The following is an email from someone I met through a chat group. She contacted me and asked if I could help to teach her grandchildren.
I would like to thank Michel Luqman for all he has done to help my grandson Aidan who is 11 years old has an IEP with Dyslexia and was reading at a 3rd grade level and my granddaughter Lyla who is 8 years old and reading at a 1st grade or below level. Both my grandkids live in Arizona and I am in California.
What reading research (the science of reading) has shown is that there are no differences in outcomes among the various approaches to teaching phonics and that a “one-size-fits-all” approach is not effective. (Dr. Sam Bommarito)
I have written several posts on the importance of teaching the correct sounds represented by letters.
Many of the teachers/ educators say that it is impossible to teach the sounds of consonants without extraneous sounds. They refuse to correct themselves when videos pronouncing the sounds correctly is produced.
One guy says 'one size does not fit all' and everyone who reads that statement repeat it without the slightest bit of thought. They use this as an excuse for the reading levels maintained for the past more than 30 years.
Now, listen to the video clip here which teaches the correct pronunciation. There will be no kid left behind if teachers teach the pronunciation of sounds represented by letters in this manner.
I wrote to APM reports on their article 'How American schools fail kids with dyslexia’ dated 11.9.2017.
Their website says,
APM Reports strives to raise awareness, trigger debate and prompt positive change via non-partisan, independent investigative and documentary journalism.
The following is my email to APM Reports dated 11.9.2017
On 19.2.2023 a lady from San Francisco messaged me on FB messenger. She said that she saw my post on a chat site and liked what I said about teaching dyslexic kids. She added that she is looking for help as the school system has no idea how to teach her 11-year-old grandson.
She told me how her grandson sounded out the sounds represented by the letters and I knew that that was the problem with him not being able to read.
We exchanged WhatsApp numbers and soon after started to get her to follow my lessons on my blog.
She taught her grandson how to read and how to memorise the Dolch words following my blog posts and my YouTube videos.
When educators cannot respond to my questions they ask me for ‘data’ and ‘peer reviewed’ reports.
Dr. Katherine Garforth Twitted the following:
“I have a long list of papers & books to read that are peer-reviewed and published. I would be happy to read your posts if you pay me for my time.’ (Dr. Katherine Garforth).
What Greg Ashman wrote in his post is relevant:
‘…peer review is a relatively new idea. Pretty much all of the science we teach in school was developed in the absence of peer review and so to insist that it is a fundamental component of the scientific method is stretching things somewhat.’
On 23rd May, 2018 Emina McLean @EminaMcLean Twitted the following:
If a child memorises ten words, the child can only read ten words, but if the child learns the sounds of ten letters, the child will be able to read 350 three sound words, 4,320 four sound words and 21,650 five sound words (Kozloff, 2002).
Luqman Michel:
Where did you get this nonsense from?
There was no reply.
Dyslexia Georgia @DyslexiaGeorgia
Twitted the same thing as Emina McLean.
Dyslexia Georgia has more than 1,400 followers and its website says, ‘The Children’s Dyslexia Center of Georgia, you will be taught by extremely qualified faculty members with many years of experience and expertise in Dyslexia.’
The following is a tweet by Dr. Sam.
What works for one child doesn’t always work for another child.
In the history of reading MANY have claimed to have found the answer – in the end their answers worked for some not all the kids.
“Let’s use common sense to find common ground.” Let’s recognize that what works with one child doesn’t always work with another.
Luqman Michel @luqmanmichel May 4
Dr. You are asking for something that does not exist in most people - common sense.
If common sense is common, then why have we been debating for decades without reaching a consensus?
I have said this before and say it again that Dr. Sam is one of a handful of educators that I have high a regard for.
Here is my explanation of why I said that common sense does not exist in most people.
How does a deaf person learn to read just as well as one who can hear?
Read the comment section of my post on ‘How the brain learns to read' – Dehaene Stanislas.
Here is another account by another deaf person who is able to read. This should put paid to Dehaene’s theory which says the following:
Reading requires specializing the visual system for the shapes of the letters, and connecting them to speech sounds.
Teaching letter-sound correspondences is therefore essential.
I have repeated several time for you to think rather than accepting whatever is said by so called experts such as Sally Shaywitz, Dehaene Stanislas, Andy Johnson, Timothy Shanahan, David Boulton, Sharon Vaughn and many others.
