The True Obstacle to Learning

 

David Boulton, the creator of the Children of the Code project, captured this phenomenon perfectly when he noted that ten times the number of kids who have innate biological learning difficulties have learning difficulties that are a consequence of what they learned. As Boulton put it:

"The biggest obstacle to healthy learning is learning – we can learn in ways that disable our learning. Unhealthy learning harms, injures or maladaptively constrains how well we can on-going-ly learn and stunts or disables our learning from extending into new dimensions."

That’s Verifiably Not True”: A Deleted Comment on Struggling Readers Who Are Not Dyslexic

 

Here is a post on Facebook that I commented on and I received a message from Admin saying that my comment has been removed as it is not verifiable. Please scroll down to see my notes.

The Dyslexia Parent Circle — Your Dyslexia Expert

Here is the post and comments. 

Silenced by the Code

 

For over a decade, David Boulton’s Children of the Code project gathered insights from more than a hundred experts — reading scientists, neuroscientists, linguists, psychologists, anthropologists, historians, and educators. Thirteen years of interviews produced a vast archive of reflections on why children struggle to read.

Silenced Voices in the Science of Reading

 

I stopped posting on my blog in 2012, feeling I was going nowhere. To make matters worse, I lost my blog title and could not renew my weblog. My earlier site was at www.parentingdyslexia.com.

 

In 2015, another student was referred to me, and I wanted to continue with my blog. To my shock, I discovered that I had lost my blog name — someone else had taken it over. Thankfully, my son managed to retrieve the old posts, and we opened a new account under dyslexiafriend.com, where I reposted the earlier articles from parentingdyslexia.com.

Why Many Intelligent Kids Misbehave – And Why Adults Rarely Discuss the Real Reason

 

Not a single adult has ever openly discussed why many kids misbehave. Many who misbehave are intelligent kids.

This observation comes from years of working with struggling readers. The pattern is unmistakable: bright, capable children are often the ones who act out the most in class.

We had a procedure for sounding it out that would reach virtually 100 percent of the kids (Siegfried Engelmann)

                                                      

More than 20 years ago the researchers of the Children of the Code were aware that unvoiced sounds should be unvoiced.

The following is an extract from an interview of Siegfried Engelmann conducted by David Boulton.

Siegfried Engelmann:

The mistakes the kids made guided us to see that we had something missing. For instance, at first, we had them sound out words traditionally. We never permitted "ch-aa-tah” for chat. Unvoiced sounds were unvoiced -- "ch-a-t."

So now we had precise corrections related to what they had learned earlier. We had a procedure for sounding it out that would reach virtually 100 percent of the kids. So, we could teach even really low performers now to take the first step on the ladder. Then they can follow the entire sequence and they can learn at a rate far faster than would have been anticipated.

See what Dr. Richard Selznick and Dr. David Kilpatrick said on this matter. LINK

Corroborative evidence to my post on Identifying Students at Risk in Grade 1(Part 4)

 

It is mind boggling why someone like Dr. Reid Lyon who claims that he was researching why many kids can't read did not want to discuss this extremely important matter with me. Read what he had to say in an interview in the Children of the Code. 

I gave him the magic bullet that he was looking for and yet his wife claimed he did not have the time to discuss.

Examining Martin Bloomfield/Julian Elliott interview

 

For those who have not listened to the interview you may listen to it here.

Julian Elliott:

Kids who struggle to learn to read have a difficulty based on many factors many of which we have no idea about, none at all they're not something you can easily measure. So, we should talk about individual children's special educational needs.

My comment:

Just because Martin and Julian do not know or bother to know does not mean no one else knows. I know and now many teachers around the world know.

I quit working in 2004, at the age of 52, to research why an intelligent kid who had gone to school for 2 years could not read even a single sentence. After about 2 years, I took in more similar students to learn why these smart kids could not read. I then discovered that most of them could read in Malay and those who went to vernacular schools could read in Pinyin.

After 6 years of teaching these kids, I was sure that the theory that had existed at that time that phonological awareness deficit is the cause of ‘dyslexia’ couldn’t be true. I wrote extensively citing my reasons why phonological awareness deficit can’t be the cause of ‘dyslexia’. LINK

The root cause of children being unable to read (Part5)

 

Luqman Michel

Excellent questions. Thank you. I don't have supporting research by others as no one does this research. What little was done has been suppressed by those with a vested interest. (Remind me later on this.)

NOTE: Here is my answer to ‘Remind me later’. Research has been suppressed. Why isn’t a study that costs taxpayers billions of USD not been widely disseminated? Interviews were conducted with more than 100 experts and many kids who could not read.

I asked David Boulton, the interviewer of Children of the Code, what is his conclusion after his interview of more than 10 years with more than 100 experts and his answer was:

Children of the Code avoided advocating solutions so as not to be dismissed as having an agenda other than learning deeper into the challenge. LINK

Having been informed by experts in the interviews that the main problem with kids being unable to read is teaching the sounds of the letters wrongly David Boulton went ahead and posted 2 videos teaching letter sounds wrongly.

When I questioned him about the videos, he immediately unfriended/blocked me on LinkedIn. 

Why did he then delete the two videos?

Read the comments on the link above.

Is there a puppeteer who is directing the puppets? (More on this later)

Tim Rasinski - his tweets and my response

 

Firstly, Tim Rasinski need to learn the art of reading before talking about teaching reading. He has to learn that before replying tweets he must read the tweets he intends to reply. Secondly he needs to listen to what others have to say with an intention to understand what others, who may know the science of decoding, have to say.

Here are tweets between Tim and me on 11.8.2023.

Luqman Michel @luqmanmichel

 

Children whether taught phonics or not will be able to read nonsense words. The brain has an innate ability to read.

 

Tim Rasinski then tweeted something from the Children of the Code. LINK

Paradigm Inertia part 3

 

The interview on Paradigm Inertia was done 11 years ago by David Boulton and Dr. William Glen as part of the Children of the Code project.

The following are excerpts from the Children of the Code videos. You may read more here. 

David Boulton:

But the key in both cases is to find out where they're at foundationally and then give them manageable steps into the confusion that they can work through. When a child’s mind starts to develop an avoidance of confusion then that avoidance can spill out to the confusion that is involved in learning about other things.

David Boulton and all the others involved in the COTC knew about the confusion that caused kids to avoid learning. Yet David Boulton recommended the 2 videos that are the cause of confusion. 

Paradigm Inertia – Part 2

We were told in the previous post that the biggest block to a paradigm shift is personal, emotional, and thoroughly unscientific reasons.

Let us examine some of the blocks and non-replies I have personally encountered.

i.                    Automatic reply: Dr.Charles Perfetti - Children of the Code Perfetti, Charles A perfetti@pitt.edu To:luqmanm2002@yahoo.co.uk Sat, 8 Aug 2015 at 14:08

 

I am out of the country. I will not be able to reply to all emails in a timely manner until Dec 21.

 

ii.                  Diane Lyon <dianellyon@gmail.com>

To:luqmanm2002@yahoo.co.uk Wed, 5 Aug 2015 at 21:05

My name is Diane Lyon, I'm Dr. Lyon's wife.

Reading4all@tx.rr.com is the mail we use.  Please don't hesitate to send your questions and if Dr. Lyon would be happy to answer your questions or send you to others who may have more current information.

Diane Lyon

iii.               Diane Lyon dianellyon@gmail.com To:luqmanm2002@yahoo.co.uk

Mon, 10 Aug 2015 at 21:28

Dear LUQMAN MICHEL,

We received your emails.  We are on travel and cannot commit the time needed at this time to a thorough response.  As you can imagine we receive hundreds, if not thousands, of emails and feel it only fair to respond thoughtfully when time allows.

Sounds represented by letters – A revisit

 

Many of the educators on Twitter imagine things instead of trying to understand things as they are.

I have written many blogs stating that one of the main reasons why kids disengage/shut down from learning to read is confusion as a result of teachers teaching the wrong sounds of letters. This is supported in both of Dr. David Kilpatrick’s books. Refer to page 107 of Equipped for Reading Success - How to teach the letter sounds. Also refer to page 171 of Essentials of Assessing, Preventing, and Overcoming Reading Difficulties - Keys to blending: T does not say /Tuh/.

This was also discovered more than 15 years ago by Children of the Code in which Timothy Shanahan was also interviewed.

The following is an extract from one of the interviews in Children of the Code:

And the mistakes that the kids made guided us to see that we had something missing. For instance, at first, we had them sound out words traditionally. We never permitted "ch-aa-tah” for chat. Unvoiced sounds were unvoiced -- "ch-a-t." Well, they showed us through their responses that, that stop sound beginning was really hard for them. So now we had precise corrections that related to what they had learned earlier. We had a procedure for sounding it out that would reach virtually 100 percent of the kids. So we could teach even really low performers now to take the first step on the ladder. Then they can follow the entire sequence and they can learn at a rate far faster than would have been anticipated. (Siegfried Engelmann)

'Explore ideas from all sides' - Dr. Sam Bommarito

 

Below is an extract from Dr. Sam Bommarito’s blog followed by my comments.

I think a more useful use of our time would be to explore ideas from all sides and to find practical research-based ideas that all teachers can use regardless of whose “side” it comes from.

Yes, if we take ideas from all sides and use them we can achieve George Bush's ‘No child left behind’ policy of 2001. 

But, what I disagree with is Dr.Sam’s suggestion to find practical research-based ideas. 

Faulty instruction is the cause of kids being unable to read

 

Here is a comment from Educhatter which I would like you to ponder.

Siegfried Engelmann of blessed memory offered $100,000 to anyone who could send him a child whom he couldn’t teach to read. Engelmann’s money was never collected.

Faulty reading instruction has made tens of millions of innocent children suffer terribly. And it continues to do so.

Why does society not protect these vulnerable children from the misery inflicted by most public schools?

Then and now

 

This morning,19.7.23, I read the following tweets

Secretary Miguel Cardona @SecCardona

 

Every student deserves the opportunity to have a career in what they’re passionate about.

That’s why we are raising the bar in education.

Different perspectives – Part 4 – Blocking

 

Here are two tweets I have a different perspective on.

Dr. Mary Howard @DrMaryHoward  Jun 13, 2023

I'd add.... ignore blatant attacks because there is no good that will come from responding.

Pick your battles & find inroads but ignore dead-end streets that lead only to a childish Twitter battleground. I learned this lesson the hard way. Share legitimate info & avoid the fray

Dr. Sam Bommarito @DoctorSam7 Jun 14

I just gave that same advice in the comments to my blog. If it's apparent the person wants to attack rather than discuss, simply block them. Picking your battles is critical, some of them purposely say outrageous things to get you to go down an off-topic rabbit hole.

I don’t ignore blatant attacks when they are silly and evil.

Dr. Sam Bommarito's tweet on common sense and my response (Part 1)

 

The following is a tweet by Dr. Sam.

What works for one child doesn’t always work for another child.

In the history of reading MANY have claimed to have found the answer – in the end their answers worked for some not all the kids.

“Let’s use common sense to find common ground.” Let’s recognize that what works with one child doesn’t always work with another.

Luqman Michel @luqmanmichel May 4

Dr. You are asking for something that does not exist in most people - common sense.

If common sense is common, then why have we been debating for decades without reaching a consensus?

I have said this before and say it again that Dr. Sam is one of a handful of educators that I have high a regard for.

Here is my explanation of why I said that common sense does not exist in most people.

Heading North to go south - chinese proverb

Dr. Sam:

I’ll start by stating my position about using research. We absolutely should use research to inform our decisions about teaching. LINK

 

Why and why not

Here is a tweet I read this morning responding to one of my tweets.

A Williams aka Ms. Worf @Ms_Worf Replying to @luqmanmichel and @MartinOdimaJr

Where I worked as an elementary teacher, they did very little to find out the why. Where I am now as a high school teacher, we focus on finding the why. Personally, finding and addressing the why is of extreme importance because no one tried to help me with my why.