A reading test was constructed in English, Japanese, and Chinese to assess the validity of the claim that children learning to read Chinese and Japanese do not evidence reading disabilities. Large samples of fifth-grade children in Japan, Taiwan, and the United States were given the test along with a battery of 10 cognitive tasks. (Author/RH)

Harter's Perceived Competence Scale for Children was administered to 714 Taiwanese fifth graders; results were compared with those from American samples. Cultural differences were found. Results among Chinese replicate the measures' factorial validity and, across the two groups, indicate a high correlation between perceived cognitive competence…