Al Roker and Deborah Roberts on son’s inspiring journey to overcome “developmental delays”
Today Show personality Al Roker and his wife, ABC journalist Deborah Roberts shared shared some personal news about their son,15-year-old Nicholas Roker for a very important reason.
The parents opened up about their son’s struggle during the 208 Adapt Leadership Awards Gala in New York, “He was dealing with some developmental delays,” they told People.
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Although it was not easy to open about Nicholas’ struggles, the two shared why they made the decision.
“We hope that more people will be open to expressing and maybe sharing that a lot of us are dealing with challenges in life,” Roberts told PEOPLE. “There has been a stigma over the years, especially if it’s not an obvious challenge that people know, and I think to be able to share and inspire and to give other people the encouragement, I think that life can be enriched and can be better and can be in some ways richer when you are loving and supporting and dealing with somebody who is dealing with challenges.”
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Roberts explained that when Nicholas was born, she knew that he would be facing some challenges and her and husband Al Roker “weren’t sure what his world and what our future would be.” The decided to gather a team of specialists.
“We wondered was he going to speak? Was he going to walk? And in no time, he was running and talking more than I thought he would ever do,” she admitted. “He eventually began to go to school, and to learn, and to read, and to do all those things that we dreamed and hoped he would do even with all his challenges. He began to dream, he became a swimmer, he joined Taekwondo and three years ago, he become a black belt.”
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