dyslexia and chinese characters

[aliciahorsley]

i was wondering if anyone has had any experience in this?
my ds is alomst five and under pressure to learn how to read and write. although we've yet to have him formally test, he's most likely dyslexia (dh is dyslexic, dh's father and aunt are dyslexic and my mum and sis too, unless they are paris hilton's gurus )

in malaysia, we have the options of government run schools where he has to learn bahasa malaysia and english, international schools where he will be taught in english (and i will end up living in caravan on bread crusts ) or chinese school where he will have to learn a lot of chinese and a little bahasa malaysia and a little english.

would the chinese characters be easier to learn because they cannot be flipped to make another word or will the precise sequencing required to create each letter confuse him even more?

did some reading the unschooling forum and realised that by that definition he is most certainly learning and loving it. just not too sure how will be cope in traditional school system. there is no support that i know of in malaysia's education system for kids with special needs.

[Mirzam]

I really cannot answer your question, and I know nothing about schools in KL, but I did live in HK for 11 years and my youngest went to school there for just over a year. She went to an international, British primary school, so she was taught in English only. If the Chinese schools are anything like the ones in HK then they are very academically rigorous and would probably be a huge struggle for a child who has some learning challenges, specially if there is no accommodations for special needs kids. My DS learns Mandarin in school here in the US, and is learning to write Mandarin characters. There has been some discussion in the school about whether it is appropriate to ask children who are struggling with reading and writing in English to have to learn Chinese as well. They are also taught Spanish.

[Lingmom]

I'd make friends with some local teachers and get their impressions about the best school for your child. You might do a Google search for chinese and dyslexia and reading to see what you come up with... Here's a start:

http://www.sciencenews.org/articles/20040904/fob4.asp

[aliciahorsley]

thank you for the link. so i did have a good thought
will try to do more reading but at least i know that this avenue is worth investigating.

[schrocat]

I'm not from KL but I do know that chinese schools in Malaysia are extremely competitive and academically rigorous. My friends' nieces and nephews all go to chinese school and they are very stressed. Is there anyone at home to help with chinese?

I don't know much about dyslexia but perhaps a local speech pathologist who works with the local languages might be able to help.