Dyslexia Is My Superpower! A Girl With Reading Challenges Receives A Life Changing Gift On Dr. Phil

When a desperate mother searches for the reason her young daughter is struggling in school, she finally understands her own struggles and the realization hits. She has been suffering from the same disorder all her life without knowing it. 

Mary is a stay-at-home mom from Portland, Oregon. Her younger daughter is an 11-year-old enthusiastic soccer player named Mindy. Mindy is a loved daughter and sister. She enjoys playing sports and traveling with her family. Above all, Mindy has an amazing attitude toward life’s curveballs, which came in very useful: When Mindy started falling behind in school, her mother thought it was simply anxiety. Additional testing showed it as Dyslexia, a reading disability.

Sharing a Disorder

School is a place to learn, grow, and evolve educationally and emotionally. However, many students with Dyslexia go undiagnosed for years and keep struggling with reading all through school and into their adult life. This can generate frustration and shame that follow many through their career and beyond. Mindy says she feels she is weird because everyone else was doing better than her and that kids think she reads “funny” because she often stops when reading. 

Luckily, when Mindy’s teachers noticed she was not keeping up with her age group level, they notified her mother Mary that there might be a problem. 

Seeing Mindy struggle made her mother feel desperate, then a diagnosis finally gave a name to the problem. Mindy was diagnosed with Dyslexia. This revolution also brought another: Mindy’s challenges made Mary realize she and her daughter had another thing in common, Mary was dyslexic as well. 

“Dyslexia Is My Superpower!”

After this realization, Mary enrolled Mindy in private tutoring since her school doesn’t have a program for dyslexic children. Fortunately, Mindy has greatly progressed and is close to reading at levels for her grade.  

She feels better knowing her mother has the same condition, she says, and even calls the disorder her “superpower” because not everybody has it, making her feel unique.

Dyslexia, known as the “reading disorder”, involves difficulty reading. The cause of dyslexia is unknown, but in many cases, it appears to be hereditary. Although people with dyslexia are slow readers, they are often fast and creative thinkers. Dyslexia is not curable; however, it is never too late to try and find a way to overcome the struggle of reading. 

Mindy and Mary Share Their Story On Dr. Phil

Mary believed problems with her sight made reading more difficult for her. Only after observing her daughter’s struggles did she understand that she suffers from the same condition and was undiagnosed all these years. 

Mary says that being a stay-at-home mom of a child with a reading challenge and dealing with the disorder herself, is very hard and time-consuming. Reading time feels like a chore for both of them. Thankfully, Mindy’s positive attitude helps.

On the Dr. Phil show, the mother-daughter duo met Dr. Wolynski. They learned that they are not the only ones struggling. Dyslexia affects 20 percent of the population and is an obstacle for many. This is why the invention of the OrCam Learn created such an impact. Used by thousands of people just like Mindy and Mary, this advanced reader was designed especially for people with reading difficulties. 

“A Device That Makes A Huge Difference” – Dr. Phil

As demonstrated on the show, with the help of the OrCam Learn you can read text from any surface, scan full pages and even start reading from the sentence you want. This is a game changer for people dealing with dyslexia, ADD, and ADHD who wish to access and enjoy reading text easily. 

This amazing piece of technology reads the text out loud in real-time with no need for an internet connection. A device that gives independence and a feeling of confidence to children like Mindy. “This is incredible,” says Mary, “It would take back the stress and the struggle, and help us a lot”.