How to teach a child to read quickly and correctly: speed reading exercises

Averyanova Sveta

Modern children read poorly. This affects academic performance, the amount of material absorbed in class, and the speed of completing homework. Special speed reading exercises for children help solve the problem.

This is a unique technique. It is used in additional education schools and for home lessons with parents. What is its peculiarity and how to teach a child to read quickly to himself and out loud, you will learn from our article.

Speed ​​reading and its types

There are only three types of speed reading:

• Analytical. There are principles and approaches here. It is the most difficult of all and the slowest, since you need to absorb all the information and understand it. Reading speed does not exceed 3000 characters per minute.
• Introductory. Lighter look compared to the previous one. This reading technique is especially useful if you already have a structure of knowledge in your head and you just need to supplement and expand it. This technique is suitable for reading light literature and news. Reading speed is about 5000 characters.
• Search engine. This is the fastest way to read. It makes it easy to find the desired piece of text. Also great for brushing up on existing knowledge. Reading speed can reach 14,000 characters per minute.

A person can master all three techniques and use them as needed.

Working with syllable tables

To increase reading speed, it is important to train the child to perceive a syllable as a whole, as the basis for reading a word. For such exercises, special tables of syllables are required. You can use didactic material to teach reading according to N. Zaitsev’s method or create such tables yourself.

Children are offered various tasks:

• read a line or column with a specific letter;
• arbitrary reading of syllables;
• find the indicated syllable in the table;
• Show the word in the table syllable by syllable.

First, tables with simple syllables are used, and then move on to more complex ones, consisting of three or four letters. You can buy colorful tables in the educational literature store as cards, posters or collection books. For example, Uzorova, Nefedova: The fastest way to learn to read. Syllable tables.

• Presentation “Syllable tables for pronunciation and literacy lessons in 1st grade.

How to master speed reading at home

Now there are a large number of specialized courses that teach this skill. The duration of the program can be 2-6 months. You can also find free courses on the Internet; there are specialized websites for this, where training programs are laid out in detail.

Is it possible to learn speed reading at home? The question is very complex and largely depends on the child and his abilities. It will be easier for a schoolchild to study in real conditions, since children at this age will develop a competitive trait. Many children find it easier to study under the supervision of a teacher who can advise, guide and help with this.

Reading speed standards for grades 1-4 (words per minute)

Interesting fact! According to the Guinness Book of Records for 1990, Howard Berg was declared the fastest reader in the world, who announced a result of 25,000 words per minute. Outwardly, such reading should look like ordinary page turning. But doubts arose about the reliability of this record back in the 1990s, and as a result, Howard was banned from advertising his speed reading courses.

More realistic data was obtained by Ronald Carver, a professor at the University of Missouri in Kansas City, who studied speed reading in the 1980s. For testing, he invited the winners of specialized competitions, editors of magazines and newspapers - in short, people who can quickly work with texts. But in the end it turned out that when understanding the text at least 75%, none of the participants was able to overcome the barrier of 600 words/min. Yes, this result is much above average, but it is very far from the record. This is probably what you should expect when mastering speed reading techniques.

At what age to start

You can hear a widespread opinion that you can start teaching your child speed reading techniques at any age, since indirectly it develops attentiveness and improves memory. Experts have the opposite opinion on this matter and are convinced that this reading technique is suitable for children over 14 years of age.

During this period, teaching of various sciences begins at school. Physics, chemistry, algebra and other complex subjects appear. Schoolchildren are faced with the problem of mastering large amounts of knowledge in a short period of time. This is why these useful skills come in handy: reading a large amount of information and at the same time assimilating it well.

When engaging in speed reading with a child at an early age, there is a risk of developing the wrong cognitive strategy. First of all, you must read correctly and correctly.

If by the age of ten there are no problems with reading, you can begin to increase your speed. It is important to understand that speed reading does not teach you to read, but rather teaches you how to do it as efficiently as possible.

According to the Waldorf school

This school involves the all-round development of the student. The emphasis is on maximum knowledge of the exact sciences and humanities. Training in speed reading skills begins at the age of 5-7 years and is very intensive. The Waldorf school and its teaching methods are common in some European countries. There are very few such schools in Russia; they exist only in some cities of the Russian Federation.

According to Zaitsev's method

This technique is based on “Zaitsev’s cubes” and is designed for teaching reading to children over two years old. It can be used in kindergartens, schools, and at home. Shows good results when working with children with developmental disabilities - ODD, mental retardation, alalia and other speech and mental disorders. The Zaitsev method is used in working with children with visual and hearing impairments.

The training is based on the analytical-synthetic method - the use of stackable blocks in a playful way.

The letters are large in size and can be seen even from a distance of several tens of meters. This is necessary so that children do not have difficulty looking at them. The cubes themselves are painted in different colors - red, gold, green and others, while they are all different sizes and have fillers inside that make characteristic sounds when shaken. This is done with the aim of quickly and reliably memorizing sounds, letters, and syllables. This technique has a number of other positive effects:

• develops writing skills;
• corrects speech therapy speech defects;
• speech becomes clear and intelligible;
• vocabulary increases;
• logic develops;
• independence of learning develops.

There are statistics about when children start reading. Children aged 2-4 years begin to read after 6 months of classes. Children over 4 years old after 16 lessons. Children six years old can start reading after just 6 lessons.

Montessori method

The goal of this technique is to create an environment where the child will develop with minimal adult intervention, but under his control. The child chooses the activity and duration of training. In practice, this is a space that is maximally adapted for a child, taking into account his age, physiology and other individual characteristics.

He has at his disposal all the toys with which he can perform any manipulation. Classes are held in this space. It is divided into five zones that are responsible for your side of the personality:

• practical life zone;
• sensory development;
• math zone;
• natural sciences zone;
• speech development.

Nowadays a huge number of such children's centers have appeared, but it is difficult to find a really good one. This is due to the shortage of specialists who know the Montessori method perfectly.

Andreev's Speed ​​Reading Method

This technique was developed by Oleg Andreev. It allows:

• increase reading speed by more than five times;
• improve reading comprehension;
• retain acquired knowledge in memory;
• improve attention;
• increase interest in the learning process.

Andreev’s programs consist of several classes:

• sprint;
• dominant;
• satori;
• fifth way;
• sixth sense;
• Fourth dimension.

The method consists of constant training. Gradually, the child stops reading words and perceives them as pictures. This greatly and quickly increases your vocabulary. Those who have gone through this technique read several times more books than their peers.

Lysenko's technique

This program was developed by Olga Lysenko, a teacher with more than 20 years of experience. Her method consists of four courses:

• multiplication table;
• ABC;
• beautiful handwriting;
• reading without syllables.

After completing all the courses, the child will quickly learn to write, read, and add numbers well.

Doman's technique

Consists of a set of physical and intellectual exercises and simulators. Doman is a proponent of the theory of the connection between physical development and mental development. By doing physical exercises, parents simultaneously stimulate his mental development. The methodology is based on classes aimed at all aspects of the child’s development.

Gorbov-Schulte tables

This is a test to assess the ability to shift attention. It is often used by psychologists to assess concentration. The table consists of red and black cells.

An example of a Gorbov-Schulte table for speed reading training.

Serious problems affecting speed reading

It should be noted that a child may be slow to read due to some more serious problems.

It is very important to notice them in time and contact a specialist!

ADHD (attention deficit hyperactivity disorder)

This syndrome manifests itself in constant distractibility and instability of attention, the inability to remember information for a long time, fussiness and abrupt movements of the child.

This is a disease that needs timely treatment, otherwise it can lead to complications.

Dyslexia

With this disorder, the child incorrectly recognizes the characters read, as a result of which difficulties arise in understanding the meaning of the text.

The syndrome needs correction, otherwise the child will not be able to read normally.

Slowness

No, this is not just a negative quality of the child, but really a feature of the nervous system, so do not scold or rush the baby - this will not help him, but will only hinder him.

Hearing and vision impairment

These diseases must be diagnosed during a medical examination at school (or before admission to school).

Further correction or adaptation to health conditions may resolve the reading problem.

Dysarthria

Due to the weak articulatory apparatus (mouth, throat) of a child, when reading aloud, it may seem that he is a poor reader.

The disease is defined as a pathology of the nervous system in which the child cannot pronounce words correctly.

Let's move on to the main part, which will consider the means of achieving our goal.

Don't Make These Mistakes

When starting to teach their child speed reading, parents make some mistakes. Subsequently, speech therapists and child psychologists spend a lot of time correcting them. Experts have developed some of the most common mistakes that can be avoided.

Children face the following problems:

• Articulation when reading “to oneself”. There is movement of the lips and tongue. This occurs in 80% of adults; they pronounce the information they are reading, while their eyes remain in one place for a long time. Articulation greatly reduces reading speed. The speed reading technique allows you to “scan the text.”
• Many people rely on hearing when vision allows them to read material tens of times faster.
• Insufficient field of view.
• While reading, a person spontaneously makes movements with his head and neck. All this also reduces reading speed.

Almost all techniques are designed to eliminate these phenomena or significantly reduce their manifestations.

Tell the baby a letter, not a sound

The baby must understand a specific sound and imagine it as a letter. To “get acquainted” with a sound, the parent needs to say it many times. You can use rhymes, tongue twisters, songs in which this sound occurs. Accordingly, show the letter that means this sound.

Compose syllables from individual letters

Some methods do not include learning letters. They begin the process with words, as in the Doman method. Zaitsev’s method involves studying warehouses using special cubes. Before starting to teach reading, the child must know all the letters well and only then begin to add them into syllables and words.

They read texts for a long time

Parents read one text many times, so they lose interest in it. You need to use different books or different reading passages to prevent this from happening.

Exercise 10. “The Mystery of the Missing Sentence”

In order to solve the mystery, we will need cards with sentences (look at the picture). There are 6 cards in total. Each has one sentence. The font is large and easy to read.

Let's prepare a notebook and pen. Let's start the exercise:

1. Show your child the first card.
2. The student reads the sentence and tries to remember it.
3. After 6 - 8 seconds, remove the card.
4. The child writes the sentence in a notebook from memory.
5. Show the child the second card, etc. until the sixth sentence.

What's the point here?

As I already said, this is not actually a game, but visual dictations developed by Professor I.T. Fedorenko. There are 18 such dictations in total. Each has six sentences.

In our example, I used the very first dictation. What is their feature? Please count the letters in the first sentence of the dictation. There are 8 of them.

In the second - 9,

in the third - 10,

in the fourth and fifth 11,

It's already 12 in the sixth.

That is, the number of letters in sentences gradually increases and eventually reaches 46 in the last sentence of dictation 18.

You can easily find the texts of Fedorenko’s dictations on the Internet. One dictation can be used twice, three times, if the child cannot do everything correctly. By the fourth time everything usually works out.

It is convenient to use Microsoft Power Point to complete this exercise. The one in which presentations are usually made.

By playing “The Mystery of the Missing Sentence” you develop your working memory. When such memory is poorly developed, a child, having read the sixth word in a sentence, will not be able to remember the first. Practice visual dictations every day and you won’t have such problems.

Exercises for first graders

Classic speed reading is designed for children over ten years old. They contain classes to eliminate pronunciation. There are a number of techniques that are designed for first graders that can increase reading speed, improve a child's memory and attentiveness.

Automated syllable reading

A child who cannot add syllables simply tries to guess the correct option, using the semantic context to help. This leads to a large number of errors and slows down reading development. To prevent this from happening, it is necessary to use syllabic material for learning to read. It is impossible to guess the syllable this way.

The ability to read complex words gradually develops. This method is used for children suffering from dyslexia. In this case, teaching reading using classical methods is extremely difficult. For this, there are syllable tables that look like this:

The parent or teacher randomly points to a syllable and the child must read it. At first, tables of nine cells are used, gradually it becomes larger - 24, 36, 48. Thus, reading syllables becomes automatic.

Choral reading

This technique has long been included in the tools of the Russian classical school. Ushinsky K.D. recommended choral reading to enliven the class and relieve fatigue.

Choral reading is an active and effective form of teaching how to read with expression. Reading poetry affects the quality of speech, correct pronunciation appears, and hearing develops. In this form, poems or songs are better remembered. This affects memory in general and helps to pronounce words and individual sounds correctly.

Task "tug"

This task is used to improve your reading speed. The leader is an adult or student with a high reading speed. He reads the text, the others must keep up with him. This exercise is carried out in primary classes and kindergarten groups.

You can make sudden stops that other readers do not expect. The presenter may deliberately make mistakes that other readers should point out.

Jump-stop

With the command "jump", the child should start reading until he hears the command "stop". He stops reading and looks away from the book or closes it. The next time he jumps, he must start from where he left off.

Half

A word cut in half is shown on the monitor screen or paper cards, and the child must guess what kind of word is depicted in this picture.

Exercise 6. “Mad Book”

Tell your child that sometimes some ill-mannered books behave rather strangely. They suddenly take it and turn upside down.

The child reads aloud. After a while you clap your hands. The child's task is to turn the book upside down and continue reading from where he left off. At first, you can make marks with a pencil so as not to get too lost in the text. And so on several times. Two, three full turns of the book.

If your student is only in 1st grade, or maybe in 2nd grade, but reading is still very difficult, then you can read not a book with texts, but short simple words printed one after another on paper.

What will it give? Eye coordination and the ability to navigate through text will develop. A letter standard will be formed. And the processing of information by the brain will improve.

Speed ​​reading for children over 8 years old

The exercises used to teach speed reading techniques are designed for a certain age of the child. For children 8-10 years old there are their own exercises. They can be done at home with the help of parents. They are also used in specialized centers that teach this skill.

Insert letters

This exercise improves the child’s visual memory, teaches him to analyze what he read, develops the skill of relating the first and last letters of a word and creating a visual image of what he read in his head. This way he remembers better what he read.

On a piece of paper, print out a fragment of text in which vowels are omitted. The student must restore them. This task should take no more than 3-5 minutes (text of 3 sentences of medium length). Gradually the task becomes more complicated - entire words and phrases are skipped, and the allotted time is shortened.

Fixing the error

A teacher or an adult, when reading a book, intentionally makes mistakes, and the child must point them out and correct them. You can change endings, suffixes, and place accents incorrectly.

We are looking for a line

The student must find on the page of text all words beginning with the letter indicated by the adult. This trains attentiveness and the ability to concentrate.

Read at speed

The student himself measures his reading speed and keeps records of his achievements. In the second grade, the speed should be about 70 words and by the third grade it should increase to 100.

Hidden words

This activity is similar to reading anagrams. The child must form words from the letters drawn on the cards. At the initial stages, it is better to give him a list of hidden words. As you gain success, this is not necessary. Cards can be printed on plain paper or glued to a cardboard base.

Reading and counting

You need to read the text and at the same time count letters, words, punctuation marks, and the number of specific letters.

Online trainers for speed reading

Online speed reading exercises, which are easy to find on the Internet, will help you learn to quickly “swallow” texts without losing their meaning. Some of them are universal, while others allow you to train at different difficulty levels and track your progress. They are convenient because they provide an opportunity for an adult or child to hone their skills in a variety of situations: on the road, at school during breaks, or in line to see a doctor.

We are sharing a selection of sites with free online speed reading trainers for children and adults:

• readster.club - a convenient resource where it is convenient to monitor your reading speed, change it and track progress on a graph;
• chtenie.net - a simulator with 18 difficulty levels and 5 speeds;
• skorochtenie.online - online test of reading speed and text comprehension;
• booksite.ru is another online test that only tests reading speed;
• cepia.ru - training according to the Schulte and Gorbov-Schulte tables and other simulators.

Regression Suppression

Regression - returning your gaze to a read fragment of text. This happens uncontrollably in all people, which significantly reduces reading speed. To get rid of this, a number of special exercises have been developed.

Reading direction

Use a pencil or pen to follow the line, but only forward. This is how the child gets used to following the pointer and does not go back.

Close text

The text that has been read is covered with paper or a bookmark. The student places it at the top of the text and moves it down as he reads.

Speed ​​check

You need to measure your reading speed every day. The resulting numbers are entered into a table. This is how progress and speed are tracked.

Texts for speed reading

The skill of not reading individual words letter by letter, but perceiving them holistically, is well developed in special texts for quick reading. All of them are distinguished by their non-standard presentation of material and force our brain to deviate from its usual patterns, forming new neural connections.

Texts for speed reading are:

• with missing letters;

• rotated 90 or 180 degrees;

• with torn and shifted stitches

• with stripes, grilles or other “noise interference”;

For children, speed reading with the help of such texts turns into a game. It’s easy to get a child involved by organizing a competition with rewards or training against the clock. You can prepare some of the materials yourself - for example, cut out a “lattice” from paper of the appropriate size and place it on the pages of ordinary books.

Here are a couple of useful resources:

• universal texts for training speed reading;
• children's texts to test reading speed.

Articulation suppression

Schoolchildren cannot read without pronouncing the words to themselves, moving their tongue. For speed reading techniques, this needs to be corrected and eliminated. To combat this you can use:

Musical accompaniment

The text is read to the music. After a few lessons, music with words is turned on. It is advisable to use classical compositions. You should not include fast rhythmic compositions.

"Bumblebee"

When reading, the child is disturbed by a monotonous sound, similar to the buzzing of an insect.

Rhythm

During classes, an adult rhythmically taps his finger on a table or other object. Gradually the rhythm speeds up.

Lock

The child should purse his lips tightly and read to himself as quickly as possible. For additional effect, you can cover your mouth with your palm.

Exercise 7. “The birds have arrived”

Show your child the phrase “the birds have flown.” And ask to read it:

• calmly;
• joyfully;
• loud;
• quiet;
• sad;
• with irritation;
• with fear;
• mockingly;
• with anger.

What will this give us? Ability to read expressively. And convey feelings and emotions with your voice. Don't get hung up on this one phrase. You can read proverbs, sayings, and tongue twisters with different intonations.

Exercises for concentration

Attention training is a mandatory element of speed reading. You should not conduct such activities during important activities. You should also not combine them with other exercises. The center of attention of this complex is the “spotlight”. It should be aimed at one thing, and not scatter. To achieve this, exercises were created.

Exercise "Line"

A drawing is applied to a sheet of paper with a slow, continuous movement of the hand. It could be anything, like a lily flower. The child concentrates on this activity. As soon as the child thinks about something or gets distracted, the line will be interrupted. After the drawing is ready, adults count how many times the child was distracted from the lesson.

Colorblind

When reading, you need to name the colors rather than read their names. Not everyone succeeds the first time, but with practice, the child will be able to name all the colors without making mistakes.

Red. Green. Blue. Yellow. Violet. Orange. Brown. Blue.

Red. Black. Green. Blue. Yellow. Brown. Black. Green. Blue.

Violet. Blue. Yellow. Black. Red. Orange. Brown.​

Concentration on fingers

The student sits on a chair, holds his neck straight, head raised. The index fingers of both hands make rotational movements. The fingers should not touch each other, the amplitude is as slow as possible.

clock hand

Attention is focused on the tip of the minute hand and for 3 minutes the eyes count how many times this hand has moved.

Reminder about visual gymnastics

Of course, we must not forget about the schoolchild’s eye health!

Reading is very straining on the eyes, so I would like to advise you on visual gymnastics exercises.

1) At the beginning of the warm-up, you need to close your eyes and briefly, without pressure, massage your eyelids with your fingers.

2) Bring your eyes to the center (look at your nose), and then up (to the ceiling), repeat alternating actions.

3) Then roll your eyes in the directions indicated in the image, lowering/raising your eyelids.

4) Then the child should look at some close and distant objects, alternating actions.

5) At the end of the warm-up, you should massage your eyes in the same way as you did at the beginning.

The Development of Ancipation

When reading a book, with peripheral vision the child should see the outline of the next word and guess what it is. Exercises have been invented for this.

• Ruler. Close the text for 10-15 characters, while the child should read at his usual speed.
• We read upside down. The text is first read in normal mode, then upside down, that is, vice versa. This exercise affects memory and attention. You can also rotate the book 90 degrees.
• Halves. Use a piece of paper to cover the line of text that the student is reading. You only need to cover the top or bottom of the letters; the child must guess which letters are written.

Exercise 1. “Half a watermelon”

Ask your child if, after seeing half a watermelon, he can imagine what a whole watermelon looks like? Of course, the answer will be yes. Now suggest conducting the same experiment with words.

Take a book and an opaque ruler. Cover one line in the book with a ruler so that only the top of the words is visible. Task: read the text, seeing only the tops of the letters.

Move the ruler higher and show only the bottom of the words. Let's read. This, by the way, is already more difficult.

For very young schoolchildren, you can offer another version of the game. Make cards with simple words. And then cut these cards into two halves along the words. You need to connect the two halves correctly.

How is it useful? Aimed at developing anticipation. Anticipation is foreknowledge. This ability of the brain, which gives us the opportunity, when reading, not to read absolutely all the words and letters. The brain already knows that they are there, so why waste time on them? Anticipation can be developed; it makes reading fluent, conscious, and easy.

Reading with an adult

This is a way to teach a child to read quickly by imposing on him the high reading speed that an adult has. The student is forced to adapt to this pace, and over time he can maintain it. It can take three types:

1. Parallel reading. The parent reads the book, constantly changing his speed, increasing and decreasing it. The student must place his finger in the right place and constantly monitor it, avoiding lags and advances.
2. Relay race. The text is read in turn - by a schoolchild and an adult. The reader must be changed suddenly. If possible, the parent should speed up their pace.
3. Tail. The adult begins to read, the child joins in a few words later. You need to read in a low voice. The task is not for both of them to go astray.

Exercise 3. “Eye is a diamond”

Look at the picture and draw the same rectangle. Place numbers from 1 to 30 in the cells, in random order, but not one after another. The numbers should be randomly scattered across the cells.

The schoolboy looks carefully at the picture with the sign.

And now, together with him, begin to count out loud: one, two, three, and so on until thirty.

The counting is even, not too fast, but not too slow.

Child's task:

• on the count of one, find and point to one with your finger;
• on the count of two - deuce;
• three - three, etc.

If a child hesitates with some number, then the score is not waiting for him, he needs to catch up, look for it faster. For kids, you can draw smaller signs, for example, 3X3 or 4X4.

What is the point of the exercise? It is aimed at increasing the viewing angle. In order to “catch” with your eyes when reading not one letter, not one word, but several words at once, or an entire line. The wider we look, the faster we will read.

One table can be used two or three times, then the arrangement of the numbers needs to be changed.

What slows down reading

Trying to teach your child to read quickly can face a number of difficulties. The main ones are:

• Articulation. Reciting what you read to yourself. This phenomenon applies to most adults as well. They do the same. This effect is a habit that is difficult to break.
• The eye does not have a sufficient viewing angle. A person sees only the area where his eye falls and a small area around.
• Regression. This is a popular flaw that affects reading speed.

All speed reading techniques reduce the influence of these factors and lead to an increase in reading speed.

Limited field of view

A wide viewing angle reduces the search for the desired fragment in the text. This angle is called the field of view, which can be expanded with special exercises - Schulte tables. Works with them are capable of developing parallel attention - symbols that are in the field of view are understood by the reader at the same time, but are recounted sequentially.

The main thing is to look at the center of the table and see the numbers located along its edges. With regular practice, reading speed increases due to the development of peripheral vision, that is, a person sees more text. A small angle allows you to see only one fragment of a page of text.

Problems

Training speed reading involves some difficulties. Unprepared children have poorly developed peripheral vision and articulation, and have defects in mental skills (attention, memory).

1. Narrow field of view. To master the technique of fast reading, you need to have a wide range of vision. The eyes should not focus on one word. The task of a speed reading teacher is to teach the student to perceive the text as a whole, that is, the gaze should stop not on individual words, but on the spaces between them, immediately capturing a phrase or sentence.
2. Eye regression. This is the main enemy of speed reading. The student returns to the text he has already read, wasting time. Eye regression occurs automatically. The process can be controlled using training exercises.
3. Suppression of articulation. When reading at a normal pace, children try to pronounce words clearly and loudly. This helps to absorb fiction. For example, it is impossible to perceive poetry accurately and feel the author’s mood without pauses or logical stresses. But for dynamic reading, diction is not needed. Pronunciation reduces the speed of text comprehension.
4. Undeveloped attention. High reading pace requires increased attention. This is necessary for instantly highlighting the main and secondary, deep understanding of new information.

To eliminate defects and develop fast reading skills, you need not only to constantly train, but also to adjust the width of your field of vision, give up internal pronunciation of words, control regression, and develop attention and memory. The following exercises will help with this, which are included in the training system, devoting a few minutes to them in each lesson.

Exercises to develop speed reading skills

Speed ​​reading consists of a series of activities and exercises aimed at various areas, from expanding the angle of vision to improving memory, the ability to concentrate on one subject, in this case, reading a book.

Green dot method

Observation of a point occurs autogenously. This exercise requires a special mindset. It develops attention and willpower. The exercise goes like this:

• A small green dot is drawn on a piece of paper in the center.
• You need to sit comfortably on a chair, keeping your back straight.
• You need to look strictly at the point and focus only on it.
• The distance from the eyes to the sheet of paper should not be more than 30 cm.

During class, you can’t think about extraneous things, but focus completely only on the point. This exercise is carried out for 3 months, 10 minutes every day.

Training gibberish

The exercise consists of gibberish reading, that is, vice versa - from right to left. This is how imaginative thinking and attention develop. In the initial phases, palindromes are good (pressed boar on eggplant), after which you can switch to regular text.

Reading upside down

The book is read upside down. This exercise improves your reading speed. First, you need to read one or several paragraphs in this form, and gradually the entire page of text is read.

After reading the page backwards, you should turn it back to normal and read it again.

Tick ​​tock method

When reading, the eye falls on the beginning of the line and its end, the rest of the contents of the line are thought out by the reader himself, and then compared with the source code.

Reading diagonally

The reader should look diagonally across the text. Moving your eyes in different directions is strictly prohibited. The eye will see only some words, but gradually the volume of what is seen will expand. This method helps to isolate the main phrases and semantic meaning from the text and skip unnecessary information. It should be read from the top left corner and goes to the bottom right.

Over time, you can understand the meaning of what is written simply by looking at the text with your eyes. We need to celebrate progress and success in our studies. For clarity, you can hang a calendar or table above the student’s desk that will contain Fr. This increases motivation, giving an incentive for further activities.

Rules for improving reading skills

There are some things that you should not forget about when learning to speed read.

• The literature you choose should be appropriate to the age of your child.

There is no need to rush and complicate his task by forcing him to read something more mature and “smart” in order to expand his vocabulary and teach the baby something.

Everything has its time!

• Do speed reading only if the child wants it and is interested in reading.

Provide him with comfortable conditions.

If the child does not want to develop his skills or something distracts him, you can forget about the success of this business.

In addition, classes should begin only when the child has already learned to read not by syllables, but by words.

• During classes, do not forget to take regular breaks.

Let the child do visual gymnastics (I’ll tell you a little about it at the end), warm up, rest, and with new strength begin to conquer new heights!

• Encouragement and encouragement are an integral part of the process, which contributes to success in developing your child’s skills.

Focus his attention only on positive attitudes and never compare him with other children!

If you want to compare your child with someone, then compare him with him yesterday!

Let the younger student have a desire to break his own records, and not evaluate himself in accordance with others.

• It will be wonderful if a child sees an example of a love of reading in your face!

Let the baby see his parents (authoritative people for him) more often with a book in his hands (not only in the process of wiping the dust).

Technique "Lightning"

The use of the Lightning technique is as follows. Children are shown a word for a very short time, and they must have time to read it. For this exercise, you can prepare flashcards or create a presentation in which words appear and disappear after a couple of seconds.

The same set of words should be used for several days in a row until the students remember them all. Then offer another selection of words. For a better effect, you can not just let schoolchildren read the word, but also ask them to write it after it disappears.

How to read quickly?

So, how can you learn to read quickly, or (for starters!) at least a little faster than you read now, and so that you have time to remember something? We have prepared special exercises for you. Most of them are quite simple, but as they say, there is an element of subjectivity: what is easy for one person may seem difficult for another, and vice versa. However, let's get started and you will see everything for yourself!

Warm-up 2-3-5

Any workout should begin with a warm-up, and speed reading training is no exception. Author of the book “Speed ​​Reading in Practice. How to read quickly and remember what you read well” developed a special warm-up for the eyes before reading [P. Palagin, 2015].

How to “stretch” your eyes:

• Imagine that your gaze is a spotlight, the “spot” of which can narrow and expand.
• “Expand” the spot of your “spotlight” by 2 lines at once and try to “see” simultaneously all the words located one above the other at the beginning, end and middle of these two lines.
• “Expand” the spot of your “spotlight” by 3 lines and try to “see” simultaneously all the words located one above the other at the beginning, end and middle of these three lines.
• Repeat the warm-up with five lines.
• Try to see all the words on the lines by simply moving your eyes from top to bottom, rather than from right to left, as we do in the traditional reading format.

We remind you that this was a warm-up, so if you didn’t understand the meaning of what was written, then it’s okay, this is not the purpose of the warm-up. The purpose of the warm-up is to prepare the eyes for the load and the most effective perception of the text.

This warm-up is useful for everyone, whether you now need to quickly “swallow” a new book by a fashionable author of 300-400 pages and write a clear review, preserving the essence and creating intrigue, or are you preparing for a strength of materials exam, where you will have to memorize (and understand! ) absolutely everything that is written in the textbook.

Believe me, those three minutes that you intend to save on warming up by immediately throwing yourself “headlong” into the pool of knowledge will not lead you to success, but will only speed up the moment when you get tired and understand little of what has been written.

Wedge table

So, you have practiced seeing all the words in a line by simply moving your gaze from top to bottom, rather than from right to left. This way, of course, moves through the text faster, but now I would like to somehow begin to understand what is written there. To train understanding, special “wedge-shaped” tables have been developed.

The point is this. Each row of the table contains numbers at a certain distance from each other. As your gaze descends, the numbers become further and further away, but you need to continue to see them all. While looking down, you should pronounce the “side” numbers out loud.

The wedge table looks like this:

The simplest option is one- and two-digit numbers from 0 to 18, and the numbers on the right and left are the same. In a complicated version, any number from 1 to 90 can appear, and the “right” and “left” numbers are different:

Especially for intellectual gourmets, there are tables where numbers alternate with syllables. Let us say right away that there are countless such tables, and, of course, we will not give all the examples here. A short workout with a wedge-shaped table can be done immediately after warming up, or you can do it as an independent exercise, choosing several pieces of varying degrees of difficulty for yourself.

By the way, today you can easily find speed reading exercises online, including a selection of wedge-shaped tables [Mentalar.ru, 2017]. Over time, you will learn, moving your gaze from top to bottom in the middle of the page, to perceive different numbers at different ends of the line, including those written at an angle of 90 degrees.

Angle training

Similar problems are solved by training the visual angle for speed reading. You learn to keep your gaze in the center of the line, while perceiving all the information contained in that line. Thanks to Internet technologies, visual angle training for speed reading is now available online [Magicspeedreading.com, 2019].

The system generates more and more tables with numbers, and your task is to find the same numbers in the center and in the side columns:

Be careful! As soon as you “relax”, deciding that the same numbers are always located in the center, right and left, the system begins to “throw up” options where the numbers that match one of the central ones are only on the right or only on the left. For self-control and checking the correctness of the answer, use the “Hint” button.

Let us remind you that this exercise is not so much about speed as it is about concentration and expanding your field of vision. Don’t try to find identical numbers right away using the “the faster the better” principle. First, make sure that you can keep your gaze centered in the field without moving it to the side. And only after that, begin to train your speed of perception, continuing to control that your gaze is strictly in the center.

Schulte tables

Another option for training concentration in the center of the text and expanding the field of view is Schulte tables. The classic version of the table is a square divided into 25 cells, each of which contains numbers from 1 to 25 in random order. Your task is to, keeping your gaze within the central cell, find all the numbers from 1 to 25:

More complicated options have also been developed. Thus, one of the complication options is that the square is divided into 49 black and red cells, and the numbers are duplicated on a black and red background. As in the first case, you need to find numbers from 1 to 25 sequentially , only twice this time - on a red and black background:

The most astute readers have already calculated that 25 + 25 = 50, and not 49. We also noticed this, but we won’t say what the secret is. By yourself, all by yourself, otherwise you simply won’t reach the next version of the table with 49 cells and 48 numbers.

The meaning of the next concentration exercise is the same, only you need to look for numbers from 1 to 48 . To make it easier for you to concentrate, the central square on which you need to keep your gaze does not contain a number:

This version of the exercise will likely take longer than the red and black chart, but other variations are possible. In any case, this exercise is useful for developing speed reading skills, both as an addition to warm-up and as independent training.

Let's take a short historical excursion and say that the idea of ​​expanding a person's visual field is based on the research of the French ophthalmologist Emile Javal (1839-1907), who discovered short spasmodic movements of the human eyes while reading. The point of training is to reduce the number of such “jumps” and increase the field of view in order to “capture” a larger array of information in one eye movement.

Ironically, the famous ophthalmologist of his time, towards the end of his life, began to lose his sight due to glaucoma. He shared his personal impressions and medical recommendations for those who have lost their sight in the book “Among the Blind” [E. Zhaval, 1905]. The book is still relevant today, as are other studies by the doctor and scientist, including in relation to speed reading techniques.

Labyrinth

If for some reason you don’t like numbers, you can train your concentration with the help of pictures depicting a labyrinth. The essence is familiar to us all from childhood: we need to find a way out in the shortest possible time.

In addition to developing concentration skills and speed reading skills, such training is useful for vision, maintaining the tone of the eye muscles, and improving blood circulation. If you haven’t “walked” through labyrinths for a long time, start with the simplest option:

Like many other exercises, mazes can be generated online on special resources after registration. The point of all these exercises on concentrating attention and expanding the “spot” of perception is that in this way we develop dynamic reading skills.

Dynamic reading is when we perceive not words individually, but entire phrases at once. In the classic example of “mom washed the frame,” we immediately imagine a woman washing a window, and not a separate mother, a separate washing process, a separate window frame.

Through training, you can achieve the effect of the same quick perception of more complex passages of text than about mom and frame. More details about this method of speed reading can be found in the article “Specificities of dynamic reading as a method of extracting information from text” [V. Kovalenko, 2012].

We looked at what we need to develop in order to master speed reading. However, obstacles await us along the way due to the peculiarities of human physiology. And you will have to fight with them too.

Regression Suppression

In this case, regression is a return to what was previously read. In the process of reading, a person who does not consciously control the process willy-nilly returns to what he previously read. And not always because I didn’t understand something, it’s just a reflex. To suppress it, it is recommended to trace the line with your finger or pencil while reading at the speed at which you read, gradually accelerating.

This is convenient when reading paper books. When reading from a tablet, phone or e-reader, it is recommended to immediately scroll and “hide” the read part of the screen so that there is no temptation to re-read this text again. In principle, the method is also suitable for the paper version. Just cover the part of the text you read with a piece of paper, a bookmark, or your phone.

Here it seems logical to make a short stop and return to the two main points that we emphasized at the very beginning. If you need speed reading development to read "the more the merrier" and have a general understanding of what you read, then you can implement any method of suppressing one-to-one regression.

If you are currently preparing for exams, a report, a presentation, and you constantly come across unfamiliar terms in the text that you will have to deal with in the future, then stops are absolutely necessary, otherwise the meaning of speed reading is simply lost. Moreover, you should definitely include the “Harvest” technique in your arsenal of techniques for developing speed reading.

Harvesting

The name of the “Harvesting” technique was inspired by the author of the book “Speed ​​Reading in Practice. How to read quickly and remember what you read well” analogies with agriculture [P. Palagin, 2015]. You can study the lyrical details yourself if you wish, but we, in full accordance with our recommendations for speed reading, will focus on the main thing: always record the results of your work!

After finishing reading a paragraph, be sure to stop and try to remember what exactly you just read. Try to mentally and then out loud formulate the main message, the main idea, its meaning and content. If this fragment of text contained names and dates that are important for subsequent reproduction (for example, in a history exam), be sure to try to remember them and say them out loud.

If you can’t remember right off the bat, put aside your struggle with regression for a while, open the text you just read and read it again. Always remember that you should adapt any recommendations to your circumstances, goals and objectives, and not just blindly copy them always and in everything. This, by the way, also applies to the following method of developing speed reading skills.

Suppression of subvocalization

Subvocalization is mental, i.e. “to yourself”, repeating the text while reading. This is another reflex, by the way, very important if you are preparing to speak in front of an audience or working on developing your oral communication skills. Therefore, never mix two different tasks and always clearly define for yourself what you are working on at the moment: on speed reading or on developing beautiful, correct speech.

In other words, if the development of voice and speech is now a priority, subvocalization is a must. If you are currently scheduled to practice speed reading from 5 to 6 p.m., then make sure that your mouth is closed as tightly as possible and that you do not articulate or pronounce what you read “to yourself.” If you can’t do this by force of will, you can hold a pencil in your teeth.

This will be the first step towards getting rid of subvocalization, but that's not all. Inner speech is a rather complex mechanism, and it is simply not possible to silence the brain. Try to deceive him. For example, turn on music without a clear rhythm, fortunately, now there is a lot of it. Or tap some ragged rhythm, randomly changing the speed. Or hum something unrelated to the text you are reading. The usual "la-la-la" will do just fine.

This is all very important because speaking in your head slows down your reading speed, and if you get rid of subvocalization, you can read much faster. However, there are also less stressful options to “speed up” slightly.

Reading in reverse order

Reading backwards is fun, rewarding and exciting. Every time you read any article, note, report or paragraph in a textbook, be sure to then re-read it again, but in reverse order, i.e. from end to beginning. The goal of the exercise is to ensure that the speed of reading in forward and reverse order is equal.

Other tricks in terms of “reading backwards” serve the same purpose. For example, you might try to read text while holding it upside down or at a 90-degree angle. Of course, this trick won’t work on gadgets with a “compass” function, but you can experiment with a paper book.

These are the basic techniques and ways to train speed reading, and experts also give some practical tips on increasing your reading speed, which, however, are useful even if this is not your main task now [P. Palagin, 2015].

General advice for readers:

• Review the text before you start reading it, paying attention to the structure and subheadings. They will tell you what the text is about, and it will be easier (and faster!) for you to perceive its meaning.
• Read the book's table of contents before you start reading it. If it's a textbook, read the conclusions and summaries at the end of each chapter or section.
• Set yourself conscious reading goals, i.e. not just read, but what exactly you need to learn from the text.
• Get rid of extraneous thoughts and other distractions while reading.
• Take care of your eyesight!

One way or another, any of the methods listed will definitely help you, so feel free to try them all. Your efforts will definitely be rewarded, and you will learn to read quickly.