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

The /a/ in mark is an r controlled vowel, in mall it is an l controlled 
vowel.   Italian is relatively phonically regular but has a relatively small 
vocabulary compared to English.   The problem is not so much the complexity 
of English orthography but the fact that it is not at all well taught if it 
is taught at all.  A left over from the 'let them spell it any old way, 
correction will stifle creativity' school of unthought.   80% of words 
follow the rules, they just need to be learned and then used.   Quite simple 
really, start with the simple and move on to the complex but ensure mastery. 
Learning sometimes requires real effort, it cannot always be fun nor should 
it.   If you expect fun all day you are going to be one disappointed adult.

Philip EP
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Maggie Downie" <maizie2004 at yahoo.co.uk>
To: "senco-forum" <senco-forum at lists.becta.org.uk>
Sent: Sunday, September 02, 2007 8:13 PM
Subject: Re: [senco-forum] Why do Italians with dyslexia have an 
inbuiltadvantage compared with English children?

>
> Professor Diane McGuinness has commented on the Goswami article here:
>
> http://www.rrf.org.uk/messageforum/viewtopic.php?t=2999,
>
> and there is discussion of it on the RRF board, here:
>
> http://rrf.org.uk/messageforum/viewtopic.php?t=2995
>
> Just in case anyone is interested in an alternative view.
>
> Maggie
>
> On 8/18/07, Jean Hutchins  wrote:
>>
>> 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
>> -----------------------------------------
>> 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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