ABSTRACT
Introduction Although developmental dyslexia affects an estimated 4 percent to 11 percent of the school-age population around the world (e.g., Chan, Ho, Tsang, Lee, & Chung, 2007; Salter & Smythe, 1997), it is not clear that it is the same phenomenon across different languages (Ziegler & Goswami, 2005). The majority of research into typical and atypical reading development has focused on English, resulting in an Anglocentric research agenda with arguably “limited relevance for a universal science of reading” (Share, 2008, p. 584). In this chapter we consider the growing body of research into the cognitive characteristics of dyslexia in a non-European language with a non-alphabetic orthography, namely Chinese (e.g., Chung & Ho, 2010; Chung, Ho, Chan, Tsang, & Lee, 2010; Chung, McBride-Chang, Wong, Cheung, Penney, & Ho, 2008; Wong & Ho, 2010). Not only does Chinese offer an important contrast to alphabetic orthographies, but there are important differences in how children from different Chinese societies are taught to read. Dyslexia in Chinese readers therefore provides a useful starting point for exploring issues related to culture and language in developmental disorders.
