Untangling Chinese preschoolers’ early writing development: associations among early reading, executive functioning, and early writing skills

Despite a growing body of literature in English-speaking contexts documenting associations among children’s early reading, executive function (EF), and early writing development, relatively few studies investigate the development of these skills in young Chinese children. Utilizing a longitudinal research design, this study followed 84 Chinese children (M = 4.16 years, SD = 0.67) over the preschool year and investigated concurrent and longitudinal associations among young children’s early reading (i.e. vocabulary, phonological awareness, and Pinyin knowledge), early writing (i.e. name writing and Chinese word writing), and EF skills (i.e. inhibitory control, behavioral regulation, and cognitive flexibility). Hierarchical regression and multinomial logistic regression analyses showed that Pinyin knowledge was concurrently and longitudinally associated with Chinese children’s name writing and word writing skills. Reciprocal associations between Pinyin and Chinese name writing was also detected. Among EF skills, inhibitory control was concurrently associated with Chinese name writing skill, while cognitive flexibility was longitudinally associated with Chinese name writing. Findings suggest an important role of Pinyin knowledge in Chinese children’s early writing development and point to the importance of examining the contribution of domain specific EF skills to Chinese early reading and writing development.