Learn speed reading yourself. At the speed reading course from “Shaleniy Ravlik” you

In modern flows of written information, speed reading plays a critical role in cognition and development.

Many people ask: How to learn to read quickly, what is the speed reading technique, what exercises should you do to increase your reading speed?

Today on the site website You will learn not just how to teach yourself and your children to read quickly, but also how to correctly perceive the text when reading quickly, developing perception, memory and attention.

How to learn to read quickly - speed reading technique

The usual reading speed of an adult is 120-180 words per minute, if higher, then, as a rule, this is already viewing the text, and not reading with normal perception, understanding and memorization of what was read.

If you consciously understand the essence of how to quickly learn to read printed and written text, not for skimming, but for understanding and memorizing the necessary material, then by performing simple speed reading exercises you will be quite quickly learn reading techniques at a speed of 600 to 1000 words per minute,those. 3-5 times faster than usual.

However, it should be understood that learning to read quickly does not mean learning to instantly understand the meaning and quickly remember what you read, for example, in fiction.
But for office work and business papers, speed reading is very suitable, provided that you clearly understand the essence of the work issue.
For example, if you are a bank employee who understands terminology, then your ability to quickly read contracts and so on will suit you, unlike an ordinary person who, using the speed reading technique, will not understand the essence of an agreement, say a loan...

In general, developed peripheral vision will suit you not only in speed reading, but also in the perception of any visual information (for example, instant perception of car instruments and the situation on the road for instant decision making), i.e. where a lot of information is simultaneously received for brain processing.

Schulte table - exercises for speed reading

One of the methods for speed reading exercise is the Schulte table. You should take a standard book sheet of paper and draw a square Schulte table on it, consisting of five rows and five columns - numbers in different orders from 1 to 25. (When practicing on a computer monitor and on a smartphone screen, adjust the table to the full size and not use cursor)

How to conduct speed reading exercises using the Schulte table to learn how to read quickly:

Keep a distance from your eyes just like when reading normally;
Fix your gaze on the center of the Schulte table and do not move it;
Look for numbers one by one in ascending order from 1 to 25 as quickly as possible, and the main thing is not to move your eyes (look with peripheral vision) and do not say the numbers out loud or to yourself;
Do not practice speed reading with tables to the point of fatigue;
As your skill in quickly reading numbers (or letters in alphabetical order) increases, you can expand the tables by the number of rows and columns (6x6, 7x7, etc.)

How to teach children to read quickly

To teach children peripheral vision and quick perception of information, for example, in the Schulte table, you can use drawings (pictures) instead of numbers.

Parents should understand that the child has object-figurative thinking, and not, like an adult, verbal-logical thinking, so exercises on speed reading letters (words) and numbers in the usual form can be very tiring for him.
It is better to first use pictures and objects to teach children to read quickly (for example, letters, words in the form of pictures and objects)

Problems that prevent you from learning to read quickly

In the process of speed reading exercises you will get rid of these problems:

Inability to see peripherally (learning to perceive as many words as possible, almost the entire sentence)
Internal pronunciation of the text (perception of the text visually)
Returning the eyes to what has already been read (development of quick memory)
Concentration (reducing automatic perception of internal and external interference)
Inability to quickly find key concepts and theses (learning to quickly understand meaning based on speed reading)

Read others

One of the most important human needs is the need for new knowledge and self-improvement. That’s why people learn foreign languages, play sports, and master musical instruments. The development of every skill is based on obtaining information. The speed of learning something new depends on how quickly a person reads.

Speed reading is an incredibly useful skill that doesn't require any special talent to master. If you have the desire, perseverance and a little time, you can easily master speed reading at home.

Why read quickly

Who will benefit from developing speed reading? The answer to this question is extremely simple. Anyone who strives to learn new things will find this skill useful. By learning how to speed read and spending a few months mastering this technique in practice, you can later save a huge amount of time.

In turn, slow reading is not always justified. Most people do not finish reading books precisely because they take a lot of time. Also, by reading slowly, there is a high chance of losing interest in the plot and again abandoning the book without finishing it.

For some specialists, reading relevant literature is part of their job duties, giving them the opportunity to grow, develop and become an expert in their field. For these people, mastering speed reading techniques is a professional necessity.

What is speed reading

Let's define what speed reading is and at what speed you need to read.

The standard speed of perception is 150-250 words per minute. In this case, 1-3 minutes are spent on a page of printed text. Speed reading involves mastering the skill of reading from 500 to 3000 words in the same time. True, in this case the term “read” is not entirely appropriate. Speed reading in essence is analyzing the text and choosing the main thing. That is, some part of the information is simply ignored. The goal is to learn to focus on those sentences and phrases that carry the maximum meaning, and to skip “water” that does not affect the understanding of the essence.

The secret of great people

Surprisingly, the technique of speed reading appeared in the Middle Ages and was familiar to many famous people.

For example, Joseph Stalin was the owner of a huge library. Reading was a daily activity for him. He read five hundred pages of text at a time, and he liked to highlight the main ideas with pencils.

The American president was proud of his speed reading skills. It was not a problem for him to read a whole book at once.

Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin read very quickly. In addition, we know about his Biography, he could reproduce it almost word for word by heart with all significant dates.

Karl Marx, Napoleon Bonaparte, John Kennedy, and Adolf Hitler also used speed reading techniques. Maybe it was thanks to this that they achieved success in their business.

When will speed reading be useful?

If we talk about speed reading, then we need to take into account one more point. This method is used mainly for reading scientific and technical literature, reports, Internet articles, news reports in newspapers, that is, material that brings new knowledge.

Poetry and fiction are intended for completely different purposes. In fiction, we are not looking for answers to the questions posed, but simply enjoying the process of reading. The entire value of literary texts lies in their impact on a person’s emotions, feelings and the use of his imagination. Reading such literature quickly is possible, but absolutely pointless.

Is it possible to master speed reading at home?

Nowadays, there are many specialized courses that “for little money” promise to teach anyone to read at a speed of up to 3000 words per minute. Training sessions last from a month to three. But is it worth spending time and money on attending such courses if you can develop speed reading at home without any investment? Such independent learning even has its advantages:

Free choice of time for classes makes it possible to conduct training at those hours when it will be most convenient and fruitful.
Methods for teaching speed reading and descriptions of exercises are publicly available information that can be found in special manuals sold in any bookstore.
No distractions.
The ability to control the training time by choosing the duration of classes.

Some may be interested in the opinions of people who took courses to master speed reading. Reviews about their effectiveness are not always positive. Often, additional independent practice is required upon completion to achieve noticeable results. But the skill of speed reading itself is spoken of only with praise. Not one of those who mastered this ability regretted the time and effort spent.

Learning to read quickly. What is needed for that?

To master speed reading at home, you need to familiarize yourself with the basic principles of this skill.

The first rule is not to “jump” while reading. You need to look through the text from beginning to end, without stopping and re-reading incomprehensible fragments. You will see, when you read to the end of a paragraph or page, everything that was unclear will become clear without re-reading.

The second rule is to highlight several key words in each sentence. It is not necessary to read the entire sentence or paragraph from beginning to end; it is important to catch and remember only the key words.

The third rule is not to be distracted. Speed reading will not yield any results if you do not concentrate on what you are reading. The reader must be completely immersed in the process, because it is important not only to read, but also to record useful information in memory.

Why do we read slowly?

Anyone who is wondering how to develop speed reading will find it useful to know what prevents us from reading quickly.

1. Reading indiscriminately. When reading, we pay attention to everything. To get acquainted with the main idea, we spend the same amount of time as reading lyrical digressions that do not carry any semantic load and do not contain useful information. As already mentioned, to save time, the speed reading technique involves identifying the main idea and ignoring the “water” in the text.

2. Repetition of what you read. Each of us has a bad habit from childhood - to return our gaze to the sentence we have just read. When a child is developing a vocabulary, such repetitions are useful. But as adults, we just do it out of habit.

3. Reading to yourself. When reading aloud, we can do it faster or slower depending on the pace of reading and diction. When we read to ourselves, our brain seems to be conducting a monologue, “speaking out” the information we are becoming familiar with. The speed of text perception cannot be higher than the speed of this internal monologue. Therefore, if you decide to master the speed reading method, the first thing you need to do is “silence the internal speaker” and learn to perceive information without saying it to yourself.

4. Field of view. A narrow field of view can significantly slow down the reading process. If a person has well-developed peripheral vision, he uses it when perceiving text, which is reflected in reading speed. For those who want to master speed reading on their own, exercises to expand the field of vision are mandatory.

5. Inattention can be a problem at any speed. The inability to concentrate on the reading process is the main reason that information is not remembered, no matter how fast you read. The speed reading technique involves the parallel development of the ability to abstract from external stimuli and focus on the text.

Exercises to increase reading speed

Where to start mastering speed reading? Exercise is the key to success. Regular completion of simple practical tasks contributes to the development of the qualities necessary for quickly assimilation of information.

Eliminating inner speech

It was previously mentioned that internal articulation is one of the main reasons for low articulation. There are methods to combat it:

Count to yourself from ten to one. Try to understand a text without losing count.
Do the same thing, but instead of counting, hum a song you know by heart.
Tap any rhythm while reading.

The principle of this exercise is to “engage your inner speaker” and learn to perceive the text without its participation.

Developing peripheral vision

If peripheral vision is developed at the proper level, a person can not waste time moving his eyes along one line from left to right, but cover it with his gaze immediately. This method of reading is called vertical. Moreover, having developed peripheral vision, you can read entire paragraphs or blocks of text at a glance.

At this stage, they will come to help. The sheet depicts a square, the length of the sides is 20 cm. It is divided into five horizontal lines and five vertical ones. Thus, we get 25 cells, each of which contains numbers from 1 to 25 in random order. The finished square is placed at eye level (distance 25-30 cm).

The exercise itself consists of concentrating only on the middle square, using peripheral vision, to find the location of all the numbers from 1 to 25, and then in reverse order.

Another exercise that helps achieve the same goal is called the Triangle. You need to select the text and print it so that each line is wider than the previous one. For example, the first line has one word, the second - two, the third - three, and so on. As a result, we get a triangle consisting of text. When reading it, move your gaze only from top to bottom. To see the beginning and end of long lines, use your peripheral vision.

Similar exercises can be performed in everyday life, without devoting special time to exercise. For example, while sitting at work, concentrate your gaze on some object and try to see what is happening around you. This will at the same time be both an exercise to relieve eye strain and an effective method to develop peripheral vision without effort.

Learning to guess

Speed reading involves selective perception of text. In order for you to ultimately receive holistic, useful information, you need to learn logic and guesswork.

To perform the exercises in this block, you need an assistant. You immediately need to select an unfamiliar text and print it. The assistant darkens some parts of the text with a black marker, and while you read it, you try to grasp the meaning. First, you can choose simple texts to read. But over time, in order to train the skill, it is better to opt for unfamiliar topics and completely new terminology. The amount of hidden text should also gradually increase.

You can take a book and cover part of the text with a vertical strip 5 cm wide, and then read the rest. Make the strip wider over time.

It is worth devoting one hour to this practice 3-4 times a week, and within a month speed reading will begin to develop. The exercises are within the power of everyone, although at the very beginning they may seem difficult.

At what age can children be taught speed reading?

A child's vocabulary is significantly smaller than that of an adult. When reading, he thinks, comprehends the material he has read, and spends much more time doing this. Even by hearing, children perceive fast speech much worse. Therefore, it is possible to teach children speed reading only after they learn to fully independently comprehend the text they read. This occurs around the age of 14-15 years.

As you can see, developing speed reading at home is not such a difficult task. Not only superheroes, but also ordinary people can read at a speed of more than 500 words per minute. Try and learn this and see from your own example the value of such a skill.

Reading is not only an exciting activity, but also a certain obligation for a person. Thanks to the ability to read, a person receives maximum information in his life - determines the format of the store, the composition of the product, learns about the diagnosis and much more.

The question of how to learn to read quickly is considered in childhood, however, even for an adult, this skill or familiarization with it turns out to be important. Next, we will consider ways to read quickly, because reading quickly means doing more and learning more.

The Importance of Speed Reading

The technique of reading quickly is called speed reading. Why is it necessary in principle? The fact is that a person acquires new knowledge only under the condition of visible perception.

More than 95% of the information entering the human brain is provided by the ability to see.

At the same time, reading important information that is necessary to achieve your goal is no exception.

Imagine the situation: you have legal troubles, and the only help is brochures with the Criminal, Tax, Labor or Civil Codes of the Russian Federation. It is unknown which book to look for the information you are interested in, and the time to solve the problem is limited. What to do in such a situation?

In this case, the untrained brain will not find the necessary answer to the questions, and even if it does find it, it will not be able to perceive it to the proper extent. As a result, the problems that arise will only get worse.

Experts say that a person who not only reads a lot, but also masters speed reading techniques:

self-assured;
has adequate self-esteem, is somewhat self-critical, which is also useful in most situations;
achieves the goals set for itself.

Such statements are not groundless; specialists from various systems have conducted numerous studies to this end. They came to the conclusion that it is possible to obtain a decent education in life only with the help of a large number of books read.

An educated person can always find a job he likes and with good financial support. A successful person strives for self-improvement, which is also achieved by reading certain updated literature.

You can get the necessary information only from newspapers or other sources that need to be not just read, but read quickly. People with speed reading skills learn new things faster.

Why is a person slow to read?

Even special speed reading exercises do not always help achieve the desired result. There are certain reasons in which speed reading techniques are “useless.” These include:

low vocabulary– the problem can be eliminated by reading interesting literature ( artistic or scientific);
lack of proper concentration on the text– in this case, the problem is explained by a weak articulatory apparatus, which can be easily trained with the help of special exercises;
untrained memory– can be developed only through constant reading of books and discussion or simple recollection of what has been read;
complex content of the book– a child or even an adult cannot always perceive a confusing plot or a large number of complex sentences in the text;
constant return to a certain word– often there is some incomprehensible word in the text that needs to be clarified.

Explanation of a complex and unknown word in the text should be done by parents if the child is reading and wondering. Otherwise, you should consult a dictionary or the Internet.

The whole truth about speed reading. Video:

Basic tricks for speed reading

Learning to speed read should begin with studying the basic points in technology. Such basics include the following:

You need to read only useful books. If you want to become successful, then you should choose the autobiographies of talented entrepreneurs and so on.
Choose books only with easy-to-understand presentation– these include manuscripts of modern authors. Classics in this case will be inappropriate, since the text will contain a large number of already outdated words.
The selected book must be read quickly 2 times. The first time is an introduction to the information, and the second time is a speed reading technique.
Read only in places that are convenient for you– preferably at home and at least 1-1.5 hours without interruption for important matters.
You should not read a work you don’t like, as well as “unnecessary”— a person who wants to succeed should not start reading science fiction.

These are just the main points that will help you master speed reading at home. Next, you should study the subtleties of the technique.

Speed reading techniques

In fact, speed reading is a complex of numerous techniques that are used to master the skill.

The methods are divided into groups - intended for children or adults. If we talk about adults, we can highlight the following methods for mastering speed reading:

Reading a book from beginning to end, and then vice versa– from end to beginning. In this case, it means the ability to increase reading speed.
Reading Diagonally– the technique is very interesting, but reading diagonally helps in quickly flipping through books. This method is mainly used in the study of fiction.
Driving your finger along the bottom of the line– this method is also used in studying reading techniques in preschool age. This is explained by helping in concentration.
Appropriation technique– is based on highlighting key words in the text, which are no longer read, but are perceived.
Empathy technique– it is important to visualize the main character of the book, to feel him. The presented actions make it easier to perceive the text being read.

There is also an interesting method on how to quickly read books. The method is called simply: “Assault method”. It is used by intelligence officers when they need to understand and assimilate a large amount of information. The method is to use a book of scientific literature.

The volume of the book is at least 100 pages. The technique involves preliminary preparation of the pages - it is necessary to draw a vertical line with a pencil on each page strictly in the middle.

The presented technique is taught to an individual, but anyone can master it.

You can also read special books on speed reading - these are the works of numerous specialists offering various methods and techniques for improving reading speed. Everyone will find the most interesting option for themselves, which will help to a greater extent.

How to learn to quickly and better remember what you read? Video:

On the importance of reading comprehension

It is not enough to know how to learn speed reading; you need to perceive quickly read information, which is not easy to achieve.

Firstly, you need to learn to simply extract useful information from the text you read. This helps you perceive the meaning of what you read much faster.

Secondly, It is important to use the understood information in practice - in this case, a person begins to use speed reading to his advantage. Such actions and basics are comparable to learning foreign languages - if there is no practice, the memorized words will quickly be forgotten.

There are the following rules on how to learn to read quickly and remember what you read:

Talk about what you read acquaintances and friends.
Take notes as you read– it is necessary to highlight phrases or entire paragraphs that are important to you.
Read only during hours of intense brain activity– depending on the type, a person is divided into “night owl” or “lark”. You should choose the time when your brain is most active.
Never read out loud– this distracts from the perception of information.
It's important to focus on reading– if a person is tormented by more important events, it will be much more difficult to perceive and remember information.

How to teach a child to read quickly and correctly?

Speed reading for children also exists, and the technique should be used as soon as the baby is ready to learn the skill. In the future, this will help you quickly and easily perceive information received at school.

When to start training?

A child should be taught to read only after a full and independent analysis of his condition. A child is ready to learn if the following points are present:

There is more useful information here.

The baby speaks fully– he can speak in whole sentences, uses uncommon words in a conversation with an adult.
He has developed phonemic hearing- Does the child perceive words well by ear, and can he name the initial and last letter in a word spoken to him?
The baby has no problems with hearing or pronunciation– all sounds in the child’s speech are delivered, the correct tempo of sentences is maintained ( the child focuses on the key words in the sentence).
The child can freely navigate in space– he has a well-developed vestibular apparatus, he knows the concepts of “left”, “right”, “up” and “down”.

It turns out that teaching a child to read and teaching him speed reading techniques is possible only if there are no developmental problems. You should not start training at an early age if the baby is not interested in it - the work will not bring the desired results, and training may even “get stuck”.

Step-by-step instruction

To instill in a child speed reading skills ( It is not fully recommended to teach him this technique in preschool age), you need to do the following steps:

Determine which technique is easier for him - and use it at first. As speed reading develops, change the methods with more complex options.

Speed reading is possible without performing a number of special exercises, if you already have the skills of high concentration, high-quality perception and assimilation of what you read, and have excellent memory.

Exercises for mastering speed reading techniques will be most useful to those who are dissatisfied with their speed of understanding and memorizing information when reading texts of various types and levels of complexity.

At what age can you practice speed reading?

For an adult, it is extremely important not only to be able to demonstrate the ability to read a piece of text “on a stopwatch” as quickly as possible, but what is really necessary is the ability to save time thanks to speed reading. Therefore, when reading a text on a particular topic, an adult simply must be able to “skip by” unnecessary, uninformative parts of the text, while looking for key words that reflect the author’s main idea.

The most common recommendation for children is that you should not teach a child to speed read before the age of 14. We agree that superficial reading “diagonally” is not the best option for schoolchildren who, first of all, need to thoroughly master the curriculum and learn to enjoy works of fiction.

Of course, each child and his abilities are unique, so it would be wise to focus on the key points of children’s readiness to master speed reading techniques. So, if your child already knows how to read aloud, easily reads a page in a couple of minutes and understands the meaning of what he read (can retell the essence in his own words), you can set the task of increasing reading speed using a set of speed reading exercises.

5 Key Skills for High Reading Speed

When learning to speed read, it is important to constantly train the following skills:

concentration of attention;
suppression of articulation (the habit of pronouncing text);
improved visual skill - wide field of peripheral vision;
the ability to quickly highlight valuable, useful information in the text and not waste attention on “water”;
good memory - assimilation of valuable information from the material read;
increasing the speed of thinking.

The secret to mastering speed reading techniques is regular exercise in developing memory, attention and mastering other speed reading skills.

What exercises to improve reading speed will be useful at any age?

The greatest benefit comes from those exercises that eliminate the cause of low speed of perception and processing of visual information.

The main errors that create a barrier to reading speed in both children and adults are considered to be involuntary recurrent eye movements (regression) and unnecessary articulation, which we learned in childhood.

The main disadvantages that hinder the effective and rapid perception of information:

problems with concentration;
a small angle (field) of visual coverage of text information.

Thus, exercises for speed reading in 1st grade should be aimed primarily at developing the ability to concentrate attention and expanding the scope of information coverage. “A small field of vision” is perhaps the most important reason why children are taught to read first by letters, by syllables, then by whole words, phrases and sentences with an expression confirming the reader’s understanding of the meaning of what is written.

Not every adult can boast of the ability to perceive long phrases and entire sentences “at one glance.” This is where the development of visual reading skills stops for most people.

Expanding the field of view

“Development of peripheral vision according to Schulte tables”

Regular training with the help of Schulte tables will not only allow your child to have an interesting time, but will also help increase concentration, expand peripheral vision and develop memory.

“Defocused look”. The main goal of the training is to use an unfocused gaze to perceive a larger area of the page or screen. The exercise can be performed in various ways, for example, to search for identical elements using distracted vision or to remember a larger number of elements that were able to be covered without moving the gaze from the central object of attention.

Improving concentration

“Activation of both hemispheres”. Take a text on a topic that is familiar to you and read the paragraphs alternately with your right and left eyes. Thanks to this simple technique, you activate both hemispheres of the brain in turn.

“Highlighting the main thing”. Many prominent personalities have used this technique. Just take a marker or pencil and highlight the 2-3 most important ideas from the page. It’s even better to improve this exercise and not just highlight the main thing, but use signs to indicate your critical comments: very important information - “!” or “NB”, if you agree, put “+”, if you disagree, put “-”, etc.

“Name the color”. Say out loud the colors of the words as you read the following colored text. It is the colors, not what is written.

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

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

Don't rush to do it at incredible speed. It’s good if after training you basically managed to complete the exercise without errors.

“Find the word”. Exercise options:

Search a page for all words starting with a specific letter.
Search a page for all instances of a specific word or phrase.

Guessing riddles- a simple and very effective way to train concentration skills at any age. It's best if it's or.

Getting rid of regression

“Cut half a line”. When reading the text, cover half the line (the top part) with a sheet of paper. In this way, you will force your brain to guess what has been written and at the same time, in such a situation, you will naturally want to see the next line even before you “cut off” part of it. This exercise will teach you to run ahead when reading and at the same time not to return to what you read.

"Pointer". To break the habit of looking back at what you have already read, let your gaze constantly follow the pen, pencil or finger, which will always lead you forward.

“Speed reading”. Let's remember the reading speed test in elementary school. We take a timer and measure our current result by reading one page, chapter or article.

Suppressing articulation

“Alternate text”. In parallel with reading, we say something unrelated to the subject of attention. For example, we hum the tune of a song (“la-la-la, tru-lal-la”) or pronounce another text in our minds, for example, proverbs, tongue twisters, or count in order, regardless of the number of words or lines read. The main thing is not to lose concentration.

“With your mouth closed!” If your lips move or your tongue moves while reading, you need to keep them occupied with something. This error is often present in children after constant reading aloud in the early grades. Try chewing a pencil or crackers or chewing gum at the same time.

"Drumroll". We tap some rhythm with our fingers on the table, the more complex it is, the better. If your fingers are busy, the speech center of the brain will be at least partially blocked.

“Reading with distracting music”. A great way to suppress the desire to pronounce the text you are reading is listening to music that does not have a constant rhythm. Jazz is best suited for this purpose.

Developing memory

“Non-standard reading”. Reading text rotated away from you by 90 degrees, 180, 45, etc. Example of an exercise: turn the page upside down and set the task of reading the text backwards (i.e. from right to left). This training is especially useful for children in order to form in their memory standards of complete letters, regardless of how they are located.

“Recover the missing letters.” An excellent exercise for developing verbal and logical memory. While reading a text with missing letters, stopping to “guess” the next word forces you to remember the words and meaning of what you read earlier. Good training not only for memory, but also for eliminating such interferences in fast reading as recurrent eye movements and articulation.

Development of thinking speed

One of the main reasons why it is possible to significantly improve the reading speed of any person is the redundancy of information at all levels of texts (especially those posted on the Internet), ranging from headlines and introductory structures intended to attract attention, to individual words with weak or completely absent semantic meaning. load.

Regular solving of logical problems develops the ability to separate the important from the secondary, develops the skill of “turning on blindness” in relation to redundant information and “instant” perception of important thoughts. This is achieved, first of all, through regular exercises in quickly perceiving the conditions of the task and understanding the essence of the question being asked. Conscious analysis of the structure of tasks develops the skill of dividing tasks into conditions and groups of conditions, identifying one or more issues, understanding the optimal order of solving subtasks, and searching for solution options.

Completing tasks from LogicLike will help at any age:

improve concentration;
develop speed of thinking;
and as a result, significantly increase your reading speed.

Try reading without saying the text to yourself. Now read the page of text without being distracted or rereading the sentences. Turn the book upside down and read the paragraph. It turns out? These and other simple exercises will help you master speed reading skills.

People who want to become professionals in their field must work through a huge amount of information. In addition, there is so much in the world, but time is sorely lacking. There is a way out - learn to read quickly. And this is possible: John Kennedy, Maxim Gorky and others read quickly, up to 2 thousand words per minute. For example, Napoleon read one rather voluminous book every morning before breakfast, managing to note in its margins the thoughts that were important to him.

And the former American president, who reads at incredible speed, developed his own, which is successfully used by those who want to learn it.

It could be argued that reading quickly reduces reading comprehension and retention. But practice shows that the opposite is true: with normal reading, approximately half of the information is absorbed, while with speed reading, 70-80%.

Why does this happen? Because fast reading requires more concentration than normal reading, during which we read less carefully. We have parallel thoughts: we think about current affairs, for example, that it’s time to turn off the refrigerator, about the upcoming vacation, or our thoughts return to past events. It is not surprising that reading progress is slow, and new information is poorly remembered.

You can master speed reading methods at special trainings: 5 lessons of 3.5-4 hours are enough. Their advantage lies not only in the fact that the classes are taught by specialists, but also in the fact that, firstly, the person who paid for the training is unlikely to want to voluntarily skip classes. Secondly, teachers form pairs of students, making classes more effective. Thus, the one who risks missing class will let his partner down - the obligation to him will serve as an additional incentive not to shy away from classes.

You can do it yourself. To do this, you just need a great desire, faith in the result and daily training. And if many people have the desire, then with faith it will be more difficult. Let's remember how children learn to ride a bicycle: those who think they will fall actually fall; those who are sure that they will go straight away somehow miraculously keep their balance and go. We believe that we can do it!

As for training, we do special exercises every day for 30-40 minutes for 21 days. Psychologists believe that it takes so long to get rid of an old habit and instill a new one.

For exercises, you need to choose a convenient time and place so that nothing distracts you from reading. It is useless to do this, for example, in the subway, where it is impossible to concentrate.

What slows down reading?

1. Pronouncing the text while reading “to yourself”, or subvocalization

This habit is formed in us when we learn to read and pronounce each word out loud, syllable by syllable. We learned to read, but the habit remained. Some not only pronounce the text internally, but also move their lips while doing so. Naturally, there is no question of reading quickly, because no matter how hard a person wants to, he is not able to say more than 500 words per minute. This means he will read at the same speed. Anyone who masters speed reading methods will be able to read up to 2 thousand words in the same time.

2. Regression reading

The main brake that holds back reading speed is the return movements of the eyes to the text that has already been read. It seems to us that by rereading a phrase or paragraph, we delve deeper into its essence, but in reality this is not the case. The logic of the text itself is violated, and we are forced to return to what we read again and again, which only aggravates the situation. Speed reading experts believe that, if necessary, it is better to return to a place after the entire text has been read.

By getting rid of the regressions with which most people read, you can increase your reading speed by 2-3 times.

3. Limited field of view

The field of view is the space of perception of the text. For people who read slowly (and these are the majority), it is 4-5 cm. They can be compared to peeping through a keyhole, who see only a small part of the picture. Experts say that it is impossible to expand your field of vision with training. But with their help, you can learn to perceive information that is located in the area covered by peripheral vision. And as a result of training, it can be up to 10 cm.

Exercises to develop speed reading skills

Knowing the “enemy” of speed reading “by sight”, we can eliminate it. Don't expect immediate results and be disappointed if they don't exist or leave much to be desired. Developing any new skill takes some time. It's like in sports: high results are achieved only through hard training.

1. Read with a pointer

In order for our gaze to smoothly slide forward, we read with a pointer (sushi stick), moving it a little faster than our understanding of the text. You can do this with your finger, if that’s more convenient.

This exercise is called a reading speed booster exercise. The gaze should follow only the lines along which the pointer moves, and in no case let it out of sight, returning to what has already been read.

After a while we will get rid of regressions and will be able to read without a pointer.

2. Suppress articulation

Some experts consider subvocalization a natural process that helps reduce the stress associated with learning new material. However, it significantly slows down reading.

You can suppress articulation - the work of the speech organs (tongue, lips, larynx) while reading “to yourself”, and not out loud, using distraction. That is, in parallel with reading, we (or a partner studying with us) can tap a rhythm on the table with a pencil. This will distract us from mentally speaking the text.

In addition to tapping, you can use the backward counting method: 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, etc. We will monitor the count so as not to lose track and not be able to pronounce the words. Instead of counting, you can hum some tune (out loud or “to yourself”), read tongue twisters or simple rhymes by heart.

3. Green dot method

This method allows you to learn to perceive information in the field of peripheral vision. We draw a green dot in the center of a page with some text and concentrate our attention on it for 10 minutes. We mentally imagine a green dot in front of us when we go to bed and close our eyes.

After practicing concentrating on the green dot for two weeks, we begin to look at the text located horizontally and vertically from it. We try to take in as many words as possible – you don’t need to read them, just see them.

Exercises with a green dot can be complemented by classes with Schulte tables, designed specifically to improve peripheral vision. The tables themselves and the teaching methods for them can be downloaded from one of the sites.

4. Training gibberish

Training in the so-called gibberish reading, or reading from right to left, develops thinking, attention and the ability to concentrate.

To begin with, you can practice reading from right to left using palindromes (from the Greek “back” and “run”) - words or phrases that are read the same from left to right and vice versa. Examples of palindrome: “And the rose fell on Azor’s paw”, “Dear Rome is the city or dear Mirgorod”, “The cat is about forty days old”, “The boar pressed the eggplant”, etc. And then you can start training on regular text. You can find a site on the Internet that offers e-books written from right to left and order them for free.

5. Read upside down

Exercises for reading a book upside down can increase your reading speed. First, we read a paragraph in an upside-down book, then we return it to its normal position and re-read it. We will immediately feel how easily and quickly we can do this!

6. Tick-tock method

While reading, we capture with our gaze only the beginning and end of the line, and not each word, as during normal reading. This will be enough to understand the meaning of what you read, and your reading speed will increase significantly.

7. Reading diagonally

The gaze slides diagonally across the page. Eye movements to the left or right are not allowed, nor is returning to what has already been read. At first, the gaze will cover only a few words, but as you practice, the volume of what you perceive will increase. The main thing in this method is to learn to highlight key phrases and skip verbal garbage. You need to start reading from the top left corner of the page to the bottom right. People who have mastered this method need only glance at the page to understand what is being said.

Those who want to thoroughly master speed reading methods should choose a suitable book. This could be “Learning to Read Fast” by I. Golovleva. There are also many educational video courses on the Internet, for example, “More than Speed Reading.”

It is convenient and interesting to learn speed reading using various applications. One of them is Spreeder. The text is loaded into it, and the number of words and the speed at which they appear can be set independently.