Am I Teaching My Kid to NOT Speed Read?

Early Learning Teaching Your Child to Read
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I’m worried that the natural window for speed reading is closing (even if slowly), and I’m concerned that I am re-training and diminishing Joey’s natural desire to speed read (almost like training a baby to use a diaper instead of waiting to be put on a potty, which is their natural habit, which if not caught in time, lends itself to 5 yr olds who still have accidents, or 1,2,3,4+ year olds who don’t even want to give up the diaper). The reason I think I may be undoing his speed reading habit is because I noticed that he was doing several things like some of the speed reader kids in here … BUT … during reading sessions with myself and others, we consistently emphasize sounding out the words exactly as they are written (saying plurals with an s at the end, ed for past tense, a, an, in, on, etc).

I don’t know what the ‘best’ approach is. :-/ Too little research on early reading and speed reading, eh?

I really want my kids to be natural speed readers. But I’m not. I’m more like that kid who just prefers the stinkin’ diaper sigh. Really. I was introduced to speed reading when I was in middle school … and I never quite liked it. I was curious. I could see how it was ‘better’ and more useful. I wanted (and still want) to let go of the security that I have with speech-paced reading, but I just don’t quite throw out the habit. On reflection, I think my weekly lessons were too infrequent for my age at the time. My preference then, and still, in case you couldn’t guess, is the slower stuff. I keep telling myself that I will take the time out to recondition my reading habit, but again, I don’t really ever make the time. Sooooo, the point is that I don’t want my ignorance and aversion to speed reading to negatively impact the kids. I want them to interpret everything that I do, just faster lol.

So what do you recommend??

My thought is that I’m slowing him down. I can tell that he gets the gist of the page he’s reading really quickly. And he’ll want to say the words that come later in the paragraph now, as if his brain is there and we just haven’t audibly caught up. This happens even if I’ve covered the sentences (after he’s seen the whole page for a bit, like he’s still recalling what is on the page). It’s almost as if his mouth is slower than his brain - does this make sense? I’ve had moments where I’m thinking something, but my mouth doesn’t quite gather the right words. I wonder if this is how it is for him. Also, I find that he wants to blurt out the gist of the text, as he’s interpreted it, which is correct, even if not using the EXACT printed words. At times, his interpretation is more developed/articulate than the book itself, since they’re level 1-3, still.

What are your thoughts? How do I encourage him to read accurately without discouraging what may be a natural development to speed read? I don’t want to inhibit his speed reading, but I don’t want him to inaccurately associate meaning to the wrong written word. Fell and Fall mean two different things. And so do Ball and Bell and Bull and Bill. These are my examples, not that he’s switched these around. Honestly, at the moment I can’t recall specific examples.

My thought is to continue his reading sessions, and increase his personal exposure to reading. The obstacle is that with his 1 year old sister walking around, we don’t keep books out because we know she’ll want to pick up and ‘read’ them, but fear she may rip them, instead. :-/ So, our reading time is mostly one-on-one time.

Looking forward to any tips, tricks, and thoughts to help.

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I fully understand exactly how YOU feel about your speed reading journey! I read fast ( 2 or 3 times faster than average) but I prefer to read slowly for enjoyment. I also want to be able to read after when I need to.
I taught my daughter to speed read after she learnt to read ( age 8) and she has the ability to turn it on and off at will. She can read at a normal pace and she can read at 800 WPM. She usually prefers to read slowly as she enjoys loosing herself in the stories. She says the speed reading has no “feelings” and yet if the book is funny I can see her smiling? I have noticed her speed reading ability drops if she doesn’t practice it at least once a week. But she is still learning so…
Anyway your solution, I think is in separating books for reading practice and books for enjoyment and discussion. I do that now but for different reasons. I select challenging books for reading practice and development and the kids select easier books for enjoyment and discussion. ( they often choose non fiction :slight_smile: ) if you mention before you start that you are practicing readin each and every word perfectly this time then the goal is clear. Then next book say, “OK what’s this one about, whizz through it and tell me.”
That way you can ensure the progression and keep the speed reading ability safe.
If it doesn’t work then teach phonics from a word list and let him speed read any and every book.
Oh when I had little book rippers running about, we and two solutions. One was a nice cane basket in the middle of our dining table the other was a two tiered box that I kept board books in the open top section and the paper books in the bottom. I just had to ensure the kids reading put them back after reading. We did loose a few but I spent lots of energy teaching them that books are special and need to be treated gently. Demonstrating DAILY :wacko:

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Interesting question,
I think I speed read. I don’t know what the standard WPM is. But with leisure text I can read in excess of 1000 WPM. With harder text I will drop down to the 800s with a comprehension accuraracy in the 90s. The faster I go, the lower my comprehension and ability to retain information. Which is often fine if I am flipping thought a simple book like The Hunger Games in an hour. I also subvocalise as I speed read.
I was never trained to speed read. I just read a lot.

My mum taught me to read at 3 and now I want to question her as to what I was like back then and if she slowed me down.

James will be 3 in a few months, and I have noticed that he has picked up my speed reading methods naturally. He is already subvocalising. And he reads words in his head several words ahead of what he reads aloud. I can tell by following his finger. For him to catch up vocally he will skip a word read aloud, however I think he still is reading it in his head.

I will add a clip of James reading. You will notice that near the end he gets stuck on the unfamiliar word “dirty”. He needs to take some time to figure it out by context. He looks at the picture, then he decides he doesn’t know it and continues on. However he takes this moment to try and figure out dirty when he is reading aloud several words before the word.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-UwhJ_jKkiA

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When my dd is reading for her own enjoyment I allow her to read at whatever speed she chooses. Like your son, she can 't speak as fast as she reads. I remember posting a question on here a few years ago because I was concerned that she only said some if the words rather than the whole sentence. Some of the wise parents on this forum helped me figure things out. It turns out that she was only saying the words that were pertinent in the sentence. She was reading them all but purposefully only sayin the important words so that the story made sense & her speech could still keep up. she Still does this now when reading outloud to herself at age 5.

I think that as long as you give him opportunities to read in both ways he will still learn to speed read. I have 2 reasons for making dd slow down when reading. One is that I want her to be able to read clearly enough for others to understand & the 2nd is that my dd has a speech delay & reading carefully helps her practice her speech.

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I agree: read both ways and you’ll be fine. But don’t worry too much about mixing individual words. It happens but not much in speed reading.

I’m a natural speed reader and the best way I’ve come up with to describe it is to think about reading words. When a proficient reader sees “dog,” he doesn’t think “d… o… g.” It’s one unit, with a mental flavor: images, feelings, even sounds and smells he subconciously associates with the word. Similarly, reading “The dog is black,” I don’t look at each word in order. My brain takes the unit and I have an immediate idea of a black dog and I move on. Same with “The big black dog jumped over the fence and chased the cat up the road, tail waving ecstatically.” It’s one unit that my brain processes instanly. Good speed readers do the same with paragraphs or even whole pages. So mixing individual words doesn’t happen much. I lose details, but I can always go back if I missed something important. And speed reading is fun! For me, sliowing down to my mouth’s speed can be boring.

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I think I get warm-fuzzies from this forum just about each time I post something :biggrin: Thanks for all your replies!

Since I’m an ‘average’ (wpm = 250-300ish) or slightly ‘above-average’ (300-350ish) reader these days (I suppose that’s what I get for spending nearly a decade without a book :blink: ), the insight from you each was much appreciated! I looked up a few speed-reading sites and came across this one with comments: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/05/18/test-speed-read_n_1528219.html. It was more interesting to read the comments than the actual article. One of the comments brought up a point, which lead to a series of questions.

  • When you speed read, are you still interpreting the intended rhythm of the text?
  • Some works, poetry being the obvious example, are more like works of art. Is that lost in speed reading?

I think this is why I was turned off by it when I was younger - I felt like I was losing these nuances. Almost as if I were in person reading bullet points on what someone wanted to convey, rather than sitting and truly listening to what they had to say, including how they expressed themselves through stance, mannerisms, etc. That said, I would love the option, as you all seem to have, of turning it on and off.

  • I would like to know what is ‘lost’ when turned off, though, that would convince you to read slower?
  • And, when you read ‘slower’, are you ‘average’ reading speed, or still higher than average, just not as high as you could go?
  • And how much do you retain and for how long? (Do you think it is stored in long-term or short-term? How do you think this would differ if you were to speed up/slow down?)
  • Do you think anyone who learns to read at a young age (3 or younger) naturally becomes a speed reader?
  • Or are there specific skills that need to be imparted, as some of you’ve done with your own kids, and what may those tips/tricks be? And at what RL would you recommend starting those ‘lessons’?
  • With regards to sub-vocalizing and reading at 800ish wpm: are you actually sub-vocalizing? My understanding is that you can really only get to about 400ish wpm before you have to stop sub-vocalizing and start imagery to increase speed.

Clearly I’m fascinated by this topic and think that it would be wonderful if all children were taught to read before they turned 3, and took speed reading classes at age 5/6, instead of learning their letters, as is the standard nowadays, at least locally.

Certainly looking forward to the replies! Thanks for sharing :slight_smile:

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Hmmm all good questions. I need to think about them for a bit. I am going to google a speed reading test and try my 2 reading paces and get you more information. I will also record what I sound like when I speed read. I make a hissing whispering noise because I am whispering so rapidly.

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Ok
I found this test here http://www.readingsoft.com

I recorded myself doing the reading and the comprehension test.

Things I found out. Numbers slow me down.

I do still subvocalize, but I have to read out loud. If I Lose speed. Never realised that. However I do skip words when I subvocalize. Just like my son. :slight_smile:

Doing questions where I have to do an input slows me down because I need time to create the answer in my head. Which I do, unless I am stumped. My education consisted of very very few multiple choice test. I fact I was shocked at how common they are in the US. So I am not used to taking advantage of them.

Dialogue slows me down. I like to read in voices sometimes.
And I agree that poetry will slow me down too.

I do think I lose comprehension a little. But I am not really sure how much.

I learnt to read at 3. And I never learnt any speed reading method. I just read a lot. My dad would not let me read so I learnt to read quickly becasue I would be so engrossed in books.

I am uploading the video now. But I will post this in case I lose all these answers.

1301 WPM. 82% comprehension

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ZMeAFQ49To

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lvS-2oTy1VU

After The War of the Worlds that I posted above I redid the staples one and Read Alice in Wonderland at 1260 WPM 3/3.

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Nice quality info korrale thanks for taking the trouble to video yourself for us!
So I asked my daughter the questions you posed queriquita.
So. She said " no it’s not the same as when you read normally the book doesn’t feel the same the story isn’t as real" I think this is actually because she is still learning. I think with more practice she will be able to feel a book. When I speed read her easy novels ( grade 3/4 novels I can feel the story as it’s intended. But I cant yet speed read an adult level book and feel the story as intended. I am still learning too. I actually only started to learn so I could assess her comprehension level at the end of her speed reading session!
When I asked her about the poetry she said " mum why would anyone speed read poetry, thats just silly" so I guess she didn’t like that idea and she reads poetry and jokes and riddles every week so…
As she isn’t a natural speed reader for her it is more a case of turning her speed reading ON rather than turning it OFF to read slower. She normally reads slowly 200 WPM ( I think school expectations have a lot to do with that) and speed reads by choice. It will be interesting to see if this changes as she gets better at it.
My father told me he could speed read ( learnt as a teenager) and he also chose to use it or not each time. He said he never sped read any handwriting or poetry. If his comprehension was low he just read it twice! Which was still much faster than slow reading ( he read at at least 1200 WPM) he has no idea if he can still do it now. He has no need to use it.
MY daughters average speed of reading remains higher even when she is not actively using it. Most grade three kids read much slower than 200WPM. My speed also remains higher than average, I read this forum at about 400 WPM but read Natalya’s books at around 1000WPM, my own books when I speed read are probably at about 600WPM it’s been a while since I tested it. I know with more practice I would enjoy books more WHILE speed reading but at the moment I prefer to read them at 400 WPM for maximum enjoyment. ( to get lost in the story)
Personally I think if your children don’t naturally start to speed read then you should start teaching them to speed read when they can easily read and comprehend a decent novel. Set the learning bar higher than “magic Tree House” but lower than “Harry Potter” they need to learn it before age 12 to grasp it easily apparently. The technique I used was a summary of the book “speed reading for Kids” I read a one page blogg article, decided that sounded easy enough and got started. It was VERY easy BTW. Highly recomend teaching it to your kids. We chose speed reading books that my daugher would have found easy to read, while she was Learning. Then increased the difficulty as she improved. Now she can speed read at her reading level with about 90% comprehension. The loss in comprehension is alway a name or a section of the plot where she missed a vital word clue.
I will add the blog link when I find it.

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that was so fascinating for me! thank you so much for sharing!! :biggrin:

did you say that your son does the same thing?? how fast do you think he is at this age? i realize this may be stupid to ask, but more to confirm: you understand what you’re saying? do you think your son does, if he’s next to you? when you read to/with him, are you going that fast or do you slow down? does he get much exposure to you reading that way? i just wonder how much of it he has/will pick(ed) up just by being around you reading that way.

equality in education LOL no such thing so long as there are people who can and can’t do that! lol i love it! thank you again, so, so much for sharing. nice!

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mandabplus3, thanks so much for asking your daughter, and sharing your experiences!

i was curious by this line:
"Which was still much faster than slow reading ( he read at at least 1200 WPM) he has no idea if he can still do it now. He has no need to use it. "

i wonder why he stopped using it, if it’s such a useful tool. if i knew how, i’d imagine using it all my life, so long as i can see, no?

i will definitely be checking out the book you recommended. how exciting. thanks!

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Dad learnt speed reading as an added class when he entered a technical college at age 15/16. He used it to study for the next four years. Once he graduated he was working in a low amount of reading required job, and busy with us 4 kids :biggrin: so I don’t think he picked up a book until us kids started reading novels he liked the look of as teenagers. He did say he could get the skill back again but he wasn’t sure he had the time or patience to bother. Adding that if he went to university ever he would re learn speed reading first so he could spend more time at the uni bar! lol
I actually didn’t know he was ever a speed reader until I spoke to him about teaching my daughter. Once I knew, I completely drilled him with all the questions you asked AND MORE! I wanted to be sure teaching her was the right thing to do long term. thankfully he encouraged me to go for it!
EDIT: here is the blogg link it’s a really great place to learn more.
http://www.backwoodshome.com/articles/stancliffe59.html