While the Dyslexia Association of Hong Kong adopts the International Dyslexia Association definition of dyslexia, the Dyslexia Association of Singapore adopts the following view:
DAS is guided in its definition of Dyslexia by the Ministry of Education, Singapore in their November 2011 publication “Professional Practice Guidelines for the Psycho-educational Assessment and Placement of Students with Special Educational Needs.
Also,
Dyslexia is a type of specific learning difficulty identifiable as a developmental difficulty of language learning and cognition. It is a learning difficulty that primarily affects the skills involved in accurate and fluent word reading and spelling. Characteristic features of dyslexia are difficulties in phonological awareness, verbal memory and processing speed. Co-occurring difficulties may be seen in aspects of language, motor co-ordination, mental calculation, concentration and personal organisation, but these are not, by themselves, markers of dyslexia.
An appropriate literacy programme should include the following components: phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary and comprehension. The literacy programme provided by DAS meets these guidelines.
What we know is that because of the types of script used in Chinese, dyslexia is often difficult to identify when looked upon purely as a phonological decoding deficit. One way of addressing this issue is to search out specific “types” of dyslexia in order to identify and classify it.
See for instance:
>>das.org.sg/about-dyslexia/what-is-dyslexia/what-is-dyslexia.html
>>dyslexia.org.hk/dyslexia-1
