What is it about?
Children with developmental dyslexia in an alphabetic language are impaired when having to transform letters to sounds and words. We examined, if the children with dyslexia can learn words in a pictorial (logographic) language more easily than in an alphabetic language and asked, how these children are scanning Chinese characters compared to not reading-impaired children. Children received Chinese lessons for 8 days, 3 hours per day. They performed as well as their age-matched peers while naming Chinese characters in German and in Chinese regarding their eye movements, because they could process Chinese words by accessing their meaning primarily visually. However, they had more difficulties naming the Chinese characters in Chinese by giving fewer correct answers, the reasons of which should be examined in future studies.
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Why is it important?
Children with developmental dyslexia suffer from severe disadvantages during their education and in professional life, which often leads to secondary social and psychological problems. Learning a new language that does not involve their deficit in alphabetic reading could give these children a positive experience that could strengthen their self-esteem. Therefore, offering Chinese lessons at school could be beneficial for these children in their education and professional future. Understanding the possibilities and limits of learning a logographic script, can support future research and help these children.
Perspectives
Our earlier observations that children with developmental dyslexia had no problem when naming pictures of objects led us to the question, if they can apply this good visual ability to learn a pictorial script easier than an alphabetic one. During the study it was exciting to see that the children had fun and were able to learn the Chinese characters easily and that their scanning behavior of the characters was equal to their age-matched peers. The interdisciplinarity work in the project (ophthalmology, sinology, language research, child psychiatry, psychology, brain research) was challenging and highly stimulating.
Prof. Dr., MD Susanne Trauzettel-Klosinski
Eberhard Karls Universitat Tubingen
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Is learning a logographic script easier than reading an alphabetic script for German children with dyslexia?, PLOS One, February 2023, PLOS,
DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0282200.
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