Are
there children who find it more difficult to learn to read than a majority of
children?
The
answer should be a resounding yes as there are research reports and news paper
reports stating that all over the world about 20% of children are illiterate in
the English language when they leave school.
How many
of the roughly 20% of children can become good readers after intervention?
Almost
90% of these children can be taught to read with intervention as recorded by
many researchers.
Did they
give them some form of medication to achieve these results?
No, none
whatsoever.
How many
of the kids who could read after intervention were found to have phonological
awareness problem?
This is
what the researchers should look at. I would believe that none of the kids who
could read after intervention had any phonological awareness problem. Chances
are the remaining 2 or 3 % from the original group have a phonological or
acuity problem. As such those kids I mentioned who
read well after intervention should not be categorized under the same group as
children with APD or children with acuity problem. Stanovich has clearly
defined what Dyslexia is not.
When
should/can we identify kids who have difficulty learning to read?
We
should be able to do this within six months of reading. If approximately 80% of
the kids can read well and yet these 20% cannot read as well as the 80% a
teacher should be able to identify these kids simply by asking them to read.
Ask them to read some new material with the same words that they have already
learnt.
What is
the cause for this learning problem?
This is
where I hope researchers will conduct studies and confirm my findings. All
these children who were able to read after intervention are most probably
shut-down learners as described in my blog.
They
shut-down when things taught to them are not
logical. They shut down when things are confusing.
We
should get rid of the term dyslexia as I have mentioned in my blog since 2010.
The term dyslexic has too varied a meaning as described in my blog. They vary
from one dyslexia association to another. The Learning Disabilities Association places dyslexia under a list of learning disabilities whereas the Dyslexia Association
places all learning disabilities under the dyslexia umbrella.
If there
are research reports stating that intervention has reduced the number of kids
who cannot read from about 30% to 3% then all kids, other than those with
acuity or phonological problems should and can be taught to read.
What
can/should be changed?
The 30
odd year notion that children cannot read because of some perceived
‘phonological awareness deficit’ should be got rid of. A majority of the 20% of
kids who cannot read do not have any form of phonological awareness problem. It
is a case of ‘shut-down’ problem because of being confused.
I am
really astonished that many researchers I had written to cannot accept that
dyslexic children cannot have a phonological awareness
or phonemic problem if these same children can read in many other orthographically consistent languages.