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Reading in a 2nd language with dyslexia


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My older child learned to read in German within just a few months of figuring stuff out in English and I didn't worry too much about any possible confusion with reading two languages. My second child is struggling to read, however, and was recently diagnosed with dyslexia, and I'm not sure what that means in terms of teaching her to read in a second language. I'm concerned that adding in a second language too soon will cause her even more struggles with reading, but another part of me hopes that maybe reading in German might help her figure out her reading a bit easier because it's so much simpler than reading in English. I guess I'm just not sure how dyslexia plays into reading instruction in multiple languages.

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Not really help here, my son is learning in both English and French.  He does not have dyslexia but has dyslectic traits, whatever that means.  We are working on reading in English with a few programs and recently found similar (hopefully) programs to help with reading in French.  When he was evaluated, the psych suggested we pull him out of bilingual school because of it but we have not given up.

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My children are all growing up bilingually (English/German) and they all learned to read German first because it is easier to do so.  My youngest has some learning issues, due to a rare genetic disorder.  Some of these issues are similar to dyslexia.  I am practicing reading with her in both languages and I do think it is helpful.  She is not reading at grade level, she is officially a third grader, but is reading at a first/early second grade level in German and second grade level in English.  Since German has simple phonetic rules, it is actually a boost to a child with reading issues to learn to read German.  Chidlren can experience success faster in that language than in English.  I think it would be hard if you tried French, for example, because it has also a complicated phonetic system.  We really like these reading booklets to make slow, but steady progress in German.  

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  • 3 weeks later...

There has been some research showing that children who are dyslexic in English, may not be dyslexic in unrelated languages such as Chinese or Japanese. 

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2004/sep/23/research.highereducation2

Anecdotally, I know of two classmates of DD9 at her Chinese immersion school, who are dyslexic in English and are not dyslexic in Chinese. 

 

 

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