Collection

Special Issue on Dyslexia and Culture

Submission status
Closed

Language and orthography are two crucial cultural factors that affect both reading acquisition as well as the manifestation and diagnosis of developmental dyslexia (e.g., Seymour, Aro, & Erskine, 2003; for reviews, see Ziegler & Goswami, 2005; Verhoeven, Perfetti, & Pugh, 2019). Consequently, research is focused on the question of whether characteristics of typical and impaired reading are specific to individual languages or are shared across languages and orthographies (universality vs. language-specificity, see Joshi, 2018; Landerl et al., 2013; Landerl et al., 2019; Pugh & Verhoeven, 2018). For example, several studies have shown that the relevance of pre-existing cognitive functions that play a role in dyslexia (e.g., phonological awareness and rapid automated naming) varies according to the transparency of the orthography (e.g., Landerl et al., 2019; Moll et al., 2014; Ziegler et al., 2010).

Theoretical models of dyslexia are often based on findings in alphabetic writing systems. However, alphabetic orthographies differ in how consistently graphemes are mapped to phonemes. Depending on the transparency of a language, reading acquisition proceeds at different rates (Seymore et al., 2003). Furthermore, the manifestation of dyslexia varies (e.g., Diamanti et al., 2018; Landerl et al., 1997) and the reading measures which must be assessed for diagnosis vary (e.g., Goswami, Ziegler, & Richardson, 2005; Landerl & Wimmer, 2008; Reis, Araújo, Morais, & Faísca, 2020).

In addition to alphabetic orthographies, there are numerous non-alphabetic orthographies. There have been an increasing number of findings from non-alphabetic writing systems. For example, there are several studies that test the applicability of existing models for reading and dyslexia, based on findings in alphabetic systems, in non-alphabetic languages (e.g., Joshi, 2018; Peng et al., 2021).

The aim of this issue is to bring together current research and theoretical perspectives on typical literacy acquisition and dyslexia in different languages and writing systems. Factors specific to language and writing systems, as well as universal aspects of language, may be focused on.

Specifically, we look forward to empirical and theoretical papers or reviews that explore the following questions:

- How do cultural aspects (such as economic status, milieus, educational system) affect the transmission from the neurobiological origin to the observed skill performance?

- What are the commonalities or differences in dyslexia across languages and writing systems?

- What impact does culture have on secondary symptoms?

- How does the relevance of pre-existing cognitive functions (e.g., phonological awareness or rapid automatized naming) for dyslexia differ depending on the language and writing system?

- What are the international differences or similarities in diagnostic and intervention practice?

- Do prevalence rates vary depending on language or culture?

- What role does migration play in dyslexia? Are there differences in L1 and L2 as language of instruction?

- What is the manifestation, diagnosis and/or intervention for dyslexia in multilingual systems (such as India, Catalania, Bask, Canada, Switzerland, Luxembourg, Belgium)?

- What is the manifestation, diagnosis and/or intervention for dyslexia in multilingual systems (such as India, Catalania, Bask, Canada, Switzerland, Luxembourg, Belgium)?

The Journal of Cultural Cognitive Science welcomes contributions on specific languages or cross-linguistic studies, as long as they fit the aims of the special issue. We request that authors mention the special issue in their cover letters and that they submit papers via the journal's submission portal by the deadline mentioned below. Any queries may be addressed to the Guest Editors.

Important dates:

Deadline for manuscript submission: September 30, 2022

First Review: October 30, 2022

Likely publication date: 2023

Editors

Articles (9 in this collection)