Speed Reading training entails improvement in the eye span in terms of reading and comprehending. In this process, you increase your reading pace as well as the ability to understand the material you are reading. Speed Reading was developed in 1950s by an Arizona teacher known as Evelyn Wood. She set up a training institute in 1959, which is aimed at instilling skills of fast reading within the participants. The course can now be offered online. The techniques developed through this reading have helped many people enhance their knowledge, attain jobs, save their time and develop their memory.

In order to succeed the training for Speed Reading, you need to carry out a pre-training examination. This is done by evaluating your normal reading rate. You can time yourself and try to read through a set of words from content material. The pre-examination also entails establishment of the space and schedule of the training. You should ensure that you identify a quiet and undistracted place where to carry out your training. The time schedule should not interfere with other obligations. The pre-Speed Reading preparation also involves establishing your reading habits, emotions and feelings you have about Speed Reading.

Due to poor reading habits people may have developed at childhood, they might have reading setbacks such as sub-vocalization, regression and rereading all of which should not be corrected after the Speed Reading training. The emotions and feelings you have towards the training determine how well you will do in the training. A positive feeling is required in order to gain the morale to pull through the course. Ideal training begins with what is referred to as chucking. This is the process of widening your eye span. The eye span is the set of words your eye can see from a fixation word. This can be from the right, left, bottom or top of the fixation word.

In most cases, people will have an eye span of 3 to 4 words. You can then apply the pacing method to increase your speed of reading. It’s said that the eyes follow the movement of the hand when reading. This technique helps in Speed Reading and produces excellent results. You can then apply the scanning and comprehension technique. This is where you read, understand and relate the words to get the intended meaning of the text. Scanning entails identifying keywords such as trigger words, numbers, names as well as key sentences. Trigger words are such as titles, headings, subheadings, bolded words and subtitles.

Other methods applied in the Speed Reading training are mind mapping and SQ3R methods. SQ3R basically refers to surveying, formulating questions, reading, recalling what you have read and reviewing the content. This is meant to understand the content of the message. The mind mapping technique is pegged on image presentation of the content message. This gives an in-depth understanding of the message. Visual presentation of material has a great impact on understanding the meaning of the content.



Belle Jose is the author of this article on Speed Reading Methods. Find more information on Course of Speed Reading here