Tuesday, October 15, 2024

Response to Dr Martin Bloomfield’s comment on LinkedIn


 


Dr Martin Bloomfield:

Professor Elliott is extraordinarily well-researched, and it would do you good to pay attention to his, and others', voices.

 

I have paid attention to Professor Elliott and many other researchers. In 2010, I told Professor Elliott and Durham University that I disagreed with what was said about dyslexia. I requested that he read my posts on my blog. He replied that he would.

Then in 2014, he published his book. He either did not understand my blog posts or he did not read them.

If he had researched ‘dyslexia’ (kids who can’t read) for more than 50 years, how does he not know what causes kids to disengage from learning to read? 

Surely, Elliott and you should be able to think about what researchers have said about teaching kids the sounds of letters.

 

The Reading Reform Foundation UK has been working to improve the teaching of reading since 1989. Its website says: ‘Our approach is grounded in extensive research, demonstrating that knowledge of letter-sound correspondences, combined with automatic sounding out and blending skills, are key to word reading. Understanding language is essential too, but it is impossible to understand the language in a text without first reading the words.’


I am sure you know the proverb ‘What is good for the goose is also good for the gander’. This is about your statement, ‘It would do good to pay attention to his and others’ voices.’ 

 

In the Children of the Code, David Boulton said: How much of what they are struggling with is an innate learning problem and how much of what they are struggling with is what they have learned in the past working against them learning now.

 

Dr Martin, did you or Elliott find out what the kids learned in the past that is working against them in learning now? I have been shouting at the top of my voice that the main reason is the wrong teaching of the sounds of letters.

 

Dr Reid Lyon said:

    ‘About five to six percent of those kids have what we call dyslexia or learning disabilities in reading. Ninety-five percent of the kids hitting the wall in learning to read are what we call NBT: Never Been Taught.

    All of these kids that I had tried to teach and who didn’t do well had by nine years of age already begun to avoid the reading process because they couldn’t do it.’

Did either you or Elliott or any other researchers including Reid Lyon find out why the kids avoided the reading process? 

 

I researched over 6 years and listed the reasons in my book in 2018. Get a copy of this book and educate yourself. LINK

 

Siegfried Engelmann Said:

‘For instance, at first, we had them sound out words traditionally. We never permitted "ch-aa-tah” for chat. Unvoiced sounds were unvoiced -- "ch-a-t."

So now we had precise corrections that related to what they had learned earlier. We had a procedure for sounding it out that would reach virtually 100 percent of the kids. So, we could teach even low performers now to take the first step on the ladder. Then they can follow the entire sequence and they can learn at a rate far faster than would have been anticipated.’

 

You said: ‘I'm afraid you have essentially publicly accused me of dangerous ignorance, of incompetence, and of being clueless.’

You suggested that I take my post down.

 

Dr. Martin, you are welcome to comment on my blog post so that those who read your comments may be enlightened. The comments in my blog are not moderated. Anything you post will appear on my blog.

No comments: