Phonological awareness deficit (Re-visit)

 

Now, let us look at Timothy Shanahan's blog in 2015 – that is 5 years after my emails to all the experts who echoed what one guy told the world more than 35 years ago.

He said that phonological awareness deficit is the cause of dyslexia.

MIT Professor Catherine Drennan on Her Dyslexia and Its Advantages

 

I listened to a YouTube video this morning featuring MIT Professor Catherine Drennan discussing her dyslexia and its advantages. Here are extracts from the video along with my comments. LINK

 

Catherine Drennan:

"I learned to read through the shapes of words. You see things differently when you are dyslexic, and that can be useful in certain areas. This ability to visualize and see shapes and patterns is true."

Is reading instinctive or natural? A revisit.

 

Dyslexia advocates somehow find out that there is a strong objection to their theory and start propagating through whatever means they can. Here is one such YouTube video that surfaced a few days ago. LINK

Interviewer: Ashlie Thomey, A Dyslexia Specialist

Interviewee: Pamela Taylor, Creator of Lexia Heroes.

I listened to the YouTube video by Pamela Taylor who spoke like she is an expert in brain study.

Irresponsible teachers

 

I am recording this in my blog for posterity. This shows the irresponsible people who write whatever comes to their minds without thinking about how it affects others.The irresponsible comments below refer to a Heinemann Reading Curriculum.

Kathleen Seeman, MEdKathleen Seeman, MEd  • 1st • 1st Dyslexia Specialist and Interventionist, Master Teacher, Educator, AdvocateDyslexia.

WOW!! About time this wrong is righted! “The case could also break new legal ground. Stuart Rossman, who oversaw litigation at the National Consumer Law Center for 25 years, said he wasn’t aware of any previous class-action lawsuits over literacy curricula”

Research Reports – Part 3

 

Shouldn’t we think before accepting anything we read?

Since 2016 when I read that reading is biologically unnatural, I have disagreed with that statement.

This post illustrates that when one researcher says something many follow suit and repeat what they read. Some insist that we should accept these research reports or statements researchers make. 

My discoveries

Now proven:

i.                    Since 2010 I wrote extensively that phonological awareness deficit cannot be the cause of dyslexia. Many researchers disagreed with me and asked me for evidence. Many blocked me. I persisted because of my experience and not because of some book theory. That theory was debunked in 2017.

 

ii.                  In 2016 when I saw the quote by Pamela Snow, I disagreed with it. She said ‘‘Reading (and its corollary, writing) is a human contrivance that has existed for only approximately 6,000 years. This recency of reading as a human skill is important, because 6,000 years is a mere blink in evolutionary terms, and the human brain has not developed specialized neural pathways to support a skill that is widely agreed to be essential to successful living in first-world developed economies and to the social and economic trajectories of developing nations.”

Research Reports – Part 2

 

Pamela Snow and teachers with similar dogmatic attitudes are the ones who perpetuate the reading wars. They do not know the impact they have on others who repeat what they say. Two of many such teachers, who repeat what she says are Emina McLean and Jennifer Buckingham. (All 3 of them are researchers from Australia).

The following is a ridiculous question Pamela Snow asked when I pointed out that many kids disengage from learning to read because of confusion.

Research Reports – Part 1

Since 2010, when I started my blog, I have been told numerous times that I should read research reports. Of course, I read research reports but I don’t accept them if they don’t make sense. We should think if research reports make sense and discard those that don’t appeal to our senses.

I am reminded of what Daniel Kahneman wrote in his book ‘Thinking fast and slow’:

Questions by Suri Charles and my responses

 

“Loneliness does not come from having no people about one, but from being unable to communicate the things that seem important to oneself, or from holding certain views which others find inadmissible.” Carl Jung

 

Suri Charles

Luqman Michel You’ve mentioned that the children you came across and/or worked with couldn’t read because they 'shut down,' yet you also stated that you taught 80 dyslexic children from 2004 to 2019.

1. How do you reconcile these two positions?

2. Are you suggesting that these 80 children had both emotional or psychological shutdowns as well as dyslexia, or were they misdiagnosed as dyslexic?

The Dyslexia Debate – A Re-examination

 

 

Advocates for dyslexia persist in asserting that individuals with dyslexia face a literacy issue. How stupid does one have to be to believe this nonsense?

Those who benefit from this narrative often block me on social media.

 

Consider this for a moment:

How did David Chalk manage to read in just 11 days at the age of 62?

Why was he unable to read until then?

What led David Corcoran and Tom Cruise to leave school as functional illiterates?

How did they learn to read after their formal education ended?

Unlocking the Potential of China's Dyslexic Students (Part 2)

 

This article was written in 2018 and the situation is still the same. It will never improve as China is barking up the wrong tree.

Here are extracts from Sixth Tone and my thoughts.

Sixth Tone:

How Dyslexia Remains Invisible in Chinese Schools

The need for recognition of the learning disability in China is pressing: An estimated 11 percent of the country’s primary school students have dyslexia, a total of about 10 million children, according to research published in 2016 by the Chinese Academy of Sciences. Despite this staggering number, there is little understanding and barely any support for dyslexic students on the Chinese mainland — the Weining center, located in southern tech hub Shenzhen, is one of few organizations dedicated to the cause. Dyslexia is well-known and well-researched in many Western countries, but awareness of the disability remains low across the Chinese mainland; without support, those affected are unable to compete in school, stifling their future potential.

Xiaogu could not understand why he struggled so much in something his peers could easily master. His aversion to schoolwork grew. Eventually, he stopped trying altogether, submitting blank exam papers even though he could have answered some of the questions.

Unlocking the Potential of China's Dyslexic Students (Part 1)

 

Global Times:

Since 2010, a campaign has been afoot in Chinese schools to improve children's literacy, as educators have warned that young people are increasingly having problems writing and reading Chinese due to their extensive use of electronic devices. LINK

My Response to Savannah's Comment

                                                                Savannah Jackson NGO

'Great work requires being stubborn about your goals but flexible about your methods. The best people I know stick relentlessly to what they want to achieve, but quickly adapt how they'll achieve it when they see a better way. Most people do the opposite - they cling to their methods even when better options appear.'

I recently posted an article quoting Siegfried Engelmann's statement that there is a procedure for teaching reading that can reach virtually 100% of children. Savannah, a teacher, responded with her own experience:

The South China Morning Post - Disinformation

 

I read an article in The South China Morning Post entitled ‘Zhuyin sounds key to children learning Mandarin as a second language.’ LINK

I emailed South China Morning Post as follows:

Luqman Michel <luqmanmichel@gmail.com>

Dec 15, 2024, 10:22 AM

Dear Sir,

I read an article in your papers.

It said the following:

‘However, no method is better than the other, and – more importantly – there is never a perfect method to learn Mandarin. Even so, there is always a perfect combination that suits your child’s Mandarin learning journey.’

 

What combination is the author talking about?

Thank you and kind regards,

Luqman Michel

South China Morning Post – 翻译成中文

 

South China Morning Post – 翻译成中文

A prelude to my post tomorrow

Founded in 1903, SCMP is headquartered in Hong Kong, where it is the city's newspaper of record. Our teams span across Asia and the United States, working together to connect with news consumers around the world. We are committed to informing and inspiring through journalism of the highest standards.

They claim:

‘Our vision is to “Elevate Thought”, and our mission is to “Lead the global conversation about Hong Kong, Greater China and Asia.”

Elevate thought? Let’s examine this in my next post.