Writing Patterns in Bilingual Dyslexia: A Cross-Linguistic Study

A child playing with building block

At the National Handwriting Association conference, Dr. Olivia Afonso presented her research on writing characteristics in children with dyslexia. The study examined how dyslexia affects writing across two languages, revealing important patterns that can inform identification and intervention.

Research Overview

The study investigated Spanish children with dyslexia and their writing performance in both their native language (Spanish) and second language (English). These children had already been diagnosed with dyslexia, and the researchers wanted to understand how their writing difficulties manifested across different languages and whether basic writing skills transfer between languages when children have dyslexia.

Writing Markers of Dyslexia

Writing Process Characteristics

• Frequent pausing: Children with dyslexia showed more pauses during writing, particularly in their second language

• Different revision patterns: Interestingly, they made more revisions when writing in Spanish than in English, suggesting greater awareness of errors in their native language

• Slower production speed: Writing speed was significantly slower compared to typically developing peers

Text Composition Features

• Spelling challenges: More spelling errors appeared in both languages, though particularly pronounced in English

• Grammatical difficulties: Problems with punctuation and syntax were evident across both languages

• Sentence complexity: Children with dyslexia tended to write shorter, less complex sentences with reduced lexical diversity

Language-Specific Differences

• Word type distribution: Their English writing contained more nouns and fewer verbs, while Spanish writing showed the opposite pattern

• Content approach: English compositions tended to be more descriptive and concrete, while Spanish compositions included more action-oriented language and complex situations

• Error patterns: While errors occurred in both languages, the frequency and types varied between languages

Connections Between Skills

The researchers found important relationships between different language abilities:

• Reading-writing link: Better reading accuracy strongly correlated with fewer spelling errors and higher lexical diversity in writing

• Vocabulary influence: Word knowledge had a stronger effect on writing quality in the second language than in the native language

• Transcription skills: Children who performed better in spelling showed greater coherence and vocabulary variety in their compositions

Evidence for Cross-Language Transfer

A crucial finding was that many writing difficulties transferred between languages. Children who showed certain patterns in Spanish typically showed similar patterns in English, though often more pronounced in their second language.

This suggests that underlying cognitive processes affecting writing transcend language boundaries, even while the specific manifestations may vary according to language proficiency and linguistic features of each language.

Educational Implications

These findings have important practical applications:

1. Early identification: Writing difficulties in one language can signal potential problems in other languages

2. Integrated support: Strengthening reading and vocabulary skills can improve writing performance

3. Skill transfer: Improvements in native language writing may positively impact second language writing

4. Process awareness: Teachers should recognise that students with dyslexia may have different revision capabilities across languages

The research demonstrates that dyslexia affects writing through consistent patterns across languages, though these patterns vary in intensity. Understanding these patterns can help educators develop more effective identification methods and targeted interventions for children with dyslexia in multilingual contexts.

Technical Terms Explained

• Lexical diversity: The variety of different words used in writing

• Noun/stem overlap: How often the same nouns or word stems appear across sentences, indicating text coherence

• Linguistic transfer: How language knowledge in one language influences performance in another

• Transcription skills: The ability to convert thoughts into written text

• Orthographic system: The writing system of a language

More Curricular is an educational resource provider offering evidence-based courses and workshops focused on learning to learn and developing essential skills that complement the school curriculum.