The Hidden Damage of Extraneous Sounds
For years, I've argued that one of the main reasons many intelligent children shut down or disengage from learning to read is the widespread practice of teaching letter sounds with extraneous sounds (e.g., "buh" for /b/, "duh" for /d/, "fuh" for /f/). These kids aren't "dyslexic" in the neurological sense—they're victims of confusing early input that their logical brains reject. A majority of such children get wrongly labeled as dyslexic.
Some belief systems have become so deeply ingrained in educators and policymakers that no amount of real-world experience or evidence seems to shake them. One of the most persistent is the claim that kids don’t need to know letter names to learn to read — and that teaching them can even make reading harder.
This idea circulates widely on social media and in teacher training circles. Yet every state still lists naming letters as a kindergarten standard. The result? Generations of children, particularly those with dyslexia or other reading challenges, continue to fall through the cracks.
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Why Experts Ignore Evidence on Phonics and Dyslexia
The ongoing "Reading Wars" – the fierce debate between advocates of systematic phonics instruction and proponents of balanced literacy or whole-language approaches – have persisted for decades, leaving many children struggling with reading and labeled as dyslexic. Over the years, I've documented interactions with prominent educators and researchers on my blog. These posts highlight a frustrating pattern: questions rooted in real-world teaching experience and student evidence are often met with evasion, silence, or outright dismissal. This blog post summarizes five key entries spanning from 2020 to 2025, revealing a core issue that could potentially resolve much of the controversy.
Why Kids Shut Down (And How to Fix It Without the Drama)
For weeks now, I’ve been in an ongoing exchange with @NielsHoven on X about phonics, dyslexia, and why so many bright kids end up hating reading. We agree on the fundamentals—phonics works. Full stop. Yet the conversation keeps looping, not because of disagreement, but because people refuse to click and read the links I provide. So let me lay it out clearly, using only my own words and the blog posts I keep referencing.
From Ignored Yale Comments to “Duh-Ah-Guh” Confusion
Dr. Sally Shaywitz, co-director of the Yale Center for Dyslexia & Creativity and author of Overcoming Dyslexia, has long been a towering figure in the science of reading. Her brain imaging research helped popularize the idea that dyslexia stems from a phonological awareness deficit (PAD) — a theory that shaped policy, pedagogy, and public perception for decades.
I respect her trailblazing. As a non-educator turned tutor in Sabah, I’ve drawn on neuroscience like hers to teach over 80 children labeled “dyslexic” since 2004. But since launching my outreach in 2010, I’ve been waving a red flag: PAD isn’t the root cause of reading failure for many multilingual children. The real culprit? Flawed phonics instruction — especially the kind that teaches “dog” as “duh-ah-guh.”
Gatekeeping, Credentials, and the Fear of Accountability
Recap: What They Block
Parts 1 and 2 exposed the profit motives and herd-driven hit squads that silence my evidence-based solutions:
✅ Teaching pure /b/ instead of "buh"
✅ Free lessons over multimillion-dollar curricula
✅ Student success over PAD myths
But the ugliest motive? Gatekeeping.
Grok said:
On Shaywitz, the "duh-ah-guh" claim tracks from a 2020 blog dissection of her work, but her actual NYT profile (from 2018) focuses on dyslexia neuroimaging without diving into sound modeling—it's a fair jab at broader SoR habits, but pinning it directly to her piece stretches it.
Why It Matters: This risks painting allies as adversaries. Seidenberg's "Language at the Speed of Sight" is gold for your pure-sound argument; he'd likely nod along to your shutdown warnings.
I asked Grok if it disagreed with anything I wrote in my post at LINK.
Grok Answered:
Overall, I align with a lot of it: the frustration with fuzzy phonics instruction causing early disengagement is spot-on, and your emphasis on crisp, unadulterated sound modeling as a game-changer resonates with what we know from cognitive linguistics. The idea that resilient kids (that 60% chunk) self-rescue but at a steep opportunity cost? Absolutely, that's backed by longitudinal studies on delayed readers. And calling out the echo chamber in SoR discourse—fair play; it's often more about rallying cries than root causes.
I've stepped back from diving into why kids struggle with reading fluency—it's often like shouting into a void, where well-meaning educators echo the same tired lines without probing deeper. But this morning, an email landed in my inbox with Sam Bommarito's latest blog post, pulling me right back in. His reflections on the "reading wars" and the "science of reading" (SoR) movement are thoughtful, as always, but they skirt the core issue I've been hammering on for years: instructional confusion that causes kids to shut down entirely from learning to read.
Has the National Research Council hoodwinked the educators and parents?
The National Research Council in their book ‘Preventing Reading Difficulties in Young Children’ on page 22 says:
‘There are 3 sounds represented by 3 letters in the word “but” but each sound alone does not refer to anything, and only the middle sound can really be pronounced in isolation; when we try to say the first or last consonant of the word all by itself, we have to add a vowel to make it a pronounceable entity.’
What nonsense is this?
How did a 6-year-old kid in Lagos pronounce the letters without adding a vowel sound to consonants? LINK
How did this lady pronounce letters without adding a vowel sound to consonants? LINK
Ethan Lynn, PhD
Luqman Michel, I noticed you’ve mentioned diagnosing reading issues by having children sound out consonants. Doesn't that rely on phonemic awareness as a key skill? I'm curious because this seems to contradict a previous post where you downplayed phonemic awareness deficiency as a cause for reading struggles. Could you clarify your thoughts on this?
Here is a transcript of the podcast by Anna Stokke.
She asks many relevant questions and since she is not an ‘expert’ in reading and not selling a reading programme I believe she will read my comments with an open mind.
This podcast is with Dr. Matthew Burns whom she claims is a renowned researcher in the science of reading world.
Here are some extracts and my comments/ questions:
Kelly Hobbs the Admin of Dyslexia Tutors & Support Group, I am a member of, posted a link to Sally Shaywitz’s book – Overcoming Dyslexia – and said
This is a must read! Does anyone else agree?
I replied:
She did not answer the questions I asked her on the Yale website. My question was left there until her post was removed by her. She is a scientist and not an educator.
Here are extracts from a discussion between David Boulton and Andrew Johnson and my comments. LINK
At minute 34.30 - dyslexia is an inability to learn to read which is of Unknown Origin. It impacts usually depending on the researcher three to five percent of the population. Unfortunately, it's become such a big thing politically and profitably that they push that three to five percent which I kind of agree with to almost 15 to 20 percent because there's a whole lot more opportunity to intervene.
I have said the same thing for the past over a decade.
Dyslexia - A multi-billion US dollar business written in August 2010. LINK
My e-mail to Dyslexia Scotland part 2 written in September 2010. LINK
Phonological Awareness Deficit is not the cause of dyslexics being unable to read fluently - A Myth Busted written in October 2010. LINK
There are many other posts I wrote over the years.
I believe the % of kids who may fall into the dyslexic category are no more than 2%. Even if we accept the 3 to 5 % as mentioned by David above that leaves a lot more who are unable to read due to ‘Dysteachia’.
Here is a tweet I commented on and was questioned and my replies:
Evan Robb @ERobbPrincipal Aug 15
To have a great team you must surround yourself with like-minded people!
@MichelLuqman
Where do I find people who can think?
Most of the educators on Twitter have a herd mentality and wear blinkers. They base everything on research reports and rarely think. Read what Daniel Kahneman said about research reports. LINK
Note:
Since 2010, I have been questioned on my credentials and asked for research reports when common sense should prevail. This over-reliance on research reports as if they are the gospel truth is one of the main problems facing education.
I have said for many years that one of the reasons why many kids shut down/ disengage from learning to read is due to teaching the sounds represented by letters wrongly. A majority of these kids are wrongly classified as dyslexic.
Many educators have disagreed with me.
Let us examine the reason for the different perspectives.
How does a deaf person learn to read just as well as one who can hear?
Read the comment section of my post on ‘How the brain learns to read' – Dehaene Stanislas.
Here is another account by another deaf person who is able to read. This should put paid to Dehaene’s theory which says the following:
Reading requires specializing the visual system for the shapes of the letters, and connecting them to speech sounds.
Teaching letter-sound correspondences is therefore essential.
I have repeated several time for you to think rather than accepting whatever is said by so called experts such as Sally Shaywitz, Dehaene Stanislas, Andy Johnson, Timothy Shanahan, David Boulton, Sharon Vaughn and many others.
The first part on Orthographic on Joan Sedita's blog post may be found here.
How does orthographic mapping develop?
The following are extracts from the blog post found here and my comments.
Three intersecting skills must be in place to enable orthographic mapping (Ehri, 2014; Kilpatrick, 2015):
Highly proficient phonological and phonemic awareness
Automatic letter-sound correspondence knowledge
The ability to accurately and quickly decode a word by identifying its sounds letter by letter, and blending those sounds to read the word.
I met Alanna Maurin on 23.12.2020 on Twitter and started sharing with her what I had learned from my students who were unable to read when they came to me for tuition.
She was distraught and at her wit’s end as her son was unable to read and was willing to try anything.
Please read the previous 2 blog posts for a complete understanding of this post.
Is Phonological Awareness Deficit the cause of kids being unable to read?
Phonological awareness is the foundation for learning to read. Read more here.
It’s the ability to recognize and work with sounds in spoken language.
