Children’s early literacy development is a key contributor to later literacy skills and overall academic
achievement. Because of the unique features of Chinese characters, it may be that predictors of literacy
acquisition differ developmentally for reading and writing. In this study, we examined longitudinal
predictors of reading and writing for 73 Chinese kindergarteners when they were 5; 2 (year; month)
(range = 4; 9–6; 2). Word reading and writing were not significantly correlated at time 1 (T1), but were
significantly associated with one another one year later (T2). At T1, the unique correlates of word reading
were semantic radical awareness, rapid automatized naming, and vocabulary, whereas the only
unique correlate of word writing was visual-orthographic copying skill. Semantic radical awareness at
T1 uniquely predicted both word reading and word writing at T2, with age, nonverbal reasoning, and T1
performance statistically controlled. These results suggest that reading and writing differ in unique correlates
in the beginning but change rapidly with development. Findings also shed light on the importance
of semantic radical awareness in early literacy development in Chinese
Children’s early literacy development is a key contributor to later literacy skills and overall academicachievement. Because of the unique features of Chinese characters, it may be that predictors of literacyacquisition differ developmentally for reading and writing. In this study, we examined longitudinalpredictors of reading and writing for 73 Chinese kindergarteners when they were 5; 2 (year; month)(range = 4; 9–6; 2). Word reading and writing were not significantly correlated at time 1 (T1), but weresignificantly associated with one another one year later (T2). At T1, the unique correlates of word readingwere semantic radical awareness, rapid automatized naming, and vocabulary, whereas the onlyunique correlate of word writing was visual-orthographic copying skill. Semantic radical awareness atT1 uniquely predicted both word reading and word writing at T2, with age, nonverbal reasoning, and T1performance statistically controlled. These results suggest that reading and writing differ in unique correlatesin the beginning but change rapidly with development. Findings also shed light on the importanceof semantic radical awareness in early literacy development in Chinese
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