In Response to Dr. Sam Bommarito's recent post. Link.
This post is in response to a recent post by Dr. Sam. I agree with his observation about how scientists often enter arguments. Years ago, he interviewed me. It was not a debate — he asked questions, and I answered them. Yet the interview was never aired. Was it because he could not accept my discovery?
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Preface (2025)
This article revisits a debate I first engaged with in 2021, when Jeffrey Bowers claimed that “no one” had addressed the lack of improvement in England’s reading outcomes after more than a decade of mandated phonics. At the time, I challenged that assertion directly, pointing out that the real issue was not phonics itself but the way letter sounds were being taught.
Four years later, the same misunderstanding persists. By presenting this updated reflection alongside my original 2021 post, readers can see the continuity of my argument and recognize that the “elephant in the room” has been addressed for years — yet still ignored by those who prefer debate over solutions.
📌 Revisiting the “Elephant in the Room” Debate (2025)
Back in September 2021, Jeffrey Bowers tweeted:
Julian Elliott’s Decade of Dodging the Truth
🎠The Master of Evasion
In the lucrative world of dyslexia research, where labels fuel billion‑dollar programs and “special interventions,” one figure has perfected the art of sidestep: Professor Julian Elliott. For more than a decade, Elliott has danced around the real reasons children struggle to read — and the silence from his peers is just as telling.
He admits dyslexia is “a severe and persistent problem with reading.” Fair enough. But if that’s true, why ignore the simple fix that has transformed over 80 children under my guidance?
People with learning difficulties can learn. However, the way that reading is taught at schools doesn't work for their brains. So, difficulty in reading is a symptom that comes about as a result of the flawed education system.
Over the years, David has spent several hours with educators who've used various approaches in an attempt to learn to read, but nothing worked for him as the mere 11 hours he spent with Nora in May 2021.
Nora said, 'If you do what I tell you to do, I will show you that your struggle is not because you can't read but because you were never properly taught how to read.'
Julian Elliott:
What I mean by that is let's return to the original meaning of this term which is a severe and persistent problem with reading and we can use that to discuss or describe children.
So, the whole dyslexia debate is only about changing squiggles to language and that does not require high IQ.
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.
The following was tweeted by Kerry:
Kerry Greaves @KerryGr76867180 Feb 4
The reasons Reading Recovery is being banned in many states - it works for few and when it doesn’t, the child is blamed…
Luqman Michel
The question to ask is why does it work for a few and not the rest. Also, why does phonics work for some and not others?
Why does phonics work for any child, with no acuity problems, when using my book?
Dr. Sam Bommarito @DoctorSam7
Those are all kinds of research questions with plenty of research to answer them. Your claims around your book need to be verified with actual research studies. I know you are doing good work- but for wide-scale adoptions of what you are doing, that kind of field testing needs to be done.
The following are extracts from Dr. Sam Bommarito’s blog and my comments.
Dr. Sam
I also had a chance to hear Dr. George Hruby’s presentation as he talked about various issues including the issue of what we can learn from current brain research. Here’s a teaser- did you know that the pictures of the brain lighting up aren’t direct pictures? Those images are computer-generated and based on the data being collected. So, this picture of the brain lighting up is not an actual picture that was taken directly. It is a computer-generated statistical chart. It is only as valid as the application of the data being collected and the interpretation of that data.
He also pointed out the major limits and limitations of current research about the brain. “50% of all studies in cognitive neuroscience are reporting false positives.” My take: a lot of the brain research being used as a basis for new legislation around literacy falls into the “not ready for prime time” category.
Part one of this post can be found HERE.
[00:19:48] Anna Stokke: The point you made about this paper being used to influence policy for millions of kids, is quite alarming. Okay, so I'm going to say, you know, in Canada when that curriculum I was talking about was adopted and I'm not kidding you that for a while, teachers were told that children could not use standard algorithms in class. They were not to teach them and kids were not to use them, even if they've been taught at home.
The clip above is copied from Anna Stokke’s Tweet dated 28.1.2024. Anna is a math professor and has a podcast that will be useful for all those interested in Math. I have only listened in full to 2 of her podcasts and think it is one of the best podcasts I've heard.
Here is another extract from Dr. Sam’s post:
There is more than one way to teach phonics. I’ve written about that point many times.
Some students NEED a synthetic phonics approach. This is especially true for dyslexic students. The key place where folks working under the balanced literacy umbrella went off the tracks was their failure to ensure dyslexic students got the synthetic phonics they needed. In some instances, that involved giving them little or no phonics. In other cases, that involved giving them the wrong kind of phonics. The wrong kind of phonics for them is phonics taught using inquiry methods- analytic phonics being the best example of that kind of approach.
The main point I want to make again today is that it is time to try something we’ve never tried in the whole history of the reading wars. That is to adopt a centrist position, using ideas from all sides.
'The question about phonics is not whether to teach phonics but rather what kind of phonics and how much phonics' - Dr. Sam Bommarito
Here are some of Dr. Sam’s key points from his article found here and my comments:
What works with one kid doesn’t always work with another. I make that a prior assumption/observation based on 50-plus years of teaching experience. During that time, I’ve taught every grade from kindergarten through graduate school.
This is what the Western World keeps repeating without understanding what they talk about. As far as decoding is concerned what is it that doesn’t work with one kid but works with another?
Many educators such as Dr. Sam Bommarito have asked me as to why kids should memorise the 220 Dolch words. My retort to that question was ‘Why not!’
The same question is repeated by many other 'educators'. LINK.
The same educators insist that phonics does not work with children because many words are not phonetic.
However, my suggestion that these non-phonetic words may be memorised is detested by these educators.
Here are
extracts from a post by Dr. Sam Bommarito on Dec 16, 2023.
Dr. Sam
I will also continue interviewing folks from all sides of the literacy issue. All this is my way of working for the day when we can finally follow P.D. Pearson's advice about handling the so-called "Reading Wars." That advice is to take positions, not sides.
My comment:
I don’t take sides as I use the best from all sides. I use all the tools available to teach kids to read. Read my book Teach Your Child to Read and you will understand what I mean.
On 30.11.23 Cameron Carter @CRCarter313 Tweeted the following:
Every educator knows the importance of foundational skills, and of building student engagement and ownership while teaching these skills.
I then Tweeted as follows:
'Every educator knows the importance of foundational skills'.
This is Bullshit! Stop spreading disinformation.
Dr. Sam Bommarito @DoctorSam7 then replied to my Tweet.
? Sorry you feel that way.
Here is a Twitter discussion between Dr. Sam Bommarito and me.
Luqman Michel @luqmanmichel Nov 8
Dr. Sam Bommarito, the simple view of reading says:
Reading comprehension = Word Recognition X Language Comprehension.
Almost all of my students were unable to answer comprehension questions found at the back of the book when they read the passages. But all of them could answer when I read to them.
Is it a language comprehension problem or a word recognition problem?
If it is not a Language Comprehension problem, then where does the Reading Comprehension problem come from?
How is it that kids who have gone to school for 2 or 3 years have a word recognition problem?
Here are extracts of the interview of P David Pearson by Dr. Sam Bommarito and my comments.
David Pearson:
We take people's temperatures but we don't assume that the only thing you do once you've taken the temperature is to do everything you can to raise or lower the temperature directly you look for a cause and you try to root out that medical cause for it and then see if the temperature goes down so I think that the first task facing the child is transforming graphemes letters into phonemic names sounds and that's what you should focus on.
My Comment:
Teachers and educators are doing exactly this. They do not look at the causes of why many kids are unable to read at the end of Grade 1. These are the kids who get into higher grades and misbehave due to shame avoidance.
David Pearson:
Telling kids not to use context clues when they are figuring out what a word says is like telling leaves not to fall or dogs not to bark. If you are in a problem situation and you cannot figure out what the word says you are going to use every resource at your disposal to figure it out if you are a decent learner.
My comment:
This has been my mantra for more than a decade. Use all the tools available. In my book, Teach Your Child to Read, I use all the tools mentioned by David Pearson. I use Systemic phonics, analytical phonics, word family phonics, memorising Dolch Words (not mentioned by David), context clues, patterns (not mentioned by David), analogy and ways of figuring out new words.
Let us continue with the tweets by Dr. Sam and my replies on 8.10.23.
Dr. Sam:
You are at the starting stage of research. You need carefully designed research around this issue. You have promising practices. But at the end of the day yes we need peer-reviewed research for ideas to become widely accepted.
I am not sure if I am at the starting stage of research. As far as I am concerned, I have finished my research. We'll leave this for another day. Anyway, here is my reply.
Luqman Michel @luqmanmichel
Beginning stage of research? Perhaps you are right. I gave up employment in 2004 to learn why kids could not read in English but could read in Malay. I taught > 80 'dyslexic' kids and read incessantly any article on dyslexia. There is hardly anything new on dyslexia to read.
When is anyone going to teach kids Malay or Hanyu Pinyin and at the same time teach them English to research why they can read in 2 languages but not the third?
When is anyone going to do research on why kids disengage from learning to read?
Here is another Tweet that was not replied to by Dr. Sam Bommarito.
Luqman Michel @luqmanmichel
I did not speak a word with Alanna's son. I heard a recording of the sounds of the letters and told Alanna that the reason why her son could not read was due to confusion as a result of extraneous sounds taught by his teacher. She corrected him and he was keen on learning to read.
Let’s discuss this. What exactly do you disagree with, Dr.Sam?
Tell me why Alanna's son was keen on learning to read after his mother taught him the sounds of the letters without the extraneous sounds. You are familiar with this discussion on Twitter in 2020/2021.
Dr. Sam did not reply but here is an answer he Tweeted in January 2021 to Alanna Maurin’s Tweet.
Dr. Sam Bommarito @DoctorSam7 Jan 4, 2021
What works with one child doesn't always work with another. Glad you found something that is working for your student. Here is a blog in which I try to make it clear one size doesn't fit all.
This appears to be a stock answer.
