2

A friend asked if there is such a disorder as dyslexia in Chinese and if so, how does it manifest itself?

dyslexia: a medical condition affecting the brain that makes it difficult for someone to read and spell words correctly

Dyslexic children and adults struggle to read fluently, spell words correctly and learn a second language, among other challenges.

dsylexia: 难语症；[医] 诵读困难；阅读障碍

If you suffer from dyslexia, you may write English words wrongly: lion may become： loin
If you suffer from dyslexia, you may read English words wrongly: lion may become： loin

If this happens in Chinese, I presume sufferers will miss strokes in characters when writing.

Just a possible example: 兔 may become 免.

Is dyslexia a problem for some Chinese? What do you normally call this?

百度：

诵读困难症是指孩子到了一定年龄却不能正常诵读，就连准确、迅速、清楚地模仿其他人发音的能力也不具备。传统观点认为，诵读困难症是大脑一块专管数据处理的区域发生异常引起的。诵读困难症是一种学习障碍性疾病，如不加以治疗后果将会非常可怕

Pedroski
  • 18,287
  • 3
  • 18
  • 38
  • Anecdotal, but: I know people with dyslexia in English find Chinese much easier on the brain. – Mou某 Sep 25 '21 at 11:19
  • Dyslexia is simply a "learning disorder/disability", a general occurrence in all cultures and human races. Some people tend to be prone to misread or misspell do not necessarily to have such illness, but a mistake by the slip of mind (不留心), a far cry from Dyslexia. – r13 Sep 25 '21 at 16:07

2 Answers2

4

About the question if there is such a disorder as dyslexia in Chinese, I would be happy to see the whole speaking Chinese world be free of dyslexia! But sadly that is not the case. So the answer is yes.

Dyslexia is commonly called 阅读障碍.

Writing

Common symptoms are:

  • Wrong writing posture
  • Poor calligraphy
  • Characters reversed, such as for example 頁豆 instead of 頭
  • Characters are skewed, with missing or duplicated parts, copied incorrectly
  • Stroke direction is reversed
  • Space allocation is poor, too tight or too sparse
  • Writing speed is slow
  • Writing becomes soon very tiring

Reading

Common symptoms are:

  • Reading one character at a time, difficulties in connecting two or more characters together
  • Misreading characters or words, for example 好买 instead of 如实, 小小的大腸 instead of 小小的太陽, 劣酒 instead of 小刀酒, 执胯子弟 instead of 纨绔子弟, etc.
  • Spelling difficulties
Joe at wearyourchinesename.com
  • 1,516
  • 1
  • 3
  • 16
  • Well! I think I have "Chinese dyslexia." You description fits my Chinese writing style exactly!! :):) – Pedroski Sep 25 '21 at 23:05
2

The most popular term now is 阅读障碍(症). This link has some good answers about dyslexia in Chinese. In short, English and Chinese are processed in different areas in the brain, so the cause and symptoms are not exactly the same. Your example of 兔 and 免 is possible.

Betty
  • 3,853
  • 14
  • 26