How I teach Dyslexic kids - Part 1

 

Yesterday, an Educator from South Bay asked me how I teach dyslexic kids. Her profile says: ‘Helping young learners grow in reading.’

I started by communicating with her on messenger but thought why not post the conversation here so more may benefit.

Here is our discussion thus far:

Luqman:

I am not a trained teacher. I have worked in the audit line all my life. Perhaps that is what helped me discover why many intelligent kids can't read in English. I have no preconceived ideas and had to learn everything on this matter from scratch.

If you have any questions on what I write (on teaching kids to read) please ask without reservation.

The lady educator:

That’s really interesting and honestly, I’ve seen something similar. Sometimes coming in without preconceived ideas helps you notice patterns others miss.

I’d love to hear what you discovered about why so many intelligent kids struggle to read in English.

Luqman:

When I began teaching phonics, I started with word families. My first lesson was the "-at" family: bat, cat, fat, mat, pat, rat, sat. My dyslexic students, whom I teach one-on-one, had no trouble reading these words.

Then I moved on to simple sentences. The first one was “A cat.” Immediately, I saw a puzzled look on my student’s face. The same quizzical expression appeared with other students. That’s when I realised the problem: I had pronounced the “a” in “cat” with the short sound (as in “apple”), but the “A” in “A cat” with the schwa sound (as in “about”).

This tiny inconsistency was enough to confuse them. It’s one of the main reasons many children eventually shut down when learning to read English.

So, I paused and explained something fundamental: unlike Malay, where vowels are much more consistent, English vowels each represent multiple sounds. The letter “a” alone can make at least five different sounds, as in:

apple (short a) 

ace (long a) 

arm (ar sound) 

about (schwa)  

all (aw sound)

Once I gave them this clear explanation, the puzzled looks disappeared. They simply needed to understand that English doesn’t follow the same predictable rules they were used to in Malay. With that knowledge, they could move forward confidently.

To be continued. Do you have any questions for me?

Here is another request from a teacher:   "Lion Luqman Michel hello 👋 from Canada. I would be interested to hear about your program/approach."

She is a Member of Parent Dyslexia Support Group since 26 January 2026.