Processing speed of dyslexia: the relationship between temporal processing and rapid naming in Chinese

We consider auditory and visual temporal processing and alphanumeric and non-alphanumeric rapid naming to separately examine the associations of temporal processing and rapid naming with Chinese character reading in children with and without dyslexia. A total of 112 Chinese children in primary school from third grade to sixth grade were recruited from Taiwan. Half of them were identified as dyslexic, and the other half were typically developing children matched to the dyslexic group by age, gender, and IQ. The interaction of groups of participants and non-alphanumeric rapid naming contributed significantly to Chinese character reading in addition to temporal processing and rapid naming. Moreover, the important role of rapid naming in the contribution of temporal processing to Chinese character reading was found only in children with dyslexia (specific to non-alphanumeric rapid naming). On the contrary, the significant contributions of temporal processing to Chinese character reading without rapid naming were found in children with and without dyslexia. However, the auditory modality was identified for typically developing children, while the visual modality was identified for children with dyslexia. The present study is among the first to show the associations among temporal processing on visual and auditory modalities, different rapid naming, and reading in Chinese children with and without dyslexia. Our results imply qualitative differences between the cognitive profiles of Chinese children with and without dyslexia. Our findings in this study may enhance understanding and preliminarily bridge the current research gap in the field of temporal processing in Chinese.