Speed Reading and simultaneously reading out loud

[MusicMum80s]

My daughter has always been an advanced reader- taught herself to read around 3 and has remained an avid and advanced reader even within the context of her selective private school. However, she was reading a chapter book out loud to me today and exclaimed in the middle of a sentence where it didn't make sense. Despite reading out loud, she had actually already read in her head a paragraph ahead and was reacting to something in the plot that happened later. I've never even heard of this. Has anyone come across this before? I tested it and she can read about 500 words per minute so not insanely fast though she's 9. But I've never heard of someone reading out loud and in their head at different speeds at the same time. Is anyone familiar with this?

Yes of course when reading out loud one skims ahead. I thought that was quite normal.

This is how I’ve always read. My 9 year old seems to di it too! I thought it was normal as well and my surprised when other people take way longer than me to read something!

She’s obviously doing well but, yeah reading aloud and skim reading the next bit is how you do it. Have you never read a really exciting bit of a book where you’re simultaneously reading but also pre-reading ahead 🤓 - that’s the same !

Yeah I thought that was normal.

I do that alot. I dint think it's that unusual.

One things sure-being an “advanced reader” is something everyone grows out of!🤣

I can’t speak in the context of children, @MusicMum80s, but I can do it. My job routinely involves reading out loud at sight and I automatically scan ahead in the text for any potential problems while doing so. I doubt it’s especially unusual.

I would disagree there. I was an advanced reader as a child and would class myself as one as an adult too. I can read extremely fast, parse written information way quicker than most other people I have met or worked with, I can absorb huge amounts of written information in a short space of time, I can skim read and pick out information I need in seconds. Being an advanced reader has shaped my career - I work in publishing, where being able to read very fast and efficiently is extremely useful.

To go back to the thread, I do this too, it’s normal for me. Even when reading chapter books to the kids aloud, I am reading paragraphs ahead. I think it’s pretty normal for people who are good readers as reading aloud is much slower than they would read normally and for me, I get too impatient and need to keep going! Those who struggle more with reading don’t really have the brain bandwidth to do it as they need to concentrate on the words they are reading aloud.

Even as someone who is a fast reader, I can't simultaneously read one sentence around while mentally reading elsewhere - I don't have the working memory to store all those in between words in my head, which is what would be necessary to recite words I've read a whole paragraph back with word-for-word precision.

Normal for me, too. At least until Covid. Since then it is a conscious effort with all but the simplest books, and I don’t always succeed. My reading ‘bandwidth’ has definitely shrunk.

It’s not necessarily correlated with high intelligence. One of the most intelligent people I know (PhD, chartered engineer) is also one of the slowest adult readers I know. He cannot take in information ahead of him. But he also never has to re-read. Unless he does not have the background to understand it, he only needs to read something once to understand it and remember it.

Yes, speed reader here and I do that. Always have done, and I can still remember the moment when it dawned on me that the action of reading didn't have to be at the pace of saying the words out loud, and that you could read considerably faster if you stopped speaking. I don't remember how old I was, but it was definitely before I started school.

I found school (English lessons in particular) to be painfully slow, and hated the absolute eternity it took for other kids to catch up.

As others have said, that seems quite normal to me.

It's not so different from having a conversation while thinking about something else at the same time.

Hi all, thanks. I don't think not reading quickly is a sign of being more intelligent per se. We know both her and her sister's CAT scores (IQ proxies) and they are both a similar level of intelligence (close to 140) but only my eldest can read quickly. I think its a skill developed through reading an extreme amount which she does. She's not skimming she's reading out loud and reading separate passages in her head. I think everyone can do this to some degree as you anticipate inflection etc when reading as you've actually finished the sentence before saying it. I definitely can't do it paragraphs ahead though. Interesting so many can!