| There Are 5 Proven Roadblocks to Your Speed | | | | imagination, creativity, understanding "gestalt" |
| Reading Success | | | | (wholes), concepts, and meanings. Without learning |
| The term "speed-reading" delivers 55 million results | | | | how to activate the right side of the brain, speed |
| on Google. There is an overabundance of | | | | reading will only be an exhausting way to doing |
| information related to this topic. Even if you are | | | | what you have always done. To make faster |
| highly motivated to improve your reading and | | | | reading work for you, you need to understand |
| comprehension, the information overload is | | | | the "whole" of the material before your mind can |
| enough to make you want to quit before you | | | | adequately understand and remember the parts. |
| start! Obviously, quitting is one of the reasons | | | | Reason 4: Effective Speed Reading Requires a |
| why speed-reading does not work. However, | | | | Shift in How You Comprehend and Perceive - To |
| there are several more reasons why people do | | | | radically change your reading behavior, your |
| not master speed-reading that you should know. | | | | approach to comprehension needs to also change. |
| Reason 1: Misinformation: The web will allow you | | | | You have read and understood printed material |
| to access 55 million pages on the topic; resulting in | | | | using the traditional approach you learned many |
| being overwhelmed and misguided by much of | | | | years ago. It is habit. Nothing will really change |
| the information that is available, especially the | | | | permanently in your comprehension and reading |
| "free stuff." As you dig into the results of the | | | | behavior, until you make the shift from that old |
| search term, you will find contradictory, outdated, | | | | approach to a new one. To make sense of the |
| and often false claims and information from | | | | material, your brain/mind will always tend to go |
| savvy marketers, most of whom do not know | | | | back to the previous habit. It is your default way |
| the subject themselves. | | | | of comprehending. |
| Reason 2: Overemphasis on "Eye-Span" and Eye | | | | Reason 5: Mastery of "Whole Brained" Faster |
| Speed - To read faster and better, you do need | | | | Reading Requires Masterful Correct Practice - |
| to move your eyes (the mechanics of reading) in | | | | When you start change your habits of |
| a more efficient manner. However, nearly all | | | | comprehending, you begin to re-train your brain |
| speed reading programs focus on only this | | | | mind. This change does not happen easily. Your |
| component. Software programs are particularly | | | | mind is a very powerful tool. It is also a very |
| designed around this single aspect of reading. The | | | | resistant friend. The brain/mind will try to keep |
| truth is you can only read as fast as your mind | | | | you stuck in your old ways. Only through |
| can comprehend, or understand the material. | | | | repetition of correct practice will the new |
| Reading requires the reader to understand the | | | | behaviors and perceptions take hold. Beware of |
| material, whether done speedily or not. Very few | | | | learning to "speed read in 16 minutes!" That |
| programs teach the comprehension aspect at high | | | | phrase makes for good marketing copy, but but |
| speeds and leave it to the learner to "get it" | | | | in reality, it is false. |
| someday with enough practice. | | | | Also, notice the term "correct practice." Without |
| Reason 3: Effective Reading is "Whole-Brained | | | | practicing under the guidance of a trained |
| Activated" - Using a simple model of left-brained, | | | | specialist, you will most likely fall into mistakes. |
| right-brained functioning, language is primarily a | | | | After coaching thousands of learners for many |
| function of the left neo-cortex in the brain, as well | | | | years, I have learned that just because someone |
| as sequencing, grammatical structuring, linearly, | | | | says they are "practicing," does not mean they |
| individual parts (words), etc. To teach traditional | | | | are doing the correct behaviors that lead to |
| reading, a left-brain approach is used. Nearly all | | | | mastery. Practice requires monitoring, coaching, |
| speed reading programs build on this same | | | | and feedback when learning how to speed read |
| premise and thus merely speed up what the | | | | masterfully. You can do it! Nearly everyone can |
| reader has been doing for years. The right | | | | learn to read four to ten times faster with good |
| neo-cortex, however, is the center for | | | | comprehension. |