Early input

Here are excerpts I collected from the internet on early learning.

Simply put, a child’s early years lay the foundation for all that is to come. In recent years, researchers have learned that the human brain develops the vast majority of its neurons, and is at its most receptive to learning, between birth and three years of age.

Sight words – My first student for 2019 (Part 2)

Yesterday was the 7^th lesson for my first student,Emmanuel,  for 2019. He has now memorised 57 sight words and has been taught to read many words using phonics. Listen to the 2 YouTube videos below.

My first student for 2019 - Psychological Assessment

On 5.1.2019, a father brought his primary 4 son to me for tuition. He has been diagnosed as a dyslexic by Dr. Fauziah of Gleneagles hospital in Kota Kinabalu. His psychological assessment report done in January this year says that he is ‘strongly at risk of having dyslexia’. 

The report further says that there are five signs of dyslexia, namely: - At Risk Quotient (ARQ) is 2.2 - Strongly at risk; - Spiky skills profile; - Weak literacy (mean 1.25 - in the lowest 5 percent). - Discrepancy of 2 points between fluid IQ and phonological skills - Weak phonological skill (mean 1 - in the lowest 5 percent).

I told the father that I can get the boy to read within 4 months of 3 one hour lesson per week. How do I dare say such a thing when he has been diagnosed as a dyslexic with weak phonological skill?

Read one of my articles on phonological skill at

 http://www.dyslexiafriend.com/2017/10/drjoe-torgesen-vs-luqman-michel.html

Let us together observe his progress. Today – 27.1.2019 will be his 7^th lesson with me. I shall record what he reads today and post it here for you to see. I will take one sentence each from his lessons learned to-date and see how he reads.

Meanwhile, please read the story of my two students last year (primary 3 and 5) who were diagnosed as dyslexic and requested by the dyslexia association to go for therapy in Kuala Lumpur for 3 months.

https://luqmantestimonial.blogspot.com/2018/09/my-current-students-isaac-and-arianna.html

Info-Communication Media Development Authority (IMDA) -Singapore

I wrote several emails to the MOE of Singapore, the ministry of communication and information and both passed my email to Info-Communication Media Development Authority (IMDA). Earlier, MOE had asked me to contact the producers of the TV programme – Baby TV-. 

Critical Thinking (Part 3)

Here is an email to the CJ of Sarawak and Sabah. Please read the attachments below the email. Let us use this to have a discussion on critical thinking. Let us share all our thoughts on  the following matter. Write whatever comes to mind.

14.1.2019

Dear Chief Judge Datuk David Wong Dak Wah,

Request for sealed judgment

I have tried in vain to get a copy of the sealed judgment from the High Court here in Kota Kinabalu.

I would be grateful if you could please let me know what I can or should do to get hold of the sealed judgment of a case I was involved in.

‘When government is wrong, it is dangerous to be right’ (Voltaire)

I have been writing to Reading Reform Foundation of UK of which Mona McNee is the founder.

Here are a few extracts of emails from Mona to me in 2015. Read it carefully and it may explain why no one wants to discuss why many smart kids are unable to read.

“I am 92 next month and failing daily -eye sight, and have been deaf for 60 years so now I merely exist. 

Thank you for your help. Keep fighting for phonics based on 26 letters>sounds which works for all.”

 “I am delighted to hear of your fight.

Remember I myself thought it was just look-say vs phonics. The Evils behind all this must be very clever.”

My comment: I stopped writing to the lady above in 2015 because she was almost blind and I did not want to burden her.

Critical thinking (Part 2)

“Surely, Scott must be aware of Finkel’s views and yet he has made no attempt to counter or rebut them.” (Greg Ashman)

The above comes as no surprise to me.

Other than the three professors no one attempted to counter or rebut my posts on my blog, Face Book or on LinkedIn.

Response to Critical thinking - Greg Ashman (Part 1)

The following is in response to an article in a Blog post byGreg Ashman

In the article above Greg said:

“You need to know a lot of stuff in order to think critically about it. It is daft to set these up in opposition. As cognitive scientist Dan Willingham suggests, a child can think critically about something she knows about and a trained scientist can fail to think critically about something she does not know about."

The National Organisation for Dyslexia AND Dyslexia Association

In my article on 3.11.2018 in response to The National Organisation for Dyslexia Malaysia’s (NOD) article in the Star Online dated 4.10.2018 I had said;

"New learning builds on previous learning. The kids who are prone to shutting down cannot transfer what they have newly learned unless they truly understand what they are learning and connect them with what they have learned."

The president of NOD, Dr. Mullai A Ramniah, did not respond.

Ministry of Communications and Multimedia - MCMM (in Malay KKMM) Malaysia

I wrote several emails to out Ministry of Education and have yet to receive any response.

I then wrote to our Minister Tuan Gobind Singh Deo and his team at Ministry of Communications and Multimedia (KKMM) on 22.10.2018. 

Not receiving any reply I wrote again on 22.11.2018 (one month after my first email).

Finally on 10.12.2018 I received a reply from Ministry of Multimedia and Communication apologizing for the late response and saying that they have forwarded the email to the party concerned which I believe is Astro.

Scout mindset or soldier mindset

Not long ago I heard a TED talk by Julia Galef on why scout mindset is crucial to good judgment.

I believe that both mentalities are important. I used the scout mentality to gather firsthand information from my students on why they were unable to read in English but were able to read in Malay and Hanyu Pinyin.

Ministry of Education of Singapore and Malaysia

                                Molding the future of our nation? What future?         

I wrote to our Malaysian Minister of Education and his deputy several times. 

AND then I wrote to both of them again together with their team members. I have yet to receive a response from them.

I wrote to MOE Singapore and immediately received a response from them.

Therein lies the difference between our MOE and that of Singapore.

My students – the common factor

My only student whom I taught for 5 years from primary one to primary six ( only 5 years because he was promoted from halfway in primary four to primary 5) is my first student.

All my others students were taught only for a short period.

Discussion with Stepehn Krashen (Whole Language Proponent) Part 4

This is a continuation of my discussion with Stephen Krashen, Professor Emiritus at the University of Southern California.

He stopped his discussion and his group administrator said that all comments will be discontinued.

This is what happens when these professors are cornered and have nothing further to say.

Stephen Krashen is definitely an educated guy but may not be learned. He is barking up the wrong tree without knowing the actual sounds of the alphabets in the English language. 

Stephen Krashen - Whole Language Proponent (Part 3)

Here is the continuation of the discussion with Stephen Krashen, Professor Emiritus of the University of Southern California.

Stephen Krashen  “About teaching basic phonics correctly I assume you mean accurately. I suspect that approximately right rules that work most of the time are OK. With reading, children acquire the more subtle rules. So many children have learned to read this way. Is there any research showing the proper way and demonstrating that it is better? Here is, of course, another Krashen paper you might be interested in: Defending Whole Language: The Limits of Phonics Instruction and the Efficacy of Whole Language Instruction
https://tinyurl.com/y8opzwpn