#either way tooter is awesome

[yellowhollyhock]

Tooter Shellby has a severe speech impediment

There are a couple episodes that focus on it, but mostly it's just part of his character,

-he is treated with the same dignity as every other character (which might not be that dignified since it's Snorks--but like the same level, you know?)

-he has to work harder to communicate, the impediment never goes away to be convenient for plot

-characters who give him a hard time about it face consequences for it

I have students with a variety of speech struggles, and I've been thinking about him lately, because none of them have nor are ever likely to hear of Snorks. We need more characters like Tooter in current media. Characters who can't speak at all, characters whose words slur, characters who (like Tooter) can vocalize but not pronounce words clearly, takes practice from other characters to understand them (I have one student exactly like this, which is why I've been thinking about him), characters who can only speak occasionally and with people they're comfortable with

There is Ferb, I appreciate Ferb. But when he does soeak he speaks clearly and the kids who can't need to see (and hear!) themselves too

I feel like in older shows especially there's a lot of 'stopped speaking due to trauma and starts again when they're happy again' which is. like that can happen but it's not flipping a switch it's gradual retraining like all trauma recovery. At least in my experience/observation

Anyways. More like Tooter please