Relation and difference between Chinese and English dyslexia
This article is written by Dr Noel K.H. Chia, a board-certified educational therapist registered with the Association of Educational Therapists based in LA, California, USA, and board-certified diplomate in special education with the American Academy of Special Education Professionals based in Washington, DC, USA.
Many parents have been seeking exemptions from taking Mother Tongue (Chinese Language) for their children diagnosed with dyslexia. While we know why they have done so, it is to reduce the study load on their children so that they can channel their time and effort to studying other subjects. My concern is this: “Are the parents doing the right thing?” Many parents have asked me is there any relation and/or difference between Chinese and English dyslexia?
This is a very interesting question yet a complex one to give a straight-forward answer. Firstly, Chinese and English are two different semiotic systems. English is an alphabetic language; Chinese, logographic language. Speakers of English and Chinese process the respective languages somewhat differently, and research studies using brain scan (e.g., fMRI) have confirmed it. More importantly, it is the mode of language learning that makes the difference.
To put in simple terms, when reading Chinese, these speakers of the logographic language tend to rely on visual-spatial brain areas, while English speakers rely more on language-related brain area.
To elaborate in neuro-scientific jargons, children with developmental (nor acquired) English dyslexia show atypical function and anomalous structure in the following cortical areas of their brain: (1) the left temporoparietal areas (involves in letter-to-sound conversions in reading); (2) the left middle-superior temporal cortex (involves in speech sound analysis); and (3) the left inferior temporo-occipital gyrus (functions as a quick word form recognition system).
For those with developmental (not acquired) Chinese dyslexia, their impaired reading is associated with functional disruption of processes localised in the left middle frontal gyrus. Although Chinese dyslexia is manifested by a phonological deficit (i.e., graphic form to sound conversion), which is similar to English dyslexia, cortical regions mediating this deficit in Chinese and English languages are spatially separated.
A recent neron-imaging study in 2008 led by Professor Wai Ting Siok of the University of Hong Kong showed that individuals with English dyslexia showed weak reading-related activity in left temporo-parietal and occipto-temporal regions, and this activity difference may reflect reductions in gray matter volume in these areas. However, individuals with Chinese dyslexia exhibited reduced gray matter volume in a left middle frontal gyrus (known to be important for Chinese reading and writing). By contrast, individuals with Chinese dyslexia did not show volumetric gray matter difference in the more posterior brain system that has been shown to be abnormal in those with English dyslexia.
Dyslexia is also a very complex syndrome, i.e., there are many subtypes of reading-related anomalies. Generally, we further categorise Chinese dyslexia into three main subtypes: (1) ideographic dyslexia; (2) ideophonetic dyslexia; and (3) ideographonetic dyslexia.
The ideographic dyslexia is the equivalent of the visuo-spatial dyslexia in the English dyslexia (as described by Westman, 1996), while the ideophonetic dyslexia is the equivalent of the auditory-linguistic dyslexia (also known as phonological dyslexia). The ideographonetic dyslexia is amixture of the two Chinese dyslexia subtypes. Even within the ideophonetic dyslexia, for instance, there are also subtypes and these depend on the various Chinese-dialects that have different phonological systems (e.g., the word “wind” in Mandarin is spoken as “feng” but “hong” in Hokkien; the word “prosperity” in Mandarin is spoken as “fu” but “hock” in Hokkien and “fok” in Cantonese).
Is it possible for a child with Chinese dyslexia to do well in English and Science? My answer is yes. However, for mathematics, it is i8mportant to note that computation/counting leads to activation in the same bilateral intraparietal regions of the brain as well as the left inferior and superior frontal gyri. the latter of the frontal gyrus is involved in learnign Chinese. Difficulty in mathematics learning can co-exist with dyslexia (Chinese or English) but not in all cases.
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