When you read silently, can you hear the letter sounds in your head?

[J-rap]

As we are able to dig further into what was affected in my husband's brain during his stroke, we are thinking his "phonological processor" was damaged.  He says that he cannot hear sounds in his head.  So, if he has to sound a word out in order to spell it (something he is re-learning again), he can only do it if he says it out loud. 

 

That got me wondering if most people CAN do it in their heads.  For example, if you're learning a new language (as is my husband's case with English, now), can you work at spelling a new word by only hearing the sounds in your head?  DO you hear the sounds in your head?  Or do you have to say the word out loud to really hear the the sounds.

 

Or, if someone were to tell you, "Think of the word that is opposite of woman," and you had never spelled it before (in your memory) but you KNEW the word, do you think you could you spell it by only hearing the sounds in your head?  (In this example, the other person never actually says the word out loud.)

 

The brain is fascinating, isn't it?

[Twigs]

Most fascinating!

Yes, I can "hear" the word in my head and spell it (if I can spell it! - hearing doesn't guarantee I can spell it) Also, I can almost see some easy words, like the opposite of black.

When I read silently, I hear the words just as if someone (or myself) were reading the words aloud.

Best wishes on your husband's recovery.  :grouphug:

[Tsuga]

Yes, I hear the words in my head. When I'm absorbed in reading I hear those words louder than sounds that come from outside my head.

 

Like Twigs, I can see words when I hear them. The opposite of woman appears almost in front of my eyes, but behind them--in clear print, Times New Roman, black on white, and I hear it.

 

The brain is indeed fascinating.

 

I, too, wish your husband the best of luck in his recovery.

[bettyandbob]

I read words and see the words in my brain and hear the sounds. My dh sees pictures. He stores his knowledge as pictures. My brain seems to store stuff as words.

 

I remember discussing this with him when the kids were little and we talked about how learning occurs. Apparently, we are opposite end of the spectrum in the way we learn and store. We both have more than one degree and have jobs that are reading dependent. So, it's not like one of us is more suited to reading. Dh does read faster though.

[idnib]

I can hear it my head. But I've heard the fastest readers do not. They take in the words/meanings without hearing the sounds. Taking the time to hear the words is apparently what slows people down.

 

I can't speak to the brain injuries though.

 

You might find spreeder interesting. It shows the words one at a time and as you get faster there is no time for making the sound in your head ("subvocalization"), only time for taking he word in before the next appears.

[Cinder]

I do hear the words, sounds, voices when I read. And I see the pictures that I'm reading about. I'm also a slow reader. Ds2 is a fast reader--he doesn't hear the sounds, just sees the words.

[Excelsior! Academy]

How do you understand if you don't hear the words?

[Woodhaven]

Yes, I can "hear" the words in my head when I read silently, but most of the time I ignore them because I am reading fast.  When I slow down, I am more aware of hearing the words.

 

I too wish your husband well as he re-learns this skill.  It must be frustrating!

[Mergath]

When I read, it's a mishmash of sounds and images.  I don't "hear" every word in my head, but I do hear some sounds, especially dialogue.

[idnib]

How do you understand if you don't hear the words?

 

Check out the link I posted above. As you go faster you can still take in the words without saying them in your head.

[OneStepAtATime]

You might consider giving your husband the Barton Reading and Spelling student screening.  It is free, doesn't take very long, and might give you an idea of areas that he needs to target.  It is really used to screen for issues that might make starting an Orton-Gillingham based program problematic for a dyslexic without remediation in areas including sound.  You don't have to buy a thing and it might help give you some additional information...for free.  :)

 

http://www.bartonreading.com/students_long.html#screen

 

 

[Jasperstone]

I can hear the sounds if I'm asked to. But I don't normally hear sounds/words as I read. I don't read word by word anyway, I read in chunks of text.

 

I do hear the words as I type.

Same here!

[purpleowl]

It depends on how quickly I'm reading, like others have said.

 

But my brain will get stuck every time if there's a word, usually a name, that I'm not sure how to pronounce.  If an author speaks of Helena, does my brain need to process that as HEL-en-uh or hel-AY-nuh?  It forces me to slow down.

[Garga]

When I'm reading, I don't hear anything. The ideas are being zapped into my brain faster than I could hear or say them. I read a lot and I read fast.

 

But for your example, if I was trying to spell a foreign word, then yes, I most certainly hear the sounds in my head. I just sat here trying to spell some old French words from my high school French class (over 25 years ago) and I could hear the sounds in my head as I worked out how to spell them.

[Luanne]

Yes.

[Mrs Mungo]

It depends on how quickly I'm reading, like others have said.

 

I agree. Sounding out letters in your head isn't something that most fast readers do. I visualize words more than I sound them out. I only sound something out if I am unfamiliar with the word or it is a nonsense word or something like that.

 

It is sort of like learning a new piece of music. You start out looking at each note and playing them slowly. But, as you learn the piece, the notes are just there to help you keep your place. You are looking at groups of notes and processing them more quickly than you could read each note.

[HSmomof2]

I read words and see the words in my brain and hear the sounds. My dh sees pictures. He stores his knowledge as pictures. My brain seems to store stuff as words.

 

I remember discussing this with him when the kids were little and we talked about how learning occurs. Apparently, we are opposite end of the spectrum in the way we learn and store. We both have more than one degree and have jobs that are reading dependent. So, it's not like one of us is more suited to reading. Dh does read faster though.

I'm like your dh. I 'see' the words rather than hearing them. Like another pp said, it's also like a photograph a chunk of text at a time rather that reading word by word. It's hard to explain, but I definitely see them rather than hear.

[Melissa in Australia]

No I cannot hear sounds while reading. when younger I would have trouble connecting some words  in writing to spoken words. I would know the meaning in written text but not connect them to the spoken word. I am dyslexic and think this is possibly the reason.

[Storygirl]

Yes, I can hear the words and sounds in my head without vocalizing them. But I usually don't use that skill when I'm reading. Like others, I read quickly and just take in the words in chunks of meaning. When writing or typing, though, I do hear the words in my head. And if I have to think about how to spell something, I hear the sounds in my head to sound the word out. Interestingly, though, I cannot SEE the word in my head (as if on a chalkboard or piece of paper), so I'm much better at spelling when writing than I am at spelling orally. My brain is much more verbal and much less visual.

[EndOfOrdinary]

I do not "see" a story. I hear it, often times with voices when people talk. Like recurring posters have different voices that their words are read with in my head. I also feel it. This never struck me as odd until we started reading aloud to our son. I love reading out loud because it can sound like it does in my head.

 

Dh sees it, but does not feel it or often have any form of empathy/connection. So he reads out loud quite badly. It is no longer monotone (he had to work on it), but there is no emotion really going on or pacing much. He has CAPD and that might be the issue. I could also be just highly sensitive. I can ever figure out which one, or perhaps both, is going on.

[J-rap]

So interesting to hear what everyone has to say....  Thanks everybody!  I'm going to go through your responses again and comment.  This seems to be an area that even neurologists don't know a lot about;  they can only guess or try and relate it to something else that they understand better. 

 

One interesting thing is that my husband never learned to spell phonetically as a child.  He was taught to memorize letter groups and small words in order to learn how to read -- at least that's how I understand it.  I actually had never heard of someone learning to read that way!  So maybe his "phonological processor" wasn't very acute to begin with.   He did, however, speak four languages fluently. 

 

Thank you for all of your wishes for a good recovery for him, too.

 

[J-rap]

 

 

You might find spreeder interesting. It shows the words one at a time and as you get faster there is no time for making the sound in your head ("subvocalization"), only time for taking he word in before the next appears.

 

Thanks for the link...  I'm going to test both myself and my husband.  ;)

 

Yes, I can "hear" the words in my head when I read silently, but most of the time I ignore them because I am reading fast.  When I slow down, I am more aware of hearing the words.

 

I too wish your husband well as he re-learns this skill.  It must be frustrating!

 

Yes, it is extremely frustrating for him.  And no one really knows precisely how to "fix" it.  We continue to work every day at learning all of the sounds again... hearing them, saying them, writing them.  But hearing them inside seems to be the last level of really knowing them.  He is a very brilliant man, too, which makes it all the more bizarre.

 

When I read, it's a mishmash of sounds and images.  I don't "hear" every word in my head, but I do hear some sounds, especially dialogue.

 

This is precisely how it is for me.  Kind of mishmash of sounds that pop up in my head as a read, but if someone could actually hear them, the sounds probably wouldn't be legible.  If I really have to concentrate on something, however, or if there are a lot of distractions around me, then I might silently read the words individually, and hear the sounds in my head.

 

You might consider giving your husband the Barton Reading and Spelling student screening.  It is free, doesn't take very long, and might give you an idea of areas that he needs to target.  It is really used to screen for issues that might make starting an Orton-Gillingham based program problematic for a dyslexic without remediation in areas including sound.  You don't have to buy a thing and it might help give you some additional information...for free.   :)

 

http://www.bartonreading.com/students_long.html#screen

 

Interesting!  I'll take a look at that.  Thanks.

 

No I cannot hear sounds while reading. when younger I would have trouble connecting some words  in writing to spoken words. I would know the meaning in written text but not connect them to the spoken word. I am dyslexic and think this is possibly the reason.

This seems to be part of the problem my husband has too.  Did you do anything to try and help that, or just learn to compensate?  Has it changed over the years?

[melmichigan]

I read very fast; I don't hear sounds in my head unless I concentrate on a specific word, like a name.

 

Best wishes on his recovery.  The brain is truly amazing!

[Dory]

I can hear the sounds if I'm asked to. But I don't normally hear sounds/words as I read.  I don't read word by word anyway, I read in chunks of text.

 

I do hear the words as I type.

 

This is pretty much me too. If I come across a new word I often hear the sounds in my head as I read it, but otherwise, I am not a sound person unless I'm typing.

 

 

 

ETA: When I'm really tired and trying to read, I hear sounds. I think it's because my reading slows down substantially when I'm tired.

[Jasperstone]

Yay! I'm not a weirdo. Or at least, if I am a weirdo, I have company :)

 

Yep, weirdo is good! Better than plain predictable boring, lol! ;-)

 

 

Let's celebrate our weirdness. :-D

[Melissa in Australia]

 

 

This seems to be part of the problem my husband has too.  Did you do anything to try and help that, or just learn to compensate?  Has it changed over the years?

 

 

 Eventually after hearing enough spoken word, especially hearing others read aloud as I followed on I connected the spoken word to the written text

I was taught to read with a whole language approach - no phonics at all. I didn't learn phonics until I started homeschooling my children.

[SKL]

Yes, I hear what I read silently.  Actually I "say" it in my head.  Even to the point where I feel funny when I get to a word I know but am unsure how to pronounce (many words we see in print but never hear).

[SKL]

I think the fact that I hear/say words when I read silently is the reason I am a relatively slow reader.  I read well, but never very fast.

[kewb]

I hear and see the words in my head.

My dh sees pictures.

My ds sees pictures.

My Dd sees and hears the words.

 

When I found out that my son sees what he reads like a movie in his head I was fascinated. Thus prompting me to ask everyone else how they read.

[melmichigan]

My dh sees pictures.

My ds sees pictures.

 

This is why movies based on books I've read never measure up. :)

[SKL]

I also see a movie in my head when I read good fiction etc.  But I also hear a "narrator."

[srs]

I think of myself as a fast reader, but I do hear the words, in my own voice, in my head. I don't ever see pictures or pictures of words, that is fascinating.

 

OP, in your example, I would say those words out loud to spell them. It would be harder to do it in my head.

 

Best wishes as you figure this out. We are in a somewhat similar situation in that I have a highly intelligent child with brain damage, so all sorts of interesting things come up as she learns.

[Storygirl]

I never see a movie :(

 

Me neither. I wish I could!

[mamajudy]

I hear the words in my head when I read silently. Yes, it does slow you down, but I believe that reading slower helped me learn to be a better writer and speller because I pay more attention to those details as I read. 

[Tammi K]

Hmmm, interesting question.  I don't hear the sounds. I don't even read the individual words. I read phrases and chucks of words at a time.  I'm not a fun 'read aloud'er because my eyes/ brain work faster than my speech and I get ahead of myself too often.

[Closeacademy]

I hear words but not the sounds.  When I read it is like watching a movie acted out in my head.  Even non-fiction is like this.  Everything in pictures interacting with each other.  And if it is boring monologue in a textbook, I picture what the "writer/speaker" might look like as they tell me the story.

 

For me, teaching phonics and reading to my children was hard because I didn't have a clue as to how I learned to read.  I just remember being able to do it.  Spell to Write and Read actually helped me more with my spelling skills than it helped my children to read.

[Ausmumof3]

I can but don't typically when I'm reading. I also think very young kids can as they can guess how to spell things phonetically without saying them out loud

[8circles]

I guess I don't know what you mean by sounds. Do you mean the words? Sometimes, but maybe because I don't usually pay attention. Now that I'm thinking about it, I can't stop hearing the words aloud in my head - but I don't think I always do.

[8circles]

Yes, I can do that too - especially when reading aloud. Be thinking about something else entirely and continuing to read. With expression, even!

 

Isn't it all fascinating ?

Yes - I do this too!

[MiMi 4under3]

When I'm trying to sound out a new word or spell an ordinary word in my (rusty) native language... I can do it in my head - but it helps if I silently move my lips. I just tried it....

[J-rap]

 

I was taught to read with a whole language approach - no phonics at all. I didn't learn phonics until I started homeschooling my children.

 

This was true with my husband, too.  I can't even imagine learning to read without phonics!  It first came up when my husband was listening to a "Learn by Phonics" ad on the radio when our kids were very young, and he thought it sounded like a unique way to teach our kids how to read.   At first I thought he was joking!  I thought it was impossible to learn to read any other way.  :)

[J-rap]

I hear and see the words in my head.

My dh sees pictures.

My ds sees pictures.

My Dd sees and hears the words.

 

When I found out that my son sees what he reads like a movie in his head I was fascinated. Thus prompting me to ask everyone else how they read.

 

I wonder, if your dh and ds chose to see and hear words, could they?  (even though the pictures come more easily)  Or does that not even seem to be an option for them?

 

I like that your son sees a movie in his head.  :)

[J-rap]

I see a movie in my head, not words...  Do you know what else is strange...  I can be reading aloud and my mind can be 100 miles away...  I'm not sure how I do that, but I can.  I sometimes have been reading aloud to my children ( when they were younger) and not remember the last few  pages because I was thinking about my to do list...  Not sure how I do that, but I do.  I don't really "read" the individual words... I'm not sure how to explain it...

 

This happens to me too.  Kind of like driving sometimes!  You're not paying any attention to where you are anymore, but your brain knows exactly what it's doing.

 

[J-rap]

I guess I don't know what you mean by sounds. Do you mean the words? Sometimes, but maybe because I don't usually pay attention. Now that I'm thinking about it, I can't stop hearing the words aloud in my head - but I don't think I always do.

 

Now you're going to be paying way more attention to the words in your head than you ever wanted to!  :)

 

I kind of mean, if you were to say the words slowly enough in your head, could you even pinpoint the sounds within the word?

[mamajudy]

Thinking back on my school days, I was the first kid in my kindergarten class to read. My daddy taught me. He took me to get a library card when I was very young, and I always loved the library. I remember proudly reading Mr. Pine's Mixed-Up Signs to my class when I was four years old. But I was not a fast reader, because I read each word in my head. This is why my reading scores on standardized tests were always lower than my other scores, even though I was a good reader and had good comprehension. I would get all stressed out about the time constraints and would not do as well as I could have. I remember our school putting so much emphasis on reading fast. We had a machine that would flash the words of a story on the screen, the speed being adjustable. The other kids in my class would clamor to have the machine go faster, while I struggled to keep up. I hated that machine. It scarred me for life.

[J-rap]

Thinking back on my school days, I was the first kid in my kindergarten class to read. My daddy taught me. He took me to get a library card when I was very young, and I always loved the library. I remember proudly reading Mr. Pine's Mixed-Up Signs to my class when I was four years old. But I was not a fast reader, because I read each word in my head. This is why my reading scores on standardized tests were always lower than my other scores, even though I was a good reader and had good comprehension. I would get all stressed out about the time constraints and would not do as well as I could have. I remember our school putting so much emphasis on reading fast. We had a machine that would flash the words of a story on the screen, the speed being adjustable. The other kids in my class would clamor to have the machine go faster, while I struggled to keep up. I hated that machine. It scarred me for life.

 

Wow, I've never heard of a school that pushed speed reading like that!  How stressful for you!!  I can see some benefits in providing that for some kids, but not to the extent that all kids felt they had to read that way to be successful. 

[8circles]

Now you're going to be paying way more attention to the words in your head than you ever wanted to! :)

 

I kind of mean, if you were to say the words slowly enough in your head, could you even pinpoint the sounds within the word?

Lol, yes - I already am. I seriously can't stop focusing on it.

 

OK - no, I don't hear the letter sounds unless I'm sounding out a new word or spelling something.

[KrissiK]

I don't see words or letters or pictures. I just get meaning. When I read, I understand. The actual print doesn't make an impression on me at all.

[Soror]

I'm another speed reader. I don't hear or see sounds unless it is a word I don't understand.

[Ravin]

I actually think in written English--though less so than I did when I was younger. I have a portion of my vocabulary which I can use in writing, spell, and understand the meaning of, but can't pronounce because I've never heard it spoken. 

 

That said, I have good phonological awareness and ability to sound out unfamiliar words--but it's as much based on roots and parts as on phonemes. English is a lousy language to try and follow phonetically. I've studied Spanish and Polish and it was far more useful with those.

 

I learned to read on my own before exposed to phonics in school.