing in early development and that beginning learners
make use of different skills in learning to read and write in Chinese.
However, word reading and writing gradually become closely
related over time. Practically, these findings suggest that vocabulary
knowledge, semantic radical awareness, and visual-motor
related skills are uniquely related to Chinese literacy learning in
the initial stage and thus could be emphasized during early childhood.
The longitudinal nature ofthe present study also underscores
the importance of semantic radical awareness for both reading and
writing development. It suggests that teachers and parents could
draw more children’s attention to semantic radical knowledge in
Chinese, which may facilitate children’s literacy development in
the long term. This longitudinal research sheds light on the theoretical
underpinnings of early reading and writing development
and potentially suggests ways to improve early literacy instruction
and early detection of children at risk for reading and/or writing
difficulties.