Speed reading at home. How to learn speed reading?

One of the most important human needs is the need for new knowledge and self-improvement. Therefore, people learn foreign languages, go in for sports, master musical instruments. At the heart of the development of each skill is the acquisition of information. On how quickly a person reads, the speed of his learning something new depends.

Speed reading is an incredibly useful skill that does not require special talents to master. If you have the desire, persistence and a little time, you can easily master the speed reading at home.

Why read fast

Who will benefit from the development of speed reading? The answer to this question is very simple. Everyone who aspires to the knowledge of the new, this skill will be useful. Learning how to learn speed reading, and having spent several months to learn 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 the books to the end precisely because of the large expenditure of time. Also, when reading slowly, chances are great to lose interest in the plot and again to abandon the book without reading it.

For some specialists reading thematic literature is part of the job duties, which gives the opportunity to grow, develop and become an expert in their work. For these people mastering the technique of speed reading is a professional necessity.

What is speed reading

Let's define what is speed reading and how fast it should be read.

The speed of perception is 150-250 words per minute. At the same time, 1-3 minutes are spent on the printed text page. Speed reading means learning how to read from 500 to 3000 words at the same time. True, in this case the term "read" is not entirely appropriate. Speed reading in essence is an analysis of the text and the choice of the main one. That is, some of the information is simply ignored. The goal is to learn to focus on those sentences and phrases that make the most sense, and miss the "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 for him was a daily activity. He read five hundred pages of text at a time, while he liked to highlight the main thoughts with pencils.

American President Theodore Roosevelt was proud of having speed reading. For him it was not a problem to read a whole book at a time.

Honore de Balzac boasted of his ability to read simultaneously up to eight sentences and choose the most important of them.

Alexander Pushkin read very quickly. In addition, we are aware of his phenomenal memory. Biographies, he could reproduce almost literally by heart with all significant dates.

The technique of speed reading was also owned by Karl Marx, Napoleon Bonaparte, John Kennedy, Adolf Hitler. Perhaps, it is because of this that they achieved success in their work.

When the speed reading method is useful

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

Poems and fiction are intended for very different purposes. In fiction, we are not looking for answers to the questions posed, but simply enjoy the process of reading. All the value of artistic texts lies in their impact on emotions, feelings of a person and the use of his imagination. Reading such literature is quickly possible, but absolutely meaningless.

Is it possible to master speed reading at home

Nowadays, there are a lot of specialized courses, which "for little money" promise to teach everyone who wants to read at a speed of up to 3000 words per minute. Training sessions last from one month to three. But is it worth wasting time and money to attend such courses, if you can develop speed reading at home without any investment? Such independent training even has its advantages:

• The free choice of time for classes makes it possible to conduct training at those hours when it will be most convenient and fruitful.
• Methods of teaching speed reading and describing exercises are generally available information, which can be found in special manuals sold in any bookstore.
• Absence of distractions.
• The opportunity, choosing the duration of classes, control the learning time.

Someone may be interested in the opinion of people who have taken courses to master the speed reading. Reviews about their effectiveness are not always positive. Often, to achieve significant results, upon completion, additional independent practice is required. But the very skill of speed reading is answered only with praise. None of those who mastered this ability, did not regret the time and effort spent.

We learn 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. It is necessary to look through the text from beginning to end, without stopping or rereading the incomprehensible fragments. You will see when you read the paragraph or the page to the end, everything that was unclear will become clear without re-reading.

The second rule is to select a few key words in each sentence. It is not necessary to read the entire sentence or the paragraph from beginning to end, it is important to catch and remember only keywords.

The third rule is not to be distracted. Speed reading does not give any results, if you do not concentrate on what you read. The reader should be completely immersed in the process, because it is important not only to read, but also to memorize useful information.

Why we read slowly

To all who wonder how to develop speed reading, it will be useful to know what prevents us from reading quickly.

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

2. Repetition of the read. Each of us has a bad habit from childhood - to return to the proposal that has just been read. When the child is forming a vocabulary, such repetitions are useful. But in adulthood, we do it simply out of habit.

3. Reading to myself. Reading aloud, we can do it faster or slower depending on the tempo of reading and diction. When we read to ourselves, our brain, as it were, conducts a monologue, "talking" the information with which we get acquainted. The speed of text perception can not be higher than the speed of this internal monologue. Therefore, if you decided to master the method of speed reading, the first thing you need is to "drown out the inner speaker" and learn to perceive information without saying it to yourself.

4. Field of view. Significantly slow down the reading process can narrow the field of view. If a person has well developed lateral vision, he uses it when perceiving the text, which is displayed at the reading speed. For those who wish to master speed reading on their own, exercises to expand the field of view are mandatory.

5. Broken attention. Inattention can become a problem at any speed. Inability to concentrate on the process of reading is the main reason that information is not remembered, at whatever pace you read. The method of speed reading implies the parallel development of the ability to abstract from external stimuli and focus on the text.

Exercises to increase read speed

So where do you start to learn speed reading? Exercise is the key to success. Regular execution of simple practical tasks contributes to the development of the qualities necessary for the rapid assimilation of information.

Eliminate inner speech

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

• Think about yourself from ten to one. Try to not realize with the account, understand any text.
• Do the same thing, but instead of the score, sing the song you know by heart.
• Tap any rhythm while reading.

The principle of such an exercise is to "take your inner speaker" and learn to perceive the text without his participation.

Developing peripheral vision

If the side vision is developed at the proper level, a person can not waste time, moving his eyes one line from left to right, and to cover her with a look at once. This way of reading is called vertical. Moreover, developing peripheral vision, at a glance you can read whole paragraphs or blocks of text.

At this stage, Schulte's tables will help . A square is displayed on the sheet, the length of its sides is 20 cm. It is divided into five horizontal lines and five vertical lines. Thus, we get 25 cells, each of which contains numbers from 1 to 25 in any order. The finished square is placed at eye level (distance 25-30 cm).

The very exercise is to, concentrating only on the middle square, using the lateral vision, to find the location of all the digits from 1 to 25, and then in the reverse order.

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

Such exercises can be performed in everyday life, without special time for classes. For example, sitting at work, concentrate your eyes on some object and try to see what is happening around. This will simultaneously be a charge to relieve tension from the eyes, and an effective method without effort to develop lateral vision.

Learning to guess

Speed reading involves selective perception of the text. To end up with a holistic, useful information, you need to learn logic and guesswork.

To perform the exercises of this block, an assistant is needed. Just need to select an unfamiliar text and print it. Assistant black marker obscures some parts of the text, and you, when reading it, try to catch the meaning. First you can select simple texts to read. But over time, in order to train a skill, it is better to choose the unfamiliar topics and completely new terminology. The number of hidden text should also increase gradually.

You can take the book and a vertical strip of 5 cm wide to close part of the text, then read the rest. Strip over time to do more.

It is worth devoting one hour 3-4 times a week to this practice, and in a month the speed reading will begin to develop. Exercises on the forces of everyone, although at the very beginning may seem complicated.

From what age can you teach speed reading of children

Vocabulary of the child is much less than that of an adult. When reading, he ponderes, comprehends the material read and for this he spends much more time. Even on hearing fast speech children perceive much worse. Therefore, to teach children speed reading can only be after they learn to completely independently comprehend the text read. This occurs at the age of about 14-15 years.

As you can see, developing speed reading at home is not such a difficult task. Read more than 500 words per minute not only superhero, but also ordinary people. Try and you will learn this and in your example make sure the value of this skill.