I have been teaching reading for over 40 years, and it is only in my recent history that I have heard about children with dyslexia diagnoses. And I hear of them at an alarming rate!

I responded by taking on the tutoring of more troubled students, using systematic phonics and this became the entry into a realm of study I never imagined I would undertake.

When I began looking into this, I kept digging deeper and deeper until I began making some discoveries.

For one, the high rate of diagnosis can be attributed to very loose standards for diagnosing children this way. Even the definition of dyslexia is inconsistent from source to source.

Here is an interesting quote I found in a college level text: Dyslexia, Reading and the Brain: A sourcebook of Psychological and Biological Research compiled by Alan A. Beaton.

“The terminology used in referring to reading difficulties is chaotic and confusing. In part, this chaos stems from a vagueness of definitions and a general looseness in the use of words, but to a much greater extent it stems from fundamental disputes about the nature of the reading problems. This dispute is most evident in the continuing controversy about the existence of dyslexia. Conferences on reading are full of heated exchanges about whether the condition does or does not exist. “

Some experts even denounce the use of the term dyslexia.”

Secondly, research ranging from the 18th through the 21st Centuries, indicates that nearly all cases of “dyslexia” can be reversed using explicit, systematic phonics approach such as that used in Alpha-Phonics: A Primer for Beginning Readers.

Having learned these facts about reading problems, I decided to write a book based on reading instruction, practices and outcomes based on personal accounts of some of the very best of teachers. (Dyslexic No More: Saved by the ABC’s)

My book is still in progress, but some of the ideas which I introduce in the book have been added to the 2022 edition of Alpha-Phonics.

I believe it’s time to take this problem by the horns and start teaching reading again!

Be a Hero. Teach a child to read.

Alpha-Phonics: A Primer for Beginning Readers

To order: https://amzn.to/3PdOSgj

by Meg Rayborn Dawson (homeschooling mom of 9)

MS, Exceptional Student Education (Univ. of W. Florida) emphasis on Applied Behavior Analysis

MA, psychology (Grand Canyon University)

Bachelor of Arts (Northwest Nazarene University)

******************************************************************************