Does Speed Reading Improve Comprehension?

If you’re a strong reader, do you really need speed reading? If you’re a student or professional, the answer should be obvious; it can only give you an edge. More to the point, why keep your reading level at basic comprehension and average speed? If it’s obvious that making a small change in your life results in a big difference, it’s worth investigating.  This is the case with speed reading. Yes, speed reading does improve comprehension.

 When you were in school, you learned how to read by letter-by-letter reading, which is exactly what it sounds like. You sound out each letter and over time, you can form them into entire words.  Children learn this process very young when they are shown the letters of the alphabet and the sound associated with each letter. Some of you may have learned to read using the ‘whole-word’ method. You were taught to recognize the whole word, and didn’t learn to sound out the letters.

You wouldn’t stop at letter-by-letter reading if you knew you would get more out of reading by moving on to word-by-word reading. This is the ability to recognize entire words. So why limit yourself to block-by-block reading that involves short blocks of words when you can increase that enjoyment and reading comprehension even further by learning how to increase those blocks?

Speed reading is more than getting through a stack of words at high speed. It increases the text you take in at one time. This gives you a better grasp of what you’ve read, which in turn increases your ability to understand what you’re reading. Your reading comprehension is maximized. We all shift gears when we read, depending on what we’re reading. We automatically read text containing familiar words and ideas fast and slow down when we come across text with new ideas. Speed reading gives you another gear to shift into, saves you time, improves your reading comprehension, and gives you an automatic edge.

Having the ability to speed read allows you to read as quickly through unfamiliar text as you do with text that you have seen before.  For the professional or student who needs to get through large pieces of text quickly, this is incredibly valuable.  You can pick up a book or document, spend no more than a few minutes going over it and have the same or better comprehension and absorption that someone reading at a regular speed would have after spending several hours. The time saved is remarkable and for someone who is a busy professional or for a student who is faced with many classes as well as other responsibilities, the difference in their lives can be substantially better.

Although learning to speed read takes time and patience, it’s an investment that is well worth it.  The ability to grasp and retain information that is read at a fast speed can make a significant difference in a person’s life. If your reading skills are strong now, you can quickly and easily adapt to speed reading.  Take some time to learn the techniques, make a concerted effort to employ them, and then reap the many benefits of being able to speed read. You'll be amazed at how speed reading improve comprehension.