"Dazed & Confused"

 

I simply could not believe that this was a question to an eight year old student. I wrote to the author and here is my email.

Venting My Spleen (Once Again) by Dr. Richard Selznick

I have copied below the whole article from Dr. Richard Selznick’s post, dated 30.1.2025 LINK

 

Those of you following this blog for some time know there are some recurring themes in these posts.  Frequently, the blogs are my outlet for getting things off my chest that frequently come up in my interactions with parents.

 

If you’re a relative newcomer, I will help to bring you up to speed with some of the predominant ones:

Trusting your Mom Intuition

 

I have copied the following post from Dr. Richard Selznick's blog.

Trusting Your Mom Intuition​

As part of the assessment process I always conduct an interview  to get an overview of the issues of concern.

When a child is struggling, typically there will be suggestions of disorders that have been raised by different professionals along with opinions offered from friends, family members and the internet as to what is going on with their child.

As an example, a mom recently said the following:

What is the percentage of neurodivergents - Dr. Martin Bloomfield (Part 1)

 

In a recent LinkedIn post by Dr. Martin Bloomfield I asked what % of the population can be considered neurodivergent.

He gave a detailed reply as follows:

Such a good question, and impossible (at the moment, although I'm working on something...) to answer with any degree of certainty.

So, you have several intersections making the precise answer impossible: you have intersections of (or shared neurotypes/ phenotypes of) ADHD, dyslexia, dyscalculia, autism, etc. You have intersections of neurodivergence and gender. You have intersections of neurodivergence and wealth/ poverty. You then have different cultural intersections. And you have different definitions of each of the neurotypes, different ways of measuring them, different "official" (hah!) measurements... (see www.DyslexiaCompass.eu, something I'm proud to have led on). You also have the problem of no databases (quite right too) with any reliable figures. Essentially, all the figures right now are guesswork.

Best guess? I'd say between 15-20%. But it's still an estimate.

Learning to Read – what started going right?

 

This morning I read an article on Thinking Reading. 

By Dianne and James Murphy August 22, 2023.

I commented and it says that my comment is awaiting moderation.

This time around, I decided to copy my comment.

Luqman Michel says:         August 23, 2023, at 12:00 am   

Your comment is awaiting moderation.

Excellent article. This is exactly what I have been saying since 2010, six years after teaching my first student to read.

I then taught more than 80 similar kids and wrote extensively on social media that I disagreed with the theory, at that time, that kids were unable to read due to phonological awareness deficit.

Please Google ‘phonological awareness deficit Luqman Michel’ and read some of the articles/comments in blogs I wrote since 2010.

That theory was debunked in 2017.

Why do children run into reading problems? Beverley Sinton

 

Here are conversations on LinkedIn that those not in the thread may benefit from.

Beverley Sinton (she, her) 1st degree connection 1st President at ADHD, ASC & LD Belgium, Ambassador at Neurodiverse Brains @ Work, & Advisory Board at PWI (Brussels) asked the following question:

Can I ask about the 40% who pick reading up - does that trait continue for the rest of their lives? Or do (some of them) they stumble later on and need help with decoding then?

…. what happens to those 40% after they are 7 or 8 and most people have been taught how to read? Do they continue being able to read (despite being self-taught) - or does their early 'brilliance' fade, and they run into reading problems?

Note: Bear in mind Beverly’s ‘some of them’. Not all but only some of them, and to reduce illiteracy, these are the kids we should be concerned about.

Here is my answer to the question above:

Labels like ADHD and Dyslexia can interfere - Dr. Richard Selznick

 

Following my post on the response to a question on Twitter I received the following email from Dr. Richard Selznick.

 

I looked back on some of your other blog posts about Phonemic Awareness and related topics.

Dyslexia- A convenient term for reading difficulties in general

 

Following my last article, I would say that there is no reason why most dyslexics cannot read well with the right instruction.

People often accept dyslexia as an incurable disease. From my experience of teaching dyslexic students, I have found that all my dyslexic students can read if taught in a way suitable for them.

Discourse with Dr.Selznick Part 5 and Lesson 42

28.5.2010
Doc,
Thank you for your mail and example of the tennis players.
Now, perhaps we can move on to the next questions I had asked you about your book.