LESSON PLAN #1: TEACH YOUR 3-YEAR OLD CHILD TO SPEED READ
Below, I have posted a LESSON PLAN for teaching young Pre-School children, who are about 3 years old, how to Speed Read. I’m sure that there are many other different ways to teach speed reading to these very young children, but for the time being, these plans seem simple, easy to understand, and are quite workable for most (if not all) young pre-school children at about the age of 3 years.
These are simple instructions that any motivated parent can follow, step-by-step.
As far as I know, this the only published step-by-step instructional method for teaching children as young as 3 years how to Speed Read.
Some people think it’s crazy or nutty to teach 3-year-olds to Speed Read.
I’ll leave it to each parent to make their own determination about that.
But just so you know, there are tens of thousands of children who have already learned to Speed Read as preschoolers. (Some of them learned to Speed Read at the age of three.) We currently call them Natural Speed Readers.
And nobody ever questions “How” they ever learned to Speed Read.
Why not?
For now, I’ll just post this lesson plan, and let those parents who are interested do their own “research” on the subject. If they want to remain anonymous, that is just fine with me. If they want to post comments or helpful suggestions, they are welcome to do so.
At the very least, this article will likely help double or triple the number of Natural Speed Readers out there in the world.
I leave it to the readers of this blog to come up with alternate ways of teaching speed reading to very young children, if they find it helpful. You are free to let us know what works best for you and your children.
Since this entire concept is pretty new, AND because every brain works a little bit differently, these lesson plans are not very detailed. Rather, they are only concept-oriented, with a few supporting ideas and strategies. You will need to exercise a certain amount of creativity in teaching your child to read faster. Please post comments to this blog post regarding any ideas or strategies that you would like to share or comment on, which things have worked for you, or ideas which you would like to propose to others. Feedback is helpful for further innovation. The rest of us thank you for your participation.
The following Lesson Plan can be broken down into a series of several steps. Each step is a simple progression from the previous step:
1. First, teach your baby (or young child) to read by using:
a) The Glenn Doman method (from his book How to Teach Your Baby to Read), or
b) The Little Reader computerized reading program from BrillKids.com, which is designed to teach very young children (ages 1–7) to read, or
c) Some similar method, often using large flash cards. (There is one word on each flash card, written in large letters).
This may take a few weeks of patient work, getting your child used to large flashcards with large-sized words written on them, or using the computerized program for teaching young kids to read. Follow the instructions of the method that you choose. Hundreds of thousands of parents have succeeded in teaching their young children to read using these methods — so they work.
(Regardless of which method you choose to use, in teaching your child to read, I suggest that you get or borrow a copy of Glenn Doman’s How to Teach Your Baby to Read, and read it thoroughly. He teaches a lot of basic concepts that will help you to be more effective in all instances where you are teaching your child, no matter what subject you are dealing with.)
2. Each lesson should be VERY short. Maybe 1 or 2 minutes maximum. If you have more than one lesson in the same day, it must be separated from other lessons by more than 30 minutes. Don’t bore your child by taking too much time for each lesson.
3. After attaining a measure of simplified success with a number of flashcards, introduce a simple story by means of the PowerPoint Program (or some similar program — widely available on most computers). It must be written in a ONE-WORD-PER-PAGE format. All you do is flash the words of the story to your child, one-word-at-a-time (by pressing the “down arrow” key), and reading to them aloud (at first, until they know the story well) as you go along. Do this for a minute or two each lesson. And have 2 to 4 lessons per day. Each day that you go over the story, adjust the rate that you are displaying the words (in PowerPoint) so that it is gradually increased over the rate that it was shown on previous days. This will train them to get used to reading on the PowerPoint program.
(Make sure that any “REGULAR READING” lessons that you might do with your child are held separately from any SPEED READING lesson that you may have. Do not combine the two.)
4. After a few days, explain to your child that he/she needs to read quietly now, instead of reading aloud (during “Speed Reading time”). Ask him/her to “turn the words of each story into A MOVIE IN THEIR MIND.” Continue going over the story each day. Have your child tell you about the details of the MOVIE that they picture in their mind.
When your child is ready, have other stories ready to play in the PowerPoint software as well. It may be important to have the child’s favorite story be the one that you load into the PowerPoint file. That way, your child will be less likely to be bored as you gradually increase the reading speed, day by day. Have your child have fun by “watching the movie as fast as you can — but understanding it, too.”
If there are any unfamiliar words (for your child) in any of the PowerPoint slides that you use, don’t bother sounding them out to your child. Instead, simply tell him/her what the word is and then move forward. This improves speed, which is the whole point of the Speed Reading PowerPoint Drills.
5. After your child gets the idea of reading one-word-at-a-time with PowerPoint, Have him/her start doing more stories with PowerPoint Drills. Also make sure that some stories have multiple words on each page. (like starting with only 2–5 words per page at first). When there are several words on each page, it won’t be necessary to press the “next page” button so rapidly.
6. When your child starts seeing a few words per (PowerPoint) page, this is also a good time to have him/her try seeing several words per glance, instead of one-word-at-a-time. It’s a simple concept, but very powerful. It’s OK to proceed carefully through this concept until your child fully grasps it. They may “get it” right away, or they may need a few days to adjust to it. Many kids “get it” within a few minutes. Perhaps one-second-per-page will be good enough at first. Gradually introduce greater speed, day by day, by pressing the “down arrow” button more rapidly.
7. Get some EASY 1st and 2nd grade level “chapter books.” Practice Speed Reading in these books at 1 second per line. Use a metronome or a clock with a second hand to help pace your child through several pages, for a couple of minutes. If there are any new vocabulary words that are unfamiliar, review these words with your child ahead of time, so that they will understand them while Speed Reading. Continue working your way through the book, a couple of minutes at a time, and making sure that your child describes to you the pictures and movies that he/she is seeing in the story (however, if your child gets the story wrong, don’t correct him/her. Just listen politely and love him/her. If you correct them much, they won’t want to cooperate for long. They will eventually get better at understanding the story line correctly, as their skill improves.).
8. Many children (especially those under the age of 10) get proficient at seeing multiple lines at once. Some can even process an entire paragraph in one glance, after they have been speed reading for a few weeks (it’s really amazing to watch). So, explain to your child that many people can read 3 lines of words at the same time — when they are reading quietly (of course this can’t be done when reading out loud). Using the metronome, or a clock with a second hand, give him/her 1 or 2 seconds for each 3-line group of words.
Ready, go!
Bear in mind, that when kids are reading 3 lines at once, they are in effect tripling their reading speed, so don’t be surprised if their comprehension drops down to zero for the first few times that they do this. That is to be expected. However, as you try this for a couple of minutes per day for several days, you’ll find that their comprehension will “bounce back” within a day or two, most likely. Also, some of the PowerPoint slides that they have worked with have had multiple lines of words on them (albeit very short lines), so they will likely already be open to this concept.
Have them try it for a couple of minutes. Even if they don’t “get it,” at first, celebrate — and give them a “high five” for trying. It will help their brains stretch, in order to gain more comprehension. Have them try this for a couple of minutes per day for a week. You’ll likely be surprised with the results. Many children can do this quite well with a little practice.
If, after a week, your child doesn’t catch on to the 3-lines-at-once reading, it’s OK to discontinue. There are some children who may need to wait until another time to give this a try. Or if they just don’t want to do it, don’t force them. Keep it fun and you’ll still get amazing results.
9. Be sure to give your child lots of love and attention during and after each lesson. Children learn best when they are having FUN.
10. This entire process, from beginning to end may take a few weeks to a few months. But it could take longer, especially if you have a very young child. Don’t be overly anxious for immediate results. Just have fun, and LOVE your child. And guide him/her through the process.
Be patient.
Please write back and tell me how things go for you. This lesson plan is based on what has worked for others, but it is still somewhat experimental. Let me know what works best for you. Since this concept is still in the beginning stages, we need as much feedback as we can get. This will help us to improve our methodology as well as our results as time goes on. One thing that we know for sure: Some people have had success with these methods. For sure, many more will benefit from them as well, perhaps millions of children.
OTHER IDEAS:
We need people who are willing to experiment with this. One mother had success with this concept when each of her two children were about 3 years old. Will these methods also work on 2 year olds? How about 1 year olds? If not, what variations will work on the younger children? What other techniques will help out? Please post your experiences and ideas to this blog.
Thank you for all your help and ideas.
— George Stancliffe, author of Speed Reading 4 Kids