In 2010 after having taught more than 20 children, most of
whom were classified as dyslexic, I did not agree with the more than 35 year old
theory that children could not read because of ‘phonological awareness deficit’
(PAD). PAD simply means ‘unable to listen to
spoken sounds’.
I wrote extensively on this in my blog and in any blog that
spoke about PAD as well as to professors who wrote about PAD being a cause of
kids being unable to read. You may read some of my articles on this matter by
searching for ‘Phonological awareness luqman’ and look for articles posted in
2010.
Out of the more than 20 professors I wrote to, only two
professors engaged with me over a few emails and finally both of them said that
I should write a thesis and submit my papers for evaluation.
Does it mean that PAD does not play a role in kids being
unable to read in English?
There are of course kids who cannot read because of
PAD but surely it cannot be all 30% of kids leaving school as illiterates each
year are kids with PAD. Only a small proportion of children classified as
dyslexic will have this problem.
You may read my post on the above at:
When I started writing on PAD in my blog I noticed many
university students visiting my blog articles. After 2015 the theory about PAD being the major cause of
children being unable to read has been debunked by new research reports.
Back in 2010 I also wrote extensively on my findings that a
majority of kids (based on all the kids whom I had successfully taught) who were
classified as dyslexic were in fact
instructional casualties.
Emails to professors and my posts in LinkedIn (a social
network) were questioned with ‘where is your data’, ‘where is the scientific
evidence’, ‘you can’t say that what you had discovered from teaching about 50
kids to apply universally’ and many other comments.
A few days ago I received an email from a teacher friend
from Australia enclosing a Link to a website which is created from what I had
written to the professors.
These are the same professors who had disputed my findings.These are the same professors who had deleted my comments in ‘Children of the Code’ and their personal blog posts.These are the same professors whom I had written emails to in 2010 and again in 2015.
Malaysians should be the ones who should have done a
research on both my findings but the Dean of our University Malaysia Sabah
(UMS) was too busy to meet me for a discussion when I wrote a few emails to him
in 2010.
The above post is prompted by a report on Face Book that our
YB Dr.Maszlee is looking into some matters brought to him on Dyslexia.
- I have written 2 emails and 3 messages to Dr. Maszlee since May 21 and am still awaiting a response.
- I have also written two emails to YB Jen Lasimbang who has promised to contact me after her committee has been formed.
- I am also waiting for a response from YB Teo Nie Ching our deputy education minister to whom I wrote an email and on messenger on 3.7.2018.
- I had also written to YB VK Liew our minister in charge of law and hope I get to meet him soon.
- Let us endeavour to reduce illiteracy if not eradicate it altogether.
Related posts from my blog:
1 comment:
I wrote the post above yesterday for posting today.Coincidentally I received an article in my in-box this morning. I made a comment in the comment section but have yet to see the comment published.
I had copied my comment and will post it in my next blog post.Look out for it.
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