Literacy Talks

Depicting Dyslexia: Youth Advocate Michael Atkinson’s Inspiring Story and Advice

• Reading Horizons • Season 6 • Episode 5

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Our hosts have a chat with Michael Atkinson, a recent high school graduate and youth advocate with Decoding Dyslexia Utah. Michael shares his personal journey with dyslexia, from his early diagnosis in first grade to the strategies and accommodations that have helped him succeed academically. Listeners will gain invaluable insights into a student's experiences with dyslexia as Michael candidly discusses the challenges he has faced, the importance of self-advocacy, and the unique strengths often associated with dyslexia. 

Through Michael's inspiring story, we learn how educators can foster an environment of high expectations and support for students with learning differences, empowering them to reach their full potential. This episode is a must-listen for anyone interested in understanding and supporting individuals with dyslexia.

Show Notes
Literacy Leaders:

  • Michael Atkinson, Youth Advocate with Decoding Dyslexia Utah
  • Karee Atkinson

Resources:



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Read the transcripts.

Narrator:

Welcome to Literacy Talks, the podcast for literacy leaders and champions everywhere, brought to you by Reading Horizons. Literacy talks is the place to discover new ideas, trends, insights and practical strategies for helping all learners reach reading proficiency. Our hosts are Stacy Hurst, a professor at Southern Utah University and Chief Academic Advisor for Reading Horizons. Donell Pons, a recognized expert and advocate in literacy, dyslexia and special education. And Lindsay Kemeny, an elementary classroom teacher, author and speaker. Now let's talk literacy.

Stacy Hurst:

Hello and welcome to this episode of Literacy Talks. And as you know, we take turns choosing the topic. I'm really excited about this one today. It's a very special topic, and it's Lindsay's so Lindsay, I'm just gonna let you introduce it.

Lindsay Kemeny:

Thanks, Stacy. I'm excited too, because we have a special guest here today. Our guest, Michael Atkinson, just graduated from high school. Was it this week? Michael.

Michael Atkinson:

I graduate next week. I'll walk next week.

Lindsay Kemeny:

Oh, next week, okay, next week. He graduates from high school. He has been diagnosed with dyslexia, and he is a dyslexia youth advocate here in our state of Utah, and that is how I first met Michael. My own son is a youth advocate too, and he loves Michael, and he looks up to him so much. And I think every get together we have, I mean, he's like, Is Michael going to be there? And then he, like, makes a beeline straight for Michael, and wants to talk to Michael, and I always feel bad Michael, because he's like by your side the whole time, but I am so impressed with you, and when I see all the things you're doing, and I have heard interviews with before, with you before, and I'm just so impressed with the way you advocate for yourself and all the amazing things you've done. So I thought maybe you could start by telling us how and when you were first diagnosed with dyslexia.

Michael Atkinson:

That's a good question. That's a great way to start. So I was diagnosed early on. I was diagnosed in first grade. I had an amazing mom. The way they diagnosed me is, in first grade, you do basically of like reading moms come into the room and they'll read the kids books. And so what happened is I was reading a book with a reading mom, and what they do is the reading mom would read the book to me, and then she turned the book around, and then I would read the book. And as we were reading the book, she figured out I was reciting things that were on the next page. So what was happening is she had read me the book. I had memorized the book because it's only, like, you know, a few 100 words long, and then there's pictures, so I can link the words with the pictures. And so I would just recite the book back to them. I had no clue how to read. I would just recite the book back. And so everyone realized it's like, Wait, we thought that I was ahead in reading. Now I'm, all of a sudden, I'm really far behind. And then they start testament it turns out I have no glad to read. I can't read anything. And so my mom, who was awesome, we go through and she starts looking for, you know, there's something wrong here. What can we do? And eventually I do get diagnosed with dyslexia. So that's how this whole rigmarole started.

Lindsay Kemeny:

Do you remember your feelings around that when you found out? Or did your mom explain what that was to you?

Michael Atkinson:

I would assume I was, like most kids, you don't really understand what dyslexia is. You kind of get, like, there's a big adults in the room, and they say, like, Oh, you're different. You struggle to learn, yada yada yada. And then you have to go to tutoring, or you have to go to, go to like, a special session, you get pulled out of class. So you don't really understand what's happening. The only thing you really internalize is that there's some things that you can't do and you're in some way different, and that's all you know. You know,

Donell Pons:

Michael, I had an opportunity, so I'm going to go on to to talk a little bit about you, because you are exceptional. I've had opportunities to be with Michael at our local state capitol when we have to testify on various pieces of legislation regarding reading. And Michael, you show up in really important ways and do things that are really difficult for a lot of people who have dyslexia, and that is to speak publicly and to speak extemporaneously, you just on the moment have to say things that can be very difficult for people who have dyslexia. And I do have to tell you that my husband, who has dyslexia and has attended with me, and he'll get up and do his part too, has said to me, Wow, I'm so impressed that this young man, because I don't think I could have done that as a young person, come here and do that kind of a thing. So I just have to do a shout out to you, and then also to your mother, who is amazing. When Michael mentions I have this great mom. He really does have a great mom who has done a lot for folks in our own state of Utah. She was a founding member of Decoding Dyslexia and has done tremendous things, and she's the one my husband credits with helping him stand up and publicly say, for the first time, I have dyslexia. So yes, your mom is amazing. Give a round of applause to her. And so you can tell just in this little bit. Of you talking about yourself, you've had some really great people around you. And so when Lindsay asked you about, you know, when did you get diagnosed and you had that first grade experience, and then we asked you, you know, what was that? What did that mean to you? And you kind of have these childhood memories kind of help us understand Michael, as you got older, what that meant to you. Because, as you say, when you're younger, maybe you don't quite realize, when did you really start to realize this was in would impact you in school, and how did you handle those kinds of things?

Michael Atkinson:

So I think that I had a similar relationship to most people that I've talked to. You talk to most Dyslexics and they can't, tend to have similar experiences with the first time that I figured it out. Most of the time kids try to hide it. I think my favorite story from second grade is there's a cute girl sitting next to me, and I still can't read, but I want to impress the cute girl, so I picked up the biggest book that I could find, and what I would do is, when C would turn the page, I'd count to 20, and then I turn the page. But I wasn't reading because I couldn't read. So I just like, pretended like I could read, even though I could not read at all, and most kids have that experience where you just don't want to be different. You want to fit in, so they tend to hide it. As I got older, you start to realize that even though I'm different, that doesn't mean I have to act different. And as you grow up and you become more mature, you find ways to advocate for yourself and find creative solutions to the problem. So eventually, like by the time I got to high school, and like junior high, I have my own Chromebook, so I just have spell SEC on my Chromebook, and that helps. And then my teachers know that I'm dyslexic, and so if I need extra time on a task or an assignment, I just go talk to my teacher. And so over time, you just kind of grow into it. Where you grow up, you become more mature, and you can advocate the tricky thing is getting a lot of kids, they're not very confident. I'm always overconfident. I'm too confident in some ways. But most kids, they don't want to go talk to their teachers. They don't want to go talk to even their parents about how something is hard or something is difficult, and the biggest thing for those kids is you have to find a way to gently push them towards advocating for themselves, because at some point they if you're dyslexic like you, you still have to read, you still have to function as part of society. You still have to learn. You those assignments still have to get done. You still have to take those big, scary tests. Scary tests. So you have to get these young kids to have enough confidence in themselves to take the big leap and do the big things, man,

Stacy Hurst:

that is really powerful stuff and great insights to share. So thank you. I teach people who are going to be teachers. So I teach at a university level, and it makes me really want to ask you this question. I'm excited to hear what you have to say. What would you want your teachers to know about students with dyslexia? And I know what you just described, I feel certain that maybe your first and second grade teacher really didn't have an idea, right? So what do you want me to teach my students so they're ready for a student with dyslexia?

Michael Atkinson:

I would say that the biggest thing is that students with dyslexia are not they're different, but they can still do the things that everybody else can do. So I've, I've now started college classes, right? You started taking college classes. I've taken some of the more difficult high school classes. I've taken AP classes and things like that. I can do those things. I just sometimes have to do them differently. So the biggest thing to instill in teachers, because teachers are going to be the biggest, are going to have the largest impact on kids with dyslexia and other learning disabilities, is to instill in those teachers that these kids are different. They might need extra time, they might need different accommodations, and you might have to do things a little bit differently and be a bit more patient, but ultimately, they are equally as capable. They just have a different path to getting there, getting to the finish line. So I would like you to instill in those teachers, don't treat us so differently that we can't live up to our potential, but at the same time, don't just dismiss clear disabilities and just, you know, kind of tell us to walk it.

Stacy Hurst:

Fantastic. I'm going to play this to my students directly. So you just told them, thank you. Michael,

Lindsay Kemeny:

yeah, I love that. It's the high expectations, right? It's we can have high expectations for all of our students. We can have high expectations for our students with dyslexia. And Michael, you were telling us kind of this experience. You were diagnosed in first grade. You're in second grade. You can't read. You're pretending to read in class to impress the girl you like, right? And just to fit in. Do you remember anything about learning like, how you learned to read? Did your mom help you? Were you doing tutoring? What? What helped you?

Michael Atkinson:

for tutoring, as many families I'm sure it can relate to. So my mom actually trained herself how to tutor me, which, once again, I'm here because I have an awesome mom. My mom's a superstar, but eventually she I believe the first system she used was Spire, and she used Spire, she taught herself spire and she tutored me, and most of what I remember from tutoring is fuzzy. I never liked it. Kids never liked being tutored. It sucks, but I do distinctly remember still, like all the phonics and learning, all the vowell teams and things like that, so I do remember it vaguely, but I don't remember enough of it to give you details. Michael,

Donell Pons:

I love that He's so honest, because it's the truth, right? I've got a question for it, because, Michael, I'm just cannot get over how how how comfortable you are, and you're so articulate about these things help us understand because I'm certain you've had peers and other people clearly from being an advocate like you are, tell you things about how difficult it is. What advice do you give to other people that are in a similar situation, that are younger, who are talking to you saying, Gosh, I'm just so uncomfortable or I don't know what to do. What advice do

Michael Atkinson:

you give? There's really two pieces of advice. The first piece of advice is seek out the help you need. If you have dyslexia, you're going to need accommodations. And the accommodations you need are going to depend on your circumstances and your level, and ultimately, you need to go and seek out and seek out and advocate for yourself and get those accommodations that you need. But also, at some point, you have to just stand up and say, You know what, it's hard, but I got I gotta work on this if you want to go and succeed in academia or in any other area of your life, at some point you just have to, you know, lift yourself up by your bootstraps and do it yourself. So the thing that I would tell you know, my younger self, or kids like me, to do is you have to find the balance between getting the help you need and the help that you deserve. And at the same time, you have to kind of just grit your teeth and get through it, because you can learn and you can succeed, and you are very capable, but you do at some point it's going to come down to your ability to work and work hard, and it's also going to come down to what can you get from other people to help you?

Donell Pons:

You know, Michael, you've hit on something so critical, and it's that balance that you're talking about between, I really do legitimately need some help. It's figuring out what that help, what kind of help, and how much, what it's going to look like, and then, as you say, doing something hard, because it's going to be hard, a lot of things will be difficult, and finding the way to do it. Gosh, I love that's great advice.

Stacy Hurst:

Yeah. And as you were talking, I was wondering what kind of accommodations help you the most? And do you think that would, would that be most useful for every student with dyslexia, or is it different?

Michael Atkinson:

So accommodations are so unique to this student. When I was younger, I had more accommodations than I do now. So when in like second third grade, I still can't read, so my primary method of learning was audiobooks. I got everything through audiobooks because that's the only way I could consume information reliably. So for me, audiobooks were a big one as I got older, the big thing was I always needed spell check. Sometimes you need extra time on assessments. That's when I use a lot. Now, as I'm older, in high school, every high school student has a Chromebook in Utah, which is fantastic. So I had spell check just given to me, which was fantastic. And then the only one that I have used recently was time and a half on tests. I did request time and a half on test from like my for my AC T and my AP test from college board, I qualified for time and a half. So I used that, but over time, it's different for every person. For example, I just took flight finals. I was taking flight classes in ground school for becoming a pilot from UVU, and those tests are very rigorous and very intense. They're FAA exams. I don't get accommodation on those exams, and I didn't ask for them because it was at the point where I felt comfortable enough that I could do them. I'm at the point where I can read fast enough and my reading comprehension is good enough that I can do it, although that's not necessarily applicable for everyone, not everyone can do that. So the hardest thing with accommodations is finding, once again, that balance of some every kid's gonna need a different thing, and it's really hard to figure out what that kid needs, because ultimately they're gonna decide what they're comfortable with. Michael,

Lindsay Kemeny:

what is you're just talking about your piloting class. Do you have any What is your favorite class, your favorite subject?

Michael Atkinson:

So my favorite subject has always been social sciences. I am really good in the social sciences. I'm a sterling scholar. I'm a State finalist, Sterling scholar. Here in social science, for the state of Utah, I've received numerous academic rewards for social science, so that's, like, my favorite subject. I love it. I'm involved politically. Obviously, we've referenced to I have lobbying experience. I've worked on campaigns. I'm staffing a campaign right now. So I've always loved the social sciences. And then I love aviation. Is my baby. It's what I spend my time on. It's a really expensive career to get into, but it's what I want to do. So those are, like, my two favorite subjects right now. That's awesome. You

Donell Pons:

know, Michael, you've given us so much great advice. I really do hope. But like you said, Stacy, I'm going to play this for my students. Have so many people and want to listen to this. What Michael? Give me some of your life hacks. I mean, you seem a guy that that you get in there, you figure it out. What are some of those things, Michael, that were tried and true, or that you figured out? And you're like, gosh, if everybody just had this, I think it might help give us some of Michael's life hacks.

Michael Atkinson:

I would say the number one, one is always listen to people and never be afraid to talk to people. I I've, let's use the example of dyslexia. I've had multiple situations where me and a teacher disagree on something or like and I think everyone's been there. It's like I disagree on a grade. I got an assignment, I think I deserved a better grade, or I'm having trouble communicating an idea to a teacher, or I need help with something in there, not understanding what I need. The best thing you can do in all those situations is go up, be respectful, talk to someone, and then listen to what they have to say, and then work out a compromise. Just being mature enough to go in and mediate a compromise is just such a big skill and that that applies to life in general, but especially for kids, where, if you're in a position where you're going to need to advocate for yourself, ultimately, you need to be able to go up and just talk to someone be polite about it. And that's always the best way to approach challenges is just go up and talk to someone

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Stacy Hurst:

I'm wondering how you communicate about dyslexia among your peers and and when you started having conversations with your friends about your learning difference,

Michael Atkinson:

so kids always knew that there was something different about me, like, for example, in like, second third grade, I'm getting pulled out of class in order to have time for special education, right? And kids with 504s and IEPs often get similar accommodations where we pulled out of class the so immediately kids know there's something different about you. At first, I tried to hide it, and then, like, in early elementary school years, I didn't want to talk about it. You know, if I talked about it, kids would kind of make fun of me, so I did not talk about it all. As I've gotten older, you kind of just get used to it. So now, every single time, for example, like just recently, I took like, AP tests, and I'm walking to the room my friends are all walking into, like, the room with everyone else to take the AP gov test. I'm like, I'm gonna go enjoy my time and a half. And, you know, and then you get more comfortable talking about it. So I didn't really articulate it to my peers, like I never saw the classes, like, I'm dyslexic. No, I've never done anything like that. But when people have asked, like, I just explained it's like, oh, it's a learning disability. I read slower. My brain's a little bit different. I'm just wired a little bit differently, and so I I need different accommodations to help adjust.

Stacy Hurst:

Yeah, have those conversations ever caused your friends to say, hey, you know, I think I might be too and and maybe help them discover that.

Michael Atkinson:

There's been a few times where I've talked with kids and they're like, oh, that kind of makes sense. That could be me. And then, yeah, I've had that happen a few times. Dyslexia is relatively common. It's not super common, but it it's pretty common, and it varies in severity, but, yeah, it's pretty common. I've also had the opportunity to talk with kids with other learning disabilities that you know. You talk with kids with ADHD or um autism, and they don't really know you know what it's like to be introduced to someone else who has similar things going on. And so oftentimes, you kind of make a little group of misfits and band together. So yeah, it's pretty common to find people that have their own struggles in life, and then you can relate to those struggles. And I think that would be

Stacy Hurst:

so powerful for them, too. And the reason I ask is because when I help my students understand what dyslexia is, and again, we're talking college students who are wanting to be teachers, I don't recall a year or a semester that I've done that, that one of my students hasn't come up to me and said, I think you're describing me, right? They just didn't know. So, yeah, I imagine you would be a great resource for your friends if they thought that they might have the same characteristics.

Michael Atkinson:

It's very common for a kid just to be like, Oh, it took me a little bit longer to learn to read. And they're not that severe, and they show up and they're like, Oh, I always just hated English classes. I thought I was just, you know, I sucked at English. And then they hear about this, and they're like, Oh, I think Donell had a similar experience with her husband,

Lindsay Kemeny:

Michael. What would you say has been the most challenging for you in school?

Michael Atkinson:

Um, as far as like subject spelling. My spelling sucks. I hate spelling more than anything. I my reading caught up. I got to the point where I I can read relatively quickly. I'm still not as fast as the normal person, but I can read pretty quick, and my reading comprehension is really good, and I'm very articulate. I can't spell. I think we like I took a spelling test and I spelled like, a third grade level, like consistently, there's points where, like, Grammarly, doesn't understand what I'm spelling wrong. So spelling is by far one of the greatest struggles for me personally. And those struggles vary from person to person. Every person has a different struggle.

Lindsay Kemeny:

Do you have a favorite accommodation to help with the spelling? Do you just use whatever is in, you know, Microsoft Office or

Michael Atkinson:

so you you learn how to use spellcheck for you. One of the things that I've learned to do is sometimes I'll spell a word and it's a big word and I don't know how to spell it, so you just kind of start like swapping vowels out until spelled check picks up what you're trying to spell. Another thing you can do is, if you have access to Google, if you type it into Google with words around it in context, then that can help. If I'm trying to spell something like articulate, which is a really big word that I can't spell. If it's like, if I type into Google how to be more articulate, then Google will typically pick it up because of the context. So you can plug it into Google sometimes, other times, you just have to use simpler words. I think one of the biggest things about being dyslexic is there have been several times where I'm taking an AP test and I'm writing an essay and it's like, I don't know how to spell that. And spell tech is working right now, so I have to rephrase it, move things around, or simplify my language because I just, I can't spell

Donell Pons:

it. That's so relatable. I hear you talking, Michael. I was like, oh, yeah, you're talking my language. I hear this stuff all the time. Several folks in my household who had dyslexia too, and as I mentioned, my husband, and you've met my husband, this has just been such a great conversation. And I love you've been so, you know, refreshing about things, and so candid and honest with your responses, which I so appreciate. You haven't you haven't? You know, measured anything to make sure you're saying it just right. You're just speaking truth right and letting us know how it is. So again, I just really hope that there are people who are listening. If you have a loved one or someone that you're thinking of when you're hearing Michael talk and you're like, boy, I think this might be something for them. Please share it with them, because that's the most helpful. And then Michael, I'm thinking of you in my head. I'm thinking to myself, he's the politician pilot. This guy's going to be our new politician pilot. This is awesome. You can do both things, but tell us a little bit Michael about how important it was to have things that you felt like you were good at as well. How important was it? Because there's a balance there as well. Yes, the struggle to learn to read and to get better at this thing that's very difficult, that you know you need, but also to balance that with having things that you enjoy and you're good at.

Michael Atkinson:

I'll share a story. I have a good story of this one in fifth grade. I had a teacher who was a great teacher, Mr. Maurer, and we had a project where everybody got a US president, and we researched that US President. We wrote an essay about it and did a presentation. And this is fifth grade, so like, you know, the essays are like, you know, a page long, and then the presentations are, like, three minutes, max, well, I write my essay and I failed my essay because I can't write and I can't spell well, so my president was Woodrow Wilson, and I had listened to a book on him, and I had watched documentaries and like, that's where I got my information, but I failed my essay, but I got up to present, and I presented for 20 minutes in fifth grade, and I just talked and talked and talked and talked, and it wasn't coherent. I'm sure it sounded like a fifth grader around. Ling about something he doesn't fully understand, because I had, like, vague ideas of who Woodrow Wilson is. Now, if I talk about Woodrow Wilson, I'll get mad, because I don't like him that much. But as a fifth grader, I just rambled on and on and on and on and on. And I was talking about, you know, 14 points in international policy and race relations and southern you know, revisionist history and all of these things that I didn't quite understand, but I I enjoyed it enough that I wanted to articulate myself and talk about it. And I talked about it for 20 minutes, and I remember that there was a girl in my class that got mad because I started eating into recess time. And there's nothing more sacred in elementary school than recess time. But after I gave my presentation that was way too long and very incoherent, my teacher walked up to me, and he's like, Michael, you just presented for 20 minutes. I'm like, I know. I'm sorry. It was my bad. And he's like, Michael, you talked for 20 minutes. You're really smart. And it was one of those moments where it kind of hit me, and I was like, wait, I like this. I can do this. I'm good at this. I can stand up and talk. And so everyone has to, in some way, kind of find that thing that they're good at, and if you don't know what that thing is, then go start trying things, and you'll find it because everyone has talents and things that they can bring to the table. And one of the greatest crimes is when someone has a talent and they hide it away and they don't develop it because they don't know what it is, or because they're scared to, you know, do things,

Donell Pons:

yeah, Michael, I love that story, because the other thing is that an aspect of giving that report was challenging for you for for obvious reasons, but the another aspect of giving that report was well within your wheelhouse of where, of where you're comfortable and what you do well, which is so interesting. I love that your teacher came up to you, and instead of saying, Yeah, you ate into recess, he recognized and said, Gosh, Michael, you're so bright. That's awesome. We need teachers to be doing that. You make me think of my son who Michael, I think a very similar thing, fourth grade, and it was World War Two, and they were supposed to do a report. And of course, on the writing the report, I'm not going to he wrote it. You couldn't read a thing, right? Bless his heart, didn't get the points, but he spent all night. I thought he went to bed. I get up the next morning to get him up to go to school, and he has passed out on his floor, and he has built a replica of a world war two gun from paper and masking tape that stands on a tripod and actually had bullets that fed through it, because he was so amazed and fascinated, and that was his ability. But again, how awesome that he could take that over to school and be recognized for that thing that he did really well. So thank you so much. I love hearing that.

Stacy Hurst:

Yeah, you know I was thinking too, and I think this is characteristic of some other people I know that have dyslexia. You remembered enough about that President to probably realize the moment you changed your mind about him, right? Most of us. I remember fifth grade, we had to do state reports. Go ahead and ask me what state I did. I have no idea. I know report, but that long term memory too, once you get something in there. I think that's really and you're thinking about it on another level, right? So that's really cool. I like that you mentioned you've changed your mind about him too, and not that. I have feelings about Woodrow Wilson one way or the other, but I think that's that's smart. I think there is another question on here that I'd like to ask, if you don't mind we don't have recess, so I think we're okay here, but although I do kind of miss recess, we should bring it back recess for everybody. What do you think? What do you think that people think about dyslexia? That's not true, that you'd like them to know. There's maybe a myth about it.

Michael Atkinson:

I think there's a lot of common misconceptions. The funniest one is when people think that I just see letters backwards. That's a really funny one. I don't I see letters the same way everybody else does. I just can't process them as well as you can. There's there's myths that float around like people think it's like, Oh, Assistant attachment to ADHD because ADHD and dyslexia, typically and oftentimes, are linked or correlated. So people think it's just, oh, it's just, he can't focus, or C can't focus. They can't read. Well, they can't sit down and focus. That's a very common misconception. If you hand me a colored piece of paper and say, I'll read better on it, I might throw it back at you. That's happened a few times where teachers are like, here, if you use, if you use the purple paper, you'll read, I promise. It's like, no, that doesn't work. The biggest thing to do is you just have to educate people about how it works and how to help people with it. Because ultimately, a dyslexic brain and a normal brain, they're so similar, and people that are dyslexic versus not dyslexic, they're so similar. We pop to the same interest. We more or less think the same way. It's just that you're going to naturally be able to learn how to spell and read faster than I will. And that's that's it. So just educate people on the best ways to help people with dyslexia and on what dyslexia. Looks like

Lindsay Kemeny:

and how has dyslexia been positive for you?

Michael Atkinson:

There are other positive traits that a lot of dyslexia. A lot of dyslexia are very good at pattern recognition. They have very strong memories. Typically, a lot of us have very strong mathematical skills and are very mathematically inclined. Yeah, three being able to look at maps. We're really good with things like maps and cartography, and once again, that image recognition, very strong image recognition. For example, we play games as pilots where you're trying to orient yourself in 3D space, because if you're in a plane, you there's different ways that your body can get tricked into thinking that you're straight up, or you're flying straight level, and you're flying straight into the ground. So you have tests for spatial recognition. I'm always really good at spatial recognition. It's just a natural talent of mine. A lot of Dyslexics are very similar. Ultimately, it varies on an individual basis. I know Dyslexics that are really, really talented at math and are really good at it. I know dyslexias That hate math more than they hate reading, and so it depends.

Lindsay Kemeny:

It's so individual. But I love that you found your things you know and and you know what you're good at. It's wonderful.

Donell Pons:

And I love Michael that you've shared. I mean, it's the confidence to know that what dyslexia is, and to give it its due, but not to make it so big that it takes over your life, right? You? Yep, this is what it is. It goes here. This is what it impacts. But I've got all of this, right? The me, I love it.

Lindsay Kemeny:

What's next for you? Michael, you're graduating from high school next week. You've got several awards. You're the Sterling scholar. What do you plan to do?

Michael Atkinson:

So the first thing is, I'll be gone. I'll be out of country for the next two years, an ecclesiastical mission after that. Right now, I'm committed to UVU. So Utah Valley University, they have a really good flight program, so I will go there. I'll finish up my associates in about a semester, and then I'll start their flight program. So the goal right now, the plan that's totally subject to change at any time, because I'm an idiotic 18 year old that kind of thinks he knows what he wants, is to go to UVU and go through their flight school and become a pilot. That's the plan.

Lindsay Kemeny:

Awesome, wonderful.

Stacy Hurst:

That is a great plan. And I would be remiss to not let you know that Southern Utah University also has a great flight program for

Michael Atkinson:

helicopters. Their planes are okay, oh, are fantastic, but their planes are just UVU and USU in the same state, SUU for planes, helicopters. I get to put planes.

Stacy Hurst:

Okay, that's fair. I guess I don't know enough about it to

Donell Pons:

know that Michael's Depth of Knowledge Stacy, I'm trusting

Stacy Hurst:

it for sure, but I can attest to the quality of our sociology and political science program too. So I'm just saying, you know, maybe when you get home, you'll be in Nicaragua, right for yes, so you'll get to learn another language.

Michael Atkinson:

I've started studying Spanish. It's, it's a whole lot of fun. With dyslexia, you get to learn how to read it a whole new language.

Stacy Hurst:

That's what I was wondering about. Um, would you mind meeting with us when you get back and we can hear an update? But I wonder how learning that language will be

Michael Atkinson:

We'll see it's typically right now, the LDS for you. church is a really good language learning program. Their MTCs are very, very, very good at teaching people the language. And then ultimately, you're in a foreign country where the only people you're with speak Spanish, so you either learn to speak Spanish or you don't get to speak so I'm pretty confident that I can learn it. It's going to be great. The vowels don't make funny sounds when they're in funny places. And words, the vowels are significantly better in Spanish.

Stacy Hurst:

I was going to say they have fewer phonemes. Their phoneme grapheme correspondences are a lot tighter than ours, so Yeah, might be pretty easy for you. We

Michael Atkinson:

might just want to get you listen. Just go for Spanish for the dyslexics.

Stacy Hurst:

Oh, my goodness. Any other questions for you guys? Michael, is there anything you'd like to share that you haven't had the chance to No, I

Michael Atkinson:

think this was great. You guys had amazing questions. Yeah, I would just like to end with just saying, you know, whatever, whoever you show this to teachers or students or parents, just know that, ultimately, like that little kid that has dyslexia, just believe in them and help them to believe in themselves, and just push them and push them hard and make sure they work hard, and ultimately, help them to just achieve their dreams. Thank

Stacy Hurst:

you. That is so powerful. And Lindsay, thank you for thinking of to include Michael in this episode, Michael something Lindsey didn't mention in our. Podcast, we typically don't have guests. You are technically the third, fourth, fourth, fourth, the fourth. And we've been doing this for a couple years now, so you're in the top five. Thank you so much, Michael and to our listeners, thank you so much for joining us for this very special episode of Literacy Talks. We hope you'll join us for the next one too.

Narrator:

Thanks for joining us today. Literacy Talks comes to you from Reading Horizons, where reading momentum begins. Visit readinghorizons.com/literacytalks to access episodes and resources to support your journey in the science of reading.