Teaching reading to 'learning disabled' children - Educhatter

 

This morning (11.7.2023) I read a post on Educhatter. The following extract is of interest.

“Teaching Reading to Learning Disabled Children: A Fourth Approach.”

“Learning disabled children,” Bateman claimed, “have certain characteristics which require very precise and careful teaching of coding if they are to achieve mastery of initial reading skills.”  Long before other researchers, she surveyed the “phenomenal growth” in the field of special education and was troubled by the imprecise definition of what constituted “learning disabilities.” Challenging the traditionalist view of reading and learning disabilities, Bateman claimed that the overriding assumption that “students who read poorly must themselves be deficient” needed to be re-examined and the possibility that “reading instruction was inadequate” given serious consideration. (Dr. Barbara D. Bateman 1976)

That declaratory statement was made in April 1976. What have our educators/ researchers done about it? 

Is it learning disabled or teaching disabled?

This is what I have been saying since 2010. The sounds represented by letters should be taught precisely if they are to achieve mastery of initial learning skills.

Yes, another thing I have been saying since 2010 is “students who read poorly must themselves be deficient” needs to be re-examined.

It is not the kids but the teachers who teach wrongly that is the problem. The educators on social media are also the culprits who keep insisting that sounds represented by letters cannot be taught without extraneous sounds. There are those who argue that many kids are able to read despite being taught sounds represented by letters with extraneous sounds, therefore it cannot be teaching sounds with extraneous sounds that is the problem. They cannot accept the fact that a majority of kids learn to read by figuring it out themselves.

We should be concerned about those kids who do not figure out, how to read and leave school as illiterates. These are usually the smart kids who disengage/ shut down from learning to read.

Yes, it is the reading instructions that is inadequate.