For more than a decade I have argued that phonological awareness deficit (PAD) is not the cause of children failing to read in English. Since 2010 I have written to Chapman, Tunmer, Elliott, Shanahan, Pamela Snow and others, presenting evidence from my own teaching and observations. What did I receive? Silence, blocking, or polite dismissal.
James Chapman did not block me, but he refused to think—even when I presented new evidence. His 2010 email to me epitomizes the problem: researchers who cling to their published theories as if they were gospel, unwilling to revisit them even when reality contradicts their claims.
