Shutdown Kids - Michael Luqman

Language and the Fear of learning

Speaker - Meeting 10 Nov 2021
 
Shutdown Kids and Dyslexia
 
Speaker - Meeting 10 Nov 2021 Rotary Caroline Springs
 
Michel joined us from Kota Kinabalu in Sabah, Malaysia to speak about why many children shut down or disengage from learning to read, and thus are labelled as dyslexic. He is from the Rotary Community Corps (RCC) of Bukit Padang (sponsored by the Rotary Club of Luyang).
 
After three lessons Michel told his friend that he was unable to teach John. It was then that his friend told him that John was certified dyslexic by experts in Singapore and Sydney.
Michel had not heard the word dyslexic and so he checked on the internet to learn about dyslexia. Having checked a few sites, he took it up as a challenge to teach John. By this time, he had taken a liking to John as he was a jovial child. He subsequently taught more than 70 similar kids and learned from them that they had been unable to read due to 3 main reasons listed in the link below.  Source: Dyslexia - A Different Perspective
 
Michel went on to explain that children shy away from learning to read due to the way they are taught letter sounds. In essence they tend to shut down from learning to read because of confusion that results from being taught sounds represented by consonants with extraneous sounds. When they are taught like that, they then lag behind other children in class and are seen as being dyslexic, that is, they are classed as having a learning disability. But in essence they are just instructional casualties.
Michel believes that the ‘Reading wars’ can be ended and no child will be left behind if children are taught correctly from the onset.
It certainly gave us a whole new perspective about the difficulty faced by kids learning to read in English.
 
You can view and listen more about Michael amazing journey on the following links: