Canada:

News articles, interviews, research, events and lots more - ready for your comments.
Post Reply
User avatar
Debbie_Hepplewhite
Posts: 2498
Joined: Sat May 23, 2015 4:42 pm

Canada:

Post by Debbie_Hepplewhite »

Two readers' responses to Kevin Brown's letter, 'Dyslexia Letdown' have been published in The Chronicle Herald:

https://www.thechronicleherald.ca/opini ... 19-310745/
Schools out of sync

I was very pleased to see the May 3 letter, “Dyslexia letdown” by Kevin Brown. I’d like to add my voice to a movement that is finally gaining momentum in Canada calling on education systems, universities and teachers’ unions to pay attention to and advocate for the use of the science of reading in schools across this nation.

The research literature is robust and clear: all children are advantaged by a structured literacy approach that includes explicit instruction of the alphabetic code using systematic synthetic phonics.

Yet schools across Canada, including in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick continue to follow “balanced literacy” frameworks that promote practices with no roots in the science of reading, including rote memorization of sight words beginning in kindergarten and patterned levelled readers that promote guessing and memorization.

Teachers deserve to be taught the science of reading and children deserve teachers who know the science of reading.

Anything less is unacceptable

Erin Schryer, PhD, early childhood education researcher and consultant, Quispamsis, N.B.
Get with dyslexia program

Re: “Dyslexia letdown” (May 3 letter). I was struck by how Kevin Brown was able to identify the problem and offer a solution in just a few paragraphs. He is correct: students in this province are suffering needlessly. Parents should not have to pay for private tutors, or wait and see if their children will catch up. This is an unnecessary burden the system places on children and their parents.

Some jurisdictions have implemented mandatory early screening and structured literacy. We know it is successful because the research is clear in reading acquisition; explicit, systematic and code-based instruction is most effective for all readers, especially for children with dyslexia.

I call upon administrators and teachers to join together and pressure the minister to do the right thing and implement teaching practices that work for all students. We are, after all, in it for the students.

Guy Hartling, Halifax
Post Reply