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Dyslexia Doesn't Look the Same in Every Language.

kitUP Originals

15 min 15 languages Read or listen
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What's it about?

Maryanne Wolf's research reveals a counterintuitive truth: dyslexia rates don't vary across languages, but visibility does. A Japanese study of 495 children found reading difficulty rates shifting thirtyfold between hiragana and kanji within the same sample. The classic image of reversed letters is outdated; the real struggle lies in phonological processing. In transparent orthographies like Turkish or Italian, struggling readers decode accurately but slowly, escaping detection on accuracy-based tests. One screening of 1,357 children found two-thirds with difficulties had never been identified.

You'll learn:

- Why time, not errors, reveals difficulty in regular orthographies

- How letter spacing of 2.5 points improved reading on first attempt

- What Chinese readers reveal about rapid naming versus phonological processing

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