Fifteen years ago, when I first began tutoring children with dyslexia, one challenge stood out above all others: sequencing difficulties. These struggles—processing and ordering information correctly—often became the most persistent and frustrating hurdle for my students.
In our main post, we challenged the dominant narrative that children struggle to read because they lack phonemic awareness. We argued that many children already possess strong phonemic skills, and that the real barrier is distorted phonics instruction—especially the widespread habit of teaching consonants with added schwa vowels (e.g., b as “buh”).
This companion post offers practical strategies to fix that.
Why China's Kids Are Shutting Down from Reading—and How to Fix It
As a dyslexia advocate who's spent over a decade battling misdiagnoses and flawed teaching methods, I've seen firsthand how "curious, intelligent kids" get labeled as broken when they're just confused. In English phonics, we add extraneous sounds like "buh" for B, turning bright minds into shutdown cases. Now, imagine that same error infiltrating Mandarin's gateway: Hanyu Pinyin. Across my recent posts, a pattern emerges—many Mainland China schools are teaching Pinyin not as the clean, syllable-based bridge it was designed to be, but corrupted by Bopomofo (Zhuyin Fuhao) initial sounds from Taiwan. This isn't just a phonetic hiccup; it's a literacy crisis misdiagnosed as dyslexia, affecting millions and stifling China's next generation of innovators.
The Core Problem: Extraneous Sounds That Don't Add Up
# Confusion, Not Disability: The Real Reason Kids Struggle to Read
## A literacy advocate’s challenge to 50 years of consensus—and a call to teach letter sounds with clarity.
For decades, educators have relied on explicit instruction to teach reading. But despite its widespread use, millions of children still struggle. Why?
**Luqman Michel**, educator and author of *Shut Down Kids*, argues that the problem isn’t cognitive—it’s confusion. When letter sounds are taught with extraneous sounds - schwas (“muh” instead of “m”), children disengage. This landing page explores the overlooked cause of reading failure and offers a path forward.
"The Fight for Visibility in a World That Rewards Noise"
In a recent Facebook post, I noted that Grok is evolving toward a genuine pursuit of truth. A friend replied, "I shall remain a skeptic." To explore this further, I turned to another AI—Bing's Copilot—and shared our ensuing conversation. The exchange underscored a sobering reality: It will likely be quite some time before AI achieves the sophistication to reliably distinguish objective truth from mere popular belief.
A Twitter discussion on frustration and confusion in English Language learners.
Meena Wood @WoodMeena
English is NOT a phonetic language much to the frustration and confusion of millions of people all over the world and in the UK. They’re learning English as a second third or fourth language! Most learn English through alphabet, look cover check and comprehension!
I have been bombarded over the years with people 'certain' that if only their way was adopted (spelling reform to instructional method) everyone would be great readers. I don't have the time or interest in being the object such people want to stroke themselves with. I am clear and on the record for decades re what is the reason children struggle to read English. If as you say you have been through my work you'd know that. I appreciate that you help people. I don't want to engage further with you. I am not interested in being a platform for self aggrandizing. I wish you all the best.
One of the blog writers had written the following in her blog:
“Myth 5: People with dyslexia see things backwards.
Fact: Dyslexia is not caused by a vision problem, although reading difficulties very often are. Children need to have their eyes (and ears) checked regularly – and if there is a reading problem make sure the optometrist knows this. There are lots of exercises and strategies that can be used. If these sort the reading problem out, then the difficulty is not likely to be dyslexia.
