We take reading for granted, having done it for as long as we can remember. Not only does the brain process letters into words, and words into sentences, it allows us to visualize the content of what we are reading, comparing the content of what we have read before, saving it in memory. It contrasts what we have heard and what we have seen relative to what we have read. The brain’s ability to pull information together, to comprehend, evaluate, organize, and store the information is difficult to monitor because it happens without conscious awareness.

Reading is a particularly impressive example of the brain’s functional capacity. We are the only species on the planet (that we know of), that can use complex visual language symbols. Chimpanzees to a limited degree recognize very simple language symbols, but nothing remotely comparable to what we are able to do as human beings. As humans, we read printed material, not only convenient to our learning and education, it is an amazing demonstration of the brain’s functional capacity, particularly in its ability to process detailed information, putting it all together.

Some time ago, an interesting “demonstration” of the complexity and speed of printed language processing skills crossed my desk. Please read the following paragraph to yourself:

Aoccdrnig to a rscheeahrcr at an Elingsh uinervtisy, it deosn’t mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoetnt tihng is taht frist and lsat ltteer is at the rghit pclae. The rset can be a toatl mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit porbelm. Tihs is bcuseae we do not raed ervey lteter by itslef but the wrod as a wlohe . How auobt taht?

The paragraph demonstrates the brain’s ability to not only recognize and process single language symbols, but also language concepts, predicting the logical sequence of letters, but also words and sentences with the ability to generate simultaneous comparisons, contrasted with memory of higher probability associations, allowing us to recognize a word even with the letters scrambled. The suggestion is that “we do not read every letter in isolation, but the word as a unit.” Our brain looks for patterns and the predictability of the text is based upon “groups of letters,” but is also highly dependent upon words and letters previously presented. It is also dependent upon the content and the subject matter. Successfully performing the task (e.g., reading accurately) is highly dependent upon our ability to conceptually organize all of the information (i.e., symbols), making thousands of simultaneous comparisons, drawing upon our previous experience.

The “researcher” referenced in the paragraph actually is incorrect. The brain does not process just the first and last letter. The brain processes everything, all the individual letters, the number of letters in the words, what words come before and after each word. It is a great demonstration of our amazing “simultaneous multi-processor,” the brain! Given the complexity of processing visual language, it takes really very little to disrupt the process of reading. The diversity and magnitude of different types of reading disorder are heavily dependent upon the nature of the disability and how the brain is compromised (e.g., genetically, brain injury).