“阅读早慧”(Hyperlexic) 儿童字词编码的加工机制和发展路径：孤独症儿童的序列研究

Hyperlexia was described as individuals whose ability to recognize certain words is on a higher level than their ability to comprehend and integrate them. Hyperlexic children could read very quickly but are unable to understand the meaning of words they use. Although children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) are characterized by impairments in social interaction and communication, and repetitive and restricted behaviors and interests, readers with ASD often show advantages in word reading, because of their particular processing style. In the past two decades, considerable research has been done to understand alphabetical language reading process based on hyperlexic children with ASD, less attention has been given to how Chinese-speaking hyperlexic children learn to read. Furthermore, few if any study has explored word reading process in Chinese-speaking hyperlexic children who are at risk of ASD. Due to the visual complexity and the nontransparent phonology of the scripts, Chinese learning may make use of an even greater variety of cognitive skills than does alphabetic script learning. Therefore, investigating the reading process of Chinese-speaking hyperlexic children with ASD may be one of the best way to explore the processing mechanism of ASD children. Despite voluminous research pertaining to the relationship between hyperlexia and ASD, very little research exists on intervention programs. This project focuses on the processing mechanism and developmental profile of word decoding in Chinese children with ASD, further exploring their learning pathway by using statistical learning method and provide implications for early literacy intervention. .The project consists of three studies. In Study 1, I examine the reading process in Chinese-speaking hyperlexic children with ASD, by comparing the decoding difference at each grade level among Chinese-speaking hyperlexic children with ASD, Chinese-speaking hyperlexic children without ASD and typically developing children. Based on findings from Study 1, I explore the learning pathway of Chinese-speaking hyperlexic children with ASD by statistical learning in Study 2. In the sequential investigation of Study 3, I investigate the developmental trajectory and individual differences of the reading process of Chinese-speaking hyperlexic children with ASD, and also test how these children’s performance on the character- learning task at each level predict subsequent word-reading and word-writing ability. ...Specifically, I ask: 1) What is the unique decoding process of Chinese-speaking hyperlexic children with ASD at each grade level? How does it differ from the reading process of Chinese-speaking hyperlexic children without ASD and typically developing children? Is the exceptional word decoding skill a manifestation of ASD children’s particular processing functioning in literacy? 2) What types of knowledge ASD hyperlexic children at each level apply when learning to read new character stimuli? 3) What is the particular developmental trajectory of decoding skill in Chinese-speaking hyperlexic children with ASD from kindergarten to early elementary school? How does children’s learning pattern predict subsequent word-reading and word-writing ability?..Findings from this project will increase our understanding about the decoding process and developmental profiles of Chinese-speaking hyperlexic children with ASD, and provide evidence-based particular instruction methods for early reading and writing acquisition of Chinese-speaking hyperlexic children with ASD and involved parties (e.g. parents, teachers and policy makers)

与阅读困难相反，阅读早慧儿童虽然学习说话有困难、理解字句也有困难，但很早就能熟练地识别字符。尽管孤独症儿童在语社交和认知能力上存在不同程度的障碍，但其中有一部分儿童群体在词汇识别上具有明显的优势。以往有关儿童阅读早慧的研究多集中于拼音文字中，对中文儿童阅读早慧的研究较少，对中文孤独症儿童阅读早慧的研究就更少。中文作为世界上最难学的语言之一，其书面文字与拼音文字不同，字形和字音之间缺乏对应关系，而且复杂的方块字结构往往依赖更多的认知加工资源。因此对于中文孤独症儿童的阅读早慧研究可能是探究孤独症儿童阅读编码机制最佳途径之一。本课题致力于通过序列研究从字词编码的加工机制和发展路径两方面入手，对比不同年龄阅读早慧的中文孤独症儿童、非阅读早慧的中文孤独症儿童和正常儿童的字词编码机制和早期发展轮廓，并通过统计学习机制探索阅读早慧的孤独症儿童的中文学习路径以及对后期读写能力的影响，提出相关干预建议。

阅读是人类的一种重要的语言能力和学习能力，它对于儿童的学业成就和终身发展有着重要影响。但孤独症儿童在阅读技能的习得和发展上面临着各种挑战。本课题主要基于中文阅读环境下，对孤独症儿童阅读编码机制和发展轮廓进行全面探索。本课题首先通过一项元分析系统地综述了不同语言环境下影响孤独症儿童单词解码和阅读理解两种核心阅读能力的认知和语言技能。根据对 26 项相关研究中 1.92-18.92 岁孤独症儿童的数据分析，结果发现多种不同的认知和语言技能都表现出与两种阅读能力的中等相关，而且元分析结构方程模型显示认知和语言技能对单词解码和阅读理解的贡献相当。这些发现表明，尽管大部分孤独症儿童在语言发展上存在缺陷，但其语言技能仍然对阅读发展做出了重要贡献。此外，认知技能可以补偿孤独症儿童阅读发展过程中的语言缺陷。进而本课题通过三项主要研究探究了孤独症儿童阅读技能的发展特点、影响因素及其学习机制。研究一招募了 45 名 4-11 岁的孤独症儿童和 45 名在年龄和非言语智力上匹配的典型发育儿童，测查其阅读解码、听力理解、口语词汇、快速命名、语音意识、语素意识和非言语智力。利用潜在剖面分析技术发现孤独症儿童 的中文阅读存在四个分组:善读者、善解码者、平均水平读者和弱读者。而且提出了在善解码者和平均水平阅读者中存在明显的阅读技能发展不平衡假说。研究二招募了 103 名学龄前孤独症儿童，并测查其阅读能力和相关的语音-认知技能等，并通过相关分析和分层回归模型考察了不同阅读亚组的孤独症儿童阅读能力的预测因子。结果显示非言语智力，口语词汇，快速命名和语素意识等分别在不同程度预测了各个亚群的解码能力和阅读理解能力。研究三进一步对41名学龄前孤独症儿童进行了正字法—语音和正字法—语义的统计学习实验，结果发现固定位置的语义线索可能是孤独症儿童的阅读加工的重要通路。研究结果有助于揭示孤独症儿童这一特殊群体的阅读发展及加工特点，并为后续孤独症儿童个性化定制的阅读干预方案提供基于实证的依据和建议，进而提供其学习和社会适应能力。