[Reading-hall-of-fame] The man who can write but cannot read.

[David Olson]

Howard Engel: the man who can write but cannot read.

Howard Engel is a mystery novelist, living in Toronto, who suffered a
stroke that affected "the occipital cortex on the left side; an area of
the "visual parts of the brain", according to Oliver Sachs who wrote a
postscript to Engel's book recounting the event, The man who forgot how to
read (Toronto: Harper Collins, 2007)

The remarkable fact about Engel is that while he lost the ability to
recognize words, he continues to be able to write.  But he cannot read
back what he has just written.  The condition is sometimes called "word
blindness" but technically it is knows as "alexia sine agraphia", reading
without writing.  I have met with Engel and confirmed the condition as he
describes it in his book.  While he continues to improve to the point of
being able to recognize simple words such as "can" and "is", in most cases
he has to labourously sound-out words letter by letter, the task so
demanding that he tires quickly--"reading a whole page was exhausting
beyond belief" (p. 74).  The longer the word, the longer it takes him to
read it and having once read a word in a paragraph, on the next encounter
he has to sound it out again. Homonyms remain quite difficult-- to, too,
two are often confused, distinguished primarily by context.  It seems
clear that sounding out words is not reading.  Engel can do one, not the
other.

He suffered a stroke during the night and the first indication that
something was wrong was that when he picked up his morning paper it looked
as if it were printed in a foreign script.  After being admitted to the
hospital, he was surprised that he could still write: "I wrote my name,
surprising myself that my fingers could still form the letters with my
pencil" (p. 65).  Yet after writing, he was unable to read it back.  The
first puzzle is why one can write if one cannot read.  The condition is
not unique but to my knowledge an explanation in other than somewhat vague
neurological terms, that is in terms of a reading theory, has not been
forthcoming.

Engel pointed out that after the stroke he "could and still can, talk a
conversation to death" (p. 38). As a result he is extremely articulate and
he can describe precisely how he reads, what gives him difficulty, his
difficulty to the point of impossibility, in visualizing words.  As he
insists on continuing to write, I suggested he try dictation and having
someone else type out the manuscript.  He says that he cannot think at the
speed required for dictation, that typing provides just the right speed
for thinking as a writer.  So he continues to type and hire someone to
read back what he has written.

A number of neurologists and psychologists have tested Engel and many
devices have been tried for the purposes of remediation.  While he
continues to improve somewhat, he has never regained the skill of word
recognition.  This is the second puzzle. Why can he read letters and so
sound out words, but not read words?  The "dual route" theory of reading,
namely that one may recognize words either through the phonological route
or through the word recognition route, sounds plausible.  Some suggest
that children move from the former to the latter through "automatization",
more or less speeding up the sounding out process.  This seems not to be
the case for Engel.  He continues to sound out but word recognition
remains unavailable.  Others suggest that "sounding out" words makes one
attend to the visual properties of the letters composing words which then
provide the distinctive features for recognizing words as wholes.  Engel
lacks this second route.  Interestingly, there are, so far as I know, no
cases of persons losing the ability to sound out words while retaining the
ability to read, that is to recognize words. 

The main puzzle for me is why he can recognize letters but not words. 
Writing may be based on the same phonological knowledge as his "sounding
out" in reading.  If so, he may be expected to misspell words and to
confuse homophones in both reading and writing.  I have seen samples of
his writing and it looks quite normal, suggesting he is not sounding out
his spelling but rather knows how words are spelled.  This could be
examined more carefully.


Do you think Engel's case throws any light on the theories or processes of
reading?  Or does the case simply confirm your old prejudices?  Can you
suggest further lines of research we may explore with Engel.  Engel is a
keen and delightful subject.

David Olson


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