Why Teachers, PhDs, and Even Skilled Readers Struggle to See the Real Cause of Reading Shutdowns

 

The Hidden Damage of Extraneous Sounds

For years, I've argued that one of the main reasons many intelligent children shut down or disengage from learning to read is the widespread practice of teaching letter sounds with extraneous sounds (e.g., "buh" for /b/, "duh" for /d/, "fuh" for /f/). These kids aren't "dyslexic" in the neurological sense—they're victims of confusing early input that their logical brains reject. A majority of such children get wrongly labeled as dyslexic. 

Yet, many teachers, PhDs, and even college students who read well fail to accept this. Why? Because they compare themselves (and other successful readers) to the struggling kids—without realizing the key difference.

The Evidence from Skilled Readers Who Still Add Extraneous Sounds

I have multiple videos demonstrating this exact point. Here are examples from real students:

A college student in Perth (recorded in 2020) who pronounces letters with extraneous sounds. 

                                               

 

The same student reading a list of nonsense words perfectly. 

                                                           

 

A Year 12 student pronouncing letters with extraneous sounds. 

                                                         

The same Year 12 student fluently reading the nonsense word list.

                                                               

 

These videos show that many capable readers add "uh" or similar sounds but still blend and decode effectively. They figured it out despite the flawed instruction.

This is the core misunderstanding: Educators and experts look at these successful cases and conclude that extraneous sounds aren't the problem. They overlook the intelligent, analytical kids who detect the inconsistency early, get confused (e.g., trying to blend "buh-a-tuh" into "bat"), shut down, and disengage. These are the ones misclassified as dyslexic.

From my own teaching since 2004 and posts on dyslexiafriend.com, correcting pure sounds—without the added noise—often resolves the issue rapidly. Kids who couldn't read suddenly engage and progress.

Why Experts Resist This "Discovery"

This resistance compounds the problem:

Videos and teachings by PhDs like David Boulton promote or tolerate approaches that include these ambiguities. When questioned directly, Boulton blocked me. So did Pamela Snow from Australia and several others.

Mark Seidenberg has claimed that consonants cannot be taught without extraneous sounds. Many defer to his authority rather than testing it logically or with pure pronunciation examples (e.g., a clear video of consonants enunciated cleanly, or a child from Lagos demonstrating near-perfect isolation).

Pronouncing letters without extraneous sounds. LINK

A kid in Lagos Pronouncing the letters correctly. LINK

As noted in my earlier posts (e.g., "Different Perspectives – Part 2 - PHONICS" and discussions on Mark Seidenberg), phonemes aren't "natural" in isolation for all consonants, but they can be taught purely. Experts' own examples (like Seidenberg's "buh-ah-tuh" for bat or Duh-aah-guh for dog from Sally Shaywitz) highlight the very issue.

Early input matters enormously. The brain is a statistical learner wired for consistent patterns (as explored in posts on the brain's innate reading capacity and initial learning). Feed it "buh" first, and unlearning the noise becomes a hurdle for sensitive kids—while others power through.

Logical Solutions and Real-World Proof

Teach pure sounds from the start: /b/, /d/, /f/, etc., without the trailing vowel. (See demonstrations on dyslexiafriend.com and my book Teach Your Child to Read. LINK)

This aligns with successful interventions: Kids (including those labeled dyslexic) often read fluently after correction, as shared in testimonials from Australia, California, and elsewhere.

It's not about rejecting phonics—it's about doing phonics right. Clean input enables blending, orthographic mapping, and self-teaching.

We see parallels in Pinyin instruction in China, where added vowels create "instructional dyslexia." The pattern is global.

Call to Action

Teachers and researchers: Test this yourself. Ask a struggling child to sound out letters. Correct to pure sounds and watch the difference. Stop comparing resilient readers (who overcame bad habits) to those who logically disengaged. Real results with real kids should trump authority or tradition.

The solution is simple, logical, and low-cost: Teach sounds cleanly. Let's stop flushing out smart kids and start giving every child a fair start.