Was it normal to do this as a child?

[FaffingChampion]

Do you remember having lessons where everyone took it in turns to read a page aloud from the same book?

If so, we’re you able to follow along at the pace of the person reading, or did you find yourself involuntarily tuning out the person reading and reading ahead at your own pace?

I’m trying to get an ADHD diagnosis and am sifting through childhood experiences trying to figure out what’s normal and what isn’t.

YABU - this is a totally typical thing for children to do
YANBU - no, I never did this or I did this and am/suspect I am neuro divergent

Read ahead. No issues. I read quickly. It was painful hope schools don’t do anymore - some girls really struggled reading even at secondary or were quiet as a mouse.

I don't think I ever read ahead. Why waste time doing that when i could gaze out of the window or day dream about David Essex. and crib what I needed from Brodie's Notes.

I would read ahead, normally the bit I would be reading... so I could practice it in my head.

I don’t hear a voice when I read in my head. The information just flows in!

I'm sorry what? When I read a word, the word sounds in my head...... how do you read I've never heard of this?

OP, no I didn't read ahead in these sorts of classes. I struggled with keeping up and reading (diagnosed dyslexia and ADHD)

Words don’t sound like anything in my head unless I’m reading very slowly. I just look at the sentence and the information is in my head?

Like if I was reading a sentence about a big red barn standing in a corn field, I’d just look at the sentence and know it was about the barn… I wouldn’t hear any individual words as such

Attempting to read Shakespeare out loud was particularly excruciating for a mixed ability class of 13-year-olds (though the crackly taped recording was scarcely any better).

Jane Austen’s prose, though beautifully crafted on the page, sounds dreadful in a modern accent, no matter who is reading.

I have ADHD. I wouldn't be able to tune out someone else reading. ADHD is an inability to direct your attention. So you are easily distracted and can't just tune out noise that NTs may be able to. So for instance I struggle to hear in restaurants and use noise cancelling headphones to help me concentrate when there's background noise.

I did however in class get extremely frustrated by the slow readers. It felt like torture. And when it became my turn to read I'd read super fast in a pointed manner. Which i obviously got in trouble for. People with ADHD tend to be very impatient!

@Chattycathydoll honestly have no idea how you do this 😂. I find it fascinating (and sometimes upsetting that I can't do this) how most people read.

Oh God I remember that so painful to listen to the strugglers. I was a very keen reader as a kid so had probably already read the book. I definitely read it myself if someone else was reading it though as they would you know, be reading it 'wrong'.

Very normal behaviour to read ahead.

Most of us did this in English. It was so we could discuss certain parts of the book as they came up.

I often got picked for some reason. I'm not the most confident so hated it.

I always read ahead. I usually hated the books we had to read and when I had the lightbulb moment that just because I started a book I didn't have to finish it, it was liberating.
Like a previous poster I am unable to visualise and until that post was unaware this phenomenon had a name. Until about 10 years ago, I thought that when someone told you to see it with your mind's eye they were using a cliche/turn of phrase it never occured to me that they meant it literally. My dd says that when she reads, it is almost as good as watching a film, she knows what the characters look like, how they move, the scenery, room layout - everything. I just remember that the main character is average height with short brown hair and that the room has a green carpet and lots of furniture 🤷 We both think the other is weird 😁

Yes I can visualise every detail. It's infuriating seeing a film adaptation get it wrong 😂

Always read ahead still do now when the kids read to me NT here.

No one can answer this as you use the vote to ask 3 questions!

We used to do this in school. I'm nd and always read ahead.

I'm like your dd @Readinstead. It's why films of books are too frustrating to watch.

Sounds normal to me, some kids were very slow readers, nervous etc

Always read ahead. I don't hear the words in my head but my brain works weirdly
So if I open a book, I read both pages at once, and I miss out not important words like and/the/it. People reading to me infuriates me as it's SO SLOW
Takes me about an hour to read a easy going chick lit type paperback

No one followed along at the appropriate pace. Accomplished readers read ahead as their reading pace was faster and it was more interesting. Poor readers daydreamed and didn't follow at all.

It was a pretty terrible lesson plan really.

i remember the teacher went around the class normally in order of seating so I would try and work out which paragraph I would get and read it first to myself before I had to read it aloud so I was prepared for any tricky words that could come up
i hated reading aloud in class!
im neurodiverse

I speed read and I had read everything already as I had older siblings who had had the same books. Like a pp not being able to skip the audio in training videos drives me mad. I can't bear audio books.

I can easily tune out the noise around me and read. At school I could listen and read or listen and talk/whisper. Many a teacher suddenly called on me to read because it seemed like I wasn't paying attention but I'd always know where to start reading from. I dont think I can listen to 2 things at once now, I seem to have lost that ability. I just get overwhelmed now.

Sometimes I do wonder if I have adhd.

Never read a head after first few words I was in a world of my own until it was my turn and I didn’t have a clue where I was up to or what had been said. Diagnosed adhd

I always used to read ahead even though I'd often already read the book (my mum was an English teacher and we were all avid readers in the family).

I used to read clearly and quickly out loud - to my annoyance this meant that the teacher would make me read at least twice as much as everyone else. Annoying cos I wanted to get back to the place I was reading in my head!

Yy to fully visualising books in your head. Harry potter does NOT look like Daniel Radcliffe thank you very much!

Although I read so fast in my head I sometimes miss words - and by the time I realise, the character is already fully formed in my head and I can't go back and change eye/hair colour etc.

I am currently pursuing an ADHD diagnosis, and both my DSes have it.

We did the reading aloud thing, but couldn't read ahead as the teacher would interrupt very randomly and call on someone to read. One girl might read a page and a half and the next one might read two sentences.

There was no reading aloud like this after about 3rd grade (about age 9) in the primary school I went to, and none in secondary.