Development of Orthographic Awareness, Morphological Awareness and Rapid Automatized Naming of Elementary-level Students in China: A Longitudinal Analysis from Grades 1 to 4.

The longitudinal study sought to examine the dynamic development of cognitive skills for reading among elementary-level students in Mainland China. Two groups of students in first (n=164, mean age=6.65 years at first test) and second grade (n=202, mean age=7.73 years at first test) were followed on orthographic awareness, morphological awareness and rapid automatized naming (RAN) for two years. The children exhibited significant improvement in orthographic awareness, morphological awareness and RAN from grades 1 to 4. More importantly, to the orthographic and morphological awareness, while the children took a leap from grade 1 to 2 and grade 3 to 4, the progress developed at relatively slow rates from grade 2 to 3. In order to assure children's development of orthographic and morphological awareness, evidence-based orthographically and morphologically enhanced instruction is needed for Chinese children in the early elementary years, especially for those at the stage from grade 2 to 3.