Orthography and Reading Disabilities

Recently, a number of influential writers have emphasized the role of orthography in the development of reading disabilities. The English writing system has been described by Gleitman and Rozin (1977), for example, as possessing “rampant irregularity, redundancy, and downright misrepresentation” (p. 35), while to these writers the Japanese writing system “seems ideal” (p. 36) from the point of utilizing scripts that represent both meanings and sounds. English, it is argued, poses problems for the beginning reader that are not encountered in learning to read the logographs (Chinese characters) and syllabary used in Japanese. Could it be that the widespread incidence of reading disabilities in our culture can be traced in large part to the idiosyncracies of the spelling and writing system used in English? If this is true, what can be done to remedy the situation, other than following those who have proposed that the written form of English must be revised? The purpose of this article is to discuss these issues in the context of research dealing with writing systems and their relation to reading and reading disabilities.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/68530/2/10.1177_002221948401700511.pd

Cross-linguistic differences in digit span of preschool children

This study reports cross-linguistic differences in forward digit span between 4-, 5-, and 6-year-old American and Chinese children. Several explanations for the remarkable superiority of Chinese children are examined. Hypotheses concerning practice, counting systems, and use of strategies were not supported. Analyses related to pronunciation duration of digits favored the temporally limited store hypothesis. Nonsignificant cross-linguistic differences were found in backward digit span. The results support the notion that forward and backward digit span involve different mechanisms.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/27188/1/0000191.pd

Influences of schooling and urban-rural residence on gender differences in cognitive abilities and academic achievement

A total of 1151 children from indigenous Quechua-speaking families residing in squatter settlements of the city and in two remote rural environments in Peru was given a battery of 16 tests of academic achievement and cognitive abilities. The former tests assessed reading and mathematics achievement and the latter tapped a broad range of cognitive functions. Children were enrolled in first, second, or third grade or did not attend school. “Younger” children were from 6 to 8 years old, and “older” children were from 9 to 12 years old. Large differences in cognitive functioning were associated with attendance at school, grade in school, age, and urban-rural residence. Gender was found to account for less than 5% of the variance in children's performance on cognitive and academic tasks. Gender effects appeared to decline with increased amount of schooling. This was reflected in interactions involving gender and schooling and in a greater number of significant gender effects for children who did not attend school or were in first grade. The results present a complicated picture of various interactional effects of task, location, age, and schooling on the detected gender differences in cognitive abilities and academic achievement.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/45597/1/11199_2004_Article_BF00289767.pd

Family Variables and Reading

others of poor and average readers in Japan, Taiwan and the United States were iterviewed about their child-rearing practices, attitudes, and beliefs, and their children's current and earlier experiences. Poor readers represented the lowest fifth percentile in reading scores; they were matched by classroom, sex, and age with average readers; i.e., children who obtained reading scores within one standard deviation from the mean. The groups seldom differed significantly according to environmental variables and parent-child interactions. Maternal ratings of cognitive and achievement variables differentiated both the children in the two groups and the mothers themselves. Maternal beliefs and descriptions of how children use time also differed between the two groups. Notable was the absence of significant interactions between country and reading level.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/68579/2/10.1177_002221948401700305.pd

Digit memory in Chinese and English: Evidence for a temporally limited store

This paper describes 3 studies comparing short-term memory for digits between native speakers of Chinese and of English. The first study documents, with large samples of kindergarten, first-, and second-grade children, a Chinese advantage in memory for digits. The Chinese subjects, at all grade levels, remembered at least 2 more digits, on average, than did American or Japanese subjects. The second study compared digit memory of 6- and 7-year-old children, Chinese and American, under forward, backward and grouped conditions. The provision of a grouping strategy helped both Chinese and American subjects equally, which fails to support strategy use as the primary explanation of digit memory differences. Further, Chinese children performed more poorly than American children on the backward span. The final study, carried out on Chinese and American university students, investigated differences in pronunciation duration of Chinese and English number words as a possible explanation of span differences. Chinese number words were found to be of significantly shorter pronunciation duration than English number words; and total pronunciation duration for a subject's maximum span did not differ between Chinese and Americans. These findings provide evidence for a temporally limited store.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/26140/1/0000216.pd

Gender Differences in Interest and Knowledge Acquisition: The United States, Taiwan, and Japan

The relationship between interest and knowledge was investigated in a representative sample of 11th grade students from cultures that differ in the strength of their gender-role stereotypes and their endorsement of effort-based versus interest-based learning. Among 11th graders from the United States ( N = 1052), Taiwan ( N = 1475), and Japan ( N = 1119), boys preferred science, math, and sports, whereas girls preferred language arts, music, and art. General information scores were comparable across the three locations; however, boys consistently outscored girls. Gender and interest in science independently predicted general information scores, whereas gender and interest in math independently predicted mathematics scores. Cultural variations in the strength of the relationship between gender, interest, and scores indicate that specific socialization practices can minimize or exaggerate these gender differences.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/45629/1/11199_2004_Article_454958.pd