Blocked on Twitter by Melanie Brethour @melbrethour

Melanie’s Twitter profile says:

Founder Decoding Dyslexia QUEBEC. SOAR WITH DYSLEXIA #CERI Structured Literacy Teacher. #OGA Mother to an amazing #dyslexic. Spreading awareness #dyslexia #sor

I clicked ‘like’ on many of her posts and it was accepted by her. However, when I queried her on some things that were wrong she blocked me.

I find many dyslexia proponents block me when they can’t answer questions.

This is a big disservice to desperate parents of dyslexic kids. 

Here are two questions I posed that she could not answer and therefore decided to block me.

Apr 4 Luqman Michel @luqmanmichel

Who is/are the researcher/s who said that kids should not be asked to memorise HFW?

Apr 5 Replying to @luqmanmichel and @melbrethour

You are so gullible to believe that learning 10 sounds of letters enable kids to read about 26,000 words.

Please give me the 10 letter sounds and the 26,000 words.

Explanation:

Edward Dolch in the 1930’s had figured out that about 50 to 70 % of all words in a child’s book consists of 220 words (now called Dolch words). They comprise of words such as on, at, in, the, that, with, them, they etc. These are called High Frequency Words.

If a child can read up to 70% of his book by rote memorising 220 words, out of thousands of words, does it not make sense to get them to memorise them? They not only can read these words but will be able to write these words correctly in essays.

I have taught a 11-year-old girl in Kenya to memorise the 220 words and thereby get more than 50 marks for her essays and pass her tests. This boosted her self-esteem and was a happier child in school. Read my post on my Kenya student here. Here is part 2 which is equally important.

The dyslexia advocates say that instead of memorising the 220 words just learn the sounds of 10 letters and one will be able to read 26,000 words.

This statement that learning 10 sounds of letters enables a child to read 26,000 words is repeated by many so-called educators on Social Media.

This is how gullible readers have become. A little thought will tell us that that cannot be true.

Read my post on this here.