For years I have argued that most children labelled “dyslexic” in English-speaking systems are not truly dyslexic. They are bright kids who shut down because of confusion introduced by poor teaching—especially the extraneous vowel sounds added to consonants (“buh” instead of pure /b/) that make blending impossible. Remove that confusion with pure sounds, structured practice, and high-frequency word automaticity, and they read fluently. I have seen it in more than eighty children I taught personally.
Now consider the words of Nancy Hennessy, a former president of the International Dyslexia Association (IDA), respected literacy consultant, and author of The Reading Comprehension Blueprint. She has spent decades in the field and speaks with authority many in the “dyslexia industry” respect.
In interviews and writings, Hennessy draws a clear line between true dyslexia and the much larger group of struggling readers:
“Even if we settle on a middle number, let us say 10%; that still leaves a lot of children who are not dyslexic, whose brains are not wired any different way, who have reading difficulty. We are not supporting the learning of our teachers in order for them to do what we are talking about. We still don’t have the capacity nor the will to change what it is that we are doing with reading early on and so consequently unless we make those significant changes we are not only going to lose the dyslexics but I am also concerned about these other children; these other struggling readers.”
This is not fringe thinking. It comes from someone who has led the IDA twice and received lifetime achievement recognition. She acknowledges the core dyslexic group (around 10% as a “middle” estimate) but stresses the bigger problem: the non-dyslexic strugglers whose difficulties stem from systemic failures in early instruction and teacher preparation.
That matches exactly what I have observed since 2004. The majority of my cases were not wired differently—they were confused by the same instructional artefacts that Hennessy worries about losing if we don't change fundamentals. When taught correctly (pure phonemes, no extra vowels, early automaticity with Dolch words), they progressed rapidly, often in weeks, not years.
Hennessy's Reading Comprehension Blueprint (2021) adds another layer. She builds on Scarborough's Reading Rope to provide a structured framework for comprehension: explicit teaching of vocabulary, sentence syntax, text structure, background knowledge integration, inference, and purposeful reading. She warns against over-focusing on decoding alone—comprehension breakdowns often arise from oral language gaps or unaddressed early confusion that cascades forward.
For Chinese readers or bilingual families, this is especially relevant. In transparent systems like Pinyin (when taught cleanly with pure initials), kids build accurate sound mappings early. But when mixed with Bopomofo-style full syllables or extraneous sounds, confusion creeps in—mirroring English problems. Hennessy's blueprint reminds us: fix the foundations (phonology taught precisely) and support language strands explicitly, or even capable kids shut down and get mislabeled.
She also critiques the lack of teacher capacity. We train teachers on interventions for diagnosed dyslexia but fail to equip them to prevent confusion in the first place. The result? Resources go to remediation instead of prevention, and the “other children” Hennessy mentions fall through the cracks—labelled dyslexic when they simply needed better initial teaching.
This is corroborative evidence from inside the system. Hennessy doesn't reject phonological awareness or structured literacy—she advocates it—but she refuses to pretend every struggling reader has an innate deficit. Her concern for the non-dyslexic majority echoes my clinical reality: most cases are preventable instructional casualties, not destiny.
Singapore demonstrates this at scale (as I covered in my previous post): explicit, consistent early phonics prevents most shutdowns, keeping reported dyslexia low (~3.5% in Primary 3) while achieving world-top PISA reading scores. Western systems could do the same if they heeded voices like Hennessy's and prioritized prevention over endless labeling.
Parents and teachers: test the simple fixes first. Teach pure sounds. Build automaticity with high-frequency words. Structure lessons to avoid overload. Watch what happens when confusion lifts—confidence returns, reading flows.
The small core of true dyslexia exists and needs targeted support. But the flood of labels? Largely preventable. Nancy Hennessy, from her position of influence, is saying the same thing in her own way.
It's time we listened—and acted.
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