No one honestly knows when speed reading was first used, but it could have been a long while ago. For centuries, reading was the privilege of a minority of the most highly-educated individuals in the world, the overwhelming preponderance of whom were monks and priests. This tiny, select group of men protected their privilege and were loathe to teach the general public to read. Furthermore, all through those hundreds of years there were relatively few books to read compared with today. Books were also very costly as they all had to be written out by hand. Conceivably the only fact that has not changed is that the Bible was the most common book in existence and even now the Bible is the most prevalent book.
The world is quickly becoming a place where individuals are slowly but surely giving up on books and becoming fixed in front of monitors or television screens. In such a world, parents must not ignore the importance of developing a zeal for reading in themselves and their children. Reading is a habit that should be established when the child is fairly young, so what can you do to engender this habit?
Well, there are several tactics you can make use of, although one of the best to lead by example. Read with your child every day, even if its only for 10-15 minutes. Allow your child to see you reading. By this I mean, don’t only read in bed before you go to sleep, but in place of watching television sometimes and read your children a bed-time story. Encourage them to read too. You could also:
Register your child for reading classes, if you really don’t have much time or your child is a little slow at reading. There are many well-structured after school reading classes that aim to make books more attractive to children. They help children with articulation, sayings and metaphors. These classes can be fun with animated characters and pictures, especially for young children,. They often make use of picture books, nursery rhymes, comical songs and short stories to fire up the imagination of younger children.
You will have to learn how to arouse your child’s interest. If your child has a preferred character, pick a series of books that feature this character. Endeavor to encourage your children to read proper books not comics. The language in comics frequently leaves a great deal to be desired with its slapdash English and street slang. As an alternative, go for series of books like Harry Potter or Tarzan.
You should build yourself a library of your own books. This may sound a little grand, but after all, a library is only a collection of books. Begin with a good-looking bookshelf that you can easily add to. A talent like reading cannot be learned in only one place, so you cannot afford to leave all the difficult work to the day-school or even the after school curricula. You have to pick up books that you think your child will like too. Use the Internet as a source for learning about the modern reading games that will attract young children to the excellent and ancient art of reading,
Once you child is interested in reading for its own sake, you might read up on speed reading. Speed reading is best suited for educational revision and background reading. It’s greatly suited to cramming or studying for examinations. It is ideal for school and university. Nevertheless, the first job, before you can think about speed reading, is to get your child reading in the first place.
Are you interested in speed reading for yourself or a loved one? If so, please pop along to our web site focusing on Speed Reading.
