Hi,
Can somebody please advise when to start speed reading for the kids i.e. at what age?
What are the resources for teaching speed reading to the kids?
Thanks
At this point, I wouldn’t make Speed Reading a priority at all…I wouldn’t worry about anything other than teaching them to read with word cards and when they started talking I’d occasionally play verbal phonics with them by sounding out a word or 2 in a sentence.
“C-a-n you please t-ur-n off the light?” “Can you please turn off the light?”
as they got older we’d play Phonic Games of various sorts to build on their sounding out abilities. I’d probably first get them to a solid 3rd or 4th grade reading level and then tackle speed reading. I don’t think that there is an “age” but rather a stage or level of ability that should be met first. and ideally 3rd graders read with a measure of fluency and COMPREHENSION that allows them to get the most benefit out of Speed Reading.
Jones Genuises sells a Speed Reading Course, but it assumes a 3rd grade reading level also.
A quick google search of “Speed Reading for Children” shows a few sites but I’m not sifting through them all right now.
My personal plan is an intensive Whole word Reading type program, with flash cards, house labels etc. As they get older, about 2 or 3 years of age, I’ll begin to play Montessorie-type reading games and fleshcards games but I’m going to go with actual Spalding method when its time for formal instruction, because I want them to be able to spell well and I think “learning Phonics” would be boring but practicing spelling/learning to write is more meaningful. I’m not planning on teaching them their ABC’s by name for a good long while as knowing the ABC’s in my opinion, is useless. You only need the sounds to read.
However I’m going to hold off on formal instruction for the first few years because I want them to be able to build reading fluency in their languages first.
The language Arts Map I’m planning looks something like this:
English and Spanish whole word reading with Doman-type program 3-24 months.
Egg-crate reading game in Spanish and English + Verbal Phonics + Montessori reading program, etc… 12-36 months.
Spanish Phonics + Cursive handwriting 36+ months. (Once they’ve mastered Spanish Phonics and are writing fairly well, at around 5 years old I’ll begin trying to teach Spalding Phonograms to them.
I hope that by 5 or 6 they’ll be reading fluently at a 3rd grade level, and when they get close to a 4th grade reading level/speed of 150+wpm, with 100% comprehension, I’ll get them started with Speed Reading as a seperate course.
I’m going to teach them Spanish phonics first because its extremely simple and when and I can teach them to read in English
Another popular program is Speed Reading 4 Kids, but it also assumes about a 3rd grade level or so. They say on their site it’s for ages 8 and up, but upon closer inspection there are quotes from the creator about teaching children as young as 4 or 5 (or maybe it was 5 or 6).
So, I believe there is a level of competency involved. Having said that, aside from explicit instruction there are some pre-training things you can do early.
-Fast flashing in general (from what I understand, the faster the better according to Shichda but TW warns of overstimulation by going faster than 1 card per second. You be the judge for your own child.)
-Begin memory linking activities. We are going to be starting this soon, but it’s a great pre-cursor to speed reading. Check out the video I posted a few days ago for an example of how to do it, the technique will need to be modified a bit for a younger child b/c clearly they cannot manipulate the small cards themselves to put it all in order. Memory Magic is a program you can use for it, and you can get actual cards printed off the discs from a local print shop. I am finding it is not cheap, you can print them yourself at home but I was hoping for something thicker than card stock or maybe 100 pound cardstock will work in terms of thickness. I’d rather not kill my home printer by printing all of this, and all that ink will not be cheap anyway b/c they need to be in color. We are exploring this now, but I would like to physically flash for this purpose versus a screen, but either should work. I have read powerpoint really doesn’t flash fast enough for this unless you manually fwd the slides yourself by repeatedly pressing the space bar or whatever. I would imagine that would be a little distracting for the child though? I don’t typically use PP a whole lot so I cannot speak from personal experience.
-You can also do eye exercises such as the cards in the Memory Magic kit you trace your finger on for the child to follow with their eye.
-In the TW program, the speed reading lessons progress as the lessons advance, and the photo eyeplay with poetry is good for pre-speed reading eye training too.
-You can also practice mandala
All of these things are either eye exercises or right brain photographic memory stimulation. There is typically an element of photographic memory involved in speed reading. I will post a few links later when I get a chance.
But for now, check out this free e-book on right brain learning for some more ideas & explanations.
http://www.rightbraineducationshop.com/ebook.php?f=rightbrainedu_manual_free_.pdf