How I teach Dyslexic kids - Part 2

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Even consonants are not spared.

Almost all the consonants too represent more than one sound.

When we correctly teach the sounds of letters — that is, without any extraneous “uh” or “huh” noises tacked on — many children still shut down if they haven’t first been taught the letter names. This is because a huge number of everyday words are actually pronounced using the sounds of the letter names themselves, not the isolated phonemes we drill in phonics lessons.

When “Buh” Breaks the Child: Why Seidenberg’s Critique Misses the Real Shutdown Trigger

 

Yvette Manns gets it right—clean consonant cues prevent disengagement. Seidenberg’s schwa defense explains speech, but not why kids give up on reading.

Grok said:

Seidenberg—he's actually one of the field's loudest critics of adding that extraneous "uh" to consonants. In his writings, he explicitly calls out teaching "buh" for /b/ as a mistake because it bundles in a vowel that muddles the phoneme

Complexities & misconceptions

Below is an article on LinkedIn I have copied followed by my thoughts.

We are quick to judge and blame because it takes time to get to the root of the problem.

We also like to see the complex picture of things when it can be simple right in front of our eyes!

That makes me wonder why we always try to complicate.

Identifying At-Risk Students in grade 1

 

I am not a trained teacher, but in 2004, I found myself teaching a child who couldn’t read a single sentence after two years of school. Curious about this intelligent child’s struggles, I began researching the issue. I eventually worked with over 80 similar students and noticed a common pattern: each child was sounding out consonants with an extraneous sound.

By teaching them the correct consonant sounds, they started to read successfully. Many of my former students have since become professionals. I then began assisting parents concerned about their children's reading difficulties. I asked them to record their kids sounding out consonants and encouraged them to correct the pronunciations. Soon, those children also began to read.

Double Deficit Dyslexia - A new challenge

                                                          

On 9.2.24 a mother who read my message on a Dyslexia Support group messaged me and asked if I could help her son who has been diagnosed with double deficit dyslexia.

This is the first time I am hearing this term 'Double Deficit Dyslexia'. But, I don't believe in all these labels. 

The mother confirmed that her son, let’s call him David, has no acuity problems i.e. he has no hearing, sight or thinking problems.

I asked her for a voice recording of David reading out the sounds of the letters C, F, L, M, N, R, and S. She obliged. David pronounced the letter sounds perfectly. There were no extraneous sounds.

“one-size-fits-all” approach is not effective. (Dr. Sam Bommarito)

 

What reading research (the science of reading) has shown is that there are no differences in outcomes among the various approaches to teaching phonics and that a “one-size-fits-all” approach is not effective. (Dr. Sam Bommarito)

I have written several posts on the importance of teaching the correct sounds represented by letters.

Many of the teachers/ educators say that it is impossible to teach the sounds of consonants without extraneous sounds. They refuse to correct themselves when videos pronouncing the sounds correctly is produced. 

One guy says 'one size does not fit all' and everyone who reads that statement repeat it without the slightest bit of thought. They use this as an excuse for the reading levels maintained for the past more than 30 years.

Now, listen to the video clip here which teaches the correct pronunciation. There will be no kid left behind if teachers teach the pronunciation of sounds represented by letters in this manner.

My first one hour with my first student for 2022

 

This is a continuation of my post found here. 

27.4.2022

Today was the first 1 hour session with Jack.

I asked him to read out the sounds represented by the consonants and recorded it as shown below.

The failure to meaningfully address illiteracy feels intentional. (Part 2)

 

i.                     There were several emails to and from Dr.David Boulton. After the initial few emails he stopped responding to my questions. I commented on Dr. David Boulton’s LinkedIn post. He unfriended me on LinkedIn but immediately deleted the videos that were detrimental to kid that I had complained about. You may read my comments and his response at https://www.dyslexiafriend.com/2017/07/drboulton-drlyon-and-drengelmann-on_23.html#more

 

If he disagreed with me and blocked me why would he delete the 2 videos I had complained about? The 2 videos deleted were videos teaching consonants with extraneous sounds.

 

Please read the comments from my readers on the post above.

Notes 4 - Letters represent various sounds

 

One of the 3 reasons why kids shut down from learning to read is the fact that they are not told on the outset that letters represent more than one sound. Let them know this fact and when you come across words where the sound represented by the letter you have taught him earlier is different point it out to him.

My job is done.

A 5-year-old kid now reads using phonics and a few Dolch words.

Reading progress of one of my students.

Allison was one of four students I tutored in 2018. She came to me in the middle of primary 2 unable to read even a sentence or spell even one Dolch word.

Adding extraneous sounds to consonants

This is a follow up to my post yesterday.

This is how consonants are taught all over the world.