Speed ​​reading and intelligence development. Speed ​​reading and memorization - how to read faster and remember more

Today, the technique of speed reading has become very popular. This is necessary for people of any profession. Anyone can develop this ability. How to learn speed reading, you will learn all the teaching methods in this article.
First of all, a person must understand for himself why he needs it, what the goal is and what it will give him. For an adult, motivation is important so as not to give up learning halfway. You also need self-confidence. You must understand that everyone can learn to read quickly if they really have such a desire.

How to learn speed reading on your own?

Important to know! Decreased vision leads to blindness!

To correct and restore vision without surgery, our readers use the increasingly popular ISRAELI OPTIVISION - the best product, now available for only 99 rubles!
Having carefully reviewed it, we decided to offer it to your attention...

Now there are many courses that teach speed reading. But courses require time and money, which are often not enough. To learn to read quickly, you can do speed reading exercises at home. To do this, you need to find 20-25 free time a day.
The most effective speed reading techniques that you can do yourself

  1. "Sighting method" It is necessary to learn in a few seconds to identify in the text those passages that you need to pay attention to, sifting out already known material. First you need to try this exercise on objects. Look at the thing for a few seconds, and closing your eyes, remember it in all the details. Next, note what you forgot and repeat the exercise several more times.
  2. Method for finding keywords in text It will not only allow you to read quickly, but also remember what you read and grasp the essence of the text.
  3. Very important articulation suppression exercises , since they take up a lot of time. By articulating, we read at the same speed as if we were reading aloud. Count in your head from 10 to 1. Now try to read the text and at the same time continue to count in your head. All attention should be on the numbers. Of course, you won't be able to understand anything you read. After all, you did not have the opportunity to pronounce the text out of habit. Instead of counting, you can sing a song in your mind. This will break your habit of articulating. After doing these exercises regularly, you will feel like you can understand words without even reading them.
  4. Learn to use your visual memory . You need to read not letter by letter, but learn to grasp words consisting of 9-10 letters. This is easy to do if you make signs with the most common words. Looking at the table, but without reading the words, close your eyes and say what is written.
  5. The reason for the low reading speed – poorly developed peripheral vision. A person reads a line in parts, because he cannot catch it entirely with his eyes. You need to learn to read “vertically”, this means that by looking at one point, you can see the entire line or even the entire page. Schulte tables will help with this. You can write the text by hand or print it on a computer so that the text looks in the shape of a triangle. Look at the center of each line and, without moving your eyes left and right, read the text. You can develop peripheral vision on the street or at work. Look at one point, but at the same time try to see what is happening around.
  6. Another enemy of fast reading is regression. A person often returns to a text he has already read. This happens due to misunderstanding of the text, lack of attention, and sometimes out of habit. To learn to read quickly, you don’t need to “jump” through the text while reading. A regular bookmark, which you need to cover a line you’ve already read, will help you cope with the habit of re-reading the text.
  7. When speed reading, it is very important to learn to take as much useful information from the text as possible. . Experts recommend breaking the text into blocks and paying special attention to them: title, author, topic, facts, criticism and novelty of the material. Read the text 3 times and write down the basic information for each block. The first time, read it quickly and get the gist, the second time, read it carefully and emphasize as much information as possible. The third time, make sure that nothing important has escaped your attention. Read 1-2 texts a day like this and soon you will learn to work with information. You'll never have to take notes again.

The main method of speed reading is to learn to see the entire page without focusing on the little things.

You can learn speed reading at home with the help of an interesting exercise “Mixed Up Letters”. In words, all letters are written in random order, except for the first and last. You need to read the text from these words. There are many such texts on the Internet. Or ask a friend to write you such a text. Many people cope with this task with ease, since the human brain perceives better not alphabetic, but dictionary reading.

  • Exercise "Crossed out letters." A friend writes you a text with missing vowels or consonants. And you write to him. Who can read it faster?
  • Cross out or sketch out every second word in the text and try to understand the meaning of the text. This exercise activates the brain and develops intellectual abilities.
  • The “Semantic Guess” exercise is that many words can be skipped and not read, since it is already clear that they are written there according to the previous meaning. You can learn to skip entire blocks of text. For example: “Every person needs to maintain good physical...
  • You need to visit the gym...” The words “form” and “hall” are clear in meaning and you immediately understand which words are missing.

How to teach speed reading to a child

It makes sense to start teaching your child speed reading at the age of 9-10 years. Until this age, the child is not ready for speed reading exercises.

The older children get, the more they need to read. The amount of literature that needs to be read doubles by 5th grade. By 8th grade - three times. A child must not only learn to read quickly, but also understand what he is reading about. The skill of speed reading will be useful to him throughout his life. Now there are many courses on speed reading, but if parents can devote 20 minutes a day to studying with their child, then this can be learned quite quickly at home.

Problems that children have when reading

  1. When reading “to themselves,” children articulate and move their lips. In this case, the eyes linger in one place for a long time;
  2. Many people read aloud, although vision perceives information 10 times faster;
  3. Most children have a small field of vision, so exercises are necessary to increase it;
  4. Primary school students often stammer, involuntarily change letters, and do not read the endings. This reduces reading speed significantly.

Speed ​​reading helps eliminate these errors and increase reading speed. It is also important that the child understands and can retell what he has read. To solve the problem of high-quality understanding, speed reading techniques help the child see what is important in the text, develop attention, imagination, memory and thinking.

Many children become distracted when reading, their thoughts fly away, and they don’t remember where they stopped reading. So, the basic speed reading techniques will teach the child attention, concentration, and composure.

Speed ​​reading Teaching method for a child at home

You need to work with your child for 15-20 minutes three times a week. Lesson structure:

The first stage of classes eliminates the causes of slow reading and expands the field of vision.

  1. Reading a short text (up to 100 words). After this, ask your child questions about reading comprehension;
  2. Schulte table. The child's task is to quickly find the scattered numbers in the square. Start with 9 and work your way up to 36 digits in the table;
    The next stage involves focusing on what you read and assimilating the information.
  3. Damaged text technique. Cut the text into pieces and glue it onto the card, shifting it by 1-2 lines. Then you cut out the middle of the text, individual letters, etc. Then conduct the conversation over text.
  4. Mathematical exercises to develop attention alternate with drawing on the topic of the text read.

Conclusion

An exercise to change the speed of reading is that you move your fingers over the text, and the child tries to keep up with reading after you. Gradually increase your speed.

Text comprehension exercise. You need to cover the top of the line. The lower one remains completely open. The child will understand that he needs to quickly read the bottom line before the top line is completely opened. After this, compare the text and retell it. It also develops silent reading.

Your task is to instill in your child a love of reading. Conduct these classes in a good mood. Such activities will make it easier for the child to perform many tasks in the future, they will succeed in school, and quickly perceive a large amount of information.

Elementary and secondary school teachers have long discovered a relationship between reading speed and student achievement. The faster a student perceives the flow of information, the better he learns. For this reason, parents strive to teach their child speed reading before starting school or primary school. What speed reading exercises there are for children, how to do them and where to start, we will discuss in our article.

What's happened

Speed ​​reading is a person’s ability to perceive text at high speed. It is to perceive, and not just mechanically read. If you teach a child to swallow words at a phenomenal speed, without understanding what he has read, then speed reading will not help you with your studies, but quite the opposite.

Speed ​​reading in the correct sense is usually understood as a developed skill in processing educational text. These are paragraphs from textbooks and articles on scientific topics. The reading speed should be at least 120-150 words per minute. At an older age it reaches up to 200 lexical units.

Any child can learn to speed read. But, according to psychologists and teachers, the optimal age is from 10 to 12 years. Although children 7 years old and even 6 years old have positive experience in using the technique.

Problems

Training speed reading involves some difficulties. Unprepared children have poorly developed peripheral vision and articulation, and have defects in mental skills (attention, memory).

  1. Narrow field of view. To master the technique of fast reading, you need to have a wide range of vision. The eyes should not focus on one word. The task of a speed reading teacher is to teach the student to perceive the text as a whole, that is, the gaze should stop not on individual words, but on the spaces between them, immediately capturing a phrase or sentence.
  2. Eye regression. This is the main enemy of speed reading. The student returns to the text he has already read, wasting time. Eye regression occurs automatically. The process can be controlled using training exercises.
  3. Suppression of articulation. When reading at a normal pace, children try to pronounce words clearly and loudly. This helps to absorb fiction. For example, it is impossible to perceive poetry accurately and feel the author’s mood without pauses or logical stresses. But for dynamic reading, diction is not needed. Pronunciation reduces the speed of text comprehension.
  4. Undeveloped attention. High reading pace requires increased attention. This is necessary for instantly highlighting the main and secondary, deep understanding of new information.

To eliminate defects and develop fast reading skills, you need not only to constantly train, but also to adjust the width of your field of vision, give up internal pronunciation of words, control regression, and develop attention and memory. The following exercises will help with this, which are included in the training system, devoting a few minutes to them in each lesson.

Exercises

The most effective exercises are those that eliminate the cause of low reading speed and train the speed of visual perception of information. Let's look at some of them.

To expand the field of view

Exercises to develop the visual field occupy the main place in the system of lessons on dynamic reading. Children aged 7 and 8 years or in small words. The wide angle and field of view allow you to capture phrases, sentences, even small paragraphs with your gaze. In other words, the child reads and immediately sees further text, perceiving it subconsciously. Not all adults can boast of such a skill, but children, after 1-2 months of training, do it easily. Use the following operating methods.

Schulte tables

These are number squares. Each cell contains a number. For primary school students, the range from 1 to 20 is used. The task of the exercise is to find all the numbers in order with your eyes. At first it takes a long time, then 10-20 seconds. You need to track the speed of completing a task at each lesson, noting progress.

Red-black Gorbov-Schulte table






Word pyramids

Analogue of wedge-shaped tables. Words are located at different distances from each other. You need to start reading from the top level, gradually going down, keeping both sides of the pyramid in focus. This task is quite difficult. The training must be carried out individually; each student should have a card with a table on their desk so that there is no distraction.

As an option, tables are offered with whole words on the sides of the pyramid or syllables, connecting which the child receives a semantic lexeme.

To combat eye regression

It is impossible to prevent your eyes from returning to an already read text by force of will. This skill requires practice.

  • Cut off half a line

You need to proceed as follows:

  • The child reads sentences, for example, the first line of a paragraph.
  • Places a sheet of paper and a wide bookmark on the fragment read.
  • Continues reading, moving the bookmark across the page.
  • Returning your eyes to the top text is impossible - it is hidden. The pattern of moving only forward is developed automatically.
  • Pointer

You can use a pen or finger. The teacher or the student himself indicates the reading movement. The eyes follow the pen automatically, but at first the student will have to force himself not to look back.

To suppress articulation

Pronouncing words, even with your lips, silently interferes with increasing your reading speed. Articulation will have to be suppressed. Only your eyes should glide over the text. The following exercises are suitable for practicing this skill.

  • Reading to music

Play music without words, then accompanied by a song. Noise interferes with speaking. It is important to check your reading comprehension regularly. Ask questions about the text, ask to retell paragraphs, a paragraph from the textbook.

  • Mumbler

Or a bumblebee. Students should hum or hum or sing a tune while reading. This exercise is quite difficult. But it develops both hemispheres of the brain, since the child performs several actions at the same time.

  • Pencil

If your lips pronounce the words of the text you read silently, automatically, then you need to fix them in one position and prohibit them from moving. The child holds the pencil in his mouth or covers his lips with his palm.

  • Drum roll

The teacher or the student himself can tap the rhythm. Drum without rhythm or at a certain tempo, playing a familiar melody.

Important! This training block is difficult for elementary school students to complete. Exercises interfere with the perception of information, so you need to regularly monitor the semantic perception of what you read.

Attention exercises

Adjusting the level of attention is necessary to improve the ability to quickly perceive text, see familiar words, glancing over them. Do the following set of exercises:

  • Making up words

Write a long word on a piece of paper. For example, entrepreneurship. It is used to make lexemes of one or two syllables: world, forest, table and others.

  • Find the differences

Write down pairs of words: par-bar, vol-kol, trail-dill. The child explains how they are similar and how they are different.

  • Riddles

Trick questions train attention. For example, how many apples will grow on a birch tree if there are 8 of them in the garden, and each of them grew 10 fruits in the last period.

You can come up with clever riddles yourself, together with your child.

  • Work of both hemispheres
  • Confusion

Learn some poems with your child. Type the memorized lines on your PC, but swap the words, and print them out. The student’s task is to arrange them correctly.

  • Let's celebrate the main thing

Read a short test. Mark with a pencil the main thoughts and main points.

  • Name the colors

An exciting task. Use a field like this:

You need to name not the words, but the color and shade with which they are printed.

Memory exercises

The following tasks are suitable for memory training:

  • Visual dictation

Take a short text of 5-8 sentences. A schoolboy is reading. Then close all sentences except the first one. Let the child remember it. Give this 10 seconds. Remove text. The student must write down the sentence from memory. Rework the entire text this way.

  • Word Repair

Elementary recovery of gaps in words. First, one letter will be missing in some words, then you can give text with a lack of syllables, even words.

  • Chain recovery

Teacher, parent read a group of words. They can be related to each other semantically or lexically. For example, bus-driver-garage-gasoline-repair-mechanic-driving school. The number of words depends on the abilities of the young student and his age.

The child repeats the words after listening. It is important to maintain the order of the chain. Increase the number of words gradually, bring the complexity to 20 units, preferably unrelated in meaning.

  • Developing a speed reading strategy

There are several options. Choose any one that is suitable and understandable to you, the child. Methods can be used isolated and comprehensively, alternating exercises in one lesson or through a lesson:

  • Forced acceleration method

You need to work in pairs. More successful students can help struggling students. The lead reader quickly pronounces the text and moves his finger or pointer along the page. The observer watches and adjusts to the pace. In the next lesson, reading takes place in silent mode. You just need to follow the movements of your pointer or finger. At the same time, the speed should be at a good level.

  • Fixation method

The child reads the text in parts with a metronome. You need to circle the beginning, middle and end of the line with an oval. Thus, several sentences are divided into three equal parts. For each beat of the metronome, the student grasps a separate part with his gaze; he cannot read out loud. Practice this method every day for 3-4 weeks.

  • Slip method

The method is similar to diagonal reading. Use a pencil to circle the first few words of each sentence and turn on the metronome. On the first beats, the student reads the circled words, on the second, the rest. The sliding speed gradually increases.

Important! At first, you cannot demand understanding. It is important to practice the skill of perceiving text in fragments. Reading comprehension will come later.

Methods for professionally teaching children speed reading, as well as a complete system of training at home, are presented in the books. Take note of a few of the benefits listed below:

  1. G. Abdulova. “Speed ​​reading for children. How to read faster, remember and understand more.”
  2. Sh. Akhmadullin “Speed ​​reading for children.”
  3. Sh. Akhmadullin. “Teaching Children Speed ​​Reading.”

Author's materials are suitable for organizing individual lessons with parents and in groups. The developers of the methods claim that the result will appear quickly: from 10 days to a month, if you devote 1 hour a day to training. Books on speed reading for children can be downloaded for free on the Internet or ordered in paper version.

  • Don't waste time reading large texts; it's better to process a couple of small passages at a good pace.
  • Take breaks between classes if they are short. For example, for first-graders, choose the following scheme: read 3 times a day for 7-10 minutes, every 2-3 hours.
  • Start with simple tests.
  • Before you start learning speed reading, automate the sounds and perception of syllables. You can use the syllable table. It can be read vertically, horizontally, diagonally. Download the option you like on the Internet or use this one.
  • Use it as a warm-up in every lesson.
  • For first-graders or preschoolers, use bright literature, with pictures, colorful illustrations to develop interest in the lessons.
  • Automate the reading of frequency words. Doman-Manichenko cards are suitable for this. They can be used from infancy. The method is based on photo memory.
  • Instead of strict work systems, use choral reading, text processing in pairs.
  • Monitor your reading technique regularly and write it down in your diary.
  • Keep a success notebook. Praise your child for the slightest success so as not to discourage him from studying.
  • Read together and set a positive example.
  • Give your child time to read independently, without your supervision. This will increase responsibility and self-esteem.

Speed ​​reading can be a lifeline for children. With the help of exercises to develop memory, attention, and visual field, the child improves a lot of mental properties. And this helps you master the school curriculum, be successful and respected among classmates and teachers.

Yuri Okunev School

Hello friends! I am with you, Yuri Okunev.

Scientists have established a pattern between reading speed 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, and C students - 90 words per minute and below.

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

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

  • Undeveloped attention;
  • Weak articulation (diction);
  • Eye regression;
  • Quite a narrow field of view.

In the previous article, we already discussed in detail each of them. The speed reading technique for children aims to get rid of these side effects.

What will we work on?

  1. Development of articulation;
  2. Improved attention;
  3. Suppression of regressive eye movements;
  4. Suppression of articulation (visual reading);
  5. Expanding the field of view;
  6. Development of ancipation.

Methodology of conducting classes

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

The lesson will look something like this:

  • Articulation warm-up. We read pure twisters and tongue twisters in a whisper and in a full voice. Reading a short text out loud;
  • Main part. Working with Schulte tables;
  • Suppression of articulation. 1-2 exercises;
  • Exercises to correct attention;
  • Exercises to combat regression(at the initial stage) or for the development of anicipation (in subsequent classes);
  • Reading with an adult for accelerated speed development;
  • The final part. Drawing based on the text read.

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

Articulation warm-up (exercises)

  1. Consonants. We ask the student to take a full breath, exhaling, he pronounces a series of 15 consonant sounds: F, Ш, Л, В, Ш, К, Т, С, П, Н, Г, Ж, Б, Н, Р.
  2. Blow out the candle. Let the child take in more air into his lungs and blow out one large imaginary candle. Now let’s blow out 3 small candles: exhale air in three portions;
  3. The elevator started moving. An adult and a child are in an imaginary elevator that moves from the first floor to the tenth. We call the floors loudly, raising our voices more and more each time. We name the numbers clearly, without swallowing the endings. We reached the last floor - we went down, gradually lowering our voices.

Visual field 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 reading speed, you need to reduce the number 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 studying with Schulte tables.
The tables are a grid of 5X5 squares, in which numbers from 1 to 25 are written.
The student sequentially finds all the numbers for speed.

The ideal result is to do it in 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 return his eyes to a line that has already been read. Anyone will say that this method of reading is extremely slow and irrational.

Exercise.

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

Articulation suppression

Articulation is the pronunciation of the text being read. It is important when a student reads aloud (the less he stumbles, the higher his reading technique), but it is completely unacceptable if we want to achieve a speed of 150 words or more (a person cannot speak at that 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 sharply increases and the memorization process improves.

  1. To the music. We read the text with the music on; for starters, it’s better to just take the music, without singing. Over time, switch to reading with song accompaniment. Required condition: upon completion, the child must answer questions based on the text.
  2. Bumblebee. The student reads while making a buzzing sound, as if a bumblebee is flying. This is one of the most important exercises in speed reading.
  3. Knock rhythm. We read the text and tap a certain rhythm with a pencil. The rhythm should be learned separately and brought to automatism. The task is performed at an average pace at first, accelerating towards the end.
  4. Lock. The child closes his mouth tightly, presses his finger to his lips and begins to read the text as quickly as possible. After reading, answers questions.

Exercises to correct attention

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

  1. Troublesome 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 series;
  2. Given long word, for example, INDEPENDENCE. Let the student make as many short words as possible from the letters of this word. Compete with him. Who will come out first?
  3. Fonts. The child is asked to read a text in which each word is written in different fonts mixed together. Purpose of the task: learn to read any text with distortions at maximum speed.
  4. Confusion. First, we write sentences on a piece of paper, rearranging the words, for example, “late the girls were spinning at window three in the evening.” 6-10 pieces of such confusion are enough. The child's task is to unravel.

The Development of Ancipation

Ancipation is the ability to guess a word by its meaning. In the speed reading training program, exercises to increase antecedents must be included so that the student, without seeing the extreme words on the page, can understand their meaning.

  1. Ruler. We cover part of the text on the right or left with a ruler or bookmark with a width of 5 to 12 characters. The child reads the text at a normal pace.
  2. We read upside down. The student must read the text first in its normal form, and then, turning it upside down. The exercise develops semantic guesswork and memory well. You can try reading the text by rotating it 90 degrees.
  3. Halves. We take a sheet of paper and half cover one line of the text that the child is reading at this time. Only the upper halves of the letters are covered, the lower halves should be visible. The line has been read. Now close the next line and move on. This method contains a “military trick”: 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 speed increases!

Reading with an adult

This is teaching school-age children to read quickly using an imposed reading speed. The child has to adapt to the adult’s speed, which means he can read a little more quickly.

  1. Parallel reading. An adult reads the text, changing speed - sometimes faster, sometimes slower. The student must place his finger on the text and follow, without ever getting lost.
  2. Relay. The text is read alternately by an adult and 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.
  3. Ponytail. The adult begins to read the text, and the student begins a little later, 4 words late. The text is read aloud, in a low voice. The student’s task is not to get lost.

Conclusion

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

If you want to learn more, I recommend the book by Shamil Akhmadullin “Speed ​​reading for children. How to teach a child to read and understand what they read correctly". It provides exercises for developing reading techniques in three age categories of children, including speed reading for preschoolers.

The method is convenient for practicing 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 your friends and acquaintances.

One of the most important human needs is the need for new knowledge and self-improvement. That’s why people learn foreign languages, play sports, and master musical instruments. The development of every skill is based on obtaining information. The speed of learning something new depends on how quickly a person reads.

Speed ​​reading is an incredibly useful skill that doesn't require any special talent to master. If you have the desire, perseverance and a little time, you can easily master speed reading at home.

Why read quickly

Who will benefit from developing speed reading? The answer to this question is extremely simple. Anyone who strives to learn new things will find this skill useful. By learning how to speed read and spending a few months mastering this technique in practice, you can later save a huge amount of time.

In turn, slow reading is not always justified. Most people do not finish reading books precisely because they take a lot of time. Also, by reading slowly, there is a high chance of losing interest in the plot and again abandoning the book without finishing it.

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

What is speed reading

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. In this case, 1-3 minutes are spent on a page of printed text. Speed ​​reading involves mastering the skill of reading from 500 to 3000 words in the same time. True, in this case the term “read” is not entirely appropriate. Speed ​​reading in essence is analyzing the text and choosing the main thing. That is, some part of the information is simply ignored. The goal is to learn to focus on those sentences and phrases that carry the maximum meaning, and to skip “water” that does not affect the understanding of the essence.

The secret of great people

Surprisingly, the technique of speed reading 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, and 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 a whole book at once.

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

Karl Marx, Napoleon Bonaparte, John Kennedy, and Adolf Hitler also used speed reading techniques. Maybe it was thanks to this that they achieved success in their business.

When will speed reading be useful?

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

Poetry and fiction are intended for completely different purposes. In fiction, we are not looking for answers to the questions posed, but simply enjoying the process of reading. The entire value of literary texts lies in their impact on a person’s emotions, feelings and the use of his imagination. Reading such literature quickly is possible, but absolutely pointless.

Is it possible to master speed reading at home?

Nowadays, there are many specialized courses that “for little money” promise to teach anyone 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 independent learning even has its advantages:

  • Free choice of time for classes makes it possible to conduct training at those hours when it will be most convenient and fruitful.
  • Methods for teaching speed reading and descriptions of exercises are publicly available information that can be found in special manuals sold in any bookstore.
  • No distractions.
  • The ability to control the training time by choosing the duration of classes.

Some may be interested in the opinions of people who took courses to master speed reading. Reviews about their effectiveness are not always positive. Often, additional independent practice is required upon completion to achieve noticeable results. But the skill of speed reading itself is spoken of only with praise. None of those who mastered this ability regretted the time and effort spent.

Learning to read quickly. What is needed for this?

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 re-reading incomprehensible fragments. You will see, when you read to the end of a paragraph or page, everything that was unclear will become clear without re-reading.

The second rule is to highlight several key words in each sentence. 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 yield 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 record useful information in memory.

Why do we read slowly?

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

1. Reading indiscriminately. When reading, we pay attention to everything. To get acquainted with the main idea, we spend the same amount of 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 identifying the main idea and ignoring the “water” in the text.

2. Repetition of what you read. Each of us has a bad habit from childhood - returning our gaze to the sentence we have just read. When a child is developing a vocabulary, such repetitions are useful. But as adults, we just do it 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 seems to be conducting a monologue, “speaking out” the information we are becoming familiar with. The speed of text perception 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 “silence 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 well-developed peripheral vision, he uses it when perceiving text, which is reflected in reading speed. For those who want to master speed reading on their own, exercises to expand the field of vision are mandatory.

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

Exercises to increase reading speed

Where to start mastering speed reading? Exercise is the key to success. Regular completion of simple practical tasks contributes to the development of the qualities necessary for quickly assimilation of information.

Eliminating inner speech

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

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

The principle of this exercise is to “engage your inner speaker” and learn to perceive the text without its participation.

Developing peripheral vision

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

At this stage, they will come to help. The sheet depicts a square, the length of the sides is 20 cm. It is divided into five horizontal lines and five vertical ones. 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 of 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 print it so that each line is wider than the previous one. For example, the first line has one word, the second - two, the third - three, and so on. As a result, we get a triangle consisting of text. When reading it, move your gaze only from top to bottom. To see the beginning and end of long lines, use your peripheral vision.

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

Learning to guess

Speed ​​reading involves selective perception of text. In order for you to ultimately receive holistic, useful information, you need to learn logic and guesswork.

To perform the exercises in this block, you need an assistant. You immediately need to select an unfamiliar text and print it. The assistant darkens some parts of the text with a black marker, and while you read it, you try to grasp 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 cover 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 within a month speed reading will begin to develop. Everyone can do the exercises, although they may seem difficult at the very beginning.

At what age can children be taught speed reading?

A child's vocabulary is significantly smaller than that of an adult. When reading, he thinks, comprehends the material he has read, and spends much more time doing this. Even by hearing, children perceive fast speech much worse. Therefore, it is possible to teach children speed reading only after they learn to fully independently comprehend the text they read. This occurs around the age of 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 and learn this and see from your own example the value of such a skill.

Have you already taken a speed reading course? Have you read textbooks, but to no avail? Have you expanded your perspective, but still read at the same speed? You need to develop the skill of reading quickly.

They read interesting books, brilliant ones -
reread.
(Author unknown)

The main essence of the speed reading method is to suppress internal pronunciation and attempt to cover the entire text in a shorter period of time.

Recently, many accessible and simple methods for developing speed reading skills have appeared. Some techniques take the word “read in less time” literally, turning the reading process into a process of flipping through a book.

A reader who is developing speed reading skills should keep in mind that some parts of the text can be read quickly (skip), and some parts of the text can be read in depth. The art of a speed reader lies precisely in switching from one reading mode to another.

A speed reader's imagination works well (the reader seems to predict the future content of the text), and the connection between consciousness and subconscious is well established. Thanks to this connection, an experienced reader moves dynamically and in a timely manner from one type of reading to another.

How to develop speed reading skills at home

Let's assume that you have already read several books on the topic of speed reading. You have mastered the basic principles of fast reading (worked with Schulte tables, tried to suppress pronunciation while reading, mastered speed reading algorithms), but have not achieved the required speed of information processing.

Perhaps you have forgotten the most important thing with technical techniques - what cannot be achieved with technical techniques, namely, you read without any particular practical purpose or read at a reduced energy potential. The fact is that before reading it is necessary not only to tune in to reading, but also to realize the purpose of reading.

Visual angle training for speed reading

Concentrate your gaze on the center. Mark identical blocks with your peripheral vision. The goal is not to find identical blocks as quickly as possible, but to concentrate your gaze on the center of the screen with your peripheral vision and find the necessary information.

Correctly set goals and quick reading:

    I know how to write a procedure in a programming system. I need to remember the syntax.

The more correctly your reading goal is set, the more likely it is that you will either quickly reject the text or find the right amount of information in it. Speed ​​reading is best suited for reading texts where the desired information is concentrated in one or two paragraphs.

Incorrectly set goals:

    This book has a beautiful title, and its content is probably just as beautiful.

These goals do not specify the extent to which the text will be used in practice. Therefore, while developing your reading speed, you may not achieve the desired result, and this will happen for the reason that you simply do not realize the goal.

To a person developing speed reading skill should be understood:

Each text requires a certain reading speed, as well as its own strategy for processing information in accordance with previously gained experience.

Within one text, an experienced reader must change the reading speed from the highest - scanning speed, to in-depth and attentive reading.

Postulates of dynamic reading:

  • Formulate questions for the author of the text. Write letters to the author, take notes, mark thoughts in the margins of the book.
  • Think about what you read. Write down the main ideas of the text in a notebook, and then return to what you wrote in order to think through what you read again. Remember that for strong memorization, the information received should be repeated after a certain amount of time.
  • If there is no application for the acquired knowledge- it means you wasted your time reading.
  • Feeling tired? - Take a break. Change types of work. The best rest is switching to another activity. You can also relax by alternately reading two books, for example, alternately reading one book and then another.
  • Visualize your goals before reading a specific text. Decide what you plan to do with the information you receive.
  • Think about what method of reading the text you will use to study the text: memorize it, read it carefully, skim it, find a fact, or maybe get a general idea of ​​what you read.
  • Re-read important points in the text several times until they become completely clear.
  • Skip unimportant information
  • Flexibly change your reading speed. Important text should be read slowly, and unimportant text should be skimmed.
  • Read at the peak of interest. It is impossible to read uninteresting or incomprehensible texts.
  • Connect what you learn with previously acquired knowledge. Use the diagram: Read - thought about it - decided what to do in the future. I thought about it and decided how to apply the acquired knowledge in practice.

Computer experiments on expanding (measuring) the angle of view

Reading is one
of the basic tools of life,
good life.
(Adison)

  • Online training to expand the angle of vision - rotating numbers
  • Exercise to expand the angle of vision for training "Fast reading"

Computer experiments on text perception

  • Training to master the skill of Speed ​​Reading - Find the word in the text

Reading and Rhythm

Other computer trainings for mastering speed reading skills:

  • Reading backwards to front (vice versa)

Expanding the angle of view

Diagonal reading training



Did you like the article? Share with your friends!