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.

Does Zack Barnes know how Phonics is taught around the world? Neither he nor Richard Allington knows how Phonics should be taught. It is taught wrongly in most schools around the world. How does one teach systematic and explicit Phonics instruction when most teachers do not even know the sounds of the letters?

Barnes said, in an interview. "But those students also do need that skill practice, because the research is clear on the importance those early reading skills have on later reading achievement."

Yes, initial input is very important for all students and especially so for those who are predisposed to shutting down. This is what is lacking in schools around the world. People with vested interest produce websites and television programmes that teach the wrong sounds of letters of the alphabet. AND when kids predisposed to shutting down do shut down from learning to read, due to confusion, the children are classified as dyslexic.

"He (Richard Allington) has been speaking for years about how dyslexia is a myth and is not real, and I think those comments are very harmful and shouldn't be spoken in front of these teachers,…”

Dyslexia is a myth and is perpetuated by people with a vested interest. As mentioned in my blog – Dyslexia is a multi-million dollar business.

Why does Zack Barnes think that those comments should not be spoken in front of teachers? Who should Richard Allington speak to?

Richard Allington has been fighting an uphill battle with the ‘Big boys’ who are only interested in Big Money and not the least bit interested in reducing illiteracy.

Zack Barnes, is joining the herd without knowing head or tail about why kids disengage from learning to read.