I listened to an interesting Dialogue between Martin Bloomfield and Maggie Chiang, who translated the book The Dyslexic Advantage into Chinese. LINK
Maggie Chiang:
The Chinese language uses pictograms so dyslexia and symbols usually go hand in hand. A lot of the time these individuals might struggle in mathematics, chemistry, physics, or English.
The phonological awareness deficit as the cause of dyslexia was debunked around 2017. Even with the research reports debunking that theory and my explanation of my students being able to read in Malay and Pinyin how audacious is it for James Chapman to say that he stands by what he and Tunmer wrote in 1996?
In 2021 I wrote to James Chapman again. Here is my email.
Here is a post on LinkedIn by one podcast host who is trying to make hay while the sun shines.
Mary McCool Berry, M.Ed., W.D.T.
Wilson Dyslexia Therapist | Instructional Design Specialist | Certified Dyslexia Advocate | Podcast Host
๐๐๐๐๐ก๐๐ซ๐ฌ ๐๐๐ง๐ง๐จ๐ญ ๐๐ ๐๐ฅ๐๐ฆ๐๐. ๐๐๐ฆ๐ข๐ง๐ข๐ฌ๐ญ๐ซ๐๐ญ๐จ๐ซ๐ฌ ๐ฆ๐๐ง๐๐๐ญ๐๐ ๐ญ๐ก๐ ๐ฎ๐ฌ๐ ๐จ๐ ๐ญ๐ก๐๐ฌ๐ ๐ฆ๐๐ญ๐๐ซ๐ข๐๐ฅ๐ฌ ๐๐ง๐ ๐๐ง๐๐๐ญ๐๐ ๐ซ๐๐ญ๐ซ๐ข๐๐ฎ๐ญ๐ข๐จ๐ง ๐๐จ๐ซ ๐ง๐จ๐ญ ๐ฎ๐ฌ๐ข๐ง๐ ๐ญ๐ก๐๐ฆ ๐๐ง๐ ๐ซ๐๐ข๐ฌ๐ข๐ง๐ ๐จ๐๐ฃ๐๐๐ญ๐ข๐จ๐ง๐ฌ.
๐๐จ๐จ ๐ฆ๐๐ง๐ฒ ๐๐ก๐ข๐ฅ๐๐ซ๐๐ง ๐๐ข๐ ๐ง๐จ๐ญ ๐ฅ๐๐๐ซ๐ง ๐ญ๐จ ๐ซ๐๐๐ ๐๐ฌ ๐ ๐ซ๐๐ฌ๐ฎ๐ฅ๐ญ.
The following email from James Chapman, in 2010, fortifies the saying by Charlie Munger that the Human mind is like the human egg.
One of my first emails disagreeing with a Phonological Awareness Deficit being the cause of dyslexia was to James Chapman. He and William E. Tunmer had jointly produced a paper stating that dyslexia is caused by Phonological Awareness Deficit.
This is a clear case of researchers who have written something and when evidence to the contrary is produced they refuse to accept it.
Here is my interview with Darren Clark in 2022.
There is nothing in that interview that I would change now.
The video explains why many kids shut down from learning to read and are wrongly classified as dyslexic.
Here is the link to the video. LINK
Mike Bell @evidence_1st
The following is from his Twitter profile.
Author of ‘Fundamentals of Teaching’. Organiser of Evidence Based Teachers Network. Committed to making the evidence accessible to teachers.
Here are Twitter discussions between Mike Bell and me.
Luqman Michel Dec 2
I researched why kids can read in Malay and Pinyin but not in English by quitting my job and teaching > 80 kids on a one-on-one basis.
The answer to how to reduce illiteracy is simple but the white man who speaks only one language does not want to discuss this.
The Boston Globe and APM Reports:
Karrie Conley is one of the lead plaintiffs in a class action lawsuit against Heinemann, an educational publishing company. The lawsuit claims that Heinemann's reading curriculum made it harder for two of her daughters to learn how to read. (Liz Linder/APM Reports)
Karrie Conley and Michele Hudak filed a lawsuit Wednesday alleging that the educational publisher Heinemann and three of its best-selling authors promoted “deceptive” and “defective” products that made it harder for their children to learn to read.
My thoughts:
These two mothers are misdirecting their efforts. As I’ve stated numerous times on my blog and social media, the root issue lies in how teachers are instructing letter sounds. When curious children encounter incorrect sounds and struggle to blend letters, they often disengage from the reading process. This challenge can be easily addressed through screening for incoming first graders. By providing interventions for children who have been taught the wrong sounds, we can significantly reduce, if not eliminate, the number of students leaving school unable to read. LINK
December 04, 2024, Christopher Peak, APM Reports. LINK
This story was originally published by APM Reports, an investigative reporting group based at American Public Media, and is part of an editorial partnership between WBUR and APM Reports.
My thoughts:
Who is funding APM reports?
What nonsense is this about investigative reporting? How do they investigate?
I wrote to Emily Hanford and APM Reports in 2017.
Here are
extracts of the emails to and from Emily Hanford and APM. Note the dates of the email.
Here is a comment on my post and my response.
Phillip Chipping
The Science of Reading body of science dates back 50 years with thousands of studies/researchers and millions of participants. The National Reading Panel's 2000 report showed that instruction that taught phonics made greater progress than instruction that did not focus on phonics. I'm not saying there are no other ways to teach and other ways to improve, but I know dozens of dyslexic tutors and every one of them has seen immediate and drastic improvement in children's reading ability when the method of instruction was changed to an explicit, structured-literacy, phonics-based approach. In other words, this method has been duplicated by thousands of teachers across the world and had immediate and powerful results in children's lives who otherwise could not read. The same results as what you're telling us you have with your method. Perhaps one of the reasons it's not "working" here is because most of the children who need it aren't getting one-on-one instruction. Maybe that's what makes the biggest difference.
These are public comments on LinkedIn.
Phillip Chipping’s LinkedIn profile says he is an Educator, Inventor, Writer, Lover of People (philanthropist)
Phillip Chipping:
Although I don't discount the 80 kids you succeeded with (no small feat! I'm sure their parents are so grateful for your help!), have you taught your methods to others? Have they also implemented them with successful outcomes? Although technically statistically relevant, 80 kids is still a fairly small number, especially if we can't see anything regarding the research methods and the tutoring methods that were used. You are asking us to simply trust you. So, I'm curious what you are doing to build a body of evidence for your methods.
A LinkedIn connection and I discussed on LinkedIn Messenger. Here are extracts of our discussion.
My LinkedIn Connection:
You are turning off people who could be allies to your cause. In the business world, we know that our most vocal critics can become our greatest customers and supporters. We often make an extra effort to satisfy those customers and answer their problems. These are all smart people - why the attack mode? Why not work with them instead of against them? I'm not saying to adopt what they teach, but why not ask respectfully? Are you looking for clickbait for your blog? Sensationalism over cool-headed discussion?
I have copied the following post from Dr. Richard Selznick's blog.
As part of the assessment process I always conduct an interview to get an overview of the issues of concern.
When a child is struggling, typically there will be suggestions of disorders that have been raised by different professionals along with opinions offered from friends, family members and the internet as to what is going on with their child.
As an example, a mom recently said the following:
Over the decade I have been blocked by many. The latest block is by Tom Bennett OBE.
@tombennett71 is the founder of
Founder researched, Behaviour advisor- UK DfE. Professor of School Behaviour, Academica Uni. with 116.5K Followers on Twitter.
In a LinkedIn comment, David Chalk said: "Our brains have been wired hundreds of thousands of years to speak and interpret by hearing words, but there is no natural ability to read-attaching sounds to symbols-words."
This is making statements without thinking. He repeats what he has read from others such as Stanislas Dehaene and Pamela Snow. Dehaene does not answer questions asked, and Pamela Snow thinks she becomes invisible when she sticks her head in the sand. She blocked me when she could not answer the questions, I asked her. It is irresponsible to say something on social media and to not respond when relevant questions are asked.
The noted neuroscientist Stanislas Dehaene (2018) argues that there is no place or mechanism in the brain to accommodate the learning-to-read process, seemingly adding credence to the reading-is-unnatural assumption. Dehaene and other researchers point out that oral language has been around for 50,000 years, whereas written systems developed much later—as recently as 5,000 years ago.
I received an email from Dr Richard Selznick commenting on my post yesterday.
Here is a little about him extracted from a website.
Dr. Selznick is a psychologist, a nationally certified school psychologist, and a graduate school professor. As the Director of the Cooper Learning Center at Cooper University Hospital (www.cooperlearningcenter.org), he oversees a program that assesses and treats a broad range of learning and behavioral problems in children. The Cooper Learning Center is the leading program in its region, offering not only assistance with children but also parent and teacher training programs.
Dr. Selznick also functions as a school consultant, and throughout the year he speaks to numerous parent groups, schools, and regional conferences on topics such as dyslexia, parenting, and ADHD. He strives to offer parents and teachers practical strategies to help children with academic problems. A native of Staten Island, New York, Dr. Selznick lives in Haddonfield, New Jersey. He can be reached through email Selznick-r@cooperhealth.edu. For more information on the Shut-Down Learner, go to www.shutdownlearner.com
This is his email received yesterday. 28.11.24.
I enjoyed your blog. A few points:
