 Picture this, a storm sweeps over the earth, sucking up words, letters, and syllables. All of these tumbling, confusion, clouds, and alphabets. The drone of earthlings desperate to make sense of the word fragments drowns out all noise. Without print or speech, the world starts to shut down. People misunderstand one another. Violence breaks out everywhere, wiping out all but a few. For the survivors who can't read, it's the world before fire. Dark, lonely, and violent. An exaggeration? Maybe. But this turmoil goes on inside the millions who can't read. Forget statistics. A literacies about people, survival, and public health. A few of us got together to make short films about our reading problems. This is my little film about things I've learned and experienced, sort of through not being able to read very well. And I draw a few pictures to maybe help you illustrate it and help you understand a little better. Hi, my name is Andrew. I wanted to make this movie to help other kids that couldn't read. Why did you first suspect that Taya had a reading problem? Well, I would have to say coming from school. I guess the first picture is a school. Teachers, I don't think, sometimes mean to make fun of people who can't read well. And it really gets tough. Really. I remember a lot of the times I just try to always take the back desk, keep my head down, keep my hand down, and keep my mouth shut. The teacher's saying, well, there might be a problem here. She's not developing with the class. Because school is tough and everyone's trying to look for a way to fit in. And anyone who doesn't at all really gets ripped to pieces. I had to read in front of the class. And I tried to read this really, really hard book. And I'm saying weird kind of words and they're following it with me. I like to play with my... What does it say? I can't read it. Third grade and you can't read. They all started laughing and pointing. After that day I had spots all over me. Because I was just press. I was head. I used to say, I'm dumb. I'm not smart. I'd hit myself too. My brain would be like twisted and twisted. And it would be spinning and spinning and spinning. I couldn't find the button to stop it. Some people don't want to be laughed at. And they just started to decide that maybe the human race isn't such a great thing after all. I had trouble reading. It was scary. I couldn't read anything. And they don't want to be sort of talked to or associated with? It made me want to run away from home. Chris, mom said you can read this every time you try. Come on, I want to have a story. What does it say here, Chris? I don't like this book. Why is it too hard for you? I try to read, but I'd get frustrated. I would just keep on throwing the books around and threw tantrums. Sometimes I'd help them hide just because I understood how we felt meeting in frustration with him crying. So he'd hide and my dad would look for him and we'd end up finding him. He just, I don't know, he just didn't really want to read. Sometimes it's funny because you can get out of reading by hiding. I think every person who can't read or read well has done an isolation phase. Because, again, it's just easier not to deal with it and just to disappear. So much rage, so much hate that you just need to lash out and strike something. The problems with Joe not learning how to read didn't end at school. When he came home, there were times all throughout the afternoon and the evening that were frustrating for him and for the rest of us. You're asking me for the single player, so your single player is this left down. Okay, now what? What does it say? Just tell me, what does it say? He was expected to read certain things and he couldn't do it and he expected to be able to read certain things and he couldn't do it. So there was constant tension in the family. It made me getting angry. Me, you know, doing my little tantrum and kind of being violent, I guess. It was just hot. That was the stressful part. That was the frustrating part. Having problems with reading is bigger than just not being able to read. I just can't read. It has a much bigger effect on the child, on their self-esteem and the way they feel about themselves. I became the tough guy, the goon, the brute, punk rocker, the scary guy that walks down the halls. You look tough, you dress tough because you want to be left alone but you still want to sort of be seen. You don't want to disappear. But you definitely, over all things, don't want anyone to laugh at you. Once someone laughs at you, you got to beat them up. And you got to beat them up pretty darn bad. So no one else will laugh at you. What have we seen so far? Schools a nightmare, agitated families, kids thinking they're rejects, hiding, fighting. This isn't healthy. But we get help. It has to do with the brain processing letters and sounds, instruction to help this process. Once we realize that letters have sounds, darn it. I lost my place, I'm sorry. Once we realize... Dukka, do you want me to just keep going? Words have letters and letters have sounds. Our brains put it all together. We break the code of language and reading. We read our outlook changes. We're happy. We used to be mad. You know, it's kind of interesting. Sometimes these kids, like Dequan, are kind of put off and considered that they have this mysterious learning disability when in actuality, they just need to be tutored consistently and in a program. You would sit down and try? With my current. And you would try to read with her? Yeah. And could you do that? Or was it really too difficult for you? Difficult. Difficult? No, it's not difficult. Now it's fun. Now it's fun. Did you enjoy tutoring? It was the best. Ready? Go. Can you bake? Like. Two. Here's your first word. You decide which vowel it goes in. Claw. I'm just saying. Hear all the sounds then. Teach. See weed. Sunday. How would you say that? I constantly say. That's right. Tile. So I'll cook you an egg. You sound pretty good. What kind of soul is it? Close. All right, make it open. Clive. Sleep. What? James, are you here? Oh, it's you. What kind of soul is that? Open. Shake. Salt. And his tail. Okay. So what's the difference between clothes and open soul? There's not a constant at the end. And there's constant at the end. Very good. All set. Like people. High five. What's the situation today? He's a lot better now. We see a big difference. He's more just acceptable. He's more, you know, just open minded about everything. So we get along better. And now he gets along better with everybody else because he's not as angry or as frustrated. In a grocery store, she'll say we got to buy one because we can get one free. When she's playing piano, she's singing because she can read the words. When she's in the car, she tells us where we are. And she's much more social. It's Scott. And just real shoulder strap. Jewel nozzle settings. And a constant pressure system. Did he read that? He was capable of learning how to read. How do you feel now, Scott? Just like everybody else. Can you? She's got a confidence in self-esteem level that she didn't have before. And to see her now, you have a smile on her face and a smile on her heart. Much better now. And my life is so much better because of it. And I'm really happy that I can...