Michal Sklar’s Unique Ability: A ‘Useless Superpower’ Born From Seizure

At the age of 16, Michal Sklar experienced a grand mal seizure. This unsettling event led to an unexpected skill, which Sklar calls ‘the most useless superpower.’ She vividly recalls the day before her seventeenth birthday in October 2010. Living in New York, Sklar was ready to speak at her high school assembly. She prepared to introduce the morning’s speaker, sat down, and the next memory was waking in the hospital.

‘The seizure was idiopathic. To this day, no one knows why it happened,’ Sklar, now 32, explained. She received extensive medical testing, including EEGs and MRIs, during nearly a week in the hospital. She remained under close medical supervision for several months. Despite comprehensive testing, an explanation for the episode remained elusive.

A few days into her hospital stay, Sklar noticed processing words backward. Initially dismissing it, she soon realized she could comprehend everything in reverse. ‘Initially, this newfound skill really freaked me out. I had experienced a dramatic episode, and now my brain was reversing words,’ she continued.

Though Sklar has always appreciated language, this ability amplified her interest. She awoke with songs in her head, like Taylor Swift’s ‘Love Story,’ but backward: ‘s’ti a evol yrots, ybab tsuj yas sey.’

Researchers have indicated that seizure activity can disrupt the language systems aiding word processing. Disorders associated with seizures can lead to speaking, reading, and writing impairments, as MedlinePlus Genetics outlines regarding the epilepsy-aphasia spectrum. The Epilepsy Foundation notes that left temporal lobe seizures can cause word retrieval and naming difficulties.

Back then, sharing this skill was not easy. Sklar eventually told a friend, who found the ability fascinating. When she revealed it to family, they joked about it being ‘strangely on brand.’ ‘I hadn’t shared it with the doctors initially because I was more focused on understanding the seizure itself,’ she said. ‘Later, when I demonstrated my reading in reverse to my neurologist, it wasn’t taken seriously.’

Sklar’s unique skill involves reversing each word in a sentence. For example, ‘hi, I’m Michal, and it’s such an honor to be featured in Newsweek’ becomes ‘iH, m’I lahciM, dna s’ti hcus na ronoh ot eb derutaef ni keewsweN.’ She named this quirky language ‘sdrawkcab.’ Everyday words come easily, though longer words pose a challenge, like ‘supercalifragilisticexpialidocious,’ which she cannot reverse.

Sklar’s ability serves as an amusing icebreaker. Her 7-year-old son boasts about it to friends, calling it ‘the coolest thing.’ Sklar and her husband use ‘sdrawkcab’ in their couple’s language—’spoos’ for spoons, ‘pots’ for stop, and ‘doog thgin’ for good night.

Despite being a ‘useless superpower,’ it has provided much fun for Sklar and her family. Sklar encourages embracing what makes individuals unique rather than feeling embarrassed. She shares her experiences as a backward speaker on social media under @momentsofmichal on TikTok, much to the internet’s amusement.

Sklar stated, ‘The fact that my brain could adapt in this way continues to amaze me and sometimes still freaks me out.’