Single Dad Doesn't Let His Stutter Stop Him From Reading to His Daughter Every Night

Like most parents, single dad Lance Lambert loves reading to his 6-year-old daughter Avery every night before bed, but a stutter that he's had for as long as he can remember acts as an obstacle every night during storytime. Lambert says that his stutter is his life's biggest challenge — despite serving two tours in Iraq as a paratrooper — and even though he knows the sounds that trigger his stutter in conversation, he can't control it as well when he reads aloud.

"It's terrifying," Lambert told Today. "Someone had mentioned that my speech wasn't that bad. I made a comment that I can't even read my daughter's bedtime story without having issues." To demonstrate his struggle with reading, he posted an 11-minute video to Facebook of him reading one of Avery's favorite stories, Aladdin, which has a lot of S-sounds, one of his biggest triggers. "The response was overwhelming from my friends and family, so I put it on YouTube, because I thought it would relate to other people who stutter."

Although Lambert has expressed his insecurities to Avery, she says she doesn't mind her dad's stutter. "My daughter doesn't care at all. It's me who cares," he said. "I've said to her, 'I'm sorry you have a dad who stutters,' and she said, 'I don't care, Dad. It's fine.' I started crying — and I don't cry! That was a very personal moment for us. It was just really cool."