Orthographies and dyslexia

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The complexity of a language's orthography, or writing system, can be a significant contributing factor to the difficulties experienced by dyslexic readers.^[1] Current psycholinguistic models of dyslexia are "largely developed on the basis of alphabetic writing systems such as English",^[2] but the amount of research on some logographic orthographies, Chinese in particular,^[3] is also fairly significant. However, little research has been done on syllabic writing systems, and "cross-linguistic studies of the acquired dyslexias and dysgraphias are scarce." ^[2]

Dyslexia and orthographic features

The effects of orthographic depth on dyslexia

The complexity of a language's orthography is directly related to the difficulty of learning to read it. Orthographic complexity also contributes to how dyslexia manifests in readers of different languages.^[4]

Deep orthographies are writing systems, such as those of English and Arabic, that do not have a one-to-one correspondence between sounds (phonemes) and the letters (graphemes) that represent them. Shallow orthographies have a one-to-one relationship between graphemes and phonemes, and the spelling of words is very consistent.

For languages with more shallow orthographies, such as Italian and Finnish, new readers have few problems learning to decode words. As a result, children learn to read relatively quickly.^[1] Most dyslexic readers of shallow orthographies learn to decode words with relative ease, but they tend to have more difficulty with reading fluency and comprehension. The hallmark symptom of dyslexia in a shallow orthography is (a comparatively low) speed of rapid automatized naming.^[5]

For languages with relatively deep orthographies, such as English and French, new readers have a great deal more difficulty learning to decode words. As a result, children learn to read more slowly.^[1] Research has shown that the hallmark symptoms of dyslexia in a deep orthography are a deficit in phonological awareness and difficulty reading at the word level.^[5] For these dyslexic readers, learning to decode words may take a long time—indeed, in the deepest orthographies the hallmark symptom of dyslexia is the inability to read at the word level—but many dyslexic readers have relatively fewer problems with fluency and comprehension once some level of decoding has been mastered.

Studies between German and English have shown that the greater depth of English orthography had a "marked adverse effect on reading skills" among dyslexic children.^[6][7]

Dyslexia in different types of orthography

There are a number of different types of writing systems, or orthographies, and they do not necessarily depend on the same neurological skill sets.^{[citation needed]} As a result, certain dyslexic deficits may be more pronounced in some orthographies than in others. For example, in alphabetic languages, phonological awareness is highly predictive of reading ability. But in Chinese (a logographic system), orthographic awareness and motor programming are highly predictive of reading ability.^[8]

Dyslexia in alphabetic orthographies

This section requires expansion.

Most of the current research on dyslexia focuses on alphabetic orthography.^[2]

Alphabetic writing systems vary significantly in the depth of their orthography. English and French are considered deep orthographies in comparison to Spanish and Italian which are shallow orthographies.

No alphabetic orthography is perfectly phonological; the writing systems of all alphabetic languages vary from this ideal to a greater or lesser extent.^{[citation needed]}

Dyslexia in logographic orthographies

This section requires expansion.

Most research for logographic orthographies has been done for Chinese.^{[citation needed]} Very little information is available for other logographic orthographies and their relationship to dyslexia.^{[citation needed]}

Logographic writing systems (such as Chinese characters and Cuneiform) are significantly different from alphabetic ones. The primary difference is that their basic graphemes are logograms, a representation based on meaning (morphemes), rather than sounds (phonemes). In some logographic writing systems each character represents a single syllable; in others, each character represents a whole word.

Chinese orthographies

In alphabetic languages, phonological awareness plays a central role in reading acquisition; in Chinese, phonological awareness is much less important. Rather, reading in Chinese is strongly related to a child's writing skills, which is dependent on orthographic awareness and motor memory. In alphabetic languages with deep orthographies, the difficulty is that the child must cope with having more than one spelling to represent a sound. In spoken Chinese, a single syllable is used in many different words, and a Chinese child must cope with having many written characters that represent the same syllable.^{[citation needed]}

Further complicating the Chinese writing system is that the Chinese character is made up of strokes and sub-character components, substantially increasing visual complexity. Thus, orthographic processing is an important aspect of reading. Deficient orthography-to-meaning mapping can lead to reading disability. A key strategy in teaching children to read is to have children repeatedly write samples of single characters, thus building the child's awareness of a character's internal structure (orthographic awareness).^[8]

Rapid naming is one of the best single predictors of dyslexia in all languages tested, including both alphabetic and character-based writing systems.^[8][9] There is some evidence that the means of deciphering characters differs between logographic and alphabetic writing systems differ in the brain: logographic systems echo map-reading skills.

Dyslexia in syllabic orthographies

This section requires expansion.

A syllabary is a set of written symbols that represent (or approximate) syllables, which make up words. A symbol in a syllabary typically represents an optional consonant sound followed by a vowel sound.

See also

• Linguistics
• List of writing systems
• List of languages by writing system
• Writing system
• Written language
• Medium of instruction
• English orthography

References

External links