dyslexia

[John Myhill]

It looks to me like the actual reported dyslexia rate has far more to
do with sociological and political factors than writing systems. I would
expect the Chinese government to claim they have no problem with dyslexia
independent of what the actual facts are--Japan used to be that way
also (and still is to a significant extent). The same way the Chinese have
claimed they have eradicated the rats in their country--in the Chinese
view, a problem exists only if the government says that it exists, and
the government only says that it exists if it is convenient for the
government to say that it exists. In Israel, on the other hand, I seem to
meet people who claim to be dyslexic all over the place. What are the
actual facts?
This would require an enormous amount of directly comparable studies
in a wide variety of languages. The only thing I'm sure of is that
official published statistics in many countries are totally wrong.
John Myhill