S2E26: Seen and Unseen - Bringing Awareness to Learning Disorders

Do you ever feel like you're just not getting it? Maybe you've been told to just try harder, but the frustration just keeps building up, leaving you feeling lost and alone. It's time to break free from the pain of ineffective solutions and find understanding and support. Let's dive into the world of learning differences and uncover the real impact they have on individuals' lives.

In this episode, you will be able to:

• Explore Engaging Dyslexia Awareness Month Activities to Foster Inclusivity and Understanding.
• Uncover the Impact of Dyscalculia on Adults and Gain Insights for Support and Empowerment.
• Discover Effective Strategies for Managing ADHD and Promoting Academic and Personal Success.
• Understand the Hereditary Aspects of Learning Disabilities to Advocate for Early Intervention and Support.
• Delve into the Emotional Effects of Dyscalculia and Learn How to Provide Meaningful Support and Understanding.

Explore Engaging Dyslexia Awareness
Dyslexia awareness month activities are crucial in increasing understanding and support for individuals with dyslexia. Raising awareness helps create a more inclusive and empathetic environment for those with dyslexia. Engaging in dyslexia awareness activities fosters a sense of community and support for individuals facing learning differences.

Transcript:
00:00:05
Live in action. Oh, I like that. Start. Welcome back to word blindness. Dyslexia exposed.

00:00:12
I am Juliet Hahn and I am here with Brent Sopal. Oh, I don't even get a co host today. Whatever. Bullshit. Yeah.

00:00:21
I think you're going to be the host today. Oh, really? I think. I think you're going to take over. So.

00:00:27
That's right. That's what I was going to say before you had to say that. The reason why I didn't say co host is because I think that a lot has happened, like it always does. But this is what I know our listeners always look forward to kind of what our moods are, what has happened. And this is going to be.

00:00:46
October is dyslexic awareness month. We've already talked about. Why is it October? Everything is in October. So there's a lot of things.

00:00:54
Right. There's a lot of stuff all over social media, like, you know, support us here for, you know, for October, whatever the awareness month of. You can fill in that blank, but there's like, so many. And so you and I started talking this morning, this afternoon, whatever. Can't keep track.

00:01:12
Today's been. Been a fun day. Cause we're not taping on Monday. We're taping on today's Wednesday update. We already did our Monday one.

00:01:22
That was. That was a little punchy. And so you brought up a really good point about some of the things that have been coming across your desk. Yeah, I think, you know, um, the one that, you know, Brett Favre came up, I think was yesterday he was up in Washington from Congress, I believe, and saying he's got Parkinson's. No, so there's.

00:01:52
There's that one. I know today I saw some biggest. Obviously, Wayne Gretzky, um, best NHL player ever was up in Ottawa, which is the parliament in Canada, Washington in. In the US, about ALS. You know, some of the statistics and you know that everybody's talking about.

00:02:17
Um. I'm gonna have to Google, as we're talking here, Parkinson's. But ALS, it said it was one to 3% every hundred thousand people. So I get Elizabeth, I'm like, what's this math? Meaning, because we always talk.

00:02:38
It's the one in five. And it said, you know, that percentage of one between one and 3% of 100,000 people is 0.003.

00:02:57
And we're at one five. And ALS is not hereditary. Now, I guess as we speak here, you're gonna have to look into Parkinson's. But go ahead. Yeah, go look at that.

00:03:10
Because. And again, these are all real things. These are affect people, and they're awful diseases. Awful diseases. And I believe that's the word that you use for them.

00:03:19
I mean, awful, awful diseases.

00:03:24
Why we're bringing it up is because, as Brent said, dyslexia is one in five. It is hereditary. It doesn't discriminate. It doesn't matter what your career, your professional, you know, wherever your trajectory is, it can happen to anyone. And there is stuff going on because we just had this conversation a million times.

00:03:46
There is a lot of stuff happening in the scientific world. There's a lot of stuff happening with the brain that Parkinson's, ALS, they're talking about with the brain, why they think things are happening, et cetera, et cetera, with dyslexia, the five ds, dyslexia, dysgraphia, dyscalculia, or dyscalculia. Oh, I said that. Well done. That was good.

00:04:12
Thanks. ADHD and dyspraxia, those are all hereditary. And some have a higher percentages because we are going to dive into each of those for October dyslexia awareness month, and we're going to give you a little bit more detail in depth, like we've done for dyslexia. And if you're like, well, I don't remember the dyslexia one. If you go back, because we are in season two, if you go back to season one, we break down all the different dyslexias.

00:04:42
And I'm putting that in, quote, because there's, you know, many different categories of dyslexia. So. And then we'll talk about where our. Like we did with dyslexia, kind of where our stuff is, but once again, it is because our things are invisible. Yeah.

00:05:01
You know, I just said to you, the amount of paperwork I have to do right now is, like, taking me down to my, like, my knees. The numbers, it is so hard, and it puts me in such a bad mood. I've snapped at my kids, snapped at my husband. I've, you know, snapped at people on the road. And I.

00:05:19
It's. I try not to, but it's like these things just. They're so hard for me to do and so hard for me to, like, wrap my head around that I get in that. In that kind of mood. We all have it right when we all get that overwhelm.

00:05:35
But there is a different overwhelm when these things are really hard, when numbers and people are asking you all these number questions. I don't fucking know. And I. Oh, you have to start learning this. No, it's 50 years.

00:05:46
It's 50 years. I am dyscalcula. I'm pretty severely dyscalcula. I wasn't, you know, yesterday where I was golfing at a place that I've never golfed before, here in Illinois. It's a private course.

00:06:04
It's.

00:06:07
Yeah, it's next. You know, there's only 200 members. So this place, I. When I got the invite, I had. Does this actually say this?

00:06:15
Like, there's car museum? Like, this place is. But as we're walking out, they're talking about their betting and yo yo. There's side games you play while you're golfing. Oh, betting.

00:06:27
I thought you meant, like, your betting. And I was like, you guys were talking about betting, so. And I was, oh, I was just gonna say a word that would not be PC on here. But I was like, that's interesting. Go ahead.

00:06:38
Sorry. Betting. I would do anything be betting right now. The way I feel, I'm exhausted. But there were bet, you know, over unders and all this stuff, and I was, you know, I was talking to.

00:06:51
The guy invited me. I'm like, got a little addiction. I've got a lot of issues in my life. You know, it's been. But gambling wasn't one of them because I could never understand the money.

00:07:04
Plus 150 to -250 I'm like, I don't know what that fucking means. And I was telling him I didn't know what net money was, and gross money was to. A few years ago, I said, somebody told me, you know, pick up your fishing net with your fish in there, put it over shoulders and walk away. That's taking your net money and going home. He's like, and now this guy's obviously great, you know, a great guy for.

00:07:41
He was actually at the. At the golf event. So I just recently introduced, introducing to him, he's like, that. That is pretty incredible. He was.

00:07:51
You should write a car coffee book with all your little one liners. But I told him I couldn't gamble because I could never understand it. I still don't. I'm like, what is -125 what's plus 700? I don't know.

00:08:06
And they're gambling. The caddies were trying to do this, you know, and it was all in numbers. There's like, zero words. I'm like, I have no fucking clue what you said. You're talking in Jehie Bowie skeeball.

00:08:22
What, mama? I'm like, you have no idea. And they all looked at me and started laughing, like, I have no idea what you just said. Now, if you wrote it down on a map, maybe I'll understand it. But I've got, I had no clue.

00:08:36
And I told my, thank God I couldn't because I've had every other issue dictionary. I didn't get that one because I couldn't understand it. Well, you know, it's so interesting that you. I want to say something I haven't said in a long time, is that when you have these certain learning disabilities, disorders, whatever, whatever you want to call them, it has nothing to do with your iq. It is the way you learn.

00:09:06
So when someone told you about net and gross, I was the same way. There was so much stuff in advertising that people would tell me, like, time and time again and I'd be like, God, I just can't understand it. And then when someone broke it down or made it something visual that my brain could get, I was like, oh, I got it. And then I could go above and beyond and probably actually do things better than other people and not better meaning, like, I was better, but, like, I could, like, go faster because I was like, oh, I get this now. So it has nothing to do with our iq.

00:09:34
It is the way our brains work. But when we're talking, sometimes we sound like morons. And I am very, very aware of that. So I do want to say that. And I don't think we say it enough because it is like, today I feel really dumb.

00:09:49
Like, I feel real. I could get choked up. I feel really dumb trying to figure out all of this paperwork. It's so frustrating. And I feel like I'm alone in it because I go to ask someone and they're like, oh, yeah, it's frustrating because I have to do it.

00:10:02
Like, I get it. I have to do it, but it's frustrating and it's hard. And it's not that I am dumb, it's the situation. I can't do it because I'm trying to go through a computer system that was not created for my brain. And it's really frustrating.

00:10:17
And you think about all the kids and all the kids as they get older, these are the times that, like, this rears its head where I wasn't expecting to do this today. I didn't have the mindset to be doing it today, and I clearly don't want to be doing it. And it is taking me down today. Well, you're not alone. And we can do this paperwork together.

00:10:35
We may never get done together, but, you know, parenting, you know, I would say, is hard. It gets harder every different stage. You know, the baby, you know, baby stage is hard, right? Not a lot of sleep, like a diaper bags, all that. And then, you know, the paperwork gets harder as the kids get older so much.

00:11:03
It's so stupid. And now when people say this all the time, that technologies has made it easier for us, you know, dyslexics, not for me. It's made it harder. Yeah, you're social media wiz, yo.

00:11:27
But it's harder. It's, you know, it's, it's for one brain. No, you got to go on this, on this website and fill this up.

00:11:38
That there's. So for making it easier, it's actually made, made it harder for me because that's hard to do that.

00:11:50
It's more complex because there are things that are like. But I have like three different systems. I have a thousand different emails. Yes, some of it is caused because of how I organize and function 100%. I'm not ever saying that it's not, but it still is super overwhelming.

00:12:08
And I want to take it back to the betting thing that you said because it's really funny. It's not like haha, funny. Let me just state that it's not haha, funny. So my kids, my husband loves a good gamble. Like he loves Vegas.

00:12:27
He is really good at it. He loves sports betting. And he's probably going to be like, thanks for putting that out on the podcast. But he also knows, like, I have this, I'll do this, I stop, whatever. So my kids, when we play, like, we do family card games and we bet money and like, we do a lot of things now, Hahn taught the kids, I think, when they were really young.

00:12:51
I am not that kind of betting card games. I think a lot of it's luck, truth be told. I'm sure there is some strategy, you know, if someone says, you know, but I don't play in Vegas, because I would just keep throwing it down because my discalculate, I mean, I, right. I like the feeling of it, but I could like, lose too much money that I don't even play with it. Cause it's not that to me is not what I want to spend my money on.

00:13:12
It's not like, oh, let me lose. Except there's been many different times that I have been like, oh, I'm just going to throw it all down, impulsive. Because it's like, oh, that feeling of, I get it. I get how someone can become. Yeah, I get how someone can get becoming a gambling addict.

00:13:28
But so Montgomery and term. And both are since young. They'd be like, dad, can you put the, you know, put money on this and this and this? He taught them really young, and so they understand it, even though there's dyscalculia. And both of them, it is a really interesting thing.

00:13:48
And I was just doing a little research on the five ds because I wanted to dive more into dyscalculia because it's starting to rear its head in other areas of the family. And one of the things that it said to me that actually made me super sad and super angry is that it can be remediated at a young age. And it almost, I think it's the website that I looked at because. Where'd you get that? Yeah, I don't want to say.

00:14:21
I can see your face. I pulled up very quickly because I wanted to read a little bit about it, and it is.

00:14:31
You're going to get so pissed. The Cleveland clinic.org dot.

00:14:42
And I read it, and I had to read it three times because I was like, okay, I think that the wording on this is incorrect. And it makes me feel really sad that, like, I could have actually not have dyscalculia as much as I did if someone caught it and helped. Well, let's.

00:15:11
Let's prophesize this. I need to look at it. Yeah, you're right. It's everything we talk about, you know, the dyslexia, you know, if we find it out early, better. That's why we always talk about the early diagnosis.

00:15:31
Right. So I don't like that wording. No, I got to read it because I'm going to read it, and then I'll be like, oh, you're remedia. You learn to deal with it. Just like, you know, there's different ordinan.

00:15:49
Gillingham. Right. There's different reading programs can help dyslexics. Yeah, same with this calculia. But it's the understanding.

00:15:59
It's the diagnosis. Like, that comes, you know, comes before that. But, yo, the Cleveland clinic. Thanks. Tips.

00:16:11
Like, you guys are fucking doctors, and that's what you come up with can be remade. Thanks. Yeah. So. But they also talk about, like, which I do.

00:16:23
Like, they actually talk about the emotional effects, you know, anxiety, agitation, fear, anger, depression, physical symptoms, nausea, vomit. I mean, so they do get into that a little bit.

00:16:41
I'm gonna. I want you, as I'm reading this, since we do things a little different. Right. Someone would say, oh, I can't believe they didn't do the research before. They're doing it as they do it.

00:16:50
That's how we do it. I want to go back to why. I mean, you were really passionate when we were talking today about this, and I totally get it because, as we said, als, Parkinson's, awful, awful, awful diseases. And to have awareness about them, understandable. But then when we do it on the flip side, like, okay, I know we're talking about dyslexia, and people are.

00:17:16
Yes, there's a lot of awareness right now with. And I'm not gonna even say those, the words of what just recently launched, because I'm not gonna even get the breath to that. But there is a lot of stuff happening out there. I get things forwarded constantly, constantly forward to us, but there's no action. There's no action.

00:17:35
And that kid in the chair is not getting helped. I'm going to let you take it from there. Okay? You. You go and research that is.

00:17:44
So anytime we talk about things on here, everything needs to be. Have light shone upon it. Yo, Parkinson's, it says 8.5 million people, and the world has it. How many? 8.5.

00:18:08
So dyslexia is. Was it 2 billion? Yeah, I mean, it's.

00:18:22
That sounds right. But you could have said a thousand other words, and I mean, numbers. And I'd been like, yep. No, because I think, you know, now let's Google. I think it says, how many people in the world?

00:18:35
Um, how many people in the world?

00:18:53
So it says, you know, 8 billion in 2022. Okay, so then half of 8 billion is 50% at 4 billion.

00:19:08
Now, if you take. So I have to. I can only operate, yo. And I can't do 5%, 10%, yo. Twenty five cents.

00:19:18
Fifty cents. Seventy five cents, a dollar. Right? So if I'm correct, where you'll have 50% of the population is 4 billion. So if you take a quarter of that, you know, it's 2 billion.

00:19:36
So we're just shy of 2 billion people, you know, in the world have dyslexia. And 8.5 million fucking people have Parkinson's. And everybody needs more. They know about that more. You know, Alsace, do you think it's more cut and dry?

00:20:01
Do you know what I'm asking? Yeah, no, I know exactly what you're asking. How many people?

00:20:07
People.

00:20:10
Now, we talked about this earlier, this, you know, the school shootings going on. We probably could have prevented half of that with understanding of who the individual was and who the kid was. So I think they see part, you know, Parkinson's, obviously, you go from here, wheelchair, you know, you get progresses. Yeah.

00:20:49
Dyslexia doesn't have the debilitating physical elements. Does that make sense? Yeah. Right? Because it's.

00:21:00
It's, it's. You can't see it, but it does, you know, it's got. I would take ALS. Your. Your, um.

00:21:18
You don't have it your whole life. You don't think you're worthless your whole life. You don't think you're dumb your whole life. You don't think you deserve. You don't think you deserve to live this your whole life?

00:21:31
Like, I can go on and on, you know, Ms. I know you know, you know people. That's. You're living 20 or 30 or 40 years of a good life before that kicks in, are we. I threw a desk at a kid in grade fucking three.

00:21:54
That's how angry I was. Now I've had as young as twelve commit suicide. 50% of people in prison are dyslexic. So we don't have the physical element to be recognized like these other diseases do. And I think that's why I use the word disability over disorder or different.

00:22:29
Sorry. Because how else do I get somebody to stop? And I. Right. And again, we're not saying those other diseases are terrible, and we wouldn't wish that on anyone, but why can't there be people going to parliament and fighting for this?

00:22:46
Out where it's. There are. Again, I know someone's going to listen to this and be like, are you kidding? There are so much fights. But it's all, in our opinion, for the wrong reasons, because it's still not being helped for the kids in the chair.

00:22:59
Can I read you what this says? Because this is what made me cry. Okay. I literally was like, okay, management and treatment for dyscalculia. How is it treated?

00:23:10
And is there a cure now? Again, this is one place, but it is the clinic, the clevelandclinic.org health diseases. Okay. I have a problem with all of that. Dyscalcula and then slash prevention.

00:23:33
That's the URL. Okay? The what? Like, the URL. So, like, if you go to the Internet, the thing that you type in, like, so when we do sopole.org, that's called a URL.

00:23:52
Rl. Rl. Yep. So, like, if someone says, what's your. So that.

00:23:56
That's. That's. That. That's what it is under. Okay, so dyscalculia is treatable in children because their brains haven't yet finished developing, making it possible for them to learn skills and to develop abilities they need to adapt to this condition.

00:24:24
Treatment usually takes the form of one on one learning programs. Okay, so what are your thoughts?

00:24:40
These guys gonna want to put a d and an r and a dot before their name? Fuck you. A doctor. Well, you find out anything?

00:24:54
They're using the word treatable, right? Is that what the. So that. That's the word I have a very big problem with. Correct.

00:25:02
Because it's the way our brains are wired. Treatable, to me, means you're cured, which, first of all, this is not a disease. So I have a problem with all of that semantics. And then as you go further down, it talks about, and this is what we talk about, why it's important to get diagnosed early, because there's remediation that you can give someone tools to be able to help and understand. So unfortunately, dyscalculia isn't considerable considered treatable in adults unless it's acquired.

00:25:44
Unless it's acquired dyscalculia. So acquired meaning like, you have a brain injury.

00:25:52
That's because their brains are fully developed, meaning treatments like learning programs are less likely to help.

00:26:00
So if you find out. I started the foundation with saying what I never wanted kid to feel like I do every day.

00:26:15
So if you find out, 32, that you have one of these five ds, it's a hell of a lot harder of a life then you finding out you have one of these five ds in grade two or three. Thanks. Tips over wrote that can go fuck yourself and hope I don't find you in a dark alley, because you won't work again. Yeah. So parents that are looking to find answers are reading things like this.

00:27:01
And when I read this, I got really angry because I was like, so, oh. As a kid, if a teacher was like, you know what? She's not just a girl, so she's bad at math, had the education and understanding. Wait, there could be something bigger here because she's also struggling here and she clearly has ADHD. Let's put the dots together and let's help her.

00:27:25
So would if math have been the most. One of the most humiliating. I can't even speak today. You know, where I wasn't allowed to take algebra two because it was like, you don't really pass algebra. It kind of just skirted you there.

00:27:38
Like all of these different things, you know, me tipping, taxi drivers, me, you know, again, now I worked. And this is where you left. I think one of my first jobs, I actually worked at the beach in Avalon, New Jersey, was staying at friend's house, and I worked at like a burger joint on the beach, and I was a cashier. Wow. Now, I'd love to know what the balance sheet was by the end of the summer.

00:28:06
It was a young guy, like. And he was like, why is your cash register always more or always less? I was like, I had. But I specifically remember panicking to my parents, and I go, I got this job. It's really cool, because I will.

00:28:19
This is actually an interesting story. The only way I was allowed to stay at the beach because I was staying with friends, it was the year I decided to stop swimming for the summer. My parents were like, okay. I was a competitive swimmer up until then. A friend was like, you can come stay with us.

00:28:31
My parents were like, you have to get a job. And I was like, okay. I got a job as a dishwasher in a mexican restaurant, and I did it for a weekend and was like, that's fucking disgusting. I don't want to do this for. For my summer job.

00:28:45
So I went to find another summer job. I gave my notice. I was like, I'll give you a couple more days, but, like, you know, I want to do something else. I don't want to do this. And that was the.

00:28:56
Like, they were just opening up. So it was like, oh, my God. I couldn't get any other job because everyone. It was like the summer. Like, everything was already taken.

00:29:04
So I remember saying to my parents, I don't. I can't do change. I can't do change. Never have been able to do change. So my dad and mom, I don't remember which one, but I specifically remember they made me a cheat sheet.

00:29:18
They're like, okay, give us the menu. What are all the prices? Someone. The people are at a beach. So this is probably what number this is how much money they're gonna give you this.

00:29:28
So if someone gives you a 20, this is how much change you're gonna give them if someone gets. So I literally had this little piece of paper. Not the first weekend, but the second weekend, and I had it all the other kids were, like, my age that were working, too. And I just remember when I tell you a line, it was like a line out the door, and you had to go fast. And I was not good at it, but I used my personality to pretend I was.

00:29:52
There goes. We talked about the. Getting those looks. I I remember I was playing in Vancouver. I had to do a signing, and somebody asked, could you spell George to George?

00:30:06
Oh.

00:30:10
Oh, no. I think that was pre cell phone. Yeah. Couldn't google it. I said, oh.

00:30:26
Ran to the bathroom took some paper and tried to, I don't know how long I was in there trying to figure out spell George. Yeah, awful feeling. Panic. Panic. Now I shouldn't even say this because anytime somebody wants an autograph, no problem, I will sign it.

00:30:47
I will sign it and hand it back to you because I will never ask to personalize it. Yeah, no, I don't know how you would. Cause then I gotta figure out how to spell that name. And even so, here's the thing. Cause someone could say to you, well, just ask them how to spell it.

00:31:04
But when someone goes fast and you can't write as fast as they're saying it because you're trying to form, because you're dysgraphia trying to form the letters, you can't. It's like almost impossible. And your brain's also already in panic mode. So you're just had this a couple times.

00:31:22
One, guys, like I've had people say to me, listen, you know, basically, fuck you. Nice signature. Can't. You got no respect for us. You know, we stood in line because my signature is a neat.

00:31:34
I'm like, oh, so rude. Thanks for having y'all. I said I got a fucking writing disorder. Yeah. But then I've asked people how to spell that.

00:31:46
They look at me like I'm a fucking retard. Mm hmm. So, yes, can I ask you how to spell it? But when you ask somebody that spells something simple, simple to them and they look at you like you're a fucking retarde. Mm hmm.

00:32:07
That's. They, you have no, no idea. It takes you right back to being in school again.

00:32:16
It takes me right back down. You know? And that's why for me, you know, self esteem is everything we talk about. It just takes me right back down. Right to 100ft deep in that black hole.

00:32:30
Mm hmm.

00:32:33
Most people here listening, it's no big deal. Yeah, it's no big deal because you don't have it. But you braid a hundred million times a day and you don't struggle. I'll just try struggling on every single one of those. Yeah.

00:32:50
And then with the dyscalculia. Now I'm just saying it like that. I, so when I lived in the city because. And my parents would be like, okay, we're gonna help you budget. We're gonna help you budget.

00:33:04
I got pretty in debt. I cuz I didn't want to be the one. I was like, I'll just put it on my card. You guys give me cash. Because I never wanted to be able to like I could never calculate it.

00:33:14
I still to this day, like I now my kids know, I'm like, what is the tip? You know, like whatever or just make up tip in my head. I usually over tip. I usually over because I never want to look like cheap because I would never want to do that. Taxi cabs.

00:33:27
I would always give too much. I mean, it, it is one of those things and it's not like I don't, my brain shuts down when I have to try to calculate anything. I cannot do it. I have no sense of it. I can't visualize it.

00:33:41
I can't, I have no sense of like miles or like how long it's going to take to me get. I think I can fit in 1000 things in one because I have no, like there's so many things to it that you don't even think about with the dyslexia, but they're more specific to the other five D's. And a lot of times we kind of put things together because they are overlapping. There's a lot like that Venn diagram where it's that overlap. There is a lot of the overlap, but some of this is very specific.

00:34:09
I'm going to let you finish and then I want to go back to what my emotions were when it said treatable again. No, you go ahead. Well, it pissed me off because I was like, I went back to seeing me as a kid in school and being like, like, I clearly couldn't get math. Like again, I'm probably more dyscalcula than I am dyslexic, even though I was very, you know, we know about my having to go to reading, whatever, but because of my vocabulary and the way I can speak, I definitely the math portion. And then I get angry for kids in my family because now I'm like, oh, my God, there.

00:34:49
And so it gives you like little things of like, did this happen or did this like when they were little? And then I also get bummed at myself, like, I know these things, right? I know these things. I, and I know you're going to start laughing at me because you're like, oh, I know this is going to be coming. I didn't know when it was going to be coming or when it was going to come out, but it's like that's where you want the teachers to be like, okay, I think I see something here because we're, I'm not counting.

00:35:15
Like, yes, we counted. We did things. I read words, we talked about how I raised my kids. I was always very involved in that. But because of the math portion, like, I.

00:35:25
I didn't know that some of my kids struggled in math as much as they did until as recently. And I. There's like a part of me that feels guilty about that. You know, for me, past grade one, go talk to your mom. Fuck.

00:35:43
I didn't do it. Now, whatever was a month ago, I found my report card. I remember, you know, where I was in Canada, passing was 50%. Remember my mail? I always get 50%.

00:35:59
They just passed me. I didn't get clue. No clue. No, I'm still adding with my fingers.

00:36:13
And you wonder why we're so exhausted by the end of day. They tried to try and try doing that, try struggling every single time with all that yelling. If this teacher just would have done this or just want to done that. There's plenty of you and me out there that aren't getting the help, the recognition. I don't even think that's the right word.

00:36:47
I don't even know one. You know, we're seeing. Being seen or, you know, we are invisible. This, you know, this is the. This is invisible and we feel invisible.

00:37:09
Yeah. And, you know, the thing is that, yes, this is what's hard for teachers. When someone has more than two of the five ds or they have four of the. You know, it's just like across the board early education, it's just going to look like, okay, this is the best this kid can do. And we've talked about this many times.

00:37:32
This is the best this kid can do. But there's a lot of dyslexics that are really strong in one and maybe not as strong or just. Or just calculate or, you know, just graphic when someone is strong in one and then struggles in a little bit. Like, those are also the things that need to be looked at because it's like, okay, they're struggling a little bit here, but they clearly are getting it here. It's like this.

00:37:59
The whole system is so backwards. Yes, we have talked about this a million times. We are aware that. We know that. We know you guys know that because we've talked about it.

00:38:08
But just picture that as you're a teacher. And it's like, okay, Johnny is really, oh, he's off doing this, but then he's kind of struggling here. Let's look a little into it. Or Johnny's hiding over here, or Johnny's getting up during this subject. We bring these things up often because we also know that people sometimes need to hear things 8910 times before then.

00:38:35
It then it sinks in. So you might be someone listening, being like, okay, I've heard you guys talk about this. We always, always talk about it in different scenarios, in different realms, but sometimes it doesn't click. I mean, how many times have you and I been on the podcast and we're talking about something, and one of us is like, oh, my God, something has just clicked, and it's because it's in a different reference. So that's why it is so important to continue to talk about this, even though it doesn't feel good, you know, I mean, I feel better.

00:39:07
I'm actually like, my little cry made me not be as pissy. Maybe we'll see. Because I got all the paperwork sitting right fucking over here. Yeah, there just needs to be so much more.

00:39:24
And foundations like the Sople foundation, during each month, you guys are going to be hit with so many different organizations. Like donate this, donate that. Here. This is. We're raising awareness.

00:39:38
And a lot of them are great. A lot of people are. They have their minds in the right space, you know, cancer awareness. Someone's running for this, someone's doing this. But what I want you to do is just sit for a second and think how I can make a difference in a foundation's kind of trajectory is giving, you know, hey, I'm giving $10 this month.

00:40:05
I'm giving $100 this month. Oh, they have this. Just think about what we've been saying and how our narrative has stayed the same since we started this podcast. And it's just grown. The narrative of the things that we're going to be doing and the things that we are doing.

00:40:25
Because, again, I looked up something online and I get this in treatment, and it brought me back, like, to like, a fucking shitty space like that. Those words are not correct. It's not a disease. Go ahead. No, I just wrote this down.

00:40:39
I'm going to put this on my teacher's. Help me not be invisible as I feel.

00:40:50
Yeah, say that again. Help me not be as invisible as I feel.

00:41:05
Just think about that and think about the kid. Yeah. Well, again, it's. What time you. Obviously, the school.

00:41:17
School just finished. But, man, now those kids going home, trying to do homework or not doing homework, and then getting in trouble by the teacher because they're not doing the homework, and then they're missing recess because they didn't do their homework, but maybe they can't do their homework.

00:41:37
You know, I'm. We talked about the five use. You know, some people have 12345. I've never had you know, I haven't met anybody with five. I've had four of them.

00:41:53
You know, those years in school, there was nowhere work. I exceeded a little bit of some more pork. And she's like, you're like a 70 in gym or something. She goes, what the hell is that? Yeah, it's right.

00:42:08
Tests, no. And there's a part of me that, you know, with upper education, even though college is not for everyone, I totally get that. But obviously because of my experience in college, not the, not the, not the first part, but then watching Montgomery and then thinking of people like you, my dad, like where there could have been things that you were good at and you could have learned stuff. I mean, clearly you had more important things to be doing, but the ones that are not doing that.

00:42:53
How do you know, you know the percentages of that I'm one of less than 1%. Yeah. The rarity of what I did, you know, I think somebody said I'm one of 1500 people ever in the world to do to win a standing cup. And then there's, you know, a small percentage that one, two, then three, you run three, one, four, like, so how it would have been, you know, we all know that we talked over in dead years ago. I would have killed myself years ago if I didn't make it.

00:43:29
Right. So you sit there and think, you know, he's gonna make it. Lucky I did. Yeah.

00:43:41
So we just, I mean, we just have to be better. We have to be better because it is not getting better, it's getting worse. You know, let me jump in. Is that. It's the other narrative that I.

00:43:56
We talk about. They're talking about teacher safety a lot going mentioned the school shooting. At some point the kids are snapping just like we're snapping now is they need to be heard, they need to be understood.

00:44:22
I'm going to go back to an episode that we actually had playing at the golf event in the first season. You methadore a mom that was a special education teacher and she got, I think it was 7th and 8th or high school. She got all the kids that basically behavior wise, there was no place for them. And she didn't have one kid ever act out. And I want people to think about that for a second.

00:45:07
When you see people and you make them feel seen and heard in any realm of your life, any realm, you're going to get a different outcome if you just do that. If you just see them. Just see them. They're kids that no one else could handle. And she never had one fucking problem because she respected the kids.

00:45:42
They should never have gotten to the place where they were in her class. That's basically putting band aids on until they get to here. No, let's see those kids early. Yes. There's kids that are dicks.

00:45:54
I get it. There's kids that are not likable. I get it. There's adults that are not likable. But there's some kids that can be likable if they just feel like someone understands me and someone wants to help me.

00:46:09
Mm hmm. That's it. That is it. So we're just gonna leave it at that.

00:46:23
All right, guys, you know what I say every week? Don't forget to rate, review, and share.

00:46:32
I mean, seriously, you really don't know. Who needs to hear this? Time and time again, we have people reaching out and saying thank you. Thank you for saying things that I didn't think of, or thank you for shedding light on something. Thank you for being vulnerable and opening up right.

00:46:51
I don't like talking about that I was in debt. I don't like talking about that I was, like, a moron with the cash register. But I know that someone else can benefit from that. You say that all the time. Your story is not about you.

00:47:02
It's about who it can help. Is now and always will be. Thank you for joining another episode of word Blindness. Dyslexia exposed.