Now that my son is reading very well on his own, I’m interested in increasing his fluency to the point of speed reading. The homepage for this company looks intriquing to me, but I’m wondering if anyone here has use the program. If so, please advise. Thank you!
I used it myself and found it was effective. I gave up on it because it just doesnt work on the ipad and I hate reading at the computer.
I recommend “speed reading for kids” or just use the summary of the book in the link I posted here
http://forum.brillkids.com/teaching-your-child-to-read/teaching-speed-reading-instant-success!/
it works. thats how I taught my daughter. We have found that it is important to practice speed reading regulaly. if she doenst practice using her skills she quickly looses them. She gets them back fast though so it isnt too big a deal. but I think if you hammered it for 6 months the skills would stay for life.
and
http://forum.brillkids.com/teaching-your-older-child/speed-reading-t14282/
this link mentions the website you found.
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Thanks, MandaB I did read both threads earlier. I’m just having a hard time grasping the idea of just glancing at a page and “getting it”. It’s so foreign to me to think that is truly possible. I’ve never known anyone who could speed read. I suppose that is the problem. I’m doubting my ability in doing it with my son. I’m also wondering if he’s too young (5 years old - reading at an end of Gr 2/beg Gr 3).
drats jsut lost my reply! :mad:
I dont want to be the one to say he is too young but…
my girls was 8 and reading at a grade 8/9 level when we taught her. my next girl is reading at grade 5 level now and I dont think she is ready for it yet. The problem isnt so much the reading level as the fact that you need to get ahold of so many books just below their reading level. Its very difficult to find picture free novels at a grade 2 level. you need about 3 books a day for 3 months! you could do it with picture books but you wouldnt be able to check comprehention as the pictures tell most of the story.
When I decided to teach speed reading I didnt know my dad learnt it. I happened to mention it over the phone one day. I was planning to teach Natalya because she was unchallenged by the reading books the school was sending home for her to read. Imagine my surprize when dad said “I learnt that in tech school!” I asked him sooooooo many questions! Was it worth it? yes Was it hard? no Can you still enjoy a good book and get lost in the story? yes Can you read at normal pace for enjoyment? yes Is it a concious decision to speed read? for me it is but with more practice it can become automatic apparently. Can you still do it now? nope but I havnt actually tried, miners dont need to read much. I am sure I could pick it up again. DO you read faster then average now? not as fast as your mother but faster than average? (mum reads ALOT but never learnt speed reading actively, she burns through books at a rapid rate all the same) Should I tech Natalya? YES definately!
so i was convinced 
I will admit talking to dad made it all seem feasable to me. After reading the articles I decided it was exactly how most kids see the world anyeay. As a whole picture rather than parts. so it didnt seem too far a stretch that they could read the same way.
Natalya scans over a page in a 2 second sweep, she takes in words here and there, sometimes her eyes get stuck reading a sentance and she has to conciously remind herself to keep going. At the end of the book she can tell me the main characters, plot, story line order, and who the good guys and bad guys are. she can usually tell me about the characters personality too. Sometimes she will completly miss a characters name or role in the story.
I tried it following the same system and found it entirely feasable to do using the same books my daughter used. I actually started speedreading the same books to check her comprehension. no way I could read through 3 novels a day to keep up with her.
Since then I have found I can actively speed read stories and overall read at a much faster pace. I have probably gained 200 WPM in my everyday reading without actively speed reading or losing any compehention.
Have faith you can teach it. But get your books ready first thats the hardest bit~!
I find tha speed reading is like ambulating. You can walk, you can run, you can jog. You can walk a little, run a little and go back to walking. It s not an all or nothing technique. You choose as you are reading how fast you want to go.
I didn’t realise until recently that when speed reading I trip on numbers. I also should slow down for unfamiliar words or names just to give me time to sound them out. Sometimes I don’t slow down and focus on sounding out an unusual name, instead in my mind I just call the character that, them, him, her or the first letter of their name.
Needless to say there are things I can’t speed read well. Things with an excessive amount of unfamiliar legal or medical terminology are tough… Also things like geography is very tough too when I don’t know all the places.
Manda someone that helps immensely with reading rapidly is to know Latin and Greek roots. If I am reading a medcical text and come across an unfamiliar word like hypokalemia I don’t even need to pause. I know pretty easily that it is low potassium.
Okay…so what I’m gathering is that even though he’s nearing his fifth birthday but is “only” reading at a grade 2/3 level, his reading skills aren’t developed enough. You’re suggesting that I wait until his skills are a bit more mature.
I’m wondering a few other things, then…
- Do you think that the speedreading skills that come up in YCCR - where they flash four different coloured sentences and the assignment is to say which colour says " ___" - would be helpful? I’ve been thinking of typing out some of my own sentences and either putting them into LR or PP and doing exercises like that, scrolling through them at a fairly rapid speed. Or, do you think that would be a waste of my energy in putting it together?
- Phrase flashcards - somewhere I found sight word phrases that can be made into flashcards. If he is fully capable of reading all of these words, would three or four word phrase flashing be beneficial?
- Repeat Reading - at this point in his skill level, would you suggest just sticking to fluency reading, building up his speed and expression while reading orally? I’m going to attempt one of his “Beyond the Code” stories this week to see how it goes. (I’ve typed it out to look more like a Repeated Reading document).
Thank you, for your help!