Role of compounding awareness in vocabulary knowledge among Chinese children with blindness and sightedness

Abstract

This study aimed to examine the role of compounding awareness in vocabulary knowledge acquisition among Chinese children with blindness compared to sighted children during the early (grades 1–3) and late (grades 4–6) primary school years, through a sample of 142 children with blindness. Regression analysis was used to explore the distinctive role of compounding awareness in vocabulary knowledge among children with blindness. First, the children’s age, working memory, and rapid automatized naming were entered. Phonological awareness was entered in the second step, and compounding awareness was entered in the third and final steps. The results of regression analysis indicated that compounding awareness was a unique predictor of vocabulary knowledge among both children with blindness and sightedness during the early and late primary education levels. Moreover, the results showed that compounding awareness predicted more variation at the early primary level, especially among children with blindness. In particular, the results of this study highlight the essential and unique role of compounding awareness in the acquisition of vocabulary at the primary level among both children with blindness and sightedness.