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.
Here is the Mission Statement of NOD
Every child should have the opportunity to learn to read and write. Where there is a learning disability/difference, access to appropriate methodologies must be available. NOD Malaysia wants to make possible a Malaysia where no child drops out of school because she/he cannot read or write. Shaywitz, MD, says almost everyone can overcome Dyslexia, Federman ,MD, Harvard Medical School (2005).
There is a further quotation as follows:
“NOD Malaysia wants to make possible a
Malaysia where no child drops out of school because she/he cannot read or
write.”
My comment: If NOD “wants no child to drop
out of school because he/she cannot read or write” why wouldn’t its president
respond to my article on Star Online?
I have decided to take in a few students
this year and video tape their progress from the first lesson to prove that initial input (Thorndike 1913) is extremely important to
all kids generally and specifically to kids predisposed to shutting down.
A majority of kids who end up in
remediation classes and are classified as dyslexic are in fact instructional
casualties. They shut down from learning to read because they are taught sounds
of alphabets wrong. Many schools all over the world are teaching kids the wrong
sounds of alphabets and they disengage from learning to read.
Here is a video clip that I happened to see
on the internet. See how adamant that
kid is. She had learned the wrong way of counting from someone and now refuses
to listen to her mom and dad. This is exactly what happens to kids predisposed
to shutting down who are taught wrong sounds of alphabets.
These kids stand their ground and will shut
down from further learning until they realize that what they had learned
initially is wrong.
Note: As for Sally
Shaywitz, MD, she is the one who wrote a long article in the Yale
website on phonological awareness deficit being the cause of dyslexia. I wrote
a lengthy comment which was subsequently deleted by the administration of that
website.
I wrote several emails to her and did not
get any response.
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