My child can read really quickly. Is this normal?

[OneBusyPinkRaven]

I’m not meaning this to be a braggy post. I’m just curious. I’ve been noticing how quickly my youngest reads books and the lack of stumbling over some long words that I’d have expected at her age (just turned 9). Her understanding is probably age appropriate, but I was curious about the speed.

I did a little test out of interest and we both read the same page of her novel at the same time. She was finished in about 2/3 of the time it took me, and then was able to accurately tell me about the text. The speed was such that it doesn’t make sense in my brain. Is this normal? How is she doing this? Sorry I know I sound ridiculous and appreciate reading doesn’t come easy for many kids, so I don’t mean to offend anyone. I’m just curious about how she is able to do this, and at only age 9.

I’m a speed reader and my husband is the complete opposite. I can actually see his eyes moving from one word to the next when he reads, whereas I read in chunks. I’ll admit, he drives me mad. We do crosswords together and I’ve done half of it while he’s still reading the clues.

Our children have inherited my speed reading, but more importantly, their undergrad and post grad studies are teaching them when it’s useful and when it’s not.

I’ve got ADHD and read really quickly. I think lots and quickly too so maybe it’s all related,

My eldest could read quicker than me at that age. Middle child could draw better than me at 9. We all have different skills and talents, it's not really that big of a deal.

Same here!

Just going to fly the flag for fast readers who aren’t aphantasic!

I’m not a speed reader in the movie-style “opens books, flicks through pages and closes it again two minutes later, contents fully digested” sense. But I’d expect to read a fairly dense novel in a couple of hours. War and Peace took me a weekend, including a good 30 mins crying over Petya.

I read very quickly. So do two of my four children. I also have a photographic memory.

This is really interesting because my DH has this. It’s fairly rare and more common in males apparently. We are wondering if our DD will have it or not. It’s a difficult concept to explain to an adult so even more so with a 4yo. I definitely hear/read things in my head and he is much faster as scrolling Netflix etc I’ve always thought of myself as a slow reader but my comprehension is fine. I think I’ve got quite slow processing speed in general…

You're doing better than me, you assumed the table was wood. You're at least filling in some details! And your apple is positively detailed. I just have a vague sense of apple-ness.

For DP, that experiment goes as follows - "A person rolls a ball across a table" - Already she's imagining herself rolling a tennis ball across our dining room table. The entire room is detailed because it's our dining room. "The ball rolls off the table and hits the ground". It bounces slightly because our dining room is carpet so absorbs most of the kinetic energy.

Before I've even finished the 2 sentences of the description, she's answered most of the questions in her mind because it's filled in the blanks with the most familiar scenario for her

I speed read. I taught myself how to do it quite early on - you know that change when kids stop reading aloud and start reading silently? It suddenly dawned on me one day that I didn't have to read at speaking pace, I could go way faster than that. I realised that I understood the word by just looking at it, and could figure out by context any words I wasn't sure of. They used to measure reading age when I was at school and they gave up by the time I was about 9 as their test cards only measured up to age 14.

Don't know how other people do it, but I don't read line by line, I kind of zig zag up and down diagonally, and my brain puts the words in the right order. I have to consciously slow down if I know I have to read something carefully to extract information from it, but on the other hand, I can read something twice in the time it takes other people to read it once!

I'm not aphantasic - I can easily imagine things in my mind's eye from the written or spoken word.

Yes, I do this too! I jump about the lines in order to read quickly. Just did the little test up-thread and got 573wpm and 100% comprehension and found myself doing that!

This will sound like a bizarre question in this context, but is your daughter possibly dyslexic?

My daughter and I both are (slow to learn to read - did not learn through phonics but by word recognition - don't know left from right and used to get letters the wrong way round when small, etc).

We are both highly literate and astonishingly quick readers now (I don't mean to show off - there are also lots of normal things I am completely shit at - can't drive for example). . And the reason for the speed reading is that we don't read from left to right, but kind of from both sides moving towards the middle - it's not exactly that but that's the nearest way I can describe it. From experience the only people who can actually understand are those who do the same. According to my ex-husband, Oscar Wilde also read like this - I have never fact checked this as it's something I like to believe!

It's a useful talent in some ways and less so in others. We can both miss things. But it does mean we can discover key information and themes in a piece of writing incredibly quickly.

Dyslexia is so varied, and potentially includes as many talents as hurdles.

This thread is absolutely fascinating. Reading about how all of these different brains work.

I’m exactly the same. I read very quickly and get through a couple of books a week. But I don’t see pictures in my head so yes maybe this makes it quicker.

I score high on a Mensa test but I wouldn’t say I’m overly intelligent, I’m definitely low on common sense!!

What was the table made of? I don’t know you didn’t tell me. Probably wood.
Did the ball bounce? No it disappeared
what colour is the ball? I don’t know, red?
is the person male or female? I don’t know I didn’t see them.

i did a reading test , I scored 450 words per minute but low comprehension.

My adult child read very fast and seems to be aphatasic too. Also adhd but I don’t think that’s linked.

I think people who don’t see pictures and dyspraxics seem more likely to be natural speed readers. I am one and have great comprehension but am very fast. I die inside everyone some reads a ppt to me.

We once had an issue with terms and conditions at work, so I had to read out one version while someone else followed the new version to identify any differences.

I realised that day I can read out loud faster than some people can in their heads.

My eldest is the same. We use charity shops and the library for her books because paying £7 for a book she can finish in 2 hours distresses me!

These days I get accused of googling because my comprehension is fine. I read 4-5 books a week.

I’m a speed reader. Was reading very difficult books at age 9 very quickly. I can actually glance at a page and get the gist of the whole thing within seconds. Words really mean something to me and create an immediate image in my head. On the other hand with numbers I am the opposite. I am totally number dyslexic.

It means I skip huge portions of books. Entire paragraphs and pages as I skim them and realise I don’t need to read them in much detail.

When I get someone to read something eg like an email or something on my screen I’m always amazed at how slow they read!

Diagnosed ADHD at age 43.

I’m a fast reader. Always have been. Pre having a child I could easily read a book a day.
Some people used to comment they could see my eyes flicking back and forth across the page of a book.

I have aphantasia too. All those visualise tasks never worked.

I think I sort of scan paragraphs at once, rather than following text along a line. I was a fast (and early) child reader who turned into a fast adult reader.

I was a very fast reader at that age. I also did my degree in English, and that slowed me right down. I think there are different ways of experiencing reading. You can have excellent comprehension (my DD’s teachers always told me that as she was an advanced reader she must not be taking it in, but I spoke to her about the plot etc so knew that not to be true) but maybe not weigh the words / images in the same way. That point about aphantasia above is fascinating,

I could do this at your daughter’s age. My eldest daughter also could. My mum could as well.

its useful to have but sometimes I feel as if I don’t always process what I’m reading. That’s just me though.

im rubbish at other things. Maths for instance

This is me too

This is so interesting. I only discovered other people properly see pictures in their head about a year. It was because a friend of mine was explaining how traumatic she finds working with people who have been abused as she feels like she.Relives it all the time in her head. I had no idea people actually saw pictures. I have done similar work and not found it nearly as upsetting in the way that she describes.
I too am a fast reader.

Me too… how interesting…