What to Know
A lot about how Jinger Duggar and her siblings grew up is still unclear. Even though millions watched pretty intimate parts of the kids’ lives (and births) on their TLC series 19 Kids and Counting and the specials that aired before the Duggars got their own official TV show.
But in an episode of Jinger’s podcast, Call Your Sister, which she co-hosts with younger sister Joy-Anna Duggar, Jinger admits something that no one really knew. She says that she lives with dyslexia, but that she was never officially diagnosed with the learning condition. She explains how it affected her growing up, especially as she felt called to read the Bible from cover to cover around the age of 12.
Jinger Duggar dropped the dyslexia bombshell on her podcast with Joy-Anna Duggar.
During an episode of Call Your Sister, Jinger is talking about her need to read the Bible in her preteen and early teen years and casually drops the bomb that she has dyslexia and that she dealt with it growing up. Excuse me, but huh? After Jinger says this, she casually continues on in her line of thought about the “season of life” she was in at the time. But can we back up a little bit, because that’s a pretty big revelation, even for those who don’t love the Duggar family.
“I [was] just determined to read it from start to finish within two months,” Jinger says during the podcast episode. “And somehow I relied on audio Bibles ‘cuz I have dyslexia. Never been, whatever they say, diagnosed. But I know how hard it is for me to read out loud. Now, reading aloud is different than reading it like looking at it, but it still is hard. So my comprehension is terrible.”
She was never actually diagnosed with dyslexia, but she is open about it now.
She admits during the episode that she was not diagnosed with dyslexia, but she seems to have recognized the patterns that those with confirmed dyslexia experience. In Jinger’s case, it was, and may still be, difficulty reading out loud and comprehending at the same time, and just all around reading comprehension.
According to the University of Michigan, there is a myth about forcing children with dyslexia to read out loud to help them learn. But, per the university, this only enables people with dyslexia to remember the shape and sound of certain letters and helps them guess what they are reading. Children with dyslexia often learn they have it from difficulties in the classroom. It’s possible that this sort of flew by Michelle’s radar during the many y ears of homeschooling that the Duggar kids participated in.
People blame Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar for not getting her help.
Although even teachers are not always equipped to spot a child with dyslexia in schools, users on a Reddit post about Jinger and Joy-Anna’s podcast episode shared their thoughts about Jim Bob and Michelle missing the mark when it comes to Jinger’s possible dyslexia.
“That’s so sad,” one user commented. “I guess they didn’t have the time to get their children real help given all their focus had to be on making new babies. Or maybe they prayed about it.”
Someone else wrote, “I don’t want to justify their dining room table education, but I think at least some of them have dyslexia. Dyslexia is hereditary and often runs in families.”
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