Speed
reading is an art of its own. Who among the regular
mortals are not surprised when a twelve year old
girl starts boasting that she can easily read 2,000
words per minutes, and then actually reads up that
much to prove her claim? It is a disciplined approach
to learning speed reading that can get a child read
at that speed. And most importantly, it has been
observed that children are the best speed readers.
Children
at an age of learning tend to learn many things
much faster than adults. Take learning languages
as an example. A child would learn a language simply
by hearing it spoken by others, whereas adults would
require extensive training and discipline to learn
the same language.
The
same applies to learning speed reading. Research
has shown that children learn the art much quicker
than adults. To be more specific, children aged
between eight to twelve years have been the best
to learn the art of speed reading. And with the
right formal training, many of them are known to
have easily beaten their teachers and parents handsomely.
It is
interesting to note that almost every child appears
to have a natural knack of speed reading. With formal
training, the scale this speed reaches is believable
only after one sees it. After a training period
of one month, it would not be surprising at all
to see every 4 child out of 5 read at least 2000
words per minute at ease, making a conservative
estimate. The initial objective of the training
is initially to make the child understand how to
read fast and train the child to implement the understanding
of the speed reading process, and then in the later
parts of the training the trainer simply needs to
monitor and ensure that the child retains the skills
acquired in the initial phase. Typically the initial
phase of the training would last around a month,
after which the child would be able to carry out
the speed reading. The later part involving monitoring
the child would last for around another couple of
months. So the total process ought to get over in
three months with a good degree of success.
There
are two points worth making a note of before starting
to teach a child the art of speed reading. Number
one: start with a book with a large font size rather
than a regular one. It is found that children learn
the art better if taught with a bigger font size.
Number two: if possible, try to teach the children
in a group. Research shows that kids tend to learn
speed reading the best when taught in a group of
5-8 children. The most salient observation in case
of group teaching has been that whenever even one
of the children starts picking up the skill early,
the rest of the group draws motivation from him/her.
As a result, the overall group performance is boosted.
There
are four key areas of focus while teaching speed
reading. They are the following:
1) Natural vision:
This is the first and most basic step of learning
speed reading. Speed reading is not realistic
if a child tries to read and decipher every single
word. Speed reading is possible only with being
able to view the entire page at the same time.
This is like image viewing where we view the entire
picture at the same time. The natural vision step
involves viewing the entire page together rather
than one line of the page at a time, and this
lays the foundation of speed reading.
2) Visualization:
Once a child understands how to look at a page
or section of text as a broad image, the next
capability he/she would require is visualization.
The image no loner remains an image - it is associated
with other real-life entities and/or objects that
the child is more capable of remembering. Many
children find it easy to remember if the text
translates to a set of colors, sounds, smells
and emotions that automatically tune to their
mind.
3) Relaxation:
While picking up speed, it is often seen that
the children get excited about the fact that they
are making progress. In turn, they try to further
speed up the process of progress. The result is
a reduced level of comprehension. The tension
causes a loss of concentration of mind and the
overall reduction in performance. Hence, staying
relaxed and maintaining the level of concentration
is crucial in the whole process.
4) Habituation:
Finally, speed reading can come only from habit.
Just because your kid did not read a few hundred
words on her second day, it does not mean that
she is never going to read fast. On the contrary,
the speed reading process involves the child's
brain in a way never used before, and initially
it often takes time for the child to start accelerating.
With disciplined and regular practice, getting
over the initial phases of blockage is just a
matter of time and it would usually happen without
any massive delay.
Even
though the child may start reading fast, it does
not mean that he/she will remember everything right
from the first day. Remembering everything read
as a part of speed reading is an art that your child
will gradually develop.
To test
and/or assist the speed reading capabilities acquired
by your child, you may want to carry out some exercises.
For example, in an early phase of the learning,
you may want the child to see 6 pages in 12 seconds.
They need not remember it, but some of them may
talk about a section that they remember. Encourage
it, and the child along with other children will
become more positive and progress faster. In an
advanced stage of the process, you may ask your
kid to read an 80 page book in 10 minutes, and at
the end of the reading ask what the child recalls.
Once
they are through with the main part of the course,
monitor their reading no a regular basis. If you
find the kids to perform speed reading on their
own with a natural inclination to it, you have met
your goal.
