Listening is a lost skill these days. We are often heard on social media or in written form. But face to face communication – I know I often fall victim to waiting for my next chance to talk instead of absorbing what someone is saying to me.

This takes on more meaning as a life long stutterer- really bad as a child to where I had to take speech classes and with varying degrees of difficulty as an adult. There have been many occasions where I haven’t been able to be heard…or I’ve had to change what I wanted to say. I don’t think non-stutterers will ever fully grasp the difficulty this can bring to one’s life (but there are MANY worse things)

With these smart devices, it’s a whole new world. We got out first Amazon Echo device around the time my daughter started talking so it wasn’t something any of us were used to. My son had a bit of a speaking delay but we had ‘Alexa’ in the house for his whole life. He has used the phrase “she not hearing me” so many times when he made a broken English request or was too far from the microphone.

The joy in his face the first time, “she” played the song he requested Man, priceless. ANd he said “yay, she hearing me”.

Yeah, buddy. We all do. Loud and clear. Love you!

-Dad