Two Time USA Memory Champion and memory training expert and memory keynote Ron White has taught Speed Reading in his course, and believes that anyone can learn to read faster and comprehend more.
While speed reading is advantageous for most people to save time and get more reading done, is also improves your ability to process information at an astonishing rate – and that means retaining what they learn, as well as enhance how to memorize anything they read.
The average person reads about 120 words a minute with good retention. In most instances that would be fast enough, and it is a good rate when taking in technical information. With time and memory techniques, speed reading will allow you to increase your reading speed by 600 words per minute or more, with better than average comprehension.
Not all speed reading programs use the same techniques. Some use the process of skimming the page, and just taking in the highlights. These types of courses are not concentrating on comprehension. They are more into speed. If you are reading text that contains a great deal of filler, and aren’t trying to remember what you are reading, this would be fine. With this method you may miss the main points, and that will not improve your study skills or in memorizing any part of the material.
The best speed reading courses are designed to help people train their brain by strengthening eye movement, as well as eliminating the need for use of “sub-vocalization,†which is sounding out the word as we read.
You will soon be able to take in more of the page at a time, by training your eyes to take in more area at a time. You would be amazed at the amount of information your eyes are able to take and send to the brain to process. From starting out taking in a small area at a time, and timing your speed, you will be able to take in more of the page at the same amount of time you took in a few words. You don’t have to concentrate on each word, and every letter, to visualize the word.
The biggest challenge to anyone learning speed reading is the “sub-vocalization.†At an early age children are taught to read to themselves aloud so they can learn to sound out each word as they read. Being creatures of habit, as adults we still utilize the same reading methods – although reading to ourselves in our mind and not out loud.
With speed reading you retrain your brain by eliminating the aloud processing of every letter or word. Your brain will be learning to recognize only the words important to the material being read without the need to hear them in your head. Only the words that are important to the context of the material become part of the comprehension process.
Just as in any skill, practice makes perfect. Speed reading only gets better with practice. It is also a skill that anyone can learn, and will improve study skills and memorizing abilities.
Resource:
ArticleBase.com – Comprehension and the Art of Speed Reading by Francis Hesse:http://www.articlesbase.com/time-management-articles/comprehension-and-the-art-of-speed-reading-480366.html