Washington — When English-speaking children with dyslexia begin to read, they face the awesome task of learning more than 1,100 ways that letters in the written language are used to symbolize the 40 sounds in the spoken language.
This may explain why there are twice as many identified dyslexics in English-speaking cultures as in countries with less complex languages, according to a study appearing today in the journal Science.
The study by an international team compared the brain scan images and reading skills of dyslexic university students in Italy, France and England.
The researchers found virtually no difference in the neurological signature for dyslexia, but there was an immense difference in how well the students learned to read their native languages.
"It is much easier for dyslexics to learn to read in languages where there is a one-to-one relationship between letters and the sounds," said Chris D. Frith, a researcher at the University College London and a co-author of the study. "In English, there are more than a thousand ways to spell the sounds."
Italian is easier for dyslexic students, researchers said. The Italians were far better at reading their native language than were English and French dyslexic students.
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