The root cause of children being unable to read - Part 1

 

The following is a dialogue between Ethan Lynn and me on LinkedIn. I am copying the main points here for posterity.

Ethan Lynn, PhD Illiteracy Eradicator | Published Researcher

Thanks for sharing your thoughts. This is my first 'negative' feedback, and I appreciate you taking the time to engage.

That said, I'm unclear on your main points and what specifically you disagree with. We might be talking past each other, and I don’t think we differ as much as your comments suggest.

I’m always open to meaningful, constructive dialogue, but I’m not sure what your aim is here.

My goal is to collaborate, not contend, and I feel like this particular discussion might be missing that mark.

Luqman Michel Author

Sorry if I have given you the wrong impression. I stopped working in the accounting field in 2004 at 52 to research why kids could read in Malay and Pinyin but not in English.

It took me 5 years to convince many educators that phonological awareness deficit was not the cause of 'dyslexia' - a term wrongly used on all kids who cannot read.

Why can kids read in many transparent languages but not in English? Is it because of PAD? If so, are we saying that we don't need PA to read in transparent languages?

My aim here is to get educators to accept that kids disengage /shut down from learning to read because of teaching the sounds of consonants wrongly.

These are the kids who are then classified as dyslexic.

Why can't we find out the kids who can't read at grade level by the end of grade 1?

Your answers to these questions will be the beginning of a constructive discussion.

Note: If I were a researcher or someone interested in collaborating as Ethan says, I would ask: ‘Luqman, what did you discover in your research? Why are kids able to read in Malay and Hanyu Pinyin but not in English. All the three languages use the same letters of the alphabet don’t they?’

Ethan Lynn, PhD

Are you saying that the root cause of children being identified as dyslexic (and even by extension reading difficulties) is the incorrect teaching of phonemes by teachers? That then causes students to shut down. I want to make sure I'm understanding your point of view.

Note: I hope he buys a copy of Shut Down Kids and educates himself on the root cause of reading difficulties. As mentioned, I am talking only about decoding which is the first step to reading.

Let us see if he comes up with anything in my book that he disagrees with.