Reading Reform Foundation and Dr. Marlynne Grant (Part 2)

 

Here are extracts of the response by Dr. Marlynne to British Dyslexia Association and my comments.

Marlynne:

There are longitudinal studies of 11 years, with about 700 children, which demonstrate that dyslexia does not develop when children begin with a good SSP programme and when children who fall behind are identified early and given extra practice and teaching with SSP in order to keep up. Not a single child in these studies developed severe literacy difficulties. (See Grant, M (2014)

My comment:

I believe it is an exaggeration to say that ‘dyslexia does not develop when children begin with a good SSP programme’. Any child taught the pronunciation of sounds of letters correctly from the onset will not develop reading difficulties. From my emails to both RRF and BDA it would appear that neither one wants to eradicate or even reduce illiteracy as ‘dyslexia’ is a money spinner. Why kill the goose that lays the golden eggs?

Marlynne:

 

I challenge the assertion of these campaigners that there is ‘substantial evidence spanning 35 years which demonstrates that up to 25% of children cannot learn to read just by learning phonics including most children with dyslexia and other specific learning difficulties’. This is just not true.

 

My comment:

 

This challenge appears to clash with what another committee member of RRF, Sue Lloyd, had informed me. She said, “On average, about a quarter of children find learning to read difficult.” (LINK)

If the teachers are proficient SSP teachers, then there is no possibility of these kids disengaging from learning to read. It is either some of the teachers are teaching sounds represented by letters with an extraneous sounds or the kids had learned the bad habit by listening to TV programmes like ‘Charlie and the Alphabet’ produced and aired in the UK and more than 100 countries worldwide. Let us not forget that it was RRF that said that the sounds of letters in that TV programme was not that great but did nothing about it. As far as I am concerned it is of paramount importance that the pronunciation of sounds of letters are taught correctly. This is the basic reason why many kids are unable to read. Does Dr. Marlynne, BDA or RRF disagree with me?

 

Is RRF really ‘dedicated to campaigning for better teaching of reading in the English language’ as stated in their website or are they just promoting their products?

 

If they are interested in promoting better teaching why would these committee members misrepresent by stating on my posts that sight words are taught by visual memory? Who in the world teach sight words to be learned by global shape? Read my post here on what Debbie Hepplewhite, another member of RRF said. 

Marlynne:

 

I would urge people (educationalists, parents, etc.) not to sign the BDA petition calling upon the government to revise their policy on teaching SSP, as the sole method to teach reading. 

 

My comment:

 

I will not recommend SSP as the sole method as it has not produced the requisite results. On the other hand, I don’t trust BDA either. BDA is there is to place anyone who cannot read as dyslexic and milk the poor parents for its own benefit. My first emails to Dyslexia Associations was written in 2010. Here is one such email which is a must read to see what the Dyslexia Association is capable of doing.

The chickens have come home to roost.