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Bookworm and others: slow reader – leave alone or do something?
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I have a 12 yo daughter who loves to read, is a good reader, and when she reads aloud she reads with good expression even on a “cold reading”. However, she is a slower reader – it takes her awhile to get through her books. The stack of books on her shelf keeps growing as she accumulates more than she finishes!
On the one hand, this doesn’t bother me because I know she reads well and because I know she really enjoys reading. However, looking to the future – high school, college, etc. – she will feel overwhelmed if she cannot plow through all the reading required of her.
So what do I do? Do I leave her alone and just assume she will get faster over time (she’s been reading since she was 6 if that’s helpful for background info). Or are there tips to help her speed up a little? I don’t want to kill her enjoyment of reading and turn it into a chore, but I also don’t want her to feel like she’s drowning in books because she can’t get through them quickly enough.
It doesn’t help that her younger brother is a super fast reader (which has its own issues but not going there right now!)Looking forward to hearing from you.
-Tanya
What I’ve seen with my kids (some were at your daughter’s level at this age, others were still struggling) was that continued, daily practice developed their speed. It was more important that they find understanding than to pick up speed at this age. I encouraged them to read for understanding. Those who were good readers at this age, tended to naturally begin to pick up speed just because the passages/books were longer and they didn’t want to have them take any longer than necessary. Those that were still struggling had the aid of audiobooks to listen to as they read. This helps some, and just acts as a way to check literature off the list for others while they still read much slower.
College Plus offers a speed reading course for use by students who are pursuing CLEP tests towards a degree. This works well for some and not for others. You might find outlines for some book titles. They can act as a handy note taking tool to help speed things along, too.
HTH,
Becca<><
okay, thanks. We’ll just keep plugging along. Maybe down the road we’ll look into speed reading type things if necessary.
I’d kind of wait a bit, too. I would encourage her to get plenty of time reading each day, but if she is taking a long time on a book that isn’t very difficult, I’d have her read aloud to me a few times and see if I could figure out what might be tripping her up. I’d not worry at this point about fairly advanced books–understanding way trumps speed—but I’d listen to her read and ask some questions and eventually see if I could unearth some clues. Is it big words? Long sentences? Does she dawdle in other activities? Does she just not want them to end? How are her eyes?
Yes, she gets time to read every school day, and often on weekends too. She really enjoys reading, and she tends to sit behind/next to someone reading aloud because she likes to read along. Her eyes are fine for reading (she does have glasses though more for distance as she is nearsighted and the dr. has said she can wear them for reading or not depending on her comfort level, so sometimes she wears them and sometimes she doesn’t when she’s reading).
I like the idea of listening to her read aloud. That might be helpful for me to get a fuller picture.
I know she savors her reading, and if there are any pictures she enjoys studying those too. Again – I’m not really complaining because these are all good things. I just get concerned when I think about her amounts of reading growing over the years; I don’t want her to get discouraged and no longer like reading.
Thank you both for your ideas.
-Tanya
Tanya,
My 12 yo dd can be a slow reader as well. I don’t know if this may be an issue for your daughter, but I will share what we found to be the case with our dd. We took her in for an eye exam, and while her vision is fine, the Dr. noted that she shows eye strain for close reading/viewing. To help with that, he gave her a script for low level “cheaters” which had to be ordered because they don’t sell them in the stores. It’s just a magnifier to help keep her eyes from straining so much. When she remembers to wear them, it does help her speed. Your dd may just need to work on her speed, as the others suggested, too.
Pax,
~jacqleene
Yes, this condition is called esophoria and is common and cannot be picked up from only a refraction. I’d recommend having her checked for this as well. My dh and one of my sons have it.
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