Dyslexia - Part 6- More Research Reports

March 18, 2010 - PRLog -- I am attaching further research reports supporting my findings that dyslexic children do not have a 'language learning disability'.

1. A dossier by Jeannette Dietz dated 2002

A detailed view of the frightening high numbers shows that the incidence
rates of dyslexia vary largely depending on countries or languages.
Whereas 10 % of children in the USA are dyslexic (Satz et al. 1978 quoted by Klicpera and Gasteiger-Klicpera 1995), there are only 1 % in Japan (Macita 1968 quoted by Witruk 1994). This dossier will explore reasons for this varying incidence by reviewing several cross-linguistic studies on reading acquisition and dyslexia.

You may read more here: http://www.hemmecke.de/jeannette/material/ImpactofLinguisticFactorsonDyslexia2002.pdf

Japan probably has the same percentage of dyslexics as any other country but it is not detected as they probably don't learn English. They will not have a problem with Japanese (refer the news report on the Australian boy in my previous article.)

2. An article in “Life in Italy dd 11.9.2009.

French, English, Spanish and Italian adult dyslexics all did equally poorly in tests that involved short-term memory, whereas Italian/Spanish dyslexics did better in reading tests.

You may read more here: http://my.lifeinitaly.com/f18/dyslexic-adults-dont-exist-...

3. Article from time.com dd.18.3.2001

In the past couple of decades, scientists have learned a great deal about the neurological causes of dyslexia. But what they hadn't yet explained is why its incidence varies so from country to country--and what that difference means. Last week, Italian, French and British researchers proposed an answer. The variability, they wrote in Science, depends greatly on the complexity of writing systems. The team offered what it described as the first compelling evidence that the disorder has a common neurological basis across linguistic and cultural boundaries.

English has 1,120 different ways of spelling its 40 phonemes, the sounds required to pronounce all its words. By contrast, Italian needs only 33 combinations of letters to spell out its 25 phonemes. As a result, reading Italian takes a lot less effort, and that's probably why the reported rate of dyslexia in Italy is barely half that in the U.S., where about 15% of the population is affected to varying degrees. By some estimates, Americans spend more than $1 billion a year to help their kids cope with dyslexia. Many Italian dyslexics, on the other hand, aren't even aware they have a problem--and would notice it only if given a battery of psychological tests.

Read more here: http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,102926,0...

I hope you are now convinced that dyslexia is not a 'language learning difficulty'. Now that this has been sorted out lets us see what we can do about this. My teaching methods elaborated in my blog will reduce the illiteracy level in countries like England and USA by more than 50%.

Please leave your comments. It will be greatly appreciated.

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I have been teaching dyslexic children for more than 5 years. They can be easily taught to read English if taught in an appropriate manner.