Blog Post 1 of 4: A Response to PeterDMayr

 

Why English Spelling Isn’t the Main Villain in Reading Struggles

Recently, Peter (@PeterDMayr) shared a passionate X thread arguing that English’s irregular and unpredictable spelling is the primary reason so many children struggle with reading. He highlighted the landmark 2003 study by Philip Seymour and colleagues, which found that children learning consistent orthographies (such as Finnish or Italian) often achieve near-perfect decoding by the end of Grade 1, while English-speaking children typically trail two to three years behind. Peter contends that this orthographic complexity inflates dyslexia diagnoses, widens inequality, and imposes heavy societal costs—a perspective echoed by many spelling-reform advocates. It’s an argument that’s easy to sympathize with.

Research on why kids can read in transparent languages but not in English

                                                     

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?

Dyslexia – What % of the world is dyslexic

                                                       

Here are a few tweets and my response.

Luqman Michel @luqmanmichel

Most of the so-called dyslexic kids are kids who have disengaged from learning to read due to confusion. They shut down from learning to read. Get rid of the root causes and you will not have to blame Phonics or Lucy Calkins or BL.

Teaching EcoSystems Matter @CreditFlex

Not sure I’d say “most”. But really have had difficulty narrowing down the real percentage.

Luqman Michel @luqmanmichel

The dyslexia advocates try to convince the world it is around 15 to 20%. Some researchers have said it is about 2 %. Recently David Boulton said it s/b around 3 to 5 %.

Here is the latest discussion between David Boulton and Andrew Johnson where this is mentioned. LINK

Teaching correctly

 

For many years now I have said that many intelligent kids disengage from learning to read due to teachers/schools teaching the wrong sounds represented by letters.

The obvious questions to ask me, which have never been asked, are:

i.                    Why are there kids unable to read in schools teaching systematic synthetic phonics like the school in which Sue Lloyd is teaching?

ii.                  How are a majority of kids who are taught sounds represented by letters wrongly, that is teaching letters with extraneous sounds, able to read?

LinkedIn discussion on Dyslexia with Amy Rheault-Heafield, M.Ed.

 

The above clip depicts what was said by Charlie Munger about the human mind being like the human egg.

The following is a LinkedIn discussion with Amy Rheault-Heafield, M.Ed.

Amy Rheault-Heafield

The reality is that 1 in 5 students are dyslexic.  Dyslexia encompasses many realms and is a language-based disorder. You cannot “identify” a dyslexic student at first glance or even on a city or rural street. However, once you interact and also analyze written/oral/ and reading behaviors, the evidence to suspect this exists in a student becomes much clearer. Pandemic learning loss is not the same as dyslexia or even being slow to develop reading/writing/language skills.

Opaque language vs transparent language

 

I have written 2 articles on this topic but I am prompted to write again on this as within a span of less than a week two dyslexia experts have said that kids are unable to read in English because it is an opaque language.

English is considered an opaque language because letters represent more than one sound.