Dr. Catherine McBride

The Chinese University of Hong Kong
Developmental Psychology

External Senior Fellow (EURIAS Programme)
October 2017 – July 2018

Last Update: 31.08.2018

Curriculum Vitae

Catherine (Cammie) McBride is currently Professor of Human Development and Family Science and Associate Dean for Research for the College of Health and Human Sciences at Purdue University, USA. McBride previously served as President of the Society for the Scientific Study of Reading (SSSR) and Founding President of the Association for Reading and Writing in Asia (ARWA). She was a member of the Scientific Advisory Board for the International Dyslexia Association (IDA) for three years and serves on the Board of The Reading League—Indiana (2022-2024). McBride is currently co-leading a USD1.5 million dollar grant from the Lilly Foundation to improve teacher training in the science of reading in Indiana at Purdue University. Much of Professor McBride’s current research is devoted to improving online assessment and training of literacy and mathematics skills. The author of more than 250 peer-reviewed journal articles and editor of six books, McBride wrote both Children’s Literacy Development: A Cross-Cultural Perspective on Learning to Read and Write (2016) and Coping with Dyslexia, Dysgraphia, and ADHD: A Global Perspective (2019).

She is also an Emeritus Professor of Psychology at The Chinese University of Hong Kong. Her Bachelor’s degree is from Oberlin College (USA–1989), and she obtained her M.A. and Ph.D. (1994) in developmental psychology from the University of Southern California (USA). She was the founding President of the Association for Reading and Writing in Asia (ARWA) and past President of the Society for the Scientific Study of Reading (SSSR). The author of four books on aspects of literacy (including Reading Development in Chinese Children (2003, with H.-C. Chen) and Children’s Literacy Development: A Cross-Cultural Perspective on Learning to Read and Write (2016, Routledge)), she has given keynote lectures on literacy development and impairment in Germany, Finland, Switzerland, the United States, Canada, Mainland China, Taiwan, India, Singapore, and Korea and has consulted on the topic of literacy enhancement for organizations such as the National Center on Educational Outcomes (U.S.), World Learning (U.S.), Hong Kong Government Child Assessment Center, the Hess Educational Group (Taiwan), and the Arcanys Early Learning Foundation (Philippines). She has served as an Associate Editor of four different journals (including Developmental Psychology and International Journal of Behavioral Development) and one Encyclopedia ( International Encyclopedia of Social and Behavioral Sciences, 2^nd edition).

Selected Publications

Pan, D. J., Nakayama, M., McBride, C., Cheah, Z. R. E., Zheng, M., & Yeung, C. C. L. (2023). Cognitive-linguistic skills and vocabulary knowledge breadth and depth in children’s L1 Chinese and L2 English. Applied Psycholinguistics, 44(1), 77-99. http://doi.org/10.1017/S0142716422000480
Ye, Y., Inoue, T., Maurer, U., & McBride, C. (Eds.). (2023). Routledge International Handbook of Visual-motor Skills, Handwriting, and Spelling: Theory, Research, and Practice.
McBride, C., Pan, D. J., & Mohseni, F. (2022). Reading and writing words: A cross-linguistic perspective. Scientific Studies of Reading, 26(2), 125-138. https://doi.org/10.1080/10888438.2021.1920595
McBride, C. (2019). Coping with dyslexia, dysgraphia and ADHD: A global perspective. Routledge.
Zhou, Y.-L., McBride-Chang, C., Law, A.B.-Y., Li, T., Cheung, A.C-Y., Wong, A.M.-Y., & Shu, H. (2014). Development of reading-related skills in Chinese and English among Hong Kong Chinese children with and without dyslexia. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 122, 75-91.
McBride, C., & Wang, Y. (2015). Learning to Read Chinese: Universal and Unique Cognitive Cores. Child Developmental Perspectives, 9(3), 196-200.
Zhou, Y., & McBride, C. (2015). The same or different: An Investigation of Cognitive and Metalinguistic Correlates of Chinese Word Reading for Native and Non-Native Chinese Speaking Children. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 1-17.
McBride, C. (2015). Is Chinese special? Four Aspects of Chinese Literacy Acquisition that Might Distinguish Learning Chinese from Learning Alphabetic Orthographies. Educational Psychology Review, 1-27.
Yin, L., & McBride, C. (2015). Chinese Kindergarteners Learn to Read Characters Analytically. Psychological Science, 26(4), 424-432.
Cho, J.-R., McBride, C., & Lin, D. (2016). The relation of maternal literate mediation strategies and socioemotional comments to Korean children’s Hangul reading. Applied Psycholinguistics, 1-25. doi:10.1017/S014271641600014X
McBride, C. (2015). Children’s literacy development: A cross-cultural perspective on learning to read and write. Routledge.
McBride-Chang, C., & Chen, H.C. (Eds.).(2003). Reading Developmentin ChineseChildren. Westport, CT: Praeger Publishers.
McBride-Chang, C. (2004). Children’s Literacy Development(Texts in DevelopmentalPsychology Series). London: Edward Arnold/Oxford Press.
Kucircova, N., Snow, C., Grover, V., & McBride, C.(Eds.).(in press).International companion to early literacy education. Oxford: Routledge.

FRIAS Project

Towards a Global Understanding of Dyslexia: Cognitive-Perceptual, Cognitive-Linguistic, Socio-Cultural, and Neurobiological Aspects

In this project, I will review cross-cultural work on dyslexia so as to characterize the universal and distinct features of word recognition difficulties in children learning to read different orthographies. One goal is to come up with a comprehensive model of dyslexia that begins with an exhaustive list of associated perceptual, cognitive, and linguistic abilities to consider. Dyslexia will also be reviewed in relation to neurobiology. In particular, research on the genetic underpinnings of reading difficulties, as well as structural (e.g., fMRI studies) and functional (e.g., ERP studies) aspects of the brain in those with dyslexia will be highlighted for this purpose. Broader social/governmental correlates of dyslexia, such as notions of general learning disabilities, timing of reading instruction and testing, governmental resources, and approaches to detection (e.g., via psychiatrists, educational psychologists, teachers) in different countries will also be incorporated. Thus, the overarching objective will be to explain dyslexia and possible remediation techniques from the perspectives of cognitive-perceptual, cognitive-linguistic, socio-cultural, and neural-biological correlates. This literature review will be supplemented with interviews with at least one child who has been diagnosed with dyslexia, one teacher of a student or students with dyslexia, one parent of a child with dyslexia, and one educational psychologist or psychiatrist who focuses on diagnosing those with dyslexia, in at least five different European countries. These interviews will supplement the empirical definitions and findings on dyslexia to give a more nuanced understanding of the phenomenon across cultures.

To summarize, we will explore current definitions of dyslexia in their preciseness and ambiguity across cultures, but we also ultimately hope to come up with a coherent, cross-cultural definition, or at least a checklist of skills to consider, in defining dyslexia universally. A final review paper and book on the topic of dyslexia across cultures will distinguish current views on dyslexia (descriptive) with what a core, universal definition should look like (prescriptive).