An open book sits on a desk in an empty classroom, with large blue text overlaid that reads "I FAKED LITERACY"—revealing how someone tricked everyone into thinking they had reading skills.

Podcast Episode

116| How I Tricked Everyone (Even Myself) Into Thinking I Could Read

By The Social Chameleon Show

January 22, 2026

How I Tricked Everyone (Even Myself) Into Thinking I Could Read

Why Good Grades Don’t Mean You Learned Anything: My Personal Story With Reading Challenges.

In this episode, I get candid about a deeply personal struggle: never properly learning to read, despite excelling academically and scoring high on major tests. I open up about how the “whole word” method failed me and millions of others, and share how reading was once a source of embarrassment and frustration. I recount real-life stories; misreading “speedometer,” feeling lost with unfamiliar words, and using “survival skills” like memorizing word shapes or listening extra carefully in class.

This episode explores how outdated teaching methods impact learners, practical ways technology helps today, and why anyone struggling with reading shouldn’t feel ashamed. I offer tools, mindsets, and encouragement for both adults and kids who feel stuck, showing how adapting and using resources can unlock knowledge and confidence. Whether you’re a parent, educator, or someone who’s felt “bad at reading,” you’ll find relatable stories and concrete takeaways for growing beyond old limitations. The Social Chameleon Show is here to help you keep learning, growing, and transforming, even when the school system didn’t set you up for it.

Enjoy the episode!

 

Highlights From The Episode:

1. Whole Word Method vs. Phonics-And Why It Matters. I explain how the “whole word” (or 3Q) method left him memorizing word shapes instead of sounding them out. He didn’t struggle with simple reading, but every new or unfamiliar word felt like a wall. Ever wondered why you’ve tripped over a word you “should” know? It might be your school’s reading method, not you.

2. School Smarts Don’t Always Mean Reading Confidence Despite top test scores, I describe sweating through class reading, dodging book assignments, and depending on class discussions or friends to make it through. If you or your kids perform well but freeze on reading tasks, you’ll find a lot that resonates here.

3. Tools Aren’t Cheating-They’re Pathways From Google pronunciation buttons to Kindle’s read-aloud feature, technology unlocked learning in ways old-school teaching never did. Today, I amn’t ashamed to use every tool at my disposal, and I encourage everyone else to do the same.

4. Ditch the Shame, Embrace the Curiosity. I spent years holding back questions and hiding challenges. I talk plainly about letting go of shame, asking for help, and even practicing reading out loud (yes, on the podcast!). The shift? Stop clinging to stories like “I can’t read.” Start choosing and practicing new beliefs.

5. The Hidden Upside: Listening as a Superpower. Not reading forced me to build sharp listening and conversation skills. I wasn’t reading; however, I was paying attention, and that ended up shaping how he learns now.

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SELECTED LINKS FROM THE EPISODE

Episode Transcriptions

Show notes and transcripts powered with the help of Castmagic. Episode Transcriptions Unedited, Auto-Generated.

Tyson Gaylord [00:00:00]:Foreign. To the Social Chameleon show where it’s our goal to help you learn, grow and transform on your path to becoming legendary. Listen guys, I gotta, I need to make a confession today. You know, I’ve interviewed PhDs, I’ve federal judge CEOs. I scored in the top 1% of my ASVAB, the Military Interest exam. And I scored in the top percentages of other entrance exams I’ve taken and some trade schools and stuff. I, I applied at. I.

Tyson Gaylord [00:00:34]:You know, I took AP English in high school and I had honors classes all through schooling. Here’s the truth. I never read a single book in school ever. In fact, for the first 20ish years of my life, I didn’t know how to read properly. I couldn’t spell to save my life. I didn’t know how to use phonics. Sounding words out. I was a product of the 3Q method.

Tyson Gaylord [00:01:02]:I really started to figure this out while I worked at Ford. I was talking to some friends about the word speedometer and it looked at me like I was crazy. They started laughing. They said, tyson, it’s speedometer. I wasn’t trying to be funny. I literally didn’t know how to connect the letters to the sound. I’ve been moving through life memorizing the shapes of words rather than learning how to actually read them. Today we’re going to talk about how I think I was a smart kid.

Tyson Gaylord [00:01:32]:I think others would agree with that. And how I was able to navigate the entire education system without learning how to read by the whole word. Whole word method failed millions of us. And how I eventually hacked my, my own learning to get to where I am today. If you’ve ever felt stupid because you struggle with reading or spelling, this episode is for you. Let’s get onto it. So the speedometer story. I think this is kind of one of those moments where I kind of started to realize that I think I did have a problem.

Tyson Gaylord [00:02:08]:I never really, I never really thought about it much. I can’t recall thinking about it much. So I got hired at Ford. I was working at some other at Mitsubishi before as a salesman. I got hired at Ford and part of the training process was I had to read all these manuals on, on the cars. And so I’m reading through the manuals. I was a weird word Speedometer and tackle meter. I was like strange words.

Tyson Gaylord [00:02:31]:But yeah, maybe that’s more technical terms. I didn’t, I didn’t know nothing about it because as we’ll get into talking about it, you know, I learned what they call a 3Q method or the whole word. So if I never seen a word before and it was unfamiliar to me, I didn’t understand how to sound it out. And for whatever reason, in this instance, speedometer didn’t connect in my brain as speedometer, I guess, because when you say it, speedometer versus when you look at it, speedometer, I’ve never seen. I must have never seen that word and understood it. So this is one of those instances where I started realizing I really kind of don’t know how to read. Not that I’m illiterate, I’m not illiterate. But the way I was taught to read left me at a little bit of a disadvantage when I seen new words.

Tyson Gaylord [00:03:16]:And this was back in early 2000s. I was in my early 20s. And they’re really. Yeah, we had computers and stuff, and I had a Palm Pilot and things and a pager and like a primitive kind of cell phone, flip phone and Nextel, if you guys remember those. Unless you were in front of a computer with Internet access, you know, you really didn’t have the ability to look up words or, you know, like, if you ever go to a dictionary now online, you can hit the little speaker button and it’ll pronounce the word for you. So I didn’t, you know, I didn’t have that capability, which I use a lot today. This is kind of one of those things. And then I remember, know I always ask my friends sometimes, you know, simple words to spell, but, you know, you got those words where you just.

Tyson Gaylord [00:04:02]:You just kind of quite don’t know what, you know, like this is said this way. Like. Like scent, right? Like, oh, there’s a smell or there’s change or, you know, so it’s one of those words where you, you know, you kind of don’t know. So I’d ask my friends, you know, once in a while, you know, hey, how do you spell security? My friend’s like, are you serious? I’m like, yeah, I don’t know. He’s like, sound it out. I was like, I don’t. I don’t know what that means. I don’t know how to sound out words.

Tyson Gaylord [00:04:23]:I don’t. And that’s the thing I got a lot of in school. It’s like, oh, just sound it out. Or if my parents would sound it. I was like, I don’t understand what you’re talking about. I do not know how to sound out word. So I was born in Hawaii, and then for a small period of time, I moved My dad was in the military. I moved to.

Tyson Gaylord [00:04:42]:We lived in Virginia and Georgia. We kind of went back and forth for a few years between those two places. And that’s when I. I was in, like, preschool, kindergarten, you know, first. And I think about halfway through second grade, I moved back to Hawaii and stayed there the whole rest of the time. But it must have been. There was when that school district or whatever it was, I. I don’t quite remember.

Tyson Gaylord [00:05:00]:And everybody I’ve talked to doesn’t quite remember. But whatever it was in that school district, I do have some kind of memories of us. You know, they call sight words, where they have a picture on the. On the. On the chalkboard, and we’d have to, you know, say what that is, and then you’d kind of tie the picture with the word. And through my research, doing this episode, I never kind of realized all these things. I never really looked much into what, you know, what entailed reading and whatnot. And I was lucky I didn’t have to teach my kids to read because they kind of got it from preschool and stuff.

Tyson Gaylord [00:05:32]:They got the sounding out of the word. So I never really kind of learned that. So that just must be how, you know, that school district taught. And then when I moved back to Hawaii, they taught sounding out words. So I do remember, like, second and third grade, I had to go to a remedial reading class, and I didn’t understand, you know, And I kind of think back, obviously, you know, the memories aren’t quite accurate, just what I remember about what I remember. But I do remember being this remedial, like, English class, like, you know, trying to read, and. And I don’t remember being in there long. And it was weird because I had to go to this class, and I was like.

Tyson Gaylord [00:06:11]:I was like, why am I in this class? Like, I feel like these people don’t, you know, they’re not very intelligent or maybe they had dyslexia or something that was stopping them from reading. I can read. I just don’t know certain words, you know, so. And all my other classes were, whatever they call them now, gifted and talented or whatever. I don’t know what we used to use honors or whatever we used to use in school. And like I said in the intro here, I had AP English in. In high school. And I don’t understand, like, why am I in AP English, but I would just be able to score well enough to keep getting in these classes.

Tyson Gaylord [00:06:47]:So it was. It was strange, you know, when you look, look, looking from the, you know, the outside in, it’s like there’s. There’s no way you can’t read. Of course I could read. I. Illiterate, right. It was just unfamiliar words. I had no idea how to.

Tyson Gaylord [00:07:01]:To do this. And then also the. The thing. My. My dad used to use reading as a punishment. You know, I’d get in trouble. He’s like, go sit down on the dining table and I want you to read the dictionary. Or.

Tyson Gaylord [00:07:12]:Or sometimes it’d be like, just pick a book on the shelf and sit there and read it. And sometimes part of that, he wanted me to read out loud. Well, when you don’t read too well, reading out loud, that was. I mean, I hated reading a lot. I’m sure you guys out there remember. I’m not sure if other countries do this, but in America, we used to, you know, go like a paragraph at a time or something like that. And I just hated that. So coupling that, you know, I wasn’t good at reading.

Tyson Gaylord [00:07:42]:And then I would read fast. I’m sure, you know, with some of these episodes. And I try to read something that, you know, it gets real fast. And then I come to word. I kind of stumble a little and it slows down, and I. I’m. I’m getting better at slowing down. I think that’s a lot of the problem is I need to slow down.

Tyson Gaylord [00:07:55]:My brain is processing faster than my mouth is saying it. Plus, if I come to a word or if I know where it’s coming up, where I’ve been practicing or I’ve kind of been stumbling on, or I’m gonna stumble on it, then I get a little nervous, even to this day. But that was a problem in school, right? I would sit there and I kind of really couldn’t pay attention if we were doing this thing, because I’d have to be practicing a bit. Accounting, right? Like, okay, okay. Three, four, seven. Okay. I’m a 12th guy. I didn’t count out 12 paragraphs.

Tyson Gaylord [00:08:21]:I gotta look at this paragraph. Okay. Is there any words in here? I don’t know. Let me practice reading this in my head so when it comes to me, I can read it. I mean, my hands would be just dripping with sweat. I’d be so nervous. And that. That just wouldn’t go well.

Tyson Gaylord [00:08:35]:And so that plus reading as a punishment and whatnot, it’s just like I. I just do not want to read. Like I. But I. The crazy part is I love learning stuff. I. Like, I wanted to get. I wish I had a.

Tyson Gaylord [00:08:50]:You know, those sets of encyclopedias Back in the day, you know, I just always wanted one of those because there’s so much cool information. And then when the Internet came out and I got a computer and stuff, we said the. We had the CDs of, like, the Botanica, Encyclopedia Britannica, and I just go through all that. But when it came to big blocks of words, I was like, whatever. I would scam and different. I came up with different techniques and different things to kind of get the gist of things. So even. Even with, like, podcast guests, when I have a podcast guest and I see, like, their last name or even sometimes their first name, like, oh, man, I get super nervous about that.

Tyson Gaylord [00:09:26]:And I make sure I. I ask them to pronounce it. I make sure I write it down, like how I. How I hear it. So when I write it down. And sometimes I have to go back to the recording and listen to how they say their name. And I practice, and I practice, practice. So I do.

Tyson Gaylord [00:09:41]:I am working on it. And this is kind of something I wanted to talk about here. That’s why I wanted to do this. I. I seen a video on Instagram, I guess some states or school districts, whatever it is, it’s kind of. I was kind of hard to find information on who still does this. I had a hard time finding exactly what school district still does, but I saw a video of somebody was filming in a classroom. The kid must have been, I don’t know, 7, 8, 9.

Tyson Gaylord [00:10:08]:I don’t think he was older than 10 years old. And a teacher was sitting there, and he’s read. He’s, you know, he’s reading a book, and he comes to a word he doesn’t know. He says, she’s like, stop doing that. I was like, whoa, that’s like, no, that’s the problem I had. I didn’t know people still did that. I didn’t know there’s a thing. And like I said, I never really connected this together until I got older.

Tyson Gaylord [00:10:26]:Like, I didn’t learn that, and I didn’t think much of it because I didn’t have any problems, really. Right. I was able to pass through school without a problem. Like I said, I scored high on my SATs, and, you know, ASVAB, and I. I remember applying to this computer school, and the guy was like, this is the highest score we’ve ever got on the. On the test. You know, like, you got to come here. And I was like, you know, whatever.

Tyson Gaylord [00:10:48]:And it just didn’t, you know, for whatever reasons, it didn’t work out. So, you Know when you kind of pass through life without really encountering your problems, I never thought much of it, you know, because like I said, I wasn’t illiterate. It’s just I had a hard time coming up with things. Plus, you know, I, you know, when I got older and I, you know, I wanted to, like, I really kind of want to read this book, you know, and I’ll sit down to read it, and I just start falling asleep and I just. Oh. Because, you know, it kind of brought up that, you know, kind of Pavlovian response, right? Here’s a book. It’s punishment time. And then, you know, I start to get sleepy because that’s how I would kind of.

Tyson Gaylord [00:11:23]:I guess I would get out of reading was I’d fall asleep and then I wouldn’t have to read the book. And that was kind of how I got out of my punishment. So all that to be said is, you know, I wanted to talk about this and bring us to some people’s attention because I. I never really thought other people had this problem. And then looking and researching and kind of trying to figure out a couple things out to do this episode. I think, whoa, this is a big problem. I don’t want to say problem, but kind of a problem, right? Where there’s a large swath of people still to this day that are taught this old way of. Of reading.

Tyson Gaylord [00:11:56]:You know, it’s called the. The three cube Q method. Whole word sight words, where you’re just taught to identify words and not the structure of the words. And that’s the thing I was missing. So I was watching that video, I was like, man, this kid, I. I feel your pain because this is how. I don’t know how to read, per se. Right.

Tyson Gaylord [00:12:13]:The great thing about things nowadays is I think this is why I was probably a little extra reading in and getting into technology, because it was. It was great where I could. I could talk to a computer or I could go on the, you know, the Internet and I could go to like, you know, Webster’s Dictionary or something like that or whatever and click the little speaker button, you know, pronounce the word for me. Oh, this is so great. You know, now it’s so easy. I just, you know, ask Google or something like jump on my phone and you ask Siri or whatever. I’m like, you know, I spelled this word out and it tells me the word, and it tells me to be, okay, this is awesome. So I just kind of want to bring this information out there because, like I said, I Felt like it was.

Tyson Gaylord [00:12:52]:I was, you know, very, very small minority people that had this problem come to find out it’s not. So I think by bringing awareness to these things, if you or somebody you know is struggling with this, I think I’m the hope of this episode is to give you some. Some background, some tools, some stories, and then you know, that either you or somebody you know, you know, or you love a child or something like that that you see has this problem. You’re like, oh, this is a thing. I listen to the podcast about it, and then I know how to go get more information and find help and things like this and not necessarily stigmatize anybody, either adult or a child. Or if you’re feeling like this, like, I only recently started talking about this. I never, like I said, I never really thought about it. And I was.

Tyson Gaylord [00:13:39]:I was being interviewed for a news article, and the guy asked me a question. I was like. It was like, I think something like, what’s the biggest struggle? Or something. I was like, Because I didn’t read good. And I never really. Not that I. Not that I didn’t want to share. I just never thought.

Tyson Gaylord [00:13:52]:I never thought about it. I started. So I started sharing, like, I started thinking about it, and I was like, hey, you know what? I, you know, you know, I’ll joke around here and there about it, you know, you know, somebody asked me something. I don’t know how to spell that or I can’t read. I just joke around, you know, which is a problem, right? So then, you know, it’s kind of my defense mechanism around the subject. And then, so I started thinking about it, and then I seen that video. Okay, I gotta. I gotta talk about this.

Tyson Gaylord [00:14:14]:I gotta talk about my experience, the things that I learned how to learn about. You know, like I said, I love learning. So I had to figure out ways around this. And with the modern era and technology and all these different things and even AI and stuff, it can help so much. We all, mostly, all of us have a phone in our pocket or, you know, Echo or Alexa or something at home or Google home or something that we can talk to. And like, so I’ll be reading a book and I’ll just start like, hey, what is this word? And I’ll start spelling it out. And I’m like. A lot of times, most times I’m like, oh, Jesus, I know that word, but Because I.

Tyson Gaylord [00:14:49]:If I’ve never seen it written down, then I don’t know the word. But once I see it written down and I know what it is. Then I’m good, which is how I was taught. So that’s how my brain still works. I do practice from time to time, especially when I had younger kids. Sounding out works because I would learn from them. And then I kind of sort of. Now I kind of sort of know how to sound out words.

Tyson Gaylord [00:15:12]:And I kind of know some of the, like, the rules and stuff about spelling and whatever. The good thing about spell check is if you get kind of close, then it’ll fix it for you. Like I said, once I see the word, I’m like, oh, that’s the one I want. And then if I do get really just jammed up with this crazy not spelling it, then I’ll just, you know, on my phone or my computer or whatever, I’ll hit the little microphone button and I’ll just say the word I want. Sometimes I’ll say it in the structure of a sentence so I get the right version of the word I want. Because, you know, sometimes, you know, there’s there and there’s whatever three or four different versions are there. Or, like, you get sent. There’s like, several different versions of sense.

Tyson Gaylord [00:15:46]:Sometimes you got to say the structure of the sentence. And then once I see it, I’m like, okay, that’s the one I want. So. And then through kind of putting this episode together, me and my. My co writer here, AI, we’re going through things, and I was telling stories, and I was putting stuff together. It identified. I guess the. Maybe the reason why I do this show is the.

Tyson Gaylord [00:16:10]:The social chameleon strategy. This is like, you develop this strategy to survive school. And I was like, I never really thought about that. And that’s kind of the basis of the show, right? How can we adapt? How can we. We grow? How can we transform? Here it is, right? I go, I score top 1% of ASVAB. I take AP English. You’re like, but you can’t read. Take a try taking AP English and not reading the book.

Tyson Gaylord [00:16:35]:Man, do you got to pay attention in class. But here we go. This is. This is what I did. Like I said, I never read a single book in elementary, intermediate, high school, college. Never read a book. Not saying I scored super well on things, but I passed. And a lot of times I could talk well about it.

Tyson Gaylord [00:16:51]:So this is kind of the superpower I developed was I was able or I had to. I was forced to really, really pay attention to the discussion in class or I had to talk to other people that read the book. And, oh, yeah, you know, so that’s the only way, because I wasn’t going to read that book. That’s the only way I was able to grasp the knowledge of things. I did learn how to kind of skim through books and find things. Sometimes when we got like an open book kind of question or whatever, I’ll read the question and then I would try and go find the answer, you know, because I had skimmed most times, I would skim the book, you know, depending on what was kind of going on, I would skim the books and I’d be like, I. I could go back and sort of figure out the answer and, you know, maybe take me a little longer. But that’s what I had to do to survive.

Tyson Gaylord [00:17:37]:So this is, you know, kind of, kind of the thing, right? What do you. What do you got to do to transform, you know, or, you know, maybe you are dyslexic or something like that or whatever, and being able to speak up and say, hey, you know, this is. I’m having a problem with this. And there’s nothing. Shame. And people do shame you. You know, shame sometimes can be good. It can be.

Tyson Gaylord [00:18:00]:It can be a catalyst for growth. But it’s also, you know, if you feel a certain kind of way about it and it’s making a bit, this is your opportunity to get stronger. Right? This is what we’re talking about here, you know, and then also, maybe there was something that because I wasn’t so good at reading, maybe I really had a better ability to synthesize conversation better or possibly like, you know, for like a blind or deaf person, right. Their other sense gets heightened. So I think that might be something that kind of happened where my listening skills got so good and my retention from the conversation got so good, like in college and stuff like that. If. If the professor. If the professor would have like a lecture class, I was golden.

Tyson Gaylord [00:18:47]:But if the professor didn’t do the lecture style, man, I struggled because I needed the lecture because I wasn’t going to read the material. I wasn’t going to do it at all. But this. And this also kind of makes me think about, you know, we can’t dismiss people or we can’t label people with these negative connotations just because maybe you’re autistic or dyslexic or something like that. Whatever. These people have a superpower, right? This is kind of what I’ve kind of discovered through this. Somehow I’ve gained a superpower because of my lack of proficient reading skills. I had to compensate other ways to fulfill my thirst for the knowledge, right? Audio books, podcasts and things.

Tyson Gaylord [00:19:24]:And then through that, I started reading, like on a Kindle or something like that, or like a, you know, Kindle apps. And now the. Your phone can read the book to you. And then as I’m, you know, the book’s going along, I’m reading along. I’m able to understand sentence structure and different things. I understand words and spelling and how they put things together. So through the adaptation of having this deficiency, I was able to gain greater skills, right? So if you have something like that or, you know, somebody that’s got one of these deficiencies or these, these things that we label as something’s wrong with you, I disagree with that. They just, they’re just going to be really good at something that’s uncommon.

Tyson Gaylord [00:20:01]:And we need more uncommon people, right? We need more people that are hyper focused, hyper diligent, vigilant in these very niche topics where they go so deep and they’re just, they’re just so good and they start to connect things that the average person or the regular type of brain function isn’t going to connect, right? So I think that’s the kind of. The good thing is I developed something like that, and so I still have that skill. And now I can. I think I can read pretty good. I’m getting it better. You know, the good thing about the podcast is good for me, maybe bad for you guys. Something guys listening is I’m working on my reading out loud skills, right? It’s something I shied away from forever. I did not want to do it.

Tyson Gaylord [00:20:40]:Presenting a paper in class, if I had to read that, not wanting to do it. In college, you know, you had to stop in the front of the room and read your thing, man, I’m not trying to do that. I was trying to memorize that and, you know, so I couldn’t stumble and go through. So I could fluently, you know, read through. Like, I never read a teleprompter, but I can imagine that’s not going to be fun the day I, I get to, you know, do a teleprompter just because I just got to work on the pace and the flow, you know, I think, you know, I feel like my brain goes faster than my mouth does and, and then I do get nervous a little bit sometimes, but I’m working on. Right. I, I don’t have the same beliefs. I’ve changed my beliefs.

Tyson Gaylord [00:21:17]:I don’t, you know, I don’t have the belief of I can’t read. I’m not a good Reader. I’m not a good out loud reader. No, those are, those are my stories. And I choose. Just like you guys can choose whatever story you have, whatever belief you have, you can, you can stop it at any time. You can stop adopting at any time. It might not instantly go away at that moment, but you choose to continue this belief.

Tyson Gaylord [00:21:36]:You can fight for your limitations or you can change them or get rid of them. You know, we can practice. I’m never going to be a 10 out of 10 out loud reader. I’m not, I’m not doing audiobook recordings, but, you know, I think I can get to five or six, which is huge improvement. You know, puts me probably in the average, right? But with my other developed skills now I have this uncommon abilities, right? I’m, I have three or four different uncommon things coupled together now. This makes me this unique skill set, this unique type of person, right? And then I’m sorry, I just look at my notes here, just kind of making sure I’ve hit everything so far I wanted to hit, you know, and that’s the thing too, where as we’re going through that, I was going through this because I was able to build these, I think, really good listening skills where I have to listen and have to pay attention very well. I think this makes it good for podcasts. I like to think I’m getting pretty good at interviewing people because I’m listening to things going on, I’m collecting things and stuff like that or whatever.

Tyson Gaylord [00:22:37]:So I guess, you know, this kind of goes back to what I was saying, right? So you start stacking all these things and we get rid of the shame or, you know, whatever. We help out the person in our life that’s, that’s having this so that they can, they can get competent in these things and probably never get to a true unconscious competence when they get confident and comfortable. And then when you’re relaxed and like I’m not so nervous anymore and that makes me stumble upon things less because I, I become more competent and then with that becomes, you know, I develop more confidence. So this is some of the things I learned about the, the reading styles through researching this episode. You know, there’s whole word versus phonics, which is sounding things out. And then so this, the, this whole word approach came about in the late 70s. And then definitely if you’re in elementary school in the early 80s and you know, the 90s, and that’s apparently still in some districts now, school districts now, they still do teach this method. But this is when in the 80s is when this really started taking over the education system and this whole word theory.

Tyson Gaylord [00:23:48]:And that’s all it really was. It was a theory this guy came up with in 1975. I might put your name, but I’m gonna, I’m gonna go with it. Stanovich, something like that. And a fellow graduate student sent, sent out, set out to test the idea in their lab. They recruited researchers of various ages and abilities and gave them a series of word reading tasks. Their hypothesis was that the skilled readers rely more on contextual cues to recognize words than poor readers who probably weren’t as good at using context. They couldn’t have been more wrong.

Tyson Gaylord [00:24:26]:And it quotes here, it says, to our surprise, all of our research results pointed to, pointed in the opposite direction. Stovich wrote, it was the poor readers, more than the skilled readers, who were more reliant on context to facilitate word recognition. So you see that there the poor readers use this 3Q message, the context, instead of understanding word recognition and how to sound it out with the phonics. And so it goes on to say here the skilled readers could instantly recognize words without relying on context. Other researchers have confirmed these findings with similar experiments. It turns out that the ability to read words in isolation, quickly and accurately is a hallmark of being a skilled reader. This is now one of the most consistent and well replicated findings in all of reading research. And then so the, the three cueing method which is, was, this is alternative method, whole word, sight word, all that kind of stuff.

Tyson Gaylord [00:25:29]:It’s, it’s called the, it’s the MSV system. It’s, you’re taught to, to guess, look at pictures or predict. It never taught you to decode. So MSV stands for M stands for using meaning to figure out what a word is. So the, the beginning of the sentence, the end of the sentence, figuring out, okay, what, what word kind of goes here, which comes with experience, right? And S for using sentence structure and V for using visual information. Like are you reading a picture book? Is there pictures accompanied this? Maybe you know, there’s something to the theme. And you try to guess a word based on the theme of the book. There’s a bunch of different things.

Tyson Gaylord [00:26:11]:And it’s funny, it kind of just reminds me, my son, we watch like a movie or show something like that, whatever. I constantly predicting the dialogue ahead of time. And he’s like, how do you do that? And through reading through this, these, these techniques and stuff, I wonder if, because I had to get so good at word prediction, sentence prediction, why I’m able to Predict dialogue almost 100% accurate. If not, it’s very much the gist of exactly what they’re saying. A lot of times it’s word for word. And he’s just constantly astounded. I think my wife is too. Sometimes she’s like, how did you know they were going to say that? I was like, to me, I’m like, it’s obvious.

Tyson Gaylord [00:26:51]:That’s what they’re going to say. That’s the next predicted word, right? So I’m predicting the sentence structure, something that’s encoded and ingrained in my brain. And this comes back to why the word speedometer stopped me, right? I couldn’t guess it from the context because I’d never seen the word. So, you know, and, you know, even if I did or didn’t have a picture of it, you know, didn’t. I didn’t have that, the concept that that’s what they were talking about, right? So this is where I, I became helpless with the decoding, with the, you know, without the code, right. I couldn’t look at that word and say, you know, speedometer, because it doesn’t sound or feel similar to speedometer because those, those letters sound different. So this is where in that story I, I lacked the, you know, I lacked, if I did, because I didn’t have the context. I lacked the context.

Tyson Gaylord [00:27:37]:I like the awareness. I didn’t have the skill for sounding outwards and then putting things together is why I wasn’t able to decode that. So the new way, which is very interesting, I read about this, I will have some pretty extensive detail show notes without overwhelming things. I picked out a bunch of top sources. I found this amazing podcast and website. I think there’s like 14 episodes plus a bunch of maybe like 20 episodes. She goes all into this whole thing. I, I just kind of started it.

Tyson Gaylord [00:28:10]:I listened a little bit and I read a bunch of articles on their site. Getting ready for this episode. I highly encourage, if you’re interested in this more, going and checking out the show notes and getting the link to this, this thing and then how this is going through the legislature and different things and how they’re advocating for all these different things is great, great, great. So real quick, the science of reading is just how they want everybody in America. I obviously believe they’re doing this in, in Europe as well in the English speaking regions because they, I forget what it was. They use a different style and they’re also finding that that different style is not working out for them. So the new way is the science of reading. Is decades of brain and education research that all point to the same thing.

Tyson Gaylord [00:28:59]:Kids read best when they’re taught the code of written English directly and systematically. Phonics, phonemic awareness, fluency. And then given rich language and knowledge so that they can understand what they read. So the phonemic awareness is hearing and working with the individual sounds and spoken words. The phonics is the decoding, right? Teaching which letters and letter patterns spell which sounds and how to blend them to read unfamiliar words in fluency, reading with speed, accuracy and expression so the brain has left room to think about meaning. So those are the two I have trouble with, right? Is, is the decoding and then the fluency. I get sped up and then I come to a word. I think, you know, we’ve probably heard it here as I’m reading this, but I’m really getting better.

Tyson Gaylord [00:29:47]:I’m really trying hard on this is, you know, I’ll speed up. Is this kind of how my brain likes things? And then I come to a word and it’s just like this. The. The flow is not good. It’s just. It’s just big pauses and these big things. Especially as I’m flying into the word, I start to get a little nervous, like, oh, practice that one. What was it again? Right? And then we have, then we have vocabulary and background knowledge, knowing enough words and word knowledge that the text actually makes sense.

Tyson Gaylord [00:30:16]:So this is the science, self reading. It’s a great thing. Like I said, there’s gonna be some resources and things to get either you or your loved ones, your child in your life if they’re struggling with this, or maybe even the help accelerate the process and deepen the understanding. There’s gonna be some good resources from there, you guys, I’ve learned a lot. And like I said, I’m gonna continue to enjoy the podcast series and learn more about this. And I know I alluded to earlier in here, I don’t have a shame about this anymore. I used to be, you know, feel a little dumb or something or be kind of shameful to ask my kid or, you know, ask a friend. Like, how do you spell this thing now? I don’t, you know, maybe it’s just getting older or whatever.

Tyson Gaylord [00:31:01]:I mean, he’s coming to the thing. Like, hey, I’m working on. This is something I’m working on. Like I said, I’m probably going to be a five, six out of this my whole life, no matter how hard I work on it. Not my thing, not an excuse, just a reality, right? I can and I am Rewind my brain. These are no longer my beliefs. I’ve changed that. I’m working on getting better at it.

Tyson Gaylord [00:31:21]:But there’s tools and we talked about, right, I talked to my computer. There’s, you know when I come across an article before and it’d be this big long, I’m not reading this, you know, now you can have the article read out loud to you. Phones and computers and whatnot. There’s apps, there’s programs. Some, a lot of things are built in for the, the visually impaired. So you can just turn these on and it’ll read things out to you. Kindle and stuff like that. You can turn these things on and read the words out to you.

Tyson Gaylord [00:31:50]:So there are, don’t be shameful until you learn and you get better or if you get stumped, use these tools. There’s no shame in it, right? You know, it’s like a muscle where you got to train it. You gotta, we gotta do this. And there’s gonna be ancillary benefits, right? You’re gonna get the knowledge you’re looking for. You’re gonna get a great story that you want, that you’ve been wanting to remain. You want to read the, the Harry Potter books or something like that or, or some, some big novel series. And these books are you know, 8 inches thick. And you’re like.

Tyson Gaylord [00:32:19]:But when you’re able to use this knowledge and you’re able to go through these things, there’s an unlock opportunities for you. It’s going to unlock knowledge. There’s so much knowledge built up for things. There’s so much potential. You gotta imagine what does it take to make a good book, right? Let’s go with non fiction, right? This person has probably spent hundreds of thousands, if not millions of dollars gaining this knowledge, running this business, whatever it was, took all that from probably decades of experience, distilled that down into whatever 2, 400 word book. Pass that on to you for 29.95, right? So you got a problem, you got a situation, you got a thing, you’re working, you’re working towards a thing. You know, my business just started a million dollars revenue, man. I don’t know how to, to, to lead this team.

Tyson Gaylord [00:33:11]:Oh, I don’t know how to, you know, get my child to do this thing. Well, guess what? Where is all the knowledge locked up? It’s in books, right? So don’t, don’t, don’t be ashamed of like, well, if I put on an audiobook that’s not reading, that’s reading, right? We can argue if that’s reading or not. I don’t hear that here nor there. You’re getting the knowledge, right? You’re finding the solutions. You’re finding the answers to your questions. You’re gaining knowledge in a subject. You’re interested or you’re getting interested in a subject matter. You’re trying to be proficient, you’re trying to do whatever as a new hobby you want to, you know, as a woodworking book or something, whatever it is, right? Don’t be ashamed.

Tyson Gaylord [00:33:50]:Use the tools out there. There’s so many things. Explore your phone, explore your computer, explore your iPad. There’s so many different ways to help you through this stuff. There’s so many ways to highlight words, define them, help you save them, right? These are all the things I’ve learned that’s helped me. I go through 30 plus books a year. The last I looked at my Goodreads, I was over 500 books I’ve read. And that’s just what I’ve logged in.

Tyson Gaylord [00:34:16]:Goodreads. I don’t, I’m, I’m sure there’s tons of things and before I started using Goodreads that I never, I don’t remember reading or whatever. I know time to time I come across a book and I read that. I’ll, I’ll throw it in there. But this is where the knowledge is locked up. These are where this. Think about, think about this, right? You get a biography of a successful business person in your industry, or not in your industry, but somebody that’s been there and done this. Imagine how many years of knowledge and experience, step forward you’re going to get, right? This person is going to be your unofficial mentor and you’re going to be able to learn from their mistakes.

Tyson Gaylord [00:34:51]:And the things, I mean, imagine reading, reading about Dyson or, or Steve Jobs or Michael Dell. And I mean, so many great. The founders podcast, this guy goes through it. That’s a great resource. But that’s where these things are, right? They’re locked up in books. Yes, we are lucky. Now, there are podcasts and stuff to go through, but sometimes you, you know, maybe it’s better or maybe it’s preferable. I don’t, I don’t know, is to, you know, you got the podcast and then, boom, you go grab the audiobook, you got the Kindle version, you grab the hardcover, whatever, you go into your local library, you borrow it.

Tyson Gaylord [00:35:22]:You go on your, you know, Libby app and you borrow the book, you borrow the audiobook, right? This is where the knowledge is. This is where you can step up your skills. This is where you can learn, grow, transform into the person you want to become. To becoming legendary. Whatever legendary means to you and for you, for your family and for whatever, right? So don’t, don’t, don’t be shameful. I’ve let shame go. Use the tools. You know, I’m trying to see, I’m just looking at my notes here and, and this kind of, you know, leads me to, to the conclusion here.

Tyson Gaylord [00:35:58]:This is, you know, I start to wrap this up. I think I’ve kind of rambled on enough about my thing, you know, stop feeling stupid if you can’t spell or read or read fast or whatever it is, right? You might be running old software. Maybe you’re stuck on Windows 95 and you keep getting blue screen. Guess what? Let’s upgrade software. Let’s let go of beliefs. I think that’s a big thing is recognizing there’s a problem, recognizing maybe even, maybe even now that you recognize that there is this kind of problem, now you can say, oh, you know, I think I have some of this, or I think I have that. Or maybe you know what, maybe, maybe I do have dyslexia or maybe there is something going on, right? Maybe, you know, I, I keep seeing some studies that come out where the more short form content is of a read read, we go through the less we can handle reading. So maybe it’s something we need to pick back up the habit of, right? And maybe it’s just.

Tyson Gaylord [00:36:56]:I’m just going to read a paragraph today, man. It’s just going to be a page today. It’s got something we get back, we get back into, right? So let’s upgrade the beliefs, let’s upgrade the software if we need to. Let’s not be shameful. Let’s find these things, let’s find the unlock, let’s find. Even if it’s just the joy of a fantasy novel or, or something like that, whatever you’re, whatever you’re into, right? There’s, I know there’s books out there, there’s things out there. Reading to your child, you know, freaking scary. It was read to my 2 year old.

Tyson Gaylord [00:37:26]:I had to pre scan the book and make sure I knew the words. So many times I would stumble through it. But it helped me get better and it helped me kind of come over that, you know, he didn’t care. He just wanted to see the story. He wanted to hear the story. And of course it was again, again I’m like, man, but guess what I got good at? I got good at Reading out loud. I’m getting better. Like I said, we drop the beliefs, we upgrade the software and we keep going.

Tyson Gaylord [00:37:50]:And to reiterate, I got a bunch of stuff from my research and the things I read and also just some, you know, blanket definition type things, background on things. So if you want to dig deep in here, you want to jump down the rabbit hole of this for yourself or for a child or somebody, you know, go in there. This is going to be a jumping off point. I highly, highly recommend if you’re interested in it, it’s the APM reports and it’s the Sold the Story podcast. There, there, there’s two articles that I really enjoyed. The one article is where I was like holy crap, this lady just went through everything that what happened in my life. That’s what got me on this thing. And then there’s a new article about how they’re helping change the laws and stuff in different states.

Tyson Gaylord [00:38:41]:And also the podcast series, like I said, I just started. I’m liking it. I want to learn more about this. I have a thirst knowledge. I like learning things and the biggest unlock so many years of my life. You know I don’t want to say I wasted but I didn’t give myself the opportunity to learn and read and grow my knowledge and just spend time fucking around and avoiding this and avoiding this and avoiding this. So I don’t want you to waste any more time then I already wasted. For us there’s a bunch of different things.

Tyson Gaylord [00:39:14]:If you. I put two of the top programs that I found. I’m not betting these, I’m just from everything I I researched out these are the two top programs. It helps adults as well and children with phonics programs. So there’s two of those researchers in there in there for you guys if you need to go find a professional route and as always guys, we need a mission. We need something to do. This week’s challenge want you to find something you’re struggling with, something you’re not good at. Then ask yourself whether you’re actually bad at it or you just need a different tool to bypass the friction.

Tyson Gaylord [00:39:58]:Have you abandoned the belief? I’m sorry, have you adopted. Okay, I’ll start the challenge over here quick. Find something you’re struggling with, something you’re not good at. Then ask yourself whether you’re actually bad at it or you just need a different tool to bypass the friction. Have you adopted the belief? I’m bad at math, I’m not a good reader, I’m not athletic. Is it time for A software upgrade. And we don’t want you to try and go from a skill level of I’m currently a 2 and the best I could be is a 5. But within that same vein, we want to make sure we’re fluent enough to ask the right questions, have a base level of knowledge you’re not getting taken advantage of or scammed.

Tyson Gaylord [00:40:46]:And we’re able to audit somebody that works for us or whom we hire. This skill level is something we need to higher. So it, if you’re in this, let’s say it’s cut off maybe like five or six. So if you think the best you can get, are you currently at a 5 or a 6? These are something we want to, these are skills we want to hire for. These are positions we want to hire for, whether it’s through software or outsourcing or bringing somebody in. We want to work on skills that we’re currently, you know, 6, 7, 8. And we think we can get, or we know with, with a little extra work we can get to a Niners hand. We’re not talking about world class, right? Don’t use this as an excuse to not get better at something.

Tyson Gaylord [00:41:29]:I want you to be self aware enough to know this is not your natural aptitude or an area you can excel at, but something you can improve. Don’t use this as an excuse to skip out. Oh, I’m not good at that, so I’m not doing it. No, no, no, no. We need to improve, but we’re not going to spend a huge amount of time on a skill that we can only be a five at best, right? Or something like that. We can go from a 2 to 4. Let’s not spend a lot of time on that, but let’s get competent, right? We want to have this, this competency so we’re not getting scammed. We can understand, we can have a basic conversation, we can ask the right questions.

Tyson Gaylord [00:42:04]:And with that, guys, you know the deal. You know how we, we do it here at the Social Community Show. There’s no paywall, there’s no premium content. If you go to the show notes, we’re not locking you out. Everything’s there. So the one thing we do ask is do you want to support the show? You want to support the things, you know, we’ve given you everything up front. I’ve, I thought I tried to do my best to convey this message. You know, I went out and spent several, you know, days, weeks, months thinking about this, gathering information, doing that stuff.

Tyson Gaylord [00:42:36]:So if you found this episode valuable, you know somebody that’s struggling with this, or you know somebody that’s got a child or somebody that’s struggling with this, share this with them. Share this with at least two other people. And if you want, you can connect with us all week long in between episodes on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, or your favorite podcast player. For episodes and links to everything we’ve discussed here today, head over to the Social Chameleon Show. Until next time. Keep learning, growing and transforming on your path to becoming legendary. SA.

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