I Have Dyslexia & A Speech Impediment | Why I Love Reading | Using Your Voice

Thanks for sharing your story! I totally haven't noticed the speech impediment up until this point although I can hear it when you've pointed it out. You must be proud of how far you've come!

Wow, it's so great hearing about your journey as a reader and writer. It really does bring to light a different perspective on not taking these things for granted and really being grateful for the ways we are able to express ourselves and learn about others. Your unique background makes you the reader and writer you are today, and I think your viewpoint is so valuable in this community! 💜

You are describing my childhood. I am 61. It is so refreshing to finally understand myself more :)

I’m a 6th grade special education teacher (11-12 year olds). I teach kids with dyslexia but your story reminded me of one of my students and gave me the idea that the brain research showing how to teach kids with dyslexia may not work for kids who have your type of dyslexia. Mind blown so thank you so much!

Thank you so much for sharing. I has no idea. I love how you champion the voiceless in this and in your life and I'm honored to know that this is part of your why.

Thank you so much for sharing and opening up about this! This is so important to talk about I'm glad you were able. Using your voice and reading is such a special thing and everyone who loves reading has such a unique experience with it and it's beautiful and it's one of my favorite things to hear about your. I don't have dyslexia or a speech impediment but I do have another learning disability, dyscalculia which makes math extremely difficult. I also recently found out I have ADHD which isn't exactly a learning disability but can effect and has effected my education extremely, especially having gone undiagnosed for so long. I've never really been at an education level like everyone around me. All that to say is I understand in a different way not feeling good enough and the pressure and stress of your brain just not working how you want it to and just not being able to do things like everyone else.

What a great video! It's so important to use your voice and listen to others' voices. I loved learning more about you.

You are so inspiring! Not everyone has the strength to work as hard as you.

You are amazing. Move to the south where we can't talk good either. I can't roll my tongue. So some words i can't pronounce. My dad is unable to pronounce many words. This video was great.

thank you so much for sharing your story!! i think talking about these things is super important. and as an adult, it's interesting to reflect back on how these childhood experiences shaped us. thank you for being open and talking about how this affected you. i'm really sorry that people acted like you weren't smart-- that's awful. but i'm also glad that you channeled that need to prove yourself into your love for literature. <3 as a kid i had a lot of health issues too, a couple physical disabilities probably related to my scoliosis, and as a result i wasn't good at running around or doing active kid things. maybe that's where my love for reading/writing started!

You described the importance of using and respecting people's voices so beautifully. I also have always struggled to understand people for whom storytelling and communication and that kind of connection simply don't matter. I always think, have they never read something that changed or enriched their life in some way? haven't they ever seen or read or told a story that caught them up so much that they didn't pay attention to the world around them? If not, I find that so heartbreaking. And worrying too, because if they don't care about stories on paper, how can we ever make them care about stories of other people? (as you alluded to) This was such a powerful video--I'm so in awe of the passion you have for storytelling and uplifting others' voices. I'm having trouble expressing how much this means to me. Gorgeous job, friend <3

I relate to this so much. To my knowledge; and my memory is terrible, i could make noises around the time that most people could say simple words, I had my own language until I was 4, I basically spoke gibberish. I would say baba over and over again and my mom told my that was “I’m thirsty”. Things like that. I would mostly mumble and have trouble I guess putting volume in my voice. People always have trouble hearing me. I was pretty unpopular in school as I had and still have a relatively hard time speaking. I’m pretty good at pronunciation, but now days words just escape me. It can me complicated words or just really simple words, I have a hard time remembering words hear and there.

Thank you for sharing your story. My son is 9 years old and he is challenge by dyslexia. He also didn't speak until age 4. Now he talks soooooooooooo MUCH! lol He does get a lot of kids asking him how old he is or why does he talk like baby. Hearing your story brings me hope that he will sound perfectly like you. You speak and sound very well! God Bless.

I didn't know that you didn't speak or just more or less so that nobody really knew what you were saying:O Well, with me you don't need to worry that I ever will make fun of you or anything when you should mispronounce words because I probably mispronounce a lot of English words as well so...:D And I really never noticed that with the "this" or the "y" before you mentioned it as I visited you and afterwards I noticed it more but probably just because I know it now:) But I find it very brave that you share this and open up about it on the internet. And yes, you are right, I don't really think about how great it is that we can speak and speak up.

Thank you for sharing.

I have dyslexia and I love reading. I started to really enjoy reading with comic books. I still read comic books as an adult because the visual medium is easier for me to engage with. I love using my imagination to get through a story even though its very very difficult for me. It took me over 3 years to read It by Stephen King but i did it. Congo by Michael Crichton is amazing and ive read it 4 times. The hitchhikers guide to the galaxy is sarcasfic sci fo perfection. If im not interested in something theres no chance ill read it because of the mental strain kt takes me to read. Thank you very much for sharing your story. Sincerely, Steve.

Exactly what I feeling .

I have the same problems 😩 I try so hard to say some words but for some reason it doesn't come out right.

I get it, I might not have Dyslexia like you, but I get it.

People actually don't pronounce a "g" at end of the word "young." It's actually a different phoneme or speech sound at the end of the word. The phoneme is known as a velar nasal, whereas the "g" is a velar stop." We pronounce it in younger but not in young. So maybe you're not mispronouncing "young" as much as you think.