Kids speed reading

Speed reading is not only about reading faster. It’s about reading at a speed appropriate to the material and the purpose, it’s about having that purpose in the first place – in fact it’s mostly about how to think about what you’re reading so that you get from it what you want in a way which allows you to build your understanding, implement your new knowledge and remember what you need to remember.

Continue reading →

Cutting edge research from neuroscientists at Georgetown University Medical Centre has shown that, ‘We are not recognizing words by quickly spelling them out or identifying parts of words, as some researchers have suggested. Instead, neurons in a small brain area remember how the whole word looks – using what could be called a visual ‘dictionary”. Read the full article in Journal of Neuroscience

You still don’t believe – read this then:

WEIRD: How cmoe yuor bairn is albe to undnertsnad tihs snetence eevn tghouh olny the frist and lsat ltetres of ecah wrod are crreoct? Aoccdrnig to rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it deosn’t mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoetnt tihng is taht the frist and lsat ltteer be at the rghit pclae. The rset can be a total mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit porbelm. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe. And you touhhgt taht sepllnig was iprmoetnt!

Exercises for eyes for optimal speed reading
It’s harder to read when your eyes are tired. Keep your eyes in an optimal state for reading by doing eye exercises from time to time:

Change focus / 20-20-20
Look up from what you’re reading and alternate a few times between focusing on something in the distance and on something up close. This is called 20-20-20. Your eyes need regular breaks to prevent strain. Every 20 minutes make sure that you take 20 second break from what you’re doing to focus on something 20 feet or more away.

Palm your eyes
Briskly rub the palms of your hands together to warm them slightly. Place the palms over your closed eyes and gently massage the bony areas around the eyes (not directly onto the eyeballs) with the outsides of your palms for about 30 seconds. Open your eyes under your hands, and create a seal with your palms so that you’re looking at complete darkness for a moment or two.

Clock gazing Sit comfortably with an erect spine and both feet on the floor. Imagine a huge clock face about 30 cms away directly in front of you. Without moving your head, look up to 12 o’clock – then down to 6 o’clock.
Up to 1, down to 7
Up to 2, down to 8
Right to 3, left to 9
Down to 4, up to 10
Down to 5, up to 11.
Close your eyes and rest (or palm them) for 30 seconds.

Lazy eights
Make a fist with your thumb sticking up. Hold it out at arm’s length in front of you. Draw a figure 8 on its side – start in the middle, move up to the right, round, down the outside, up towards the middle again and then round over the top on the left, down the outside, up into the middle again. Make sure you’re going up in the middle and down round the outsides. Keep going. Keep your head still and follow your thumb with your eyes.

Other factors
Eating healthy: the link between good eye health and diet is well established. Vitamin A helps maintain healthy vision. Good source of vitamin A is sweet potatoes.
Stopping smoking: Smokers are up to four times more likely than non-smokers to develop age-related macular degeneration (AMD) the UK’s leading cause of sight loss.

Top Tips for Digital and Online Reading (ebooks, Kindle, pdfs)
Digital reading is a relatively new – and growing – phenomenon, and it merits specific consideration.

All 37 of the spd rdng techniques apply equally to paper-based texts and digital reading (including online reading). Some need slight modifications, some are easier digitally (such as scrolling quickly when downloading or previewing) and some of the things that we take for granted on our computers, reading devices and mobile phones (such as searching for information, not feeling obliged to read every word, stopping once we’ve found the information we need, etc) are strategies which can profitably feed back into our paper-based reading.

Continue reading →