Dr.Reuven Feaustein – Logical thinking

I connected with someone on LinkedIn just a little more than a year ago. I made a comment in one of her posts a few days ago and I pray this will open up her mind to the possibility that she may have been misled into believing that phonological awareness deficit is one of the main causes of kids being unable to read.

Pinching a child and then rocking the child to sleep

Here is a Tamil proverb: "Pillaiya killi vittu, thottila aatradhu", meaning, "Pinching a child and then rocking the child to sleep.

The Western world has created major issues facing a majority of the children predisposed to shutting down from learning to read.

AND, they have even coined the word Dyslexia for such kids.

Zack Barnes and Dyslexia

In the article I posted earlier this week, Zack Barnes Ph.D. was said to have made some comments as below.

But Zack Barnes, an assistant professor of education at Austin Peay State University in Tennessee, says that the research is clear that dyslexic students need systematic, explicit phonics instruction.

Who are these dyslexic students? To lump each and every student who cannot read in English as dyslexic is what those with vested interest have been doing for the past more than 50 years.

Richard Allington and dyslexia

In a special report on Education Week Teacher by Sarah Schwartz on December 11, 2019 was an article entitled:

ProminentLiteracy Expert Denies Dyslexia Exists; Says to 'Shoot' Whoever Wrote Law on It.

Here are some extracts and my comments:

Looking at dyslexia with a jaundiced eye

To look at something with a jaundiced eye means to look upon something with prejudice, usually in a cynical or negative way. The word jaundice is an adjective that means showing distaste, envy or bitterness.

Any human being who thinks that what he does not know cannot exist is wearing the crown of ignorance.

Understanding Dyslexia - MindShift

    

         

The Western world is not interested in finding simple solutions to helping children who have shut down from learning to read in English. They want to make it as complicated as possible so that they can make money. Why kill the Golden goose!

A talk to teachers and parents of a kindergarten

The President, Rotarian Stephen Siaw of the Rotary Club of Luyang made arrangements for me to give a talk to parents and teachers of kindergarten kids in a kindergarten in Menggatal, Sabah.

The talk was held on 22.11.2019. Here are a few of the many photographs taken by President Stephen Siaw.

Suicidal tendencies

Yesterday, a friend from the USA wrote a post on FB on suicidal tendencies.

The following is what I read from the internet after I had finished reading the post by my friend.

Wilful Blindness - A revisit

Yesterday, while surfing the internet I came across the word wilful blindness. 

Most of the ‘educated’ professors in UK as well as the USA and Australia, I have dealt with, simply cannot accept that a majority of children classified as dyslexic are actually shut down kids who shut down due to wrong teaching.

Rotary Community Corps & Shut Down Kids

A Rotary Community Corps is a group of non-Rotarians who share Rotary’s commitment to changing the world through service projects.

RCC members plan and carry out projects in their communities and support local Rotary club projects.

Free lessons for Shut Down Kids

I had prepared lessons for my students and had them posted in my blog in 2010. Unfortunately, the service provider, File Den, disappeared without any notice and I lost all my lessons on the internet.

Fortunately, I had printed and saved the hard copies.

With the help of a friend in Rotary Club Luyang we have now produced the book which is available free of charge.

Sounds of letters

The video clip below was sent to me by a teacher whom I spoke to about how sounds of letters of the alphabet are taught in schools. This is how most schools in Malaysia teach the sound of the letters.


https://youtu.be/f-lnIXt5i34

Spelling options for /k/

On 14.3.2019 I gave a presentation to 13 kindergarten teachers in a school in Kota Kinabalu. This is my 3^rd presentation to schools and the first to a kindergarten.

The head teacher had collected questions from the other teachers and asked me many questions and the Q&A session went on for more than an hour.

Notes for parents and teachers (Part2)

I regret that the uploading of my book on the internet will be a little delayed as we are having a little problem with sound recording.

Meanwhile here is part two of 'Notes to parents and teachers' which will be part of the book.

Notes for parents and teachers (Part 1)

                                                                   

Is phonics still taught?

The short answer is no or at least in most instances phonics is not taught correctly. The main reason is that few teachers are trained or equipped to teach phonics. Most schools that teach phonics add extraneous sounds to consonants which leads to about 20 to 30 percent of children predisposed to shutting down to disengage from learning to read. 

Teach your child to read

Here is the preface to my book which I hope to upload onto the internet by next month at the latest.

A majority of children are wrongly classified as dyslexics when in fact they are instructional casualties. Many smart children who are predisposed to shutting down will disengage from learning to read when they have been taught wrong sounds of the alphabet.

Early input

Here are excerpts I collected from the internet on early learning.

Simply put, a child’s early years lay the foundation for all that is to come. In recent years, researchers have learned that the human brain develops the vast majority of its neurons, and is at its most receptive to learning, between birth and three years of age.

Sight words – My first student for 2019 (Part 2)

Yesterday was the 7^th lesson for my first student,Emmanuel,  for 2019. He has now memorised 57 sight words and has been taught to read many words using phonics. Listen to the 2 YouTube videos below.

My first student for 2019 - Psychological Assessment

On 5.1.2019, a father brought his primary 4 son to me for tuition. He has been diagnosed as a dyslexic by Dr. Fauziah of Gleneagles hospital in Kota Kinabalu. His psychological assessment report done in January this year says that he is ‘strongly at risk of having dyslexia’. 

The report further says that there are five signs of dyslexia, namely: - At Risk Quotient (ARQ) is 2.2 - Strongly at risk; - Spiky skills profile; - Weak literacy (mean 1.25 - in the lowest 5 percent). - Discrepancy of 2 points between fluid IQ and phonological skills - Weak phonological skill (mean 1 - in the lowest 5 percent).

I told the father that I can get the boy to read within 4 months of 3 one hour lesson per week. How do I dare say such a thing when he has been diagnosed as a dyslexic with weak phonological skill?

Read one of my articles on phonological skill at

 http://www.dyslexiafriend.com/2017/10/drjoe-torgesen-vs-luqman-michel.html

Let us together observe his progress. Today – 27.1.2019 will be his 7^th lesson with me. I shall record what he reads today and post it here for you to see. I will take one sentence each from his lessons learned to-date and see how he reads.

Meanwhile, please read the story of my two students last year (primary 3 and 5) who were diagnosed as dyslexic and requested by the dyslexia association to go for therapy in Kuala Lumpur for 3 months.

https://luqmantestimonial.blogspot.com/2018/09/my-current-students-isaac-and-arianna.html

Info-Communication Media Development Authority (IMDA) -Singapore

I wrote several emails to the MOE of Singapore, the ministry of communication and information and both passed my email to Info-Communication Media Development Authority (IMDA). Earlier, MOE had asked me to contact the producers of the TV programme – Baby TV-. 

Critical Thinking (Part 3)

Here is an email to the CJ of Sarawak and Sabah. Please read the attachments below the email. Let us use this to have a discussion on critical thinking. Let us share all our thoughts on  the following matter. Write whatever comes to mind.

14.1.2019

Dear Chief Judge Datuk David Wong Dak Wah,

Request for sealed judgment

I have tried in vain to get a copy of the sealed judgment from the High Court here in Kota Kinabalu.

I would be grateful if you could please let me know what I can or should do to get hold of the sealed judgment of a case I was involved in.

‘When government is wrong, it is dangerous to be right’ (Voltaire)

I have been writing to Reading Reform Foundation of UK of which Mona McNee is the founder.

Here are a few extracts of emails from Mona to me in 2015. Read it carefully and it may explain why no one wants to discuss why many smart kids are unable to read.

“I am 92 next month and failing daily -eye sight, and have been deaf for 60 years so now I merely exist. 

Thank you for your help. Keep fighting for phonics based on 26 letters>sounds which works for all.”

 “I am delighted to hear of your fight.

Remember I myself thought it was just look-say vs phonics. The Evils behind all this must be very clever.”

My comment: I stopped writing to the lady above in 2015 because she was almost blind and I did not want to burden her.

Critical thinking (Part 2)

“Surely, Scott must be aware of Finkel’s views and yet he has made no attempt to counter or rebut them.” (Greg Ashman)

The above comes as no surprise to me.

Other than the three professors no one attempted to counter or rebut my posts on my blog, Face Book or on LinkedIn.

Response to Critical thinking - Greg Ashman (Part 1)

The following is in response to an article in a Blog post byGreg Ashman

In the article above Greg said:

“You need to know a lot of stuff in order to think critically about it. It is daft to set these up in opposition. As cognitive scientist Dan Willingham suggests, a child can think critically about something she knows about and a trained scientist can fail to think critically about something she does not know about."

The National Organisation for Dyslexia AND Dyslexia Association

In my article on 3.11.2018 in response to The National Organisation for Dyslexia Malaysia’s (NOD) article in the Star Online dated 4.10.2018 I had said;

"New learning builds on previous learning. The kids who are prone to shutting down cannot transfer what they have newly learned unless they truly understand what they are learning and connect them with what they have learned."

The president of NOD, Dr. Mullai A Ramniah, did not respond.

Ministry of Communications and Multimedia - MCMM (in Malay KKMM) Malaysia

I wrote several emails to out Ministry of Education and have yet to receive any response.

I then wrote to our Minister Tuan Gobind Singh Deo and his team at Ministry of Communications and Multimedia (KKMM) on 22.10.2018. 

Not receiving any reply I wrote again on 22.11.2018 (one month after my first email).

Finally on 10.12.2018 I received a reply from Ministry of Multimedia and Communication apologizing for the late response and saying that they have forwarded the email to the party concerned which I believe is Astro.