Listen Up

It’s Friday, so it’s time for another dyslexia related post. I’m severely dyslexic and learning how to read was a very long process for me. Even after I technically knew my ABCs, reading was still painfully difficult. Literally, reading was so challenging for me when I was a kid that it was physically painful. So it kind of feels like a miracle that I ever figured it out. But I did. If I told you every single thing I did to teach myself how to read, and eventually write, this would be an especially long blog post. But there is one thing that stands out above everything else. I fell in love with stories.

My parents read to me a lot when I was little. And when I got older and failed to learn how to read on my own, they kept on reading me stories. When I got even older, they showed me the audiobook section in our local public library. I didn’t know how to read the descriptions on the backs of the cases, so I had no way to figure out which stories I’d like. My solution was simple, I listened to them all.

Between the ages of nine and fifteen, I systematically listened to every single audiobook available at my local public library in alphabetical order by author’s last name. Some of the stories were fabulous, some not so much. I listened to them all. Then I moved beyond my local library and started ordering books directly from the library of congress through Recordings for the Blind and Dyslexic.

RFB&D has gone totally digital, and expanded to include even more types of literary disabilities. So now, with a simple prescription, you can get any book with an ISBN number on your MP3 player, including textbooks. This service is now offered under the name Literary Ally. Don’t you just love the American Disabilities Act? If the print publisher of a book doesn’t have an audio version, the library of congress will hire someone to record it for you.

Thanks to the glorious world of audiobooks, by the time I graduated from high school, I’d listened to more than a thousand books. I remember getting to college and being shocked at how poorly read my literate classmates were. I couldn’t understand how anyone capable of read would ever want to do anything else.

I loved stories so much, they were practically an addiction for me. So what if I read about as well as the average second grader. Okay, below-average second grader. I knew how great books could be. I knew that learning how to read was the greatest thing that could ever happen to a person, and I was desperate to do it myself, no matter how impossible it seemed.

The last time I explained to one of my friends everything I did to teach myself how to read (which took about a half hour) she stared at me mouth agape and said, “I can’t believe you did ALL THAT. I would have given up way earlier than you did.” But I couldn’t give up. Because I’d listened to all those books as a kid. I knew what I was missing. I knew what I had to gain, and I knew nothing could stop me from getting there.

So that’s it. That’s the big secret. If you or someone you know is super-duper dyslexic and learning how to read seems so impossible you should even try. Just listen. And if you’re lucky, you’ll here enough magic to slay your own dragon.

COUNTING TO D is coming out in February. I, Kate Scott, know how to read and write. I’m about to be a real live author. And how I got here, may have taken decades of hard work, but in the end it all comes down to a couple childhood bedtime stories. Because once upon a time, I fell in love with stories. I knew that I loved hearing them, and now I know I love telling them just as much.