The Real Barrier Isn’t a Phonics Gap—It’s a Clarity Gap

                                                                      

Here is my response to a Substack post on decodables. 

While it’s true that not all struggling readers have the same needs, the statement “many struggling readers have phonics gaps” significantly understates the real issue for a large proportion of children.

 

After leaving a career in accounting in 2004 to investigate why some children read easily in Malay (a transparent orthography) but struggle severely in English, I found that the primary barrier for most persistent struggling readers is not a lack of phonics instruction per se, but the initial confusion caused by imprecise or inconsistent teaching of letter–sound relationships.

Part 2: The Reading Guarantee – Bold Vision or Missing Step?

 

We're back with the literacy showdown. As Hunter pushes structured literacy to rescue Australia's readers, Luqman tags her from the trenches. Can policy catch up to practice?

October 2024: Hunter escalated with her Grattan manifesto, slamming the 1970s "whole-language" hangover – where kids guess words from context – for leaving a third of Year 5s unable to decode proficiently. 

Evening News: Spotlight on Jordana Hunter – Australia's Literacy Wake-Up Call

                                                                 

Good evening, and welcome to Evening News. In a nation where one in three children battles to read proficiently, the stakes couldn't be higher: disengagement, behavioral issues, and a lifetime of barriers. Leading the charge is Jordana Hunter, Education Program Director at the Grattan Institute, whose data-driven pleas for reform are shaking up classrooms. But as her blueprint gains traction, voices from the frontlines – like veteran educator Luqman Michel  question if it's addressing the real flaws in how we teach. Tonight, we unpack the crisis, from stark NAPLAN gaps to a bold "Reading Guarantee," weaving in key insights from blogs, reports, and a tweet that's gone viral in edutwitter circles. Our story starts with a preventable national shame.

From Literacy to Justice: Stand With Me Against Dyslexia & Corruption

 

Support Luqman’s fight for children’s right to read and his battle to expose corruption in Sabah

 

Dear friends, readers, and fellow advocates for justice,

 

For years, I’ve dedicated myself to freeing young minds from the struggles of dyslexia. Many children I’ve taught—often at no cost—have gone from frustration to joy as words unlocked worlds they once thought closed. My book, Teach Your Child toRead, is more than just pages; it’s a lifeline for parents and schools, offering simple, effective strategies to help children read with confidence. Hundreds of copies have been distributed freely to families, educators, and schools, because literacy should never be a privilege—it’s a right.

Teaching Phonics Without the “Buh”: A Practical Guide for Educators

 

In our main post, we challenged the dominant narrative that children struggle to read because they lack phonemic awareness. We argued that many children already possess strong phonemic skills, and that the real barrier is distorted phonics instruction—especially the widespread habit of teaching consonants with added schwa vowels (e.g., b as “buh”).

 

This companion post offers practical strategies to fix that.

Phonemic Awareness Hype: Why the Real Problem Isn’t in the Child’s Brain

 

Across the Western world, educators and researchers increasingly claim that children struggle to read because they lack phonemic awareness—the ability to identify, isolate, and manipulate individual sounds in spoken words. This idea has become the cornerstone of reading interventions, teacher training, and curriculum design. But what if the problem isn’t in the child’s brain at all?

Do Kids Really Stop Learning to Read After Third Grade?

 

This morning I read a post in The 74 entitled: Do Kids Really Stop Learning to Read and Start Reading to Learn After Third Grade?

 

As usual, here are some extracts and my comments.

 

The Myth Repeated

I have read what the title says over and over again for years. Someone said it once, and every other person copy-pastes it across social media.

The Hype About Phonological Awareness: Clearing the Path to Real Reading

 

This morning I came across two tweets that highlight the ongoing confusion in literacy instruction.

 

Waveofthefuture (@Sustain_VA) wrote:

 

“Phonics can be a tool for the simplest words and should be used in the beginning. But English is not a phonetic language unfortunately so it’s a very limited tool. Don’t believe me? Try to read your own tweets using basic phonics as if you didn’t already know those words.”

 

And Robert Pondiscio (@rpondiscio) tweet:

The Reading Debate That's Missing the Point

                                             

Why Kids Shut Down (And How to Fix It Without the Drama)

For weeks now, I’ve been in an ongoing exchange with @NielsHoven on X about phonics, dyslexia, and why so many bright kids end up hating reading. We agree on the fundamentals—phonics works. Full stop. Yet the conversation keeps looping, not because of disagreement, but because people refuse to click and read the links I provide. So let me lay it out clearly, using only my own words and the blog posts I keep referencing.

 

Greg Ashman is Winning the Battle but Losing the War Part Two

 

The Fatal Blind Spot in Phonics

 

The Giant Hole Nobody Talks About

Greg, like almost every phonics advocate in the English‑speaking world, believes the main problem is that teachers are not being explicit enough.

 

I argue the opposite: teachers are being explicit about the wrong sounds.

Greg Ashman is Winning the Battle but Losing the War - Part 1

 

The reading wars are full of loud voices, confident claims, and endless debates about “what works.” One of the loudest is Greg Ashman, deputy principal in Australia and champion of explicit teaching. His tweets and articles win applause from teachers who are tired of trendy distractions. But beneath the surface, something vital is being missed.

 

This two‑part series takes a plain‑English look at Ashman’s arguments — where he is right, where he is dangerously wrong, and why children keep failing to read despite all the research and rhetoric.

The Bopomofo Shadow Over Pinyin

 

Why China's Kids Are Shutting Down from Reading—and How to Fix It

As a dyslexia advocate who's spent over a decade battling misdiagnoses and flawed teaching methods, I've seen firsthand how "curious, intelligent kids" get labeled as broken when they're just confused. In English phonics, we add extraneous sounds like "buh" for B, turning bright minds into shutdown cases. Now, imagine that same error infiltrating Mandarin's gateway: Hanyu Pinyin. Across my recent posts, a pattern emerges—many Mainland China schools are teaching Pinyin not as the clean, syllable-based bridge it was designed to be, but corrupted by Bopomofo (Zhuyin Fuhao) initial sounds from Taiwan. This isn't just a phonetic hiccup; it's a literacy crisis misdiagnosed as dyslexia, affecting millions and stifling China's next generation of innovators.

The Core Problem: Extraneous Sounds That Don't Add Up

Why So Many Kids Struggle with Reading

                                                               

 

Today I viewed a YouTube video which said that reading is not natural. Read the rest below:

Why So Many Kids Struggle with Reading (And What Needs to Change). For decades, we’ve been teaching reading the wrong way—and the consequences are clear. According to the 2024 National Assessment of Educational Progress, 40% of fourth graders in the U.S. are performing below basic reading levels. While some progress has been made, the reality is that many children are still falling through the cracks.

In this video, I explore:

Why do educators ask questions but not respond to questions asked?

 

I saw a post by Larissa Phillips @larissaphillip today 22^nd November 2025 and tweeted her.

Larissa:

Phonics-skeptics fuss over this sort of thing, but the majority of low-skilled readers who come to my adult literacy program can’t decode or encode even three-sound words that they don’t know. They can’t read words like rad or tot or zig-zag.

Couldn’t we all agree that it would be helpful to be able decode the 50-85% of English words that ARE phonetically predictable? Or do they propose just guessing on all of them?

I wish they’d talk to the people who are affected by this inability.

I can tell you exactly what they would say because I hear it all the time: “Why didn’t anyone teach me this?”

This was my response:

Evening News: Greg Ashman and the Silence of Educators

 

Preface to the Greg Ashman Series

This Evening News series examines the writings and claims of Greg Ashman, an educator whose views on literacy and reading instruction have gained attention in Australia and beyond. I have chosen to respond to his posts not because he is my adversary, but because he represents a wider pattern in education: confident assertions made without confronting the real reasons children fail to read.

Do Learning Styles Really Exist?

 

Lately, I’ve noticed a troubling resurgence of the learning styles myth—so this post couldn’t be more timely.

 

Why the Learning Styles Myth Persists

Intuitive appeal: It feels right. People are different, so it seems logical that matching teaching to a learner’s “style” would help. But feeling right isn’t the same as being true.

 

Evening News Special: Exposing the Dyslexia Industry's Silent Guardians – Part 2

 

Martin Bloomfield's Wake-Up Call and the Evasive Echo Chamber

If Julian Elliott is the evasive maestro, Dr. Martin Bloomfield is the unwitting spotlight – shining light on the dyslexia farce without realizing it. In his 2024 interview with Elliott, Bloomfield probes the "dyslexic" label's ghosts, only to get half-answers that circle back to square one. But here's the rub: After decades of "research," why are these pros still asking basic questions? In this Evening News follow-up, we dissect Bloomfield's chat, spotlight the dodges, and call out the broader academic blackout. Educators who won't reply aren't just rude – they're roadblocks to literacy for millions. Buckle up; the con unravels further.

Not All Emotions Foster Learning

 

We often hear the claim: “All emotions foster learning.” It sounds appealing, almost romantic. But is it true? My experience with children who struggle to read tells me otherwise.

 

Emotions are deeply intertwined with how we learn. They shape attention, memory, and motivation. Yet not all emotions pull their weight in a helpful way. Some emotions—curiosity, joy, pride—open the mind and expand learning. Others—fear, shame, despair—shut it down.

Evening News Special: Exposing the Dyslexia Industry’s Silent Guardians Part 1

 

Julian Elliott’s Decade of Dodging the Truth

 

🎭 The Master of Evasion

In the lucrative world of dyslexia research, where labels fuel billion‑dollar programs and “special interventions,” one figure has perfected the art of sidestep: Professor Julian Elliott. For more than a decade, Elliott has danced around the real reasons children struggle to read — and the silence from his peers is just as telling.

 

He admits dyslexia is “a severe and persistent problem with reading.” Fair enough. But if that’s true, why ignore the simple fix that has transformed over 80 children under my guidance?

America - Stop the Spin. Start the Screening.

 

Let’s get one thing straight: America isn’t talentless. It’s talent-blind.

 

We’ve got kids with Edison-level genius and Cruise-level grit—but we wait until Grade 3 to notice them. By then, the damage is done. The system has already mislabeled, misdiagnosed, and misplaced them.

 

That’s why I said it yesterday, and I’ll say it again:

Evening News: Revisiting a Quiet Exchange with Prof. Julian Elliott

 

Bridging the Dyslexia Divide: A 15-Year Reflection

Is dyslexia a distraction from teachable fixes? Educational psychologist Prof. Julian Elliott has long challenged the label. In a recent interview, he called out the “multi-billion-dollar business” of dyslexia and emphasized early, evidence-based support.

 

I agree—and I’ve seen firsthand how confusion, shame, and overload shut kids down. But I also believe the causes are knowable. Fixable. And often overlooked.

The Dysteachia Boomerang: Jo-Anne Gross’s Words Come Full Circle

 

A Decade in Literacy Advocacy

In the stormy world of literacy debates I’ve been both a quiet observer and, at times, a thunderclap. From my tutoring sessions in Sabah, I’ve long championed phonics over fairy tales and called out the “dysteachia” that turns eager kindergarteners into reluctant readers.

 

Now, the term itself has boomeranged back into the spotlight, landing squarely at the feet of Jo-Anne Gross (@RplusDyslexia), the Canadian dyslexia advocate who helped shape this conversation.

Evening News Jo-Anne Gross – The Blocker Who Sells Phonics Fixes While Silencing Alternatives

 

It’s been years since Jo-Anne Gross first hit the block button on me—LinkedIn, then Twitter (now X). At the time, it stung. But mostly, it felt like a badge of honour. Here was a self-proclaimed remediation expert, founder of Remediation Plus Systems, selling phonics-heavy interventions for dyslexic kids, suddenly deciding my free lessons and alternative views were too dangerous to engage with.

Fixing America’s Talent Pipeline

 

Stop Importing Brains. Start Mining America’s Own.

 

The U.S. doesn’t have a talent shortage—it has a talent blindness. For decades, we’ve patched our broken education system by importing foreign brainpower. That’s not a solution. It’s a symptom.

Evening News: The Truth About Reading—or the Truth About Misinformation?

 

When I saw the trailer for the documentary The Truth About Reading, I wasn’t surprised to see Faith Borkowsky and Emily Hanford featured prominently. That alone was enough for me to know: this film will likely perpetuate the same half-truths and misinformation that have plagued literacy discourse for years.

Breaking the Cycle: From Classroom Chaos to Confident Readers

 

Why Reading Is the Key to Ending School Misbehavior

In late 2025, teacher burnout is surging. Twitter is flooded with cries for help: flying staplers, constant disruptions, and a teacher shortage pushing schools to the brink. But what if the solution isn’t more behavior charts or segregated classrooms?

 

What if it’s as simple as this: Every child must learn to read fluently by Grade 2.

Paul Thomas: Five Years On, Still "Navigating Research" on Why Kids Crack Nonsense Words Despite Flawed Phonics?

 

Prof. Paul L. Thomas (@plthomasEdD) of Furman University has long been a voice in the education wilderness—pushing back against the hype of "science of reading" mandates, defending balanced literacy, and calling out phonics zealots for oversimplifying complex kids. As a high school English teacher turned professor, his blog Radical Scholarship and tweets cut through the noise with data-driven skepticism. I've cited him approvingly in my own fights against PAD dogma and "cuh-ah-tuh" blunders. But when it comes to my core question—how do multilingual kids (and even fluent adults) nail nonsense words like "scrab" or "thake" despite kindergarten phonics gone haywire? —he's been radio silent. Or worse: a mute button.

The Phonemic Awareness Trap: Why Confusion Is Still Being Marketed as Science

 

A recent Education Week report confirms what many of us have known for years: popular phonemic awareness programs don’t improve reading outcomes. The Heggerty supplement, widely used in U.S. schools, failed to boost word-reading or fluency among first graders. And yet, the same experts who pushed phonological awareness for decades are now doubling down on phonemic awareness—with no accountability.

 

This isn’t just a failed method. It’s a systemic pattern.

Evening News: Narelle Lynch and the Transferability Tango – Context Over Code in Australia's Literacy Waltz

 

Different Perspectives: Tweets That Echo Across Continents

 

Good evening, readers. The reading wars don’t respect borders — they leap from U.S. threads to Aussie classrooms faster than a kangaroo on caffeine.

 

Tonight’s dispatch takes us Down Under to Narelle Lynch, a 19-year veteran teacher from Australia whose tweets on phonics pitfalls and the power of context have fueled fierce exchanges since 2020. Trained by the THRASS Institute — a multi-sensory literacy framework blending phonics, morphology, and more — Narelle champions a holistic approach: grammar, syntax, etymology, and real-world transferability over isolated sound drills.

A Popular Method for Teaching Phonemic Awareness Doesn’t Boost Reading

 

Tomorrow, I’ll share a companion post that connects this report to the bigger picture—how confusion has been systematically marketed as science for decades.

 

A Popular Method for Teaching Phonemic Awareness Doesn’t Boost Reading.

That’s the headline from Education Week, and it’s long overdue. But the real question is: why did it take this long? LINK

 

Why Are We Still Pretending It Will?

Evening News: Sally Shaywitz: 15 Years of Challenging PAD

 

From Ignored Yale Comments to “Duh-Ah-Guh” Confusion

Dr. Sally Shaywitz, co-director of the Yale Center for Dyslexia & Creativity and author of Overcoming Dyslexia, has long been a towering figure in the science of reading. Her brain imaging research helped popularize the idea that dyslexia stems from a phonological awareness deficit (PAD) — a theory that shaped policy, pedagogy, and public perception for decades.

 

I respect her trailblazing. As a non-educator turned tutor in Sabah, I’ve drawn on neuroscience like hers to teach over 80 children labeled “dyslexic” since 2004. But since launching my outreach in 2010, I’ve been waving a red flag: PAD isn’t the root cause of reading failure for many multilingual children. The real culprit? Flawed phonics instruction — especially the kind that teaches “dog” as “duh-ah-guh.”

When Experts Disengage: A Response to Dr. Boulton and the Silence Around Shut-Down Kids

 

In Part 1, we revisited the insights of Dr. David Boulton, Dr. G. Reid Lyon, and Dr. Siegfried Engelmann—experts who, as early as 2003, understood that confusion, not disability, was the root cause of most reading difficulties. They knew that ambiguity in English orthography, when not properly addressed, leads children to disengage. They knew that instructional casualties far outnumber true cases of dyslexia. And yet, despite this clarity, the problem persists.

 

In Part 2, we turn to the uncomfortable truth: when independent voices try to engage with these experts, they are often ignored, dismissed, or blocked. I know this firsthand.

Evening News: Karen Vaites and the Curriculum Conundrum

 

️ 

Phonics Resistance or Shutdown Sparks Ignored? Different Perspectives: 

Tweets That Prod the System

 

Good evening, readers. In the ever-escalating reading wars, few voices slice through the noise like Karen Vaites (@karenvaites)—a tireless advocate for evidence-based literacy, math curricula, and systemic reform. As founder of the Curriculum Insight Project and a prolific K–12 commentator with over 50,000 followers, she’s on a mission to dismantle “broken” programs: balanced literacy relics, discovery-based math flops, and anything that fails her HQIM mantra. Her rallying cry? High-quality instructional materials aren’t optional—they’re the fix for kids who “can’t read, guess, or hate to read.”

Part 2: Why Children Shut Down When Learning to Read

 

 Instructional Casualties and Systemic Blindness

In 2011, Malaysia’s National Service revealed that 1,000 out of 11,000 trainees were illiterate. But after just 30 credit hours of instruction, they could read and write. What happened during their years in school?

 

If 30 hours can reverse years of illiteracy, then the problem isn’t the students—it’s the system.

Evening News Chasing the Illiteracy Fix: Why Vivek Ramaswamy Could Be the One to Break the Silence

 

 🔍 A Decade of Decoding, One Sound at a Time

I’ve spent over ten years teaching kids to read—real reading, not guesswork. It starts with clean consonant sounds, not “buh” for B. My book Shut Down Kids lays it out: teach the right sounds from day one, and no child shuts down. My follow-up, Teach Your Child to Read, has helped parents worldwide turn bedtime into breakthroughs.

 

In Sabah, I’ve taught 80+ kids to read fluently.

 

In India, ESL learners thrive with sound-first methods.

Several children in Australia. 

In California, a grandma is reversing “dyslexia” labels at home.

I have even taught a child in Kenya using Whats App.  

Part 1: Why Children Shut Down When Learning to Read

 

The Hidden Trigger Behind Reading Failure

“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.

My Decade-Long Dialogue with Barack Obama: Tweets Calling for Literacy Reform

 

As a teacher who's spent over 15 years helping "dyslexic" kids—most of whom are simply instructional casualties of outdated teaching methods—I've long believed that true change in America starts with fixing our broken literacy system. U.S. illiteracy rates have barely budged since the 1970s, trapping generations in cycles of poverty and limiting their potential. That's why, for the past decade, I've been tagging and replying to influential voices like Barack Obama, hoping to spark a conversation.

“Teaching Isn’t One-Size-Fits-All”

 

The Hidden Layers of Teaching Expertise Why “Teacher” on a CV Isn’t the Whole Story

 

A powerful true story of mismatch, confusion, and breakthrough—revealing why the right experience matters more than just experience.

 

📚 The Problem

Recruiters often treat “teacher” as a catch-all label. But teaching is a mosaic of specialized skills. A secondary science teacher isn’t automatically equipped to teach phonics to six-year-olds. The result? Mismatched placements, frustrated educators, and confused learners.

 

“Experience matters, but the right experience matters more.”

Unmasking the Myths: My Decade-Long Clash with Professor Pamela Snow (Part 3 of 3)

Echoes, Evidence, and the PISA Wake-Up Call

Shouldn’t we think before accepting anything we read?

 

Since 2016, when I first read that “reading is biologically unnatural,” I’ve disagreed. This post shows what happens when one researcher makes a claim—and others repeat it without question. Stanislas Dehaene. Pamela Snow. David Chalk. Regie Routman. The myth spreads. The consequences deepen.

Evening News: Pam Kastner and the Phonics Firestorm – A Decade of Unanswered Questions

 

Different Perspectives: Tweets That Sparked the Debate

 

Good evening, readers. The dyslexia debate often ignites on Twitter (now X) and simmers unresolved for years — tonight, we revisit one such firestorm.

 

Our spotlight falls on Pam Kastner (@liv2learn), a vocal advocate for the Science of Reading (SOR) and phonics-first instruction. With over 16,000 followers and roles at Mount Saint Joseph University and The Reading League PA, she's a force in pushing evidence-based literacy. But our paths crossed in heated 2020 exchanges that highlight the chasm between phonics purists and those of us advocating for innate decoding potential.

Unmasking the Myths: My Decade-Long Clash with Professor Pamela Snow (Part 2 of 3)

 

Part 1 traced our rocky start: ignored 2018 comments, 2020 mute suggestions, and Snow’s dodge of multilingual miracles. Now comes the meat—her Science of Reading (SoR) sermons on phonemes, foundations, and why kids “disengage.”

 

Spoiler: She misses the mark by miles, harping on comprehension and fluency while kids trip at the starting gate. My proof? Fifteen years remediating shutdowns with pure sounds: /k/, not “kuh.” Results: Fluency in months, not years. Snow’s response? “Narrow focus.” Reality: She’s tunnel-visioned on symptoms, ignoring the cause: extraneous-sound sabotage.

Unblocked After 8 Years: Reviving the Conversation with Robert Pondiscio on Teaching Reading Right

 

Evening edition

I have so many articles on tow. I thought of posting these as a different set. 

It's been over eight years since I first emailed Robert Pondiscio in July 2017, sparked by his review of Mark Seidenberg's Language at the Speed of Sight in Education Next. Back then, I was deep into my self-driven research on why certain kids—smart, multilingual, able to read in Malay and romanized Mandarin—shut down when it came to English. I challenged him on the flaws in teacher training, the wrong way sounds are taught (that dreaded "cuh-ah-tuh" blending), and how confusion leads to disengagement. He responded briefly, promised to watch my example videos (now long deleted from YouTube), but then... silence. No follow-up, despite his book-writing busyness.

Unmasking the Myths: My Decade-Long Clash with Professor Pamela Snow (Part 1 of 3)

 

🚨 Unmasking the Myths: My Decade-Long Clash with Professor Pamela Snow

“Reading is biologically unnatural.” — Professor Pamela Snow, 2018

 

For over a decade, I’ve challenged this myth—and the silence surrounding it. I’ve taught 80+ children since 2004, many fluent in Malay and Pinyin yet stumbling in English. The fix? Teach consonant phonemes correctly. Pure /b/, not “buh.” Results in four months flat.

 

But Professor Pamela Snow, a leading voice in Australia’s Science of Reading (SoR) movement, has dodged, muted, and dismissed my evidence. This three-part series exposes the myths, the dodges, and the consequences.