Dyslexia involves a brain structure that makes it difficult for a learning reader to connect verbal sounds with the letters or symbols that "spell" that sound. Such connections are essential to learn to read.
A study published earlier this month in the journal Science found that as English-speaking children with dyslexia begin to read, they face an awesome task, requiring them to learn the more than 1,100 ways that written letters are used to symbolize 40 sounds.
It may explain why there are twice as many identified dyslexics in English-speaking cultures as in countries with less complex languages, such as France and Italy.
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