A recent LinkedIn exchange revealed a troubling mindset in education debates. When I shared that teaching letter names helps children decode irregular words like ceiling, giraffe, or bee, a commentator dismissed me with sarcasm: “Don’t look at science. Make stuff up instead.”
This is a continuation of my post yesterday.
Diana Black Kennedy Educational Therapist, Speaker, Author – Answer to another question
If you teach them phonics, then what is your argument?
The reason having them memorize the dolch words as one full chunk is problematic because memorizing words as one chunk is not the most efficient way to teach kids to read--it is sort of like giving the man a fish rather than teaching them to fish. Not to mention that if words are learned as one whole chunk rather than through repeated decoding means that they are recalled less efficiently because there are less connections to the words. If a word can be decoded it should be taught through decoding. Even words that are irregular generally are only semi-irregular. It is more powerful to teach kids to decode the parts they can and focus their energy memorizing the parts that are irregular.
There is an on-going LinkedIn discussion where Emma Hartnell-Baker insists that orthographic mapping only occurs via phonics.
I replied: I beg to disagree as I know that to be incorrect. I have addressed this in full in my blog post. Here are questions I asked which no one has answered.
Here is my first question that Diana Black Kennedy has responded to.
How did the deaf and mute learn to read words back in the 1840’s when pictures/ images were accompanied with words? For example, a picture of a dog with the word ‘dog’ below it. Let us remember these are deaf and mute people which means they cannot hear any sound of words let alone phonemes. The deaf and mute first learned to read this way.
Recently, I had a thoughtful discussion on LinkedIn with Brenda Nagberi, Founder & Lead Consultant at Bremon Educational Consult, Autism Advocate, and SENCo.
It mirrors conversations I've had with many educators and experts — productive until they block me or delete the thread.
The Key Exchange:
For decades, the reading world has been locked in debate over high-frequency words (often called “sight words” or Dolch words). Should children rote-memorize them, or is memorization “nonsense” that must be avoided in favor of pure phonics and orthographic mapping?
As someone who has worked with over 80 children labeled “dyslexic,” I’ve seen what actually works. These kids struggled to read in English but had no trouble reading in Malay (a transparent orthography) or Pinyin. My method—systematic phonics combined with deliberate memorization of all Dolch high-frequency words—produced strong results. The children learned the words without difficulty, gained confidence quickly, and progressed in reading.
The Pendulum Swing in Reading Instruction
In Response to Dr. Sam Bommarito's recent post. Link.
This post is in response to a recent post by Dr. Sam. I agree with his observation about how scientists often enter arguments. Years ago, he interviewed me. It was not a debate — he asked questions, and I answered them. Yet the interview was never aired. Was it because he could not accept my discovery?
The pattern is unmistakable. Multiple outreach attempts to Chinese official channels—embassies, consulates, education ministries, and even higher offices—have met with consistent non-responses or automated acknowledgments followed by silence. Emails sent in late June and early July 2024 to addresses like those in Kota Kinabalu, Penang, the Ministry of Education in Beijing, and others detailing concerns over inconsistent Pinyin instruction received no substantive replies. Staff interactions, such as calls to consulates, yielded promises of follow-up that never materialized.
The core issue isn't just phonics or romanisation—it's a deep cultural and political reluctance to admit that a system introduced decades ago might need refinement, especially when outsiders (or even internal reformers) point it out. China created Hanyu Pinyin in the 1950s by adapting Western systems like Yale romanization. It deliberately moved away from Bopomofo (Zhuyin) for mainland use because pure alphabetic initials (b, d, etc., without added vowel sounds) were cleaner and more consistent.
I have been learning Mandarin and have attained survival Mandarin and continuing my journey. Along the way, I have also spent considerable time researching dyslexia, reading difficulties, and effective language teaching methods. What started as a personal learning experience has opened my eyes to a deeper cultural and educational issue that I call The Chinese Dilemma.
The Hidden Damage of Extraneous Sounds
For years, I've argued that one of the main reasons many intelligent children shut down or disengage from learning to read is the widespread practice of teaching letter sounds with extraneous sounds (e.g., "buh" for /b/, "duh" for /d/, "fuh" for /f/). These kids aren't "dyslexic" in the neurological sense—they're victims of confusing early input that their logical brains reject. A majority of such children get wrongly labeled as dyslexic.
Lena Loganathan, a dedicated teacher, started her reading program with a 5½-year-old boy. Inspired by his excellent progress in Lessons 1 and 2, she expanded her research to include a 4½-year-old girl.
Below is her Lesson 3 session with the 5½-year-old boy, building on the success of the previous lessons.
Each chapter in my book, Teach your Child to Read, has a QR Code as shown above.
Click on the QR Code and the lessons will be read for any child to follow without any assistance from an adult.
Get a copy of Teach Your Child to Read at only $16/-. LINK.
Here is a sample from lesson 1.
Note that the last page is without pictures. Orthographic mapping would have occurred by the time the child comes to the last page.
