“Ten times the number of kids who have innately biologically ordered learning difficulties have learning difficulties that are a consequence of what they learned.” — Dr. David Boulton
For years, I’ve taught children labeled as dyslexic—children who were disengaged, confused, and often branded as lazy or stupid. But what I’ve seen in my one-on-one sessions tells a different story. These children aren’t broken. They’re confused. And that confusion is often caused by how they were taught to read.
Take one of my earliest students. She read the word “ox” with ease. But when I asked her to repeat “fox,” she froze. Silent. Staring. Her mind shut down. Later, I discovered she had been taught that the letter F sounds like “fuh.” To her, “fox” should have been “fuh-ox.” The mismatch between what she was taught and what she heard triggered cognitive dissonance—and disengagement.
This isn’t an isolated case. I’ve seen it repeatedly:
Children stumble on “put” after mastering “cut,” “gut,” and “nut.”
They freeze at “A cat” after breezing through “bat,” “fat,” and “mat.”
They ask why “was” isn’t spelled “wos,” or why “station” doesn’t follow the logic of “on.”
These aren’t signs of disability. They’re signs of confusion. And when confusion isn’t addressed, children shut down. They lose confidence, act out, and fall into a downward spiral of shame and failure.
Most phonics programs teach letter sounds with added schwas (extraneous sounds) —“buh” for B, “muh” for M. This distorts the phonemic foundation children need. It’s like laying bricks on sand. Without a solid base, the wall collapses.
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