Dyslexia

[Dan I. SLOBIN]

It has been reported that dyslexia is absent in China, due to a writing
system that does not require analysis of words into sound units.
Apparently when Romanization was introduced as a means of beginning
literacy, millions of dyslexics were suddenly evident.

-Dan Slobin
Dept of Psychology
University of California, Berkeley

On Tue, 20 Mar 2001, Peter Viles wrote:

> Is anyone aware of any studies about whether dyslexia occurs in other writing
> systems? I am an immigration attorney who spends quite a bit of time in Iran,
> and I have never come across dyslexia in Iran. I assume the problem must
> exist, but I have never come across an Iranian dyslexic.
>
> I just saw an article in Time magazine about how the representation of
> phonemes in a writing systems may have a large impact of the rate of
> dyslexia.  However, the article was based on studies which used alphabets
> utilizing the Roman alphabet. Farsi does not use a Roman alphabet, so I was
> wondering whether anyone has ever studied dyslexia in a non-Roman alphabet
> situation.
>
> Any thoughts on the matter would be greatly appreciated because my family has
> an on going cross continental debate about this subject.
>
>
> Peter M. Viles
> Viles Law Office
> Immigration and Nationality Law
> 6909 Jefferson Ave.
> Falls Church, VA 22042
> Tel: 703.532.8943
>
>