The idea of learning to read silently and not though sounding out the words seems asinine to me. I couldn't stomach the entire article but it is difficult to imagine a rational argument for this approach.
In ancient times, "reading silently" was considered a special skill that very few people had. Most literate people back then would read by sounding words aloud.
They weren't sounding letters, they were sounding words. I imagine the same would be true for numerals. They wouldn't go "X I I K I D S", they would go "twelve kids".
This is how I read and it's horrible. It really leaves you in the lerch if you cannot recognize the word because your are relying on just one sense to absorb the meaning.
I've definitely learned how to sound things how as I've gotten older because I know a lot more words than I can possibly spell. Mostly because speaking is easier than reading. You just get to use more senses when you speak and the idea of reducing the senses in reading is silly. Honestly people would be better at reading if you could introduce a textured alphabet you could feel. The more senses you can bring into learning something the easier it gates