Speed Reading - is this skill important to you?

[Guest Belli]

Just got reading today about its benefits. I can see it's a very useful skill, something I think I need! But do you actually "teach" it? Do you see a need to? I'm interested in www.speedreading4kids.com - has anyone used this before?

[Arboreal TJ]

SWB said it best. I'll summarize. You speed read well what you are familiar with. If you are going to stretch your brain with new ideas you must slow down and digest it.

[MotherOfBoys]

I took a speed reading class for one semester in college.  I like having the skill. It can be taught in like three class sessions plus practice time. It would have helped me in ps High school for all the books we had to read and text books that I didn't have time to read. I think it's a good skill to know how to do. Sometimes you have to read stuff that you don't want to and just need to know the just of it, that's when I use it. Most of our class time in college was spent practicing it. It is something you have to keep doing to train your eyes and brain. With practice comes speed. There are books my kids are not going to want to read but I'll make them to get the just of it or to be able to say they read it and that is when we will use it.

 

(I only took the class in college because I needed an easy class I could skip and not get behind in but still gain credits. It was during soccer practice time so I didn't get to go to the class that much. The teacher filled me in during office hours later. Soccer paid for my schooling so that had to come first.)

[foxbridgeacademy]

I read extremely fast already but my DH who is mildly dyslexic taught himself to speed read. Without the skill reading text and the news would be painfully slow for him. When it comes to fiction he prefers to read at his own pace. I do have plans for my DS (moderately dyslexic) to learn speed reading. DD on the other hand is a moderate to fast reader already.... why fix what isn't broken?

[ocelotmom]

Speed reading can be helpful, even for fast readers. Ordinary fast reading and speed reading aren't the same thing.

 

But I wouldn't consider it indispensable. I find it most useful in situations where I haven't adequately prepared in advance - eg. cramming for a final.

 

I don't find it to be an issue with enjoyment of books. It's a switch I can turn on and off, not a default mode. But I only had a very brief introduction to it and never practiced much. Maybe that's actually a better way to do it than what WendyK describes - learn it just enough to get the hang of it, not enough to make it a reflex.

[shawthorne44]

Around high school, I briefly used a computer program that taught speed reading.  That was a long time ago, so I just googled speed-reading apps.  There seem to be many.   You could enter text into the program and it would show you a grouping of words at a time, and the other words would be blurred out.  You could program the size of the grouping and the words-per-minute.  In a few sessions I was over 1000 words-per-minute and then it started to be too much work.  My leisurely rate is around 700 words-per-minute.  I've found it extremely beneficial.  Although, I do use the library almost exclusively, otherwise I would go broke.  I think speed reading is something that couldn't be effectively taught in the classroom.  Read a book of techniques so you know what the idea is, i.e. expanding the grouping of words you can absorb at one time and move along quickly.  Then do one of these apps.  You can always slow yourself down when you want to.  There are some YA books out there with good stories.  If I speed through them, my mind stays engaged and i really enjoy the book.  At 200 words-per-minute, I'd be bored.  

 

Speed reading is sometimes confused with skimming.  They aren't the same thing.