Can Chinese readers be dyslexic?

Brain regions behind reading difficulties differ between cultures. Chinese children with reading difficulties have problems converting symbols into meanings, rather than letters into sounds. There is no one cause for dyslexia: rather, the causes vary between languages.

Is dyslexia common in China?

Further, the prevalence of dyslexia in Chinese speakers has been thought to be around 3.9 \% (Sun et al., 2013), a rate similar to the prevalence for dyslexia in orthographically shallow languages (e.g., 3.1 to 3.2 \% for Italian: Barbiero et al., 2012).

Can you be dyslexic in one language but not in another?

Summary: The characteristics of language structure and writing system may explain why some bilingual people are dyslexic in English, but not in their other proficient language.

Is dyslexia more common in English speakers?

Reported prevalence of dyslexia is much higher in English (about 5-6\%) than Chinese. I surveyed 8,000 schoolchildren in the Beijing region, with Yin Wengang of the Chinese Academy of Science, and found that about 1.5\% were dyslexic.

Does dyslexia depend on language?

By scanning the brains of people reading English, French and Italian, researchers for the first time have demonstrated that dyslexia can be more severe depending on which written language people learn. The problems arise as people learn to read and write it. …

Is dyslexia specific to English language?

Dyslexia is a common learning difference. It exists all over the world, in all languages. But even though the difficulties are largely the same in each language, kids who are bilingual and have dyslexia face a special set of challenges.

Can dyslexics be bilingual?

Bilingual children with dyslexia can and eventually do form language-specific literacy skills in both of their languages (Klein & Doctor, 2003).

Why is dyslexia more prevalent in English speaking countries?

The problem exists across many nationalities, but the research found that English-speaking dyslexics suffered most, because the language is so complex. The English language is made up of just 40 sounds, but these can be spelt in more than 1000 different ways, say the researchers.

What language is easiest to learn with dyslexia?

A new study of the brain disorder that causes difficulty in reading and writing shows that simple languages, like Italian, are easier for dyslexics to decode than English and French. That’s because Italian words are spelled the way they are pronounced, unlike many words in English and French.

Is being dyslexic in Chinese the same as dyslexia in English?

Wai Ting Siok of Hong Kong University has discovered that being dyslexic in Chinese is actually not the same as being dyslexia in English. Her team’s MRI studies showed that dyslexia among users of alphabetic scripts such as English versus users of logographic scripts such as Chinese was associated with different parts of the brain.

Is Dyslexia associated with different parts of the brain?

Her team’s MRI studies showed that dyslexia among users of alphabetic scripts such as English versus users of logographic scripts such as Chinese was associated with different parts of the brain. Chinese reading uses more of a frontal part of the left hemisphere of the brain, whereas English reading uses a posterior part of the brain.

Can a dyslexic Chinese reader read alphabetic scripts and vice versa?

One important lesson from this research is that a dyslexic Chinese reader may not be dyslexic when reading alphabetic scripts, and vice versa. More research will have to be conducted to discover further implications.

Does dyslexia affect the writing system in different languages?

Evidence to date suggests common effects of dyslexia in languages that use alphabetic writing systems (Paulesu et al., 2001) but differences in dyslexics that read Chinese versus alphabetic writing systems (Siok et al., 2004, 2008 ).