Can You Read?

Not even his wife knew. He had gone to public school, served in World War II and was a successful businessman. But at 33 he still could not read. At last he sought help from New York University's Reading Clinic. Last week he was deep in a first-grade reader, and had just experienced one of life's biggest thrills--figuring out the sign on the subway train: "Please keep hands off door."

The illiterate businessman is an extreme case, but not a unique one. Dr. Stella Center, 69, who helped found the clinic ten years ago and now directs it, says sadly: "We are a nation of sixth-grade reading skill." She thinks a high-school graduate should read from 350 to 400 words a minute, understand at least 85% of what he reads. But most Americans who can read at all can read only 150 to 250 words a minute. Some 300 colleges have had to start reading classes for freshmen. Even many college graduates do not know how to read rapidly or well.

Diagnosis. Since 1937, Dr. Center and her staff have taught 5,000 children and adults at the clinic. First comes diagnosis. The clinicians check to see whether eye trouble is to blame. Then an ophthalmograph photographs the student's eye movements as he reads: how often he pauses on a word or goes back to reread, whether he reads smoothly or in jerks. The clinic also runs the student through a barrage of speed, comprehension, vocabulary, intelligence and psychological tests, uncovers victims of emotional blocks (e.g., jealousy, insecurity) and "mixed dominance" (a brain twist that makes some people read was for saw, no for on, b for d).

Therapeutics. Then the clinic is ready to attempt a cure. Students put their fingers lightly on their lips or throat, often discover with surprise that they are reading "out loud" (which slows them up). Readers who shy away from new or long words get a dictionary to strengthen their "word attack": vocabulary, spelling, "phonics" (tying sounds to letters).

Two more machines help on other problems. The flashmeter throws a word on a screen for an instant, testing readers the "aircraft recognition" way. The metronoscope flashes sentences in phrases; it breaks the word-by-word habit and the rereading habit, builds rhythmic reading.

Dr. Center tells her students to keep in mind why they are reading. Why Can't We Have More Sugar? should be read for an answer, My First Parachute Jump as a shared experience. Light reading matter should be read breezily, serious or technical stuff more intensively. If the reader knows what to look for and how to pace himself, he will save time. Practice makes perfect, says Dr. Center; after a while, reading may even get to be fun. Backward readers may even discover that great books are not merely printed paper but the communications of eternal minds. Readers who once discover that fact will soon leave behind the clinical machines.

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