LESSON PLAN #2: TEACH YOUR 4–7 YEAR OLD CHILD TO SPEED READ

I recently posted an article to Medium.com, on teaching your 3-year old child to Speed Read. The chief difference between teaching the very young (age 3 and under), and those who are 4 to 7 years old, is that these older children will catch on to the initial “Normal Reading” by using more traditional reading methods. But the subsequent Speed Reading instruction pretty much follows a similar pattern to what the younger children do.

(Of course, the younger kids have a shorter attention span. So, more patience and creativity will be required in order for them to succeed.)

Here are the basic lesson ideas and concepts for helping your 4–7 year old child to Speed Read:

1. Teach your 4- to 7-year old child to read by using any normal system for teaching children to read. It can be phonics, Look-Say, the Glenn Doman method (from his book How to Teach Your Baby to Read), the computerized Little Reader software available through BrillKids.com, or any other method. It’s your choice, really.

A NOTE ABOUT PHONICS: phonics is a method for teaching reading to children, where significant time is spent “sounding it out.” It is one of several methods for teaching children to read. It is a good method.

But Speed Reading uses a different part of the brain (the Right Brain) than “Normal Reading” and Phonics use (they use the Left Brain). As a result, Speed Reading and Phonics do not mix well (simultaneously).

In Speed Reading, instead of trying to “hear” the words, it is important to “Visualize” the actual action and pictures of the story that is being read. “Visualizing” will help the children read faster. While “hearing” or “sounding out” the words will slow them down.

Think of it this way: Speed Reading and “Normal” Reading are both valuable skills — just like Running and Walking.

As a result, when your children do Speed Reading lessons, you will be asking them to Visualize, instead of “sounding out” the words of the story.

Once your children are done doing their Speed Reading for the day, it’s perfectly OK for them to go back to “Sounding Out” the words again, if they want. Just like it’s OK to go back to walking again, after the PE Class workout is over.

2. Each Speed Reading lesson should be SEPARATE from any REGULAR READING lesson, and it must be VERY short. Maybe 2 or 3 minutes maximum. If you have more than one Speed Reading 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 Speed Reading lesson.

3. After attaining a measure of simplified success in teaching vocabulary words, introduce a simple story on the PowerPoint Program. It must be written in a one-word-per-page format. The letters should be about 90 points high (or as large as you can get them). All you do is flash the words of the story to your child (by pressing the “down arrow” key), one word-at-a-time, reading them out loud 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, have the speed of reading gradually increased over the rate that it was flashed in previous days.

Make sure that any “REGULAR READING” lessons that you might do with your child are done separately from any SPEED READING lessons that you have. Do not combine the two.

4. After 2 or 3 days of getting used to the PowerPoint slides, explain to your child that he/she needs to read quietly now, during the PowerPoint Drills, instead of reading aloud (when it’s Speed Reading time). Ask him/her to “turn the words of the story into A MOVIE IN THEIR MIND.” Continue going over a PowerPoint story each day. Have your child tell you about the details of the MOVIE that they picture in their mind.

Have a few other stories ready to play in the PowerPoint software, for variety. It may be important to have the child’s favorite story be the most important one that you load into a PowerPoint file. That way, your child will be less likely to be bored as you gradually increase the speed, day by day. You will also know that he/she is understanding the story as he/she goes through it more rapidly. 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. (If you want, you can “sound it out” later on, during your next phonics lesson.)

5. After your child gets the idea of reading rapidly, one-word-at-a-time with PowerPoint, have him/her start doing more stories with PowerPoint. Also make sure that some stories now have more than one word on each page. (like starting with only 2–5 words per page, initially).

When there are several words on each page, it won’t be necessary to press the “down arrow” button so rapidly.

6. When your child starts seeing a few words per 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. Remind them to be watching a movie in their mind. They may “get it” right away, or they may need a day or two 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 each day. If there are any new vocabulary words that are unfamiliar, review these words with your child ahead of time, so that they understand them while Speed Reading. Continue working your way through the book, a couple of minutes at a time for each lesson, and making sure that your child describes to you the pictures and movies that he/she is seeing in the story. (Don’t worry if they are missing details from the story. Just listen politely and LOVE them! If you spend time correcting them, they will lose interest — fast.)

8. Many children (especially those under the age of 12) get proficient at seeing multiple lines at once. Some kids 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 simultaneously — 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 to 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 time or two 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 already 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 reading 3 lines-at-a-time for a couple of minutes. Even if they don’t “get it,” at first, give them a “high five” for trying. It will help their brains stretch, in order to gain more meaning. 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.

Please write back and tell me how things go for you. The methods and concepts in this lesson plan are based on what has worked for others, but it is still somewhat experimental. Let me know what works best for you. Since this entire concept is still pretty new, 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 already had success with these methods. For sure, many more will benefit from them as well. Perhaps millions.

OTHER IDEAS:

We need people who are willing to experiment with this. Perhaps we need to post other methods of teaching Speed Reading to 4- to 7-year olds. What other techniques will help out? Please post your experiences and ideas to the comment section.

Thank you for all your help and ideas.

— George Stancliffe, author of Speed Reading 4 Kids.