Now, let us look at Timothy Shanahan's blog in 2015 – that is 5 years after my emails to all the experts who echoed what one guy told the world more than 35 years ago.
He said that phonological awareness deficit is the cause of dyslexia.
Timothy Shanahan:
“The term dyslexia has been, justifiably, controversial, and has consequently been avoided by most reading educators—including me.
There are scads of studies revealing that dyslexia is phonological in nature. That is, students with this disorder have a particularly difficult time perceiving phonemes and coordinating this perception with the letters on the page.
…. NICHD research suggests that when elementary kids have reading problems, they tend to have problems with phonological awareness and decoding about 86% of the time.”
The above was stated in Timothy's blog post 2015.
What does Timothy Shanahan say in September 2017 in his blog above? (Revision of his 2015 blog post)
“This explanation of dyslexia seems especially pertinent …. and the only thing I would change in it now is the estimate of the phonological/phonemic awareness role in reading problems. There are some more recent data in relatively large studies suggesting a somewhat lower incidence of these problems at least with some populations; that wouldn't change the overall thrust of this much, but it would be, perhaps, more accurate.”
In 2015 I explained to Timothy why a phonological awareness deficit cannot be the cause of dyslexia. All my dyslexic students could read in Malay and those who went to vernacular schools could read in Pinyin.
Why does one need research reports before accepting logical explanations like I have provided?
The scads of studies he is referring to could be echoes of one person who had decided that phonological awareness deficit is the cause of dyslexia.
This is why I don’t accept research reports without thinking if they are reasonable.
Note:
Timothy Shanahan is Distinguished Professor Emeritus at the University of Illinois at Chicago where he was Founding Director of the UIC Center for Literacy. Previously, he was director of reading for the Chicago Public Schools. He is author/editor of more than 300 publications on literacy education. His research emphasizes the improvement of reading achievement, teaching reading with challenging text, reading-writing relationships, the and disciplinary literacy.
Tim is past president of the International Literacy Association. He served as a member of the Advisory Board of the National Institute for Literacy under Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama, and he helped lead the National Reading Panel, convened at the request of Congress to evaluate research on the teaching reading, a major influence on reading education. He chaired two other federal research review panels: the National Literacy Panel for Language Minority Children and Youth, and the National Early Literacy Panel, and helped write the Common Core State Standards.
He was inducted to the Reading Hall of Fame in 2007, and is a former first-grade teacher.
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