Abstract: The study was to explore the development of Chinese orthographic regularity and the effect of Chinese constructive features on idenhfication of Chinese characters in primary school children. Real characters, pseudo-characters and non-characters with three constructions: left-right up-down, half- encircled were used as stimuli. Subjects were primary school children from grade 1, 3, 5 and undergraduates who were required to judge whether a stimulus was a legal character or not, The results showed: (1) children's knowledge of orthographic regularity developed gradually based on their reading experience. The Chinese orthographic awareness appeared in grade 1, but until glade 5 the level was equivalent with that of the undergraduates; (2) the effect of Chinese constructive features on character identification was only in grade 1 which depended on the reading experience of the subjects, the familiarity of materials and so forth; (3) the conclusions about the appearance of orthographic regularity in each grade and its developmental bend among grades was consistent. However, the constructive features played a prominent role in the development of orthographic regularity after its appearance in every grade: the developmental level of the left-right one was superior to those of the up-down and the half-encircled.

Key words: orthographic regularity, constructive features, grade