Dyslexia

[dan everett]

     There is a PhD dissertation from the University of Pittsburgh on
     reading which corroborates the statement below that Chinese speakers
     still employ phonological access in reading, regardless of rate of
     speed of reading. I forget the title, but it is written by Iris
     Berent, who now teaches in the Psychology Dept at Florida Atlantic
     University. Her findings apply to a wide range of languages.

     We have a new paper either just out or nearly out in Cognitive
     Psychology on variables in Hebrew word representation, also arguing
     that phonological representation is nonconnectionist, symbolic and
     representational.

     Dan Everett


______________________________ Reply Separator _________________________________
Subject: Re: Dyslexia
Author:  <efrancis at HKUCC.HKU.HK> at Internet
Date:    3/21/01 2:59 PM


I asked Alex Francis, from the Speech and Hearing Sciences Department at
Hong Kong University, for some more information about dyslexia in readers
of Chinese. His response, along with some references, is included below.

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Wed, 21 Mar 2001 14:21:09 +0800
From: Alexander L. Francis <afrancis at hkusua.hku.hk>
To: Elaine J. Francis <efrancis at hkucc.hku.hk>
Subject: Re: Dyslexia (fwd)

Lihai TAN's research suggests that, though reading Chinese does seem
to be psychologically and neurologically somewhat different from
reading English, it still involves phonological access.  Furthermore,
brain damage to Chinese readers can cause acquired dyslexia just as
it can to readers of other languages (see work by Sam Po LAW, Brendan
Weekes, and others).

As for developmental dyslexia, my students definitely see children
with problems learning to read, and they were able to give me a
pretty good run-down of symptoms of dyslexia in Cantonese-speaking
(Putonghua-writing) children (though the situation in HK may be more
complex than in other parts of China because so much of the schooling
is in English).

As for non-anecdotal sources, I've appended a bunch of references on
developmental dyslexia in Chinese from PsychINFO that I got together
for my students last semester.  No idea how useful they are.

-alex

ACCESSION NUMBER:  2000-05510-004
DOCUMENT TYPE:  Journal-Article
TITLE:  Naming-speed deficits and phonological memory deficits in
Chinese developmental dyslexia.
AUTHOR:  Ho,-Connie-Suk-Han; Lai,-Daphne-Ngar-Chi
SOURCE:  Learning-and-Individual-Differences. 1999; Vol 11(2): 173-186
PUBLISHER:  US: JAI Press, Inc.
ISSN:  1041-6080
PUBLICATION YEAR:  1999

ACCESSION NUMBER:  2000-02354-003
DOCUMENT TYPE:  Journal-Article
TITLE:  The phonological deficit hypothesis in Chinese developmental dyslexia.
AUTHOR:  Ho,-Connie-Suk-Han; Law,-Teresa-Pui-Sze; Ng,-Penny-Man
SOURCE:  Reading-and-Writing. 2000 Sep; Vol 13(1-2): 57-79
PUBLISHER:  Netherlands: Kluwer Academic Publishers.
ISSN:  0922-4777
PUBLICATION YEAR:  2000

ACCESSION NUMBER:  1999-05928-002
DOCUMENT TYPE:  Journal-Article
TITLE:  Training in phonological strategies improves Chinese dyslexic
children's character reading skills.
AUTHOR:  Ho,-Connie-Suk-Han; Ma,-Rachel-Nga-Lun
SOURCE:  Journal-of-Research-in-Reading. 1999 Jun; Vol 22(2): 131-142
PUBLISHER:  England: Basil Blackwell Publishers, Ltd.
ISSN:  0141-0423
PUBLICATION YEAR:  1999

ACCESSION NUMBER:  2001-14555-010
DOCUMENT TYPE:  Journal-Article
TITLE:  Exploring reading-spelling connection as locus of dyslexia in Chinese.
AUTHOR:  Leong,-Che-Kan; Cheng,-Pui-Wan; Lam,-Catherine-C-C
SOURCE:  Annals-of-Dyslexia. 2000; Vol 50: 239-259
PUBLISHER:  US: International Dyslexia Assn.
ISSN:  0736-9387
PUBLICATION YEAR:  2000

ACCESSION NUMBER:  1991-78951-001
DOCUMENT TYPE:  Journal-Article
TITLE:  Chinese acquired dyslexia: Types and significance.
AUTHOR:  Yin,-Wengang
SOURCE:  Acta-Psychologica-Sinica. 1990; Vol 22(3): 297-305
PUBLISHER:  China: Science Press.
ISSN:  0439-755X
PUBLICATION YEAR:  1990

ACCESSION NUMBER:  1989-98808-015SEE PREVIOUS CHAPTER SEE NEXT CHAPTER
DOCUMENT TYPE:  Chapter
TITLE:  Linguistic parameters in the diagnosis of dyslexia in
Japanese and Chinese.
AUTHOR:  Paradis,-Michel
BOOK SOURCE:  Aaron, P. G. (Ed); Joshi, R. Malatesha (Ed). (1989).
Reading and writing disorders in different orthographic systems. NATO
Advanced Science Institutes series. Series D: Behavioural and social
sciences, Vol. 52. (pp. 231-266). Norwell, MA, US: Kluwer Academic
Publishers. x, 416 pp.SEE BOOK
ISBN:  0792304616 (hardcover)
PUBLICATION YEAR:  1989

ACCESSION NUMBER:  1985-28379-001
DOCUMENT TYPE:  Journal-Article
TITLE:  Visual and auditory functions of Chinese dyslexics.
AUTHOR:  Woo,-Eugenie-Y; Hoosain,-Rumjahn
SOURCE:
Psychologia:-An-International-Journal-of-Psychology-in-the-Orient.
1984 Sep; Vol 27(3): 164-170
PUBLISHER:  Japan: Psychologia Society.
ISSN:  0033-2852
PUBLICATION YEAR:  1984


>---------- Forwarded message ----------
>Date: Tue, 20 Mar 2001 20:22:36 -0800
>From: Dan I. SLOBIN <slobin at COGSCI.BERKELEY.EDU>
>To: FUNKNET at listserv.rice.edu
>Subject: Re: Dyslexia
>
>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
>>
>>