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

[Ken Goodman]

David Olson wrote:
>
>
> 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.
>
> I'm passing on your message to Steve Strauss who as you may know is a 
> linguist and nerologist. Steve has treated many patientsw with a 
> variety of brain traumas. Severalof hispatients respond towordsin 
> isolation by naming and/or counting letters.
However whewn given connected test to read, theyread orally using real 
words though not the ones on the page. In one case he shared with mew 
the woman coould onot say anything but something but abble -dabble in 
oral reading but could could show him whee in the text it ssaid 
something- clearly she was comprehending though her abilty to produce an 
oral representation was impaired.

In the case of  Stuart who I worked with for two years, he could read 
silently at normal speed and high comprehension but had difficulty 
reading orally. We agreed (he and I) that his problem was at the pointof 
utterance. Stuart could perform complex arithmewtic- adding large 
numbers for instnace but he could not repeat a seven digit phone number. 
It was very clear to us that he was completely competent in comprhending 
language, both oral and written but handicapped in producing both oral 
and wrritten expression. He could do both- but with much dificulty. In 
his writng he always knew when he was wrong.

Stuart was also aware that therapists continuously put him at a 
disadvantage by focussig on letters, numbers and words.
Ken Goodman

I'll ask Steve to respond to you about the case you mention.
> 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
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> _______________________________________________
> Reading-hall-of-fame mailing list
> Reading-hall-of-fame at lists.nottingham.ac.uk
> http://lists.nottingham.ac.uk/mailman/listinfo/reading-hall-of-fame
>   

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://lists.nottingham.ac.uk/mailman/private/reading-hall-of-fame/attachments/20091208/f502254e/attachment.html