Researchers Say Chinese Dyslexia More Complex

October 13, 2009 6:25 a.m. EST

Hong Kong, China (AHN) - A new study suggests that the complexity and severity of dyslexia varies across language barriers.

The authors, from the University of Hong Kong, said that Chinese-speaking children with the disorder may have a harder time with it than their English-speaking peers. The differences were seen in the brain and in the performance of Chinese children on visual and oral language tasks, the researchers said in a statement.

According to the researchers, English dyslexia is typically a "phonological disorder," meaning that people with the condition have difficulties detecting or manipulating the sound structure of oral language. This leads to troubles in mapping speech sounds onto letters, Wai Ting Siok, a lead author of the study, said in a statement.

But the development of dyslexia in Chinese is really two disorders - a visuospacial deficit and a phonological disorder combined, Wai said.

The study can be found in the Oct. 12 issue of the journal Current Biology.