Abstract: This paper reviews the research on Chinese children’s reading development with an emphasis on the phonological processing involved in Chinese reading. The existing literature contains ample evidence to support the hypothesis about phonological involvement in Chinese reading. Other findings suggest that, although there are strong links between children’s phonological awareness, phonetic awareness, verbal working memory, respectively, and their reading ability, the nature of these different links may be different and need further examination.

Key words: phonological processing, phonological awareness, phonetic awareness, verbal working memory