Reading speed and its relationship with quality of life

Parent Cafe
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<p>Dear Smart Adults,</p>

<p>It’s come to my attention very recently that I’m a slow and inconsistent reader. My reading speed was calculated at around 250 words per minute, when I’m concentrated, and as little as half that rate usually, due to deleterious reading habits.</p>

<p>Okay, I admit 250 WPM is not terrible, and I do have excellent comprehension. However, I want to get better. Shouldn’t efficiency and form be emphasized in one of the most basic and personal activities of modern life? I’m going to college (hopefully) next year, and I’m just astounded at how little attention people pay to their reading speed when it can have such a dramatic effect on their quality of life.</p>

<p>I spend the majority of my productive day reading. Whether it’s novels, textbooks, worksheets, homework, magazines, websites, or Internet forums, reading is something that I do naturally… so naturally in fact, that I think I could benefit from scrutinizing and regulating it a bit.</p>

<p>As of now, I doubt my reading habits have changed since my grade school years. I plodder along at a pedestrian pace, and I never really learned to change gears. My eyes have to touch upon every single word to count it as being “read”, yet they end up drifting all over the page. My brain is particularly anal about not moving on to the next word until I have articulated the current word out loud in my head. As such, I often reread passages many times over, more out of instinct than out of necessity, and my mental acuity was never honed to sustain swift reading. Furthermore, it seems like half the time I’m reading for the sake of reading because I’m sounding the words out but not deriving any meaning. I’m a very complacent person, an insecure decision maker and a dullard at thinking on my feet, so I’ve kept the status quo for quite some time.</p>

<p>But, through recent contact with certain individuals, I can see what a difference a conscious effort makes! Ambitious, time-wise, and disciplined (everything that I’m not), they can read with a speed that’s at least twice my own. I am an intellectual at heart, and I can only imagine doubling my reading throughout a lifetime.</p>

<p>With this pursuit in mind, I have experimented for the past few weeks. I began by consciously subjecting my mind to a brisk pace (note: brisk, not fast). Finding that my brain was too lackadaisical for even this simple expectation, I resorted to using a notecard to cover up each finished line so that I wasn’t tempted to go back and reread every other line. Through many trials and timing, I’ve discovered that I CAN keep a blistering pace if I can whip my mind into shape; it has been very difficult so far, and I EASILY lapse back into my former dazed state of mind.</p>

<p>So parents, any structured methods of improving my reading? How fast do you guys read, by the way? </p>

<p>Also, what are your thoughts on “subvocalization”, the practice of reading words out loud in your head, hence slowing down your reading? I’ve read a wide variety of opinions; some say that this technique is necessary and that forcefully pounding it out will be harmful for me in the long run; while others say that this is a truly unnatural method imposed on us when we first began learning to pronounce words out loud in Kindergarten, and that advanced reading should consist of reading large chunks of words at a time and identifying them as you would a picture.</p>

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<p>[Speed</a> Reading - How to Increase your Reading Speed - Mind Tools Study Skills](<a href=“MindTools | Home”>MindTools | Home)
[How</a> to Learn Speed Reading - wikiHow](<a href=“http://www.wikihow.com/Learn-Speed-Reading]How”>How to Learn Speed Reading: Techniques & Skimming Tips)</p>

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<p>My husband I and joke about this a lot. He is an “average” reader and I, for some reason, am an extraordinarily speedy reader. When he and I are reading something together, at the same time, I’m usually done waaaaaaay before he is. I don’t know what I did to get to this point, but there are a few things to note:</p>

<p>Most of the time, my “speed reading” is sufficient. Like, if I’m reading a magazine article, or if I’m reading some fiction, or if I’m reading posts on CC. (Seriously.) However, if I’m reading for real comprehension – like, if I really need to know, to understand, to retain – I need to slow down. I can do that when I need to, so it’s not a problem.</p>

<p>My husband, on the other hand, has a difficult time speeding up. I think it’s all habit, so if you can figure out how to change your habits, more power to you.</p>

<p>I’m also an extraordinarily fast typist, too, so maybe the two are related.</p>

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<p>I read aloud in my head a lot, especially if I am reading for pleasure, because I love language, I love words, and how they sound and feel on my tongue.
I think you need to learn to differentiate and classify your reading. There is all kinds of stuff you can skim and highlight. Remember learning how to read non-fiction in grammar school? PREVIEW – look at the section headings, the words in italics, the pictures and charts. Then read through the section quickly with a highlighter. Then go over what seemed especially important.</p>

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<p>Believe it or not, when I was in elementary school, they tried to teach us speed reading. They would show a reading passage for a small amount of time, then they would show it again, this time with key words highlighted, for an even shorter amount of time. Then we would have to answer typical reading comprehension-type questions. I have no idea if it worked - but I am a fast reader. Like VeryHappy, I can slow it down when necessary.</p>

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<p>I’m like VeryHappy, speed reader and extraordinarily fast typist. My mind processes the words quickly. I did not every take a special typing or speed reading class. DH on the other hand is a much slower reader and typist. However he often reads more technical stuff that bores me to tears and has a very different mind. He is very analytical, I’m not.<br>
There is certainly room for both and taking more time to read you are probably getting more out of it.
As far as the subvocalization I do not do that. I definitely see groups of words, like a picture. I did not conciously take a class to learn to do that but I know that is part of the speed reading technique and it definitely works.</p>

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<p>I’m not sure how much you can change your reading speed at this stage. They tried to teach us speed reading when I was in school, too, but it never took with me. I can read at a decent speed, but I do usually subvocalize. I have learned how to skim and locate important material when reading nonfiction, and that can be helpful.</p>

<p>I have two sons. One never liked to read until recently–age 21–and so is a slow reader. I think he will pick up speed as he read more. However, he will never be like my older son. He taught himself to read around age 4. He said he tested his reading speed recently, and he can get up to, I think he said, 2000 words a minute with decent comprehension, 1000 when he wants to really understand something. He says when he reads, it is like he is watching a video in his head of what he is reading. I do not understand how that works, but I don’t think it is something he learned, rather a gift he was born with.</p>

<p>That said, I’m sure practice can help, and it sounds like you are doing a lot of reading, so that is good. As for quality of life, I think many, many things are more important than reading speed. :)</p>

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<p>Does help. Early on, one of S elementary teachers had a reading assignment. He finished early and sat there like a puppy looking for more food. Teacher couldn’t believe his reading skill, and quizzed him. </p>

<p>We don’t know how he does it, but he said the same thing that Susantm kid said about video. I make pictures when I read but its more like shuffled 4X6 mattes .</p>

<p>As for help in academics, he can go through a lot of research material quickly</p>

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<p>Fast reading is a matter of identifying words without need a pause to determine their likely meaning. If you haven’t a large vocabulary, you will read more slowly because the words are unfamiliar. The more familiar a word is to you, the more quickly you will process it. A text full of unfamiliar words will be read more slowly than a passage of words you already know and do not need to process. Therefore, the more you read, the more words you’ll recognize and the more quickly you will read. Where you run into issues of technique is when you want to learn to do it immediately. </p>

<p>I wouldn’t attempt to force yourself. It isn’t a matter of training your eyes to move more quickly but of training your brain to react to words without having to decipher their meaning and context. The saying the words in your head is not the most time effective way but it works in training your mind. Doing vocab work might assist you as well. </p>

<p>I have always read extremely quickly so much so that people still stare when I read in a doctor’s office or some place public because I’m flicking over those pages so fast. I do not skim…I read every word. But I have been reading obsessively for more than 40 yrs so of course I got good at it…it’s like learning to play an instrument.</p>

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<p>I think it’s only as an adult that I’ve become so speedy. Maybe at like age 35 and beyond. (I’ve been 39 for about 20 years now. ;))</p>

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<p>I also learned speed reading in elementary school, 6th grade, under a program that I think was called Building Better Readers. I don’t recall being very speedy then, but I definitely am now. And it was extremely useful in law school when we had voluminous amounts of cases to read every night. The program involved learning to read multiple words at one glance, so that, for example, you might read a line in a book in two glances of 4 or 5 words each. Every passage read was followed by reading comprehension questions. I recommend it.</p>

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<p>Thanks for all your replies!</p>

<p>To clarify, I DO do a lot of reading and I DO have a very good vocabulary. And this isn’t about previewing, notetaking, or anything of that sort; it’s about pure reading. Not just particular kinds of reading, but all kinds of reading (fun novels to textbooks).</p>

<p>My delay in comprehension isn’t because I don’t understand the words… maybe I’m just naturally slow?</p>

<p>bugmom: Is that an online program or a school class?</p>

<p>susan: That’s quite amazing. But I do disagree about other things being more important. If I can finish my readings in college in 10% of the amount of time… think about what a difference that would make. Besides raising your IQ by 20 points or winning a lottery jackpot, I doubt much else will improve the quality of life of a future law student :)</p>

<p>My point is I’m definitely not going to give up on being the best reader I can be, and only regret I hadn’t tried this sooner, so any more opinions would be greatly appreciated</p>