We’re Wired for Language, But Not for Reading

Speaking and understanding spoken language is a natural human ability, but reading is not. Over hundreds of thousands—perhaps millions—of years, the human brain evolved the neural structures necessary to support spoken language. As a result, normal humans are born with an innate ability to learn as toddlers, with no systematic training, whatever language they are exposed to. After early childhood, our innate ability to learn spoken languages decreases significantly. By adolescence, learning a new language is the same as learning any other skill: it requires instruction and practice, and the learning and processing are handled by different brain areas from those that handled it in early childhood (Sousa, 2005).

In contrast, writing and reading did not exist until a few thousand years BC and did not become common until only four or five centuries ago—long after the human brain had evolved into its modern state. At no time during childhood do our brains show any special innate ability to learn to read. Instead, reading is an artificial skill that we learn by systematic instruction and practice, like playing a violin, juggling, or reading music (Sousa, 2005).