Speed reading. Speed Reading Exercises for Kids and Adults Speed Reading

A large number of articles have been written on the Internet that say that speed reading is a hoax. Many people want to learn how to read faster, and some of them, deceived, leave this idea. After our article, you will have no doubts about this skill.

What are the types of shorthand?

Speed reading is not appropriate everywhere, and I will explain with simple examples. If you compare it with eating, then reading faster reduces the time you eat, which is not very useful, right?

Reading fiction should not be “inferior”, for example, tasting should not be in a hurry, but slowly, carefully and enjoying the process, if you do not study at the Faculty of Philology, where you need to read a mountain of books.

The skill of speed reading will be useful for business and educational purposes. In this article, the verb "reading" is used in relation to business literature, news texts, educational material. The normal reading speed for a person (average result) is 800 characters per minute, of course, taking into account the high percentage of memorization.

The normal speed of reading fiction with a developed speed reading is 700-1000 words per minute. You can reach this speed in 1-2 months. Books are read faster, and the meaning is often understood even better. With such a skill, you can read in 10-15 minutes what you can read without speed reading for an entire hour.

Scenes and stories are experienced faster, more vividly and with deeper immersion. With practice, words cease to be noticed and the book is transmitted to the brain like a movie, where everything is presented as the reader likes. While reading a book at a speed of 700-1000 words per minute, time in the real world seems to slow down.

Speed reading for business purposes is divided into 3 types:

Analytical- the most difficult of the presented. This species has its own principles and approaches. The structure of assimilation for such information is not ready, so it will not be possible to use and classify it. Reading is the slowest of all because the information needs to be processed. The typical speed for this species is 3000 characters per minute.

Introductory- easier reading. The structure of knowledge is already ready in our brain, and we only have to supplement it with fresh concepts and facts. Such reading includes news texts and various stories. Unlike the previous one, the speed of this type of reading is about 1.5 times faster. The typical speed for this species is 4800 characters per minute.

search engine- the fastest reading. The purpose of reading is to find specific information in a text. A great way to brush up on your knowledge. Unlike the first type, it has a speed that is approximately 4 times higher. The typical speed for this species is 14,000 characters per minute.

Based on the information provided, everyone will determine for themselves the desired type of reading. And again there will be people who will argue that speed reading is complete nonsense, but they themselves either do not master it or have not been able to master it. For example: "I did not read Gorky's works, because he is a bad author."

How to love shorthand

A person who claims that slow reading is much better than speed reading because it is better, more efficient, and more memorable can be compared to a five-year-old child who will say the same thing about reading in syllables.

Speed reading is not useful if there is no understanding of the text or it is present, but at a low level. Really, what's the point then? The purpose of speed reading is to develop the maximum reading speed in a person, with a high percentage of reading comprehension. That is why what was said in the previous paragraph about slow reading is stupid.

Questions to help you understand what you read

How to understand? An important skill that is useful for reading and developing in this direction is the right questions. They will serve as anchor points, in places for which you can cling.

What do I want to know while reading? What do I want to do after I read it? What can I learn? How will this be useful to me?

Memory training

Reading speed does not affect the quality of memorization. As described above, the goal of speed reading is to develop the maximum reading speed in a person, with a high percentage of reading comprehension. But if we ask you a question about the content of the last business book you read, how much material do you remember from it?

Exercise your memory, develop it, even if you do not want to master the skill of speed reading. A strong memory is always useful, no matter what a person does.

Use a good exercise: formulate the main idea of the information received in half a minute. Get into the habit of this method.

Sign up for the Super Memory course in 30 days to learn how to quickly remember the texts you read, the information you heard, the images you saw, faces, and so on.

Concentration

As a rule, for a person who owns a large amount of information, reading slows down and memorization worsens. This happens because of constantly interfering extraneous thoughts. Therefore, the skill of concentration will be useful, because with the help of it, unnecessary, distracting thoughts will be suppressed. And thus increase the volume for new knowledge.

Attention is subject to distraction due to negative feelings such as anxiety and boredom. Conquer these feelings to improve your concentration.

In the course Speed Reading in 30 days there are exercises to develop concentration and internal dialogue. The very approach to developing speed reading in this course is aimed at strengthening concentration, and key ways to speed up speed reading will help you concentrate even easier.

Find the application of the information received

Most people absorb information from various sources: books, news, scientific articles and many others, but do not use it, do not realize it for their own good. A comparison can be made to a person who eats everything in a row, such a person will suffer from obesity in the future if he does not find the use of the energy that he receives.

Therefore, the received "energy" or information potential must be realized. How to do it?

If information does not become knowledge, it is useless, but becomes knowledge when questions are correctly asked.

If the received knowledge does not become an action, it is useless, and knowledge generates a goal.

If an action does not bear fruit, it is meaningless. It all depends on you and your self-discipline.

You need certain information to put it into action in order to get a result. This is where the skill of speed reading will help, with the help of which you can learn the necessary information many times faster, and if you forget, quickly restore it.

Sign up for Speed Reading in 30 days to increase your reading speed by 2-3 times in the first month of training. For 3 months of training, the reading speed will increase by 6-9 times.

One of the most important human needs is the need for new knowledge and self-improvement. Therefore, people learn foreign languages, go in for sports, master musical instruments. At the heart of the development of each skill is the acquisition of information. How fast a person reads determines the speed at which he learns something new.

Speed reading is an incredibly useful skill that does not require special talents to master. If you have the desire, perseverance and a little time, you can easily master speed reading at home.

Why Read Fast

Who will benefit from the development of speed reading? The answer to this question is extremely simple. Anyone who seeks to learn new things, this skill will be useful. By learning how to learn speed reading and spending a few months practicing it, you can save a huge amount of time later on.

In turn, slow reading is not always justified. Most people do not read books to the end precisely because of the time consuming. Also, when reading slowly, there are high chances of losing interest in the plot and, again, abandoning the book without finishing it.

For some specialists, reading thematic literature is part of their job responsibilities, giving them the opportunity to grow, develop and become an expert in their field. For these people, mastering the technique of speed reading is a professional necessity.

What is shorthand

Let's define what speed reading is and at what speed you need to read.

The standard speed of perception is 150-250 words per minute. At the same time, 1-3 minutes are spent on a page of printed text. Speed reading means mastering the skill of reading from 500 to 3000 words at the same time. True, in this case, the term "read" is not entirely appropriate. Speed reading in essence is the analysis of the text and the choice of the main thing. That is, some of the information is simply ignored. The goal is to learn to focus on those sentences and phrases that carry the maximum meaning, and skip the "water" that does not affect the understanding of the essence.

The secret of great people

Surprisingly, the speed reading technique appeared in the Middle Ages and was familiar to many famous people.

For example, Joseph Stalin was the owner of a huge library. Reading was a daily activity for him. He read five hundred pages of text at a time, while he liked to highlight the main ideas with pencils.

The American president was proud of his speed reading skills. It was not a problem for him to read an entire book at once.

Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin read very quickly. In addition, we know about his Biography, he could reproduce almost verbatim by heart with all significant dates.

The speed reading technique was also owned by Karl Marx, Napoleon Bonaparte, John F. Kennedy, Adolf Hitler. Maybe that's what made them successful in their field.

When is the speed reading method useful?

If we talk about speed reading, then you need to consider one more thing. This method is mainly used for reading scientific and technical literature, reports, Internet articles, news reports in newspapers, that is, the material that brings new knowledge.

Poems and fiction are meant for very different purposes. In fiction, we are not looking for answers to the questions posed, but simply enjoy the process of reading. The whole value of literary texts lies in their impact on the emotions, feelings of a person and the use of his imagination. It is possible to read such literature quickly, but it is absolutely meaningless.

Is it possible to learn speed reading at home

Nowadays, there are many specialized courses that "for little money" promise to teach everyone to read at a speed of up to 3000 words per minute. Training sessions last from a month to three. But is it worth spending time and money on attending such courses if you can develop speed reading at home without any investment? Such self-study even has its advantages:

The free choice of time for classes makes it possible to conduct training at those hours when it will be most convenient and fruitful.
Speed reading teaching methods and exercise descriptions are public information that can be found in special manuals sold in any bookstore.
No distractions.
Possibility, choosing the duration of classes, to control the time of training.

Someone may be interested in the opinion of people who took courses to master speed reading. Feedback on their effectiveness is not always positive. Often, in order to achieve noticeable results, additional independent practice is required at the end. But the very skill of speed reading speaks only with praise. None of those who have mastered this ability regretted the time and effort spent.

Learning to read quickly. What is needed for that?

To master speed reading at home, you need to familiarize yourself with the basic principles of this skill.

The first rule is not to "jump" while reading. You need to look through the text from beginning to end, without stopping and not rereading incomprehensible fragments. You will see, when you read to the end of a paragraph or page, everything that was unclear will become clear without rereading.

The second rule is to highlight a few key words in each of the sentences. It is not necessary to read the entire sentence or paragraph from beginning to end, it is important to catch and remember only the key words.

The third rule is not to be distracted. Speed reading will not give any results if you do not concentrate on what you are reading. The reader must be completely immersed in the process, because it is important not only to read, but also to fix useful information in memory.

Why do we read slowly?

Anyone who is wondering how to develop speed reading will be useful to know what prevents us from reading quickly.

1. Reading indiscriminately. When we read, we pay attention to everything. To get acquainted with the main idea, we spend as much time as reading lyrical digressions that do not carry any semantic load and do not contain useful information. As already mentioned, to save time, the speed reading technique involves determining the main idea and ignoring the “water” in the text.

2. Repetition of what has been read. Each of us has a bad habit from childhood - to look back at the sentence we have just read. When a child is developing vocabulary, such repetitions are useful. But as adults, we do it just out of habit.

3. Reading to yourself. When reading aloud, we can do it faster or slower, depending on the pace of reading and diction. When we read to ourselves, our brain, as it were, conducts a monologue, "pronouncing" the information that we are getting acquainted with. The speed of perception of the text cannot be higher than the speed of this internal monologue. Therefore, if you decide to master the speed reading method, the first thing you need to do is "muffle the internal speaker" and learn to perceive information without saying it to yourself.

4. Field of view. A narrow field of view can significantly slow down the reading process. If a person has a well-developed peripheral vision, he uses it when perceiving the text, which is displayed at the speed of reading. For those who wish to master speed reading on their own, exercises to expand the field of vision are a must.

5. Inattention can be a problem at any speed. The inability to concentrate on the process of reading is the main reason that information is not remembered, no matter how fast you read. The speed reading technique implies the parallel development of the ability to abstract from external stimuli and focus on the text.

Exercises to Increase Reading Speed

How to start learning shorthand? Exercise is the key to success. Regular performance of simple practical tasks contributes to the development of qualities necessary for the rapid assimilation of information.

Eliminate inner speech

It was previously mentioned that internal articulation is one of the main causes of low articulation. There are methods to combat it:

Count to yourself from ten to one. Try to understand any text without losing count.
Do the same, but instead of counting, hum a song that you know by heart.
Tap out any rhythm while reading.

The principle of such an exercise is to “occupy your inner speaker” and learn to perceive the text without his participation.

Developing peripheral vision

If peripheral vision is developed at the proper level, a person may not waste time moving his eyes one line from left to right, but cover it with his eyes right away. This way of reading is called vertical. Moreover, by developing peripheral vision, you can read entire paragraphs or blocks of text at a glance.

At this stage, they will come to the rescue. A square is depicted on the sheet, the length of the sides of which is 20 cm. It is divided into five horizontal lines and five vertical lines. Thus, we get 25 cells, each of which contains numbers from 1 to 25 in random order. The finished square is placed at eye level (distance 25-30 cm).

The exercise itself consists in concentrating only on the middle square, using peripheral vision, to find the location of all the numbers from 1 to 25, and then in reverse order.

Another exercise that helps achieve the same goal is called the "Triangle". You need to select the text and type it in such a way that each line is wider than the previous one. For example, the first line has one word, the second has two, the third has three, and so on. As a result, we get a triangle consisting of text. When reading it, move your eyes only from top to bottom. Use peripheral vision to see the beginning and end of long lines.

Similar exercises can be performed in everyday life, without devoting special time for classes. For example, while sitting at work, concentrate your eyes on some object and try to see what is happening around you. This will be both an exercise to relieve tension from the eyes, and an effective method to effortlessly develop peripheral vision.

Learning to guess

Speed reading means selective perception of the text. In order for you to get holistic useful information in the end, you need to learn logic and conjecture.

An assistant is needed to complete the exercises in this block. Immediately you need to select unfamiliar text and print it. The assistant darkens some parts of the text with a black marker, and you, while reading it, are trying to catch the meaning. First, you can choose simple texts to read. But over time, in order to train the skill, it is better to opt for unfamiliar topics and completely new terminology. The amount of hidden text should also gradually increase.

You can take a book and close a part of the text with a vertical strip 5 cm wide, and then read the rest. Make the strip wider over time.

It is worth devoting one hour to this practice 3-4 times a week, and in a month speed reading will begin to develop. Exercises for everyone, although at the very beginning they may seem difficult.

At what age can you teach speed reading to children

The vocabulary of a child is much smaller than that of an adult. When reading, he thinks, comprehends the material read and spends much more time for this. Even by ear, fast speech is perceived much worse by children. Therefore, it is possible to teach children speed reading only after they learn to fully comprehend the text they read on their own. This occurs at the age of approximately 14-15 years.

As you can see, developing speed reading at home is not such a difficult task. Not only superheroes, but also ordinary people can read at a speed of more than 500 words per minute. Try it and you will learn this and by your own example you will see the value of such a skill.

Historians note that any business that Theodore Roosevelt undertook, he did with great pleasure. And with the same pleasure he read. Roosevelt was known as a real bookworm, because he literally swallowed books with incredible speed. His manner of reading is fully consistent with the expression "read voraciously." The President had time to read a whole book during breakfast. In the evening, if Roosevelt was not distracted by business meetings, he could read a couple more volumes. Newspapers and magazines enjoyed the same love. In total, the president counted several tens of thousands of books that he mastered in his entire life. Among this list were hundreds of books in other languages.

Do not think that Theodore Roosevelt had superpowers. The only ability that allowed him to read so much was the development of speed reading. The president could look through 2-3 pages in a minute. Moreover, he memorized what he read, described important points and details, and cited quotes.

Naturally, the speed reading technique was not in vain for his career; it significantly helped Roosevelt increase his own influence. Communication with other people was easy for him, because the president could support any topic. With scientists, he could calmly discuss complex scientific theories, the intelligentsia listened to his stories about the plots of the works of Oscar Wilde, and with cowboys he enthusiastically discussed the features of the nature of the desert. In addition to reading, Theodore Roosevelt published his works, of which there are about two thousand. Moreover, he allocated funds for the publication himself.

We offer you several ways to help develop speed reading and learn to read fast. If you want to read books like Theodore Roosevelt, then you can immediately start the exercises.

When children learn to read, they say each word aloud. Over the years, this habit disappears, but many continue to mentally pronounce sentences. Naturally, the rate of speech decreases - reading does not exceed the speed of ordinary speech. The mental pronunciation of words has its own name - subvocalization. Some people may even move their lips while reading. It is quite difficult to get rid of this habit. To begin with, try to disconnect from pronunciation of words, increase the pace of reading. If that doesn't work, you can say "A-E-I-O-U" while you read. Or count in your mind. This technique allows you to learn to read with your eyes, not your mouth. Then you can significantly increase the speed of reading.
Many people in the process of reading go back, read the words several times. See if you have such a feature. You may not realize it, but you constantly go back 2-3 words in a sentence. In people who have this habit, in the process of reading, their eyes are actively running around. This means that they re-read the same line over and over again. A pencil or finger will help get rid of this. Just follow the lines. Another caveat - you need to drive faster than you read. This will help to avoid re-reading, returning to previous words and sentences.
The technique of speed reading is to read several words at once, and not to move from one to another. Peripheral vision is responsible for this. Your brain is able to read several words at once, you should not limit it in this. To train peripheral vision, you need to perform a special exercise. Draw two vertical parallel lines in the middle of the page. The distance between the lines should be about 7-8 cm. Look strictly into the area between the lines. Your eyes should not move beyond these limits. But peripheral vision can capture text behind the lines. If you have this skill, then the pace of reading will increase significantly. Newspapers can help you train your speed reading. The layout of newspapers includes columns, the width of which is about 5 cm. With the help of a newspaper, you can easily learn to perceive text in blocks. You need to try to read not every word, but the whole line. If you can master this skill, you will be reading newspaper news in seconds.
Use web apps. Today, there are quite a few free apps that help train your eyes and learn how to speed read. They allow you to get rid of the habit of returning to what you read, train the brain to perceive several words in their entirety. A good app is Spreeder. The user needs to select the text to read and upload it to the application. The program will show one word from this passage. The speed of the appearance of words and their number can be set independently. Spreeder will easily help you get rid of subvocalization and the habit of rereading words.
The human brain is able to take in information even if you read backwards. This feature is used for reading "diagonally". This speed reading technique allows you to increase the pace, but keep all the information in your head. The first line of the text should be read as usual, and the second should be viewed diagonally to the beginning of the third. And so the whole text. In this case, you can not pronounce the words, subvocalization is excluded here. Please note that with such reading, information will be remembered as well as with simple reading. This amazing feature of the brain makes it easier to deal with multi-page volumes.
In every article, book or text, there are points that require increased attention, and there are things that can simply be skimmed over. Roosevelt knew this too. For example, he wrote to his son Kermit that Dickens' novels were a mixture of second-rate minutiae with really worthwhile thoughts. Roosevelt paid less attention to what he did not consider important, but carefully read into truly serious thoughts and descriptions. This technique can be used not only when reading Dickens. Chancery and service words can be skipped, the essence of the text will be clear even without them. This reading technique will reduce the time to familiarize yourself with the document, but the meaning will not be lost.

Keyword targeting

Before you start reading, you should look at the table of contents. Then you will immediately know what each chapter is about. This will help you better navigate the text you read. The brain will be aware of which keywords to pay attention to, so reading will go faster.

Every day we are confronted with multi-letter publications, documents and books that need to be read quickly and understand their essence. But there are real masterpieces of the world of literature, where not only the meaning, but also the construction of sentences, vocabulary and means of artistic expression are a work of art. Such books should be read thoughtfully, savoring every word. After all, it is from such literature that you can get real pleasure.

If you find an error, please highlight a piece of text and click Ctrl+Enter.

Irina Davydova

Reading time: 10 minutes

A A

Each of us reads differently. Someone taking his time, stretching out the pleasure, pronouncing the words to himself. Someone drunkenly, insatiably, practically “swallowing” books and constantly updating their library. The speed of reading a person is determined by many factors - from the activity of mental processes and character to the characteristics of thinking.

But not everyone knows that this speed can be increased by 2-3 times.

We will tell you how to do it.

How to determine the initial reading speed - test

Most often, to determine the speed of reading, they use by the following formula:

Q (number of characters in the text, no spaces) divided by T (number of minutes spent reading) and multiplied by K (comprehension rate, that is, assimilation of the text read) = V (characters/min).

Reading time is, of course, measured with a stopwatch.

And as for the meaningfulness of reading, this coefficient is determined through the analysis of the answers received to 10 questions on the text. With all 10 correct answers, K is equal to 1, with 8 correct answers, K = 0, etc.

For example , you spent 4 minutes reading a text of 3000 characters, and only 6 gave correct answers. In this case, your reading speed will be calculated according to the following formula:

V \u003d (3000: 4) x0.6 \u003d 450 characters / min. Or about 75 wpm, given that the average number of letters in a word is 6.

Speed limits:

Less than 900 cpm: low speed.
1500 cpm: average speed.
3300 cpm: high speed.
Over 3300 cpm: very high.

According to research, the highest speed that allows you to fully assimilate the text is 6000 characters / min.

A higher speed is possible, but only when reading-“scanning”, without understanding and assimilation of what is read.

What is the easiest way to test your book swallowing speed?

Let's do without formulas! We copy the text of any selected article, select that part of it that consists of 500 words, turn on the stopwatch and ... let's go! True, we do not read "race", but thoughtfully and in the usual way.

Have you read? Now look at the stopwatch and studying indicators:

Less than 200 sl/min: low speed. Most likely, you accompany the reading with a mental pronunciation of each word. And you probably don't even notice how your lips move. There is nothing terrible in this. Except that you spend a lot of time reading.
200-300 sl/min: average speed.
300-450 sl/min: high speed. You read quickly (and probably a lot), without mentally pronouncing the words, and even having time to think about what you read. Excellent result.
Over 450 sl/min: your score is "adjusted". That is, when reading, you consciously (or maybe unconsciously) use techniques or techniques to increase your reading speed.

Preparing for exercises to increase reading speed - what will you need?

By improving your reading speed using certain techniques, you will not only improve your reading efficiency, but also improve your memory performance.

And before proceeding directly to the study of technology, you should prepare as thoroughly as possible to the exercises.

Prepare pen, stopwatch and any book with more than 200 pages.
Take care not to distract you within 20 minutes of training.
Take care of book holders.

7 Exercises to Increase Reading Speed

A human life is not enough to master all the masterpieces of world literature. But can you try?

To the attention of all book-eaters who do not have enough time in the day - the best exercises to improve reading technique!

Method 1st. Hands are your helpers!

Physical participation in the process of reading, oddly enough, also helps to increase speed.

How and why?

The human brain is programmed to fix movements. By using your hand or even a regular divider card while reading, you create movement on the book page and automatically enhance your concentration.

Finger pointer. With this “pointer”, you easily and naturally, exclusively vertically, lead along the book page at a speed slightly higher than eye movement. The tempo of the pointer cannot be changed - it must be constant and stable, without returning the finger to the already read text and without stopping. Where exactly to lead with a “pointer” does not really matter. Though in the center of the text, even in the side margin.
Separator card. Or a blank sheet of paper, folded in half for convenience. The size is about 7.5x13 cm. The main thing is that the sheet is solid, and it is convenient for you to hold and move it with one hand. Position the card above the readable line. Above, not below! In this way, you increase your attentiveness, eliminating the possibility of returning to the lines you read.

Method 2. Developing peripheral vision

Your main tool (or one of) in speed reading is your peripheral vision. With it, instead of several letters, you can read a word or even a whole line. Lateral vision training is carried out by working with the well-known Schulte table.

What is it and how to train?

Table- this is a field of 25 squares, each of which contains a number. All numbers (approx. - from 1 to 25) are located in random order.

Task: looking only at the central square, find all these numbers in descending (or ascending) order.

How to train? You can print the table for yourself on paper and use a timer. And you can train on the Internet (it's much easier) - there are enough similar services on the Web.

Having mastered the 5 by 5 diachrom table, move on to more complicated versions with colored fields and beyond.

Method 3. Unlearning subvocalization

This is one of the key principles of speed reading. “Subvocalization” refers to lip/tongue movements and mental pronunciation of words while reading.

Why does it interfere with reading?

The average number of words spoken by a person per minute is 180. With an increase in reading speed, the pronunciation of words becomes difficult, and subvocalization becomes an obstacle in mastering a new skill.

How to stop saying words to yourself?

To do this, in the process of reading ...

Clamp the tip of a pencil (or other object) with your teeth.
We press the tongue to the sky.
Place the finger of your free hand on your lips.
We count ourselves from 0 to 10.
We mentally pronounce poems or tongue twisters.
We put quiet music in the background and tap out the melody with a pencil.

Method 4. There is no way back!

Returning to the already read text (note - regression) and rereading the lines already passed increase the reading time of the text by 30 percent.

This can happen involuntarily, automatically - for example, if you were distracted by an extraneous sound, and you did not have time to learn a few words. Or for re-reading an overly informative phrase that you did not understand (or did not have time to understand due to the high reading speed).

How to unlearn regressions?

Use the card, blocking access to the read material.
Use appropriate programs on the Web (eg Best Reader).
Use your pointer finger.
Train your willpower and more often remember that below in the text you will most likely fill in all the information gaps that you made earlier.

Method 5th. We concentrate

It is clear that at high speeds the quality of assimilation of the material is noticeably reduced. But, firstly, this is only at first, until you have mastered the technique of speed reading, and secondly, you can pick up speed at first without losing the quality of reading.

This will help special exercises:

Using multi-colored felt-tip pens, write the names of colors on a piece of paper in a chaotic manner. Write the word "red" in yellow, "green" in black, and so on. Put the sheet on the table for a day. Then take it out and, stopping your finger on a particular word, quickly name the color of the ink.
We take a sheet and paper. We focus on something. For example, on that ficus in a pot. And we are not distracted by extraneous thoughts for at least 3-4 minutes. That is, we think only about this ficus! If an extraneous thought nevertheless crept in, we put a “notch” on the sheet and again focus on the ficus. We train until you have a clean slate after the exercise.
We count by reading. How? Just. While reading, we count each word in the text. Of course, only mentally and without various "helpers" in the form of tapping with the foot, bending the fingers, etc. For the exercise - 3-4 minutes. When you finish it, be sure to check yourself - just count the words without trying to read them.

Practice until the number of words received in the process of reading and actually available is equal.

Method 6. Learning to recognize "key" words and sweep away unnecessary ones

Looking at a painting, you don't ask yourself what the artist was trying to say. You just watch and understand everything. Moreover, your view captures the whole picture at once, and not individual details.

A similar "scheme" is used here. You must learn to snatch signal, keywords from a line and cut off all unnecessary ones. Each word that does not carry a special meaning, used “for beauty” or a bunch of phrases in the text, is cut off, skipped, ignored.

Focus on keywords bearing the main informative load.

Method 7. Determining paragraph topics

How to train?

Take any book, read one of the paragraphs and try to quickly identify the topic. Next, mark 5 minutes and determine the topics of the maximum number of paragraphs in this short period. The minimum number of defined topics per minute is 5.

And a couple more tips "on the road":

Reduce the duration of the stop on each line.
Practice skills individually. Don't try to cover all techniques at once.
Unlearn to run your eyes over the line - look at the entire line at once.

Is the reading speed test already ideal, or do you need to train more?

You have been working on yourself for a week (or even a month). It's time to check if you have reached the speed you were counting on, or if you need to train further.

We set a timer for 1 minute and start reading at the maximum speed, which is now possible without losing the quality of assimilation of information. We write down the result and compare it with the very first one.

If you didn’t “filon” during training, then the result will surprise you.

Certainly there is. But the main thing is the quality of the acquired information. What's the point of swallowing books if after reading nothing remains in your memory but the numbers from the stopwatch.

For further training, you can use both already learned techniques and new ones. Fortunately, there is no shortage of them today. It is enough to look into the search engine and enter the appropriate query.

Practice on different types of text:

On torn and rotating texts.
Texts without vowels.
On reading up and down and backwards.
On deconcentration and expansion of the angle of view.
On reading first the second word, then the first. Then the fourth, then the third.
Reading diagonally. Only the most stubborn can master this technique.
On reading the first word in its natural form, and the second - vice versa.
On reading only the 2nd half of the words in a line, while completely ignoring the 1st and determining this boundary by eye.
On reading "noisy" texts. That is, texts that are difficult to read due to the presence of drawings, intersecting letters, lines, shading, etc.
Reading upside down texts.
On reading "through the word." That is, jumping over one word.
On reading words that remain visible when some kind of stencil is applied to the page. For example, pyramids or Christmas trees. After reading everything that the pyramid could not hide, you should re-read the text and find out if you understood the meaning correctly.
On reading only those 2-3 words that are in the middle of the line. The remaining words (right and left) are read with peripheral vision.

Practice daily. Even 15 minutes of practice a day will help you significantly increase your reading pace.

True, then you will have to learn to slow down this pace when you want to calmly rustle the pages of your favorite book while lying in a hammock.
But that's a completely different story...

Have you used exercises to increase your reading speed? Did the ability to read quickly come in handy in later life? Share your experience in the comments below!

School of Yuri Okunev

Hello friends! I'm with you, Yuri Okunev.

Scientists have established a pattern between the speed of reading and the performance of secondary school students: excellent students, as a rule, read at a speed of 130-170 words per minute, good students are content with a speed of 100-135 words per minute, three students - 90 words per minute and lower.

This is a vivid illustration of the fact that it is simply necessary for our children to learn the methods of speed reading. The topic of our conversation today will be speed reading, exercises for school-age children.

Your child knows the alphabet for a long time, reads in words, but his reading speed still leaves much to be desired. The reason is not in his desire / unwillingness, but in completely different factors:

undeveloped attention;
Weak articulation (diction);
Eye regression;
Pretty narrow field of view.

In the previous article, we have already dwelled on the analysis of each of them. The speed reading technique for children aims to get rid of these side effects.

What will we work on

Development of articulation;
Improved attention;
Suppression of regressive eye movements;
Articulation suppression (visual reading);
Expanding the field of view;
The development of anticipation.

Methodology for conducting classes

The optimal regimen for speed reading at home is daily classes for 20 minutes and 5 minutes before bedtime.

The lesson will look something like this:

Articulation workout. We read tongue twisters, tongue twisters in a whisper and in full voice. Reading a short text aloud;
Main part. Working with Schulte tables;
Articulation suppression. 1-2 exercises;
Exercises to correct attention;
Regression Exercises(at the initial stage) or on the development of ancipation (in subsequent lessons);
Reading with an adult for forced speed development;
Final part. Drawing based on the read text.

Before going to bed, spend five minutes reading with retelling (the child reads a short text and retells in his own words), or buzz reading.

Articulation warm-up (exercises)

Consonants. We ask the student to take a full breath, exhaling, he pronounces a series of 15 any consonant sounds: F, Sch, L, V, Sh, K, T, S, P, N, G, Zh, B, N, R.
Blow out the candle. Have the child take in as much air as possible and blow out one large imaginary candle. And now we blow out 3 small candles: we exhale air in three portions;
The elevator moved. An adult and a child are in an imaginary elevator that moves from the first floor to the tenth. We call the floors loudly, each time raising our voice more and more. We call the numbers clearly, without swallowing the endings. We reached the last floor - we go down, gradually lowering our voice.

Field of vision development

It has been proven that the process of reading a text consists of:

eye movements;
their stops.

Moreover, the perception of the text occurs precisely at the second stage. This means that in order to increase the speed of reading, it is necessary to reduce the multiplicity of eye stops, while the field of view should increase as much as possible in order to capture neighboring words and sentences.

This effect can be achieved by practicing with Schulte tables.
The tables are a grid of 5x5 squares, in which numbers from 1 to 25 are entered.
The student consistently finds all the numbers for speed.

The ideal result is to meet 5 seconds. The secret of this task is that the eyes should always be in the central part of the table, in this case the field of view will be maximum.

In addition to the field of view, Schulte tables contribute to the development of RAM.

Regression Suppression

Regression is the reader's ability to look back at a line that has already been read. Anyone will say that this way of reading is extremely slow and irrational.

Exercise.

We read the text and cover each read word with a specially prepared bookmark. By training in this way, after a week you can get rid of the regression.

Articulation suppression

Articulation is the pronunciation of a readable text. It is important when a student reads aloud (the less he stumbles, the higher the reading technique), but it is completely unacceptable if we want to achieve a speed of 150 words or more (a person cannot speak at such a speed).

The speed reading technique for children involves the development of visual reading, when articulation is suppressed in every possible way and the text is read with a quick glance of the eyes. It has been established that in this case the quality of text perception increases sharply and the memorization process improves.

To the music. We read the text with the music turned on, for a start it is better to take just music, without singing. Over time, move on to reading with song accompaniment. A prerequisite: at the end, the child must answer questions on the text.
Bumblebee. The student is engaged in reading while making a buzzing sound, as if a bumblebee is flying. This is one of the most important exercises in speed reading.
Knock rhythm. We read the text and tap a certain rhythm with a pencil. Rhythm should be learned separately and brought to automatism. The task is performed at first at an average pace, accelerating towards the end.
Lock. The child tightly covers his mouth, presses his finger to his lips and begins to read the text as quickly as possible. Answer questions after reading.

Attention Correction Exercises

This part is very important, because due to insufficient attention, the quality of perception of the text being read deteriorates.

Freeze words. Pairs of words are written on a piece of paper in which one letter is different, the rest are similar, for example, SLEEP - KON, LAZY - STUMP, etc. Ask the student what is special about these words, how they are similar and how they are not. Let the student continue the row;
given long word e.g. INDEPENDENCE. Have the student make up as many short words as possible from the letters of this word. Compete with him. Who will be the first?
Fonts. The child is invited to read the text, in which each word is written in different fonts mixed up. The purpose of the task: to learn to read any text with distortions at maximum speed.
Confusion. Previously, we write sentences on a piece of paper, rearranging the words in places, for example, “late in the evening, the girls spun three by the window.” Enough 6-10 pieces of such confusion. The task of the child is to unravel.

The development of the ancipation

Ancipation is the ability to guess a word from its meaning. In the program of teaching speed reading, exercises to increase the ancipation are necessarily included so that the student, without seeing the extreme words on the page, can grasp their meaning in meaning.

Ruler. We cover a part of the text on the right or left with a ruler or a bookmark for a width of 5 to 12 characters. The child reads the text at a normal pace.
We read somersault. The student must read the text first in its normal form, and then turning it heading down. The exercise develops a semantic guess and memory well. You can try to read the text by rotating it 90 degrees.
Halves. We take a sheet of paper and half close one line of the text that the child is reading at this time. Only the upper halves of the letters are closed, the lower ones should be visible. The line has been read. Now we close the next line and so we go further. In this method, a “military trick” is encrypted: if the child is even a little smart, he will try to read the lines even before they are covered with a sheet. This is how the speed increases!

Reading with an adult

This is teaching speed reading to school-age children using an imposed reading speed. The child has to adapt to the speed of an adult, which means reading a little more lively.

parallel reading. An adult reads the text, changing the speed - sometimes faster, sometimes slower. The student must put his finger on the text and follow, never straying.
Relay race. Alternately, the text is read by either an adult or a child. Moreover, the change of roles can be sudden (not necessarily at the end of the paragraph). If possible, the adult tries to speed up the pace.
Tail. The adult starts reading the text, and the student enters a little later, 4 words late. The text is read aloud, in an undertone. The task of the student is not to stray.

Conclusion

This is where I end. Train, learn, master new heights!

If you want to know more, I recommend Shamil Akhmadullin's book “Short reading for children. How to teach your child to read and understand what they read. It provides exercises for the development of reading techniques in three age categories of children, including speed reading for preschoolers.

The technique is convenient for classes on developing reading techniques at home, as it contains theoretical material in a brief form and tasks with detailed instructions.

Write about your impressions, difficulties or victories in the comments. Invite friends and acquaintances.

Speed ​​reading. Speed ​​Reading Exercises for Kids and Adults Speed ​​Reading