[senco-forum] Why do Italians with dyslexia have an inbuilt advantage compared with English children?

Times Educational Supplement. Friday 17 August, 2007.  Magazine. Pages 24 & 25.

brain & behaviour.
The language barrier.

Why do Italians with dyslexia have an inbuilt advantage compared with English 
children?
Usha Goswami explains.

The neural inefficiencies which result in dyslexia are shared across languages, 
with a similar prevalence of 5 to 7 per cent. Dyslexics in Chinese, French and 
Italian show similar characteristics. Nevertheless, its manifestation differs 
according to language. This is because of syllable structure and spelling systems.

Children with dyslexia learning to read languages such as Italian and Greek are 
best off developmentally. Syllable structure is simple: mostly consonant-vowel 
pairings, as in mama. There is a consistent, one-to-one correspondence between 
letters and sounds. In these languages, dyslexics show slow, effortful but 
accurate reading and poor spelling.

Children with dyslexia find it more difficult learning to read in languages such 
as English. The syllable structure is complex. Correspondence between letters 
and sounds is inconsistent (for instance, "a" makes a different sound in make, 
man, mark and mall). English dyslexic children show inaccurate reading, slow 
decoding and poor spelling characteristic of dyslexia in other languages.

Usha Goswami is Professor of Education and director of the Centre for 
Neuroscience in Education at the University of Cambridge.

Jean
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Jean Hutchins, SE Surrey DA.
RSA Dip SpLD, AMBDA, retired.
E-mail: jeanhutchins1 at ntlworld.com
British Dyslexia Association Web: www.bdadyslexia.org.uk
Also into spelling reform: www.simplifiedspelling.org
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