I decided to teach my oldest age 8 to speed read. Fortunately her school teacher was perfectly OK with the idea and my daughter was super excited about it.
So first I told her I thought it was a good idea for her to learn then explained just how fast Poppy used to speed read showing her by moving my finger under the text at about 1 second per page. this was enough to get her enthusiastic, she went strait to her room to devour her home reading homework...in record time! I would say just by discussing it she added 50-100 words per minute to her reading speed.
I tested her current speed to be at 110words per minute. I actually think it could be closer to 130 but the test showed 110. We used a book she would find fairly easy for the test. I didn't want her getting stuck over a word.
Then I read this
http://www.selfgrowth.com/articles/Stancliffe7.htmlAnd followed lesson 1. She struggled to go fast enough. She was reading mostly at 3 seconds per page, the pages were about 120 words per page. Normally she reads books at 200 to 300 words per page but I read somewhere that speed reading should be done at a slightly easier level and this is what I found in our cupboard.
Her comprehension was almost NIL to start with, but after the third try (at 3 minutes) she got a few names and a bit of the plot.
So we went on to the read a whole book in 5minutes or less. She picked "A Mermaids Tail" it is an Aussie Nibbles book ( highly recommend Aussie nibbles and Aussie bites BTW) it is definately too easy for her reading level but boy was I surprised with the results! She finished it in under 3 minutes. It does have some pictures which I will try to avoid next time but she proved that she wasn't just looking at the pictures.
She read 800 words per minute with a full recount of the story!
We were doing a happy dance around the room! I would say her comprehension was about 80% she answered all the questions I asked but only had some of the detailed bits. Certainly enough to say she understood the plot. Probably as much as she normally gets from a slow read to be honest!
To say I am shocked would be an understatement. I expected to get these results in about 2 or 3 weeks! I absolutely and completely recommend teaching speed reading while your kids are young! As soon as they can read a short novel get started. We will continue, I will post more as we go. My next daughter is 6 she will be ready soon, I just need to go to the library and stock up on easy novels to get her started. I can see our library cards will get a workout, they need to practice for 15 minutes a day. That's about 3-5 books at Natalyas CURRENT speed!
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