What is speed reading? Three pillars of high-speed information absorption What speed reading gives

The easiest way to compare speed reading is with eating food. Just as we consume proteins, fats, carbohydrates and vitamins, we consume written information. By reading quickly, we shorten our “lunch time”, but in some cases this does not make sense.

Besides calories and nutritional value, there are many other pleasures in food. We are not trying to quickly swallow a restaurant dish prepared by a chef, decorated according to all the rules on a served table. Speed reading fiction looks just as strange, unless, of course, you are a philology student who needs to pump a long list of literature into yourself over the course of a semester.

Needed for business and educational purposes. When we say “reading” in this article, we mean reading educational or business literature, professional texts and news. The average reading speed of an ordinary person is about 800 characters per minute, taking into account the memorization coefficient. How much can it be increased?

Business speed reading also varies:

Analytical- the most difficult thing. It is necessary to master and understand new paradigms, principles, approaches. A structure for assimilation has not yet been formed for this information; we do not know how to use it and how to classify it. This is the slowest read because you need to seriously think about this information. My speed is 3,100 characters per minute.
Introductory- simple and clear reading. We already have a system of knowledge on this subject in our heads; we simply add new facts, concepts and points of view. This also includes all news and stories. Quick reading. One and a half to two times faster than analytical. My speed is 4,800 characters per minute.
Search- the fastest reading. Searching for necessary information in a large array of text. Suitable for restoring knowledge in the head. Speed reading, 4–5 times faster than analytical reading. My speed is 14,000 characters per minute.

The advantages seem obvious. The given speed is taking into account the memorization coefficient. After each test, questions are asked to check what information remains in your head.

With these objective benefits of speed reading, I find “evidence” that . Unfortunately, these statements are propagated by people who either do not know how to speed read, or who tried to master it but were unable to. Classic story: “I haven’t read Pasternak, but I condemn it.”

What to do to fall in love with speed reading

Imagine a preschooler who smartly asserts that reading by syllables is a much more conscious approach than reading by words. It allows you to thoughtfully perceive every word and listen to its sound. Funny? This is what a person looks like who proves that slow word reading is better than speed reading.

Of course, speed reading won't work if you learn to just absorb the text. To read quickly, the ability to quickly load text into the brain is not enough. Speed reading is a set of skills for processing written information. What else do you need to know to make speed reading a useful and favorite tool for you?

Ask questions

A basic skill without which there is no use reading at all. You need to prepare for reading. If we read without asking questions, then there is nothing to grab hold of; it passes us by. Questions are hooks that we place in the path of information. Our task is to catch the meanings. Thanks to questions, we immerse ourselves in reading consciously, focusing not on the process, but on the goal.

Ask yourself: “What do I want to find in this book? What actions am I going to take after reading it? What do I want to learn to do differently? What am I missing?

Train your memory

The amount of information that remains in the head does not depend on reading speed. Therefore, it sounds strange to say that after speed reading, little information remains in your head. Let me ask, how much did we remember from the last one, read at normal speed? Will we be able to retell its content or main points? In order for information to fit into your head, you need to develop your memory.

There are hundreds of exercises that help us retain new knowledge in our heads. There are mechanics that record new words, images, data.

Practice even if you don’t intend to master speed reading: a strong memory will always help in life. Make it a habit to practice the “30 Seconds” exercise: learn to formulate the key ideas of any information exchange in 30 seconds.

This way, your attention will always be focused on remembering important meanings and linking them to the existing knowledge system.

Concentrate on the text

Our mental abilities currently have a limit. We can only hold a limited number of thoughts in our heads. Typically, reading slows down and memorization decreases because we are constantly distracted by extraneous thoughts. If we learn to control external stimuli and concentrate on the text, then much more information will remain in our heads.

Attention wanders when we are either bored or anxious. To concentrate, you need to get out of this state.

Other exercises for concentrating can be easily found in literature and on the Internet.

Think in parallel

We all have a rudimentary two-track mindset. We may be talking on the phone and wondering where to turn at an intersection. We can make plans for tomorrow and cook lunch. But we do not develop this ability, but we can use it to its fullest: simultaneously read and think about the text at high speed. If you read quickly, but don’t have time to think about it, then, of course, you lose the meaning of what you wrote.

Over time, you will upgrade your second channel of thinking, and when reading one book you will be able to read and think at the same time.

Go back to what you read

What to do if the information is too complex to comprehend on the go? We usually stop and think about incomprehensible text. Such stops slow down reading in general, because you need to accelerate from zero every time. At the same time, we are all familiar with the principle of Tetris, when continuous actions become faster and faster. How not to lose either speed or information?

For me, it's reading with a pencil. There is no need to stumble over every interesting thought and then pick up speed again. It is enough to mark interesting places that require comprehension in the fields and return to them after the “speed approach”.

Sift the text of the book through your questions. When you come across answers that you need to think about, just mark them, you don't have to think about them right away. If you re-read them later, you will spend much less time.

Use the information you receive

This is a continuation of the previous rule. The vast majority of readers do not return to the material they read and do not use it in life. They read a lot, but do little. Speed reading will not help such people until they change their behavior pattern.

Few of us turn information into results. It doesn’t matter how quickly a book, article or news was read. We suffer from information obesity: we receive information and do not use it, do not transform it into knowledge and action. It looks like a person who eats sweets and starchy foods, receives huge doses of energy, and sits on the couch. But there are people with high metabolism: even if they eat a chocolate bar at night, nothing will be deposited anywhere.

How to increase information metabolism? It is necessary to put into practice the chain of information transformation. Reading should make sense.

Information that has not become knowledge has no meaning. Questions turn information into knowledge, we started with this rule.
Knowledge that has not become action has no meaning. Knowledge turns a goal into action. What do we want to change with the help of information, what to achieve?
An action that does not produce a useful result is meaningless. Will and discipline transform action into results. Create your own habits.
A result that does not bring satisfaction is meaningless. Values turn results into satisfaction. Does the result correspond to our internal values?

If there is a need for specific information, purpose and value, then speed reading is a necessary and useful skill. If you are ready to process and absorb a large number of meanings, then you will need the ability to read quickly.

To read quickly, you need to be able to:

To ask questions.
Remember.
Concentrate.
Think in parallel.
Return to what you read.
Use the information.

Hello, dear readers! I’m glad that you came to my blog again - it means my posts are useful to you. Did you know that our brain does not work at 100%? Some say 10%, and others say 35%. But the fact is that the capabilities of the human mind are very great - and this is true. The problem is that they need to be developed by working on yourself in different areas. The topic of our conversation today is how to master speed reading techniques and not lose the quality of information perception.

What is speed reading?

In short, this is the ability to read faster than usual, perceiving and remembering basic information. Oddly enough, anyone can learn this; the talent of genius is not needed here, but only perseverance and the desire to learn something new and useful.

The technique of speed reading is very easy to master using various methods and training. But first, let’s find out why it’s useful to own it.

Pros of the skill:

You need this technique if you read a lot of non-fiction literature - and you need to master the information quickly and accurately.
You will have time to read twice or even three more books in a year than usual.
Your vocabulary will increase.
You will gain the ability to concentrate on something specific and highlight the main thing.
Learning something will be faster and more effective.

Fast reading is not given to everyone: some master the technique 100%, but others do not. But in any case, by devoting time to studying, you will increase the speed of text comprehension significantly and this will be useful to you in your studies and work. The main thing is to set a goal for yourself and know exactly what you need.

Mastering occurs using some methods developed by scientists and founders of technology back in the 20s of the last century.

Speed Reading Technique Methods

There are courses and programs for speed reading, but with the help of special techniques you can study at home.

There are 5 methods:

Restraining the mental pronunciation of the text.
"Sighting."
Keywords.
The word is like a picture.
Vertical reading.

Let's take a closer look at them.

1. Restraint of mental pronunciation of the text

Have you noticed that when reading in our heads, we seem to pronounce all the words out loud? This is our voice, and it sounds so beautiful, with the right pauses and intonation, even better than we read out loud. This is called articulation. This is precisely what slows down the reading process, because speaking the text takes time, which is so priceless.

How to get rid of this habit? Just while reading a book, tap a familiar melody with your fingers or count in your head to 100. Does it work?

2. "Sighting"

This is a more difficult exercise, but very effective. The essence of high-speed text comprehension is to highlight the most important thing. The reader should be able to see the main and the unfamiliar in the text in a couple of seconds, without wasting time on unnecessary information. Don't think this is a phenomenal ability.

First practice on the following subjects:

Select an item. For example, a picture on the wall.
Look at it carefully for a few seconds, try to remember all the details.
Next, close your eyes and reproduce what you saw in your head. The image will be incomplete.
Next, open your eyes and look at the picture again. Pay attention to details that were forgotten the first time.
Close your eyes again and see that the picture has become more complete. Do the same 7-8 times.

The exercise should be done 4 times. This way you improve your ability to perceive and visualize information.

3. Keywords

This method is very useful when preparing for a couple, seminar or meeting. In such situations, you need to quickly and clearly highlight the main information and remember it.

To do this, decide on a topic and select keywords related to it. That is, highlight only those words and sentences that you need. Such fluent reading reduces time and allows you to remember only what you need.

4. Word like picture

Another method that speeds up reading. You definitely can't do without it. Here you will have to connect your visual memory. If it is poorly developed, you definitely need to train it.

To do this you will need preparation:

On separate sheets of paper or on the computer, write long words (at least 6 letters), a couple of words per sheet.
Look at them periodically. The main thing is not to try to spell it. See it as one whole.
Try to repeat this word out loud.

Repeat the exercise several times a day. This technique is used even in the lower grades of some schools.

5. Vertical reading

The goal of the method is to teach you to perceive not only the whole word at once, but also the whole page. This is probably aerobatics, but you can do it too.

Prepare special tables with numbers from 1 to 16 in random order. You need to look at the middle of the table and try to perceive the numbers around.

This is where peripheral vision comes into play. By the way, it is better developed in women than in men. Over time, the number of numbers needs to be increased. Have someone check on you.

We looked at the basic speed reading techniques, thanks to which you can master the technique yourself.

Of course, you need to practice regularly, for some time. It’s good when your girlfriend or friend studies with you. This motivates you to reach your goal together, and also gives you the feeling that you are not alone and creates a feeling of support.

Interesting exercises for developing technique

In addition to the methods, there are many useful exercises that will help you master the technique and learn to read faster.

“Maybe letters are not needed”

This exercise not only helps you learn to read quickly, but also develops memory and visual perception. Ask someone to help or find ready-made words on the Internet.

Everything is done simply:

Cross out a few letters from the words. For example, after one.
Read the word without these letters.

To make it more fun, compete with someone who can read the most correctly.

"Mixed"

This exercise is also related to individual words, only its essence is slightly different.

It is necessary to mix up the letters in all words: all except the first and last. The fact is that thanks to visual memory and vocabulary, the brain automatically reads words correctly. But if you complicate them, it will be a good memory workout.

“Why do we need all the words?”

Something like highlighting individual words on a topic. The idea is to read the text, skipping every second word.

This makes it possible to concentrate on the entire text in general, rather than on a specific word. This is how intuition and visual memory develop.

"Retelling"

It is important to understand that the point of the speed reading technique is not to quickly skim through the text, but to extract useful information from it.

This is why everything you read needs to be retold to someone. This is very helpful for creative people or those who communicate a lot with people, teach or hold meetings.

"Don't come back"

Many people have this problem, especially when reading:

fiction,
in a home environment,
when someone is chatting next to you and you can’t concentrate 100%.

Then we return to the sentence or phrase we have already read. This slows down the process. Moreover, people do this unconsciously, but automatically.

"Like at school"

Remember how in childhood we read fairy tales and moved our fingers? So this is very useful! This technique allows you to concentrate better if you need to read a text word for word.

"Extra"

Let's remember school again! It happens when you read a boring paragraph on history and skip whole chunks. So, mom won’t scold you for this anymore.

This is very useful if you realize that you don't need certain pieces of text. Just skip, but don't overdo it. The brain relaxes and doesn’t want to perceive anything later.

"Aurally"

Have you noticed that audio is perceived differently than printed information? The fact is that the sound range acts on a different part of the brain.

This allows you to learn to perceive the text as a whole, without paying attention to the letters. Besides, it saves time. After all, during this time you can cook a meal and go to work. The main thing is not to stop and listen.

Well

If what is written in the article is not enough for you, then you can take a full course. Here is the most advanced site on skills development.

Summary

There are no boundaries for perfection. And if you have already learned how to manage your time, then include in your schedule the development of speed reading techniques.

Even if you are not going to break world records for the number of books read, learning this skill will allow you to develop:

memory;
reading speed and speaking technique;
visual memory;
peripheral vision;
ability to concentrate;
the ability to highlight the main thing.

That's all for me. Read, develop, subscribe to my blog. All the best and see you soon!

In the age of high information technology, speed reading is a useful skill that will allow a child not only to receive more information in a shorter period of time, but also to assimilate it more deeply. How quickly is it necessary to read and is it necessary to teach this to a child?

What is speed reading

Speed reading is the ability to quickly grasp the essence of what you read using special techniques. The average reading speed of an adult is 200 words per minute, while speed reading can increase it to 600 words per minute. As for children: by the end of primary school an excellent student should read at a speed of 130-170 words per minute, a good student - 100-130 words per minute, a C student - 80-90 words.

Problems that lead to slow reading

Reading is the basis for the development of a child’s personality and the foundation of his further education. The classic of Soviet pedagogy V.A. wrote about this back in the last century. Sukhomlinsky. If problems arise with reading at the initial stage of learning, most likely they will remain with the child in the future. Therefore, under no circumstances should you ignore them, although you shouldn’t panic - everything can be fixed!

First of all, parents need to clearly identify the problem that leads to slow reading: impaired articulation, undeveloped peripheral vision, when the child does not see the whole word, but only part of it, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, the habit of recognizing a word only after reading, etc. . Poor reading technique may indicate that a child has problems that require correction. In this case, it is better to seek the advice of a professional: speech therapist, psychologist, neurologist. Solving the main problem will allow you to achieve better results in learning to read quickly.

To teach your child speed reading, you can use the services of special courses. There the child will be tested and a training program designed for several months will be drawn up. However, good results can be achieved through home training. Short-term (15-20 minutes), but daily exercises at home will certainly lead to an increase in reading speed.

6 reasons why your child needs speed reading

Fast reading develops a child's thinking in all its forms and shapes.
Speed reading improves attention, memory, imagination. A good reading speed contributes to better perception of the material and its deep memorization.
School performance directly depends on a child’s reading speed. A child who reads poorly is a direct candidate for C grade students, who will constantly lag behind the class in mastering educational material.
Speed reading improves diction and articulation.
Poor reading technique can cause many psychological problems and complexes in a child: slow reading speed often becomes one of the reasons for ridicule from peers.
Speed reading improves concentration and perseverance, and helps to reduce distractions in class.

When to start speed reading

Here the opinions of experts are divided. Some teachers believe that early learning to speed read is unacceptable - the baby’s brain is not yet ready for this. Although most speed reading courses offer classes for children from 4.5 years old.

According to others, the ideal age for learning to speed read is 14 years old. When choosing what is best for your child, you should not go to extremes. You should start learning to read quickly only when the child has completely mastered the usual. It is also important to make sure that the child’s speech apparatus is correctly formed. If there are problems, you should first eliminate speech defects with a speech therapist. The most optimal age for learning speed reading, according to most experts, is 7 years old.

Note to parents

To read quickly, you need to love reading. It’s good if from early childhood the baby regularly sees mom and dad with a book in their hands, and not with a tablet or phone. Instill in your child a love of reading by your own example!
Don't make mistakes when learning to read. Retraining is always more difficult than teaching.
Read with your child every day, especially before bed, even when he is old enough to read on his own.
Never compare your child to others. Let the only criterion for comparison be that today your fidget began to read two words faster than yesterday. Praise him and let him be proud of his success!

Good afternoon to all curious people. Statistics say that the average person is able to comprehend text at a speed of 120 to a maximum of 200 words per minute. At this pace, we read our favorite works and magazine articles with feeling, sense, and arrangement at our leisure. At the same speed, in order to understand the essence of the problem under discussion, you read our articles on the ShkolaLa blog.

But some people know how to accelerate faster. But not quickly and unconsciously swallowing the text, eating it like a sandwich as you go. No! There are individuals who are capable of absorbing gigabytes of information at incredible speed and then using it. And the reason for this is a special technique. What is speed reading, have you heard? Not quite the same as “the ability to read quickly.” Now I’ll try to explain to you what the highlight is.

Lesson plan:

What does "read soon" mean?

We all remember from school how we were tested on our reading technique, timing the allotted minute and then counting the words spoken in a hurry. But! None of the teachers were interested in what we had just read about. That is, no one was interested in qualitative indicators behind purely mathematical numbers. Here is the main highlight, which lies in the difference between speed reading and speed reading!

So, the trick of speed reading is that such a special skill makes it possible to quickly perceive information received from the text. We noticed the difference: not quickly read without any meaning, but quickly assimilate, highlight the main and necessary things, while spending less time. Those who know how to acquire knowledge in this way are able to master technical, scientific and artistic texts three or even four times faster than the average person does.

An ophthalmologist from France, Emile Javal, was the first to think about the possibility of quickly learning to master the necessary information. While observing patients, he saw a pattern: our eyes, running along a line of printed text, change from short jumps to short stops.

And while reading, it turns out that we stop not at printed characters, but at each line 3-4 times. That is, he suggested that a person’s field of vision to cover a block of text information is much wider than we imagine, and this can be used for good purposes. And since then they began to try to use it.

What is speed reading based on?

Numerous studies by both Zhaval himself and his American and Russian followers took three main pillars as the basis for methods of teaching speed reading:

absence of regression - this means that the exercises teach you not to return with your eyes when reading, mastering texts by individual words, as we are used to, but to move through entire paragraphs, that is, not horizontally slowly, but vertically quickly, in which case the viewing angle of ours given by nature the eyes will be used as efficiently as possible,
the absence of speech duplication when reading, when the text is spoken out loud, which makes it possible not to the public, but “to oneself” to glide with one’s eyes at random over paragraphs and parts of the page, to even see the entire page, while the information flows through visualization,
quality improvement, which increases the ability to understand what you read without spending a lot of time on this process.

Judging by this description of the principle of speed reading, for me this process is somewhat reminiscent of photography: in a second I photographed a page with text, flipped through it, and photographed it again. Remember how in the children's film the boy robot Elektronik swallowed textbooks?

Therefore, of course, speed reading techniques require memory development and are “tailored” to the flexibility of the thought process. There are special exercises that allow you to develop these skills.

So, for example, you can learn not to pronounce the words of the text you are reading out loud if you replace them with an action, beating out the rhythm with your hand.

To develop peripheral vision, specially designed tables by psychotherapist Schulte are used, in which objects (usually either numbers or letters) are randomly located, and they need to be covered as much as possible with one glance.

What can you read quickly?

In general, as reviews from supporters of speed reading say, you can read everything this way. If we approach the process mathematically, then the brain’s ability to process information almost 4 times faster than we usually read thoughtfully allows us not only to master the page, but also to mentally imagine what we have read, paragraph by paragraph.

So, what does our brain do in the remaining 1.5 minutes of the two allocated to the printed page? That's right, it creates involuntary associations - images that, as fans of speed reading say, we don't need, we waste time on them and get distracted. The result is the painfully familiar: “I looked at the book, I saw a fig.”

For study and work, speed reading is perhaps a real godsend! Why, for example, should a 2nd grade student see “The Atlantic Ocean” in the text immediately imagine a beach and a vacation, if he just needs to quickly find out where it is located and what countries it washes to answer a geography lesson.

Why, for example, should a bank manager, when reading reviews about the financial situation, fantasize about where he would spend the money, if at the moment he needs to sift through a bunch of information and urgently make a decision whether to invest resources in investments or not.

Therefore, in the endless flow of information, of course, the need to instantly find what you are looking for, cutting off the unnecessary, is growing by leaps and bounds, and speed reading is an irreplaceable thing.

It allows you to work with text quickly, not be distracted by trifles, capture details and extract only the important in a short period of time. In general, in the modern world this is not a luxury, but simply a necessity.

But for me, for example, a simple layman, a work of art swallowed in a couple of hours would not bring such satisfaction as if I were to pore over it slowly, sometimes returning to what I had already read and using my imagination, drawing pictures in my head.

Many who want to master the technique of speed reading, who, like me, love to savor an interesting novel, are worried: will I learn to read diagonally, will I be able to then slowly line by line, savoring every word? They say no problem. But only gurus who read 500 or more words per minute can say this. Are there such among us? Dispel our doubts: is it worth learning to read soon or not?

I also suggest watching this video. Do you think this is true? Or is it all staged?

Please leave your opinions in the comments. I also suggest you subscribe to blog news and join to our VKontakte group so as not to miss anything important and interesting.

Business speed reading also varies:

Analytical- the most difficult thing. It is necessary to master and understand new paradigms, principles, approaches. A structure for assimilation has not yet been formed for this information; we do not know how to use it and how to classify it. This is the slowest read because you need to seriously think about this information. My speed is 3,100 characters per minute.
Introductory- simple and clear reading. We already have a system of knowledge on this subject in our heads; we simply add new facts, concepts and points of view. This also includes all news and stories. Quick reading. One and a half to two times faster than analytical. My speed is 4,800 characters per minute.
Search- the fastest reading. Searching for necessary information in a large array of text. Suitable for restoring knowledge in the head. Speed reading, 4–5 times faster than analytical reading. My speed is 14,000 characters per minute.

The advantages seem obvious. The given speed is taking into account the memorization coefficient. After each test, questions are asked to check what information remains in your head.