Asperger's and reading speed

[Forgotten Aspie]

I plead the comorbid 5th - I've also got dyslexia... I struggle above 200 - I have to scan a single line maybe 5 or 6 times to put it all in order ( maybe).. The moving text really throws me off too. I have to scan not only horizontally and keep it in order but vertically too.. plus this is not a "Typical" conversation so I can not cheat and fill in meaning where I draw a blank.... Reading has always been a mental / physical struggle for me.

 

[Iamnotarabot]

I think ill need to do it in my native language, i think i read english slower than french, ( reach 500 on first try) , plus seeing the beginning of the text going away stresses me out xD

 

[Progster]

The extract was taken from Philip K Dick's Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep - I'm familiar with this author and his work is generally quite densely packed with strange new concepts, abstract thought and not easy to read and process fast. If it had been a different author, I might have done better.

 

[SusanLR]

I took speed reading in college.
The context of the story was strange, but, that made it
easier for me to keep up as I didn't get deeply involved with it although I understood it.

Had it been a topic of interest such as science, philosophy or Sci-Fi, I would have become engrossed and read much slower because I would have enjoyed processing it all over in my mind.

 

[Crossbreed]

Had it been a topic of interest such as... Sci-Fi,...

It was sci-fi.

 

[Ragnahawk]

I get stuck up on confusing questions on test. For reading a paragraph if I run over a speed bump I just keep going and discern based off of the other information. I don't know if that is helpful.

 

[pjcnet]

There are really 3 different methods and speeds of reading, but to truly understand everything that is written in it's entirety only the 1st method is recommended:

1...When you read and fully process everything that is written so it's understood in it's entirety.
2...When you consciously read every word in your head with only partial processing and understanding.
3...When you skim through without consciously reading every word with very limited processing and understanding.

Sometimes with practise people can get better at prioritising what is processed and understood when reading at speed 2 or 3 to gain the most understanding without truly processing everything 100%, this makes them better at speed reading.

Personally I can read quite quickly and still hear all the words in my head up to about 600 and I can skim right up until the end, but if I want to truly understand and 100% process all the information properly I can only go up to around 200.

Note: I am definitely on the autistic spectrum, but unlike a high proportion of people here I'm NOT classed as having Asperger Syndrome and this may effect my results. This is because I was extremely slow developing speech and language as a young child, but unlike both my low functioning autistic brothers I started dramatically improving as I got older, although I've always kept numerous autistic traits (my now adult brothers can't read or write at all, in fact they also can't count or tell the time). Even as a teenager however I was the only person at school in the top group in mathematics and the remedial group in English (below the 3rd and usual bottom group for a small number of children requiring special help). The Internet has however greatly improved my reading further as an adult over the years since I first started using it from 1994. I was initially diagnosed as autistic along with both my brothers in the 1970s, but this was updated to ASD and OCD after a more recent re-diagnosis a couple of years ago (I think the 2nd diagnosis is a bit silly because OCD is part of ASD).

 

[Progster]

1...When you read and fully process everything that is written so it's understood in it's entirety.

This is what I do. If I read any faster than about 250 words, I lose the meaning. I also often have to read a sentence a couple of times for it to stick.

 

[Ylva]

800 was fine for me. Little bit of eye strain perhaps. Normally I'd slow down for a text like that, though. I try not to speed-read Classics, it feels disrespectful… But even in those I have to skim occasionally.

 

[SusanLR]

It was sci-fi.

Technically, yes. Involved technical matter, Androids.
Did not find the subject matter interesting is all,
so I didn't get hung up on it.
Sci-Fi and Fantasy is a thin line. Example: Otherland Series by Tad Williams and Lord of the Rings by Tolkien
are examples of reading I enjoy.

Otherland is Sci-Fi, Rings is Fantasy.
To truly absorb, retain and enjoy I would guess
around 500 would be comfortable.
Sorry. Didn't explain reason.
Retaining the story became difficult at 800.

 

[Pariah Dog]

I got up to 300 and could comprehend what I was reading. I could go much faster I'm sure and could read the words but would not attach a meaning to it or absorb what I had just read. I thought it was pointless to continue the test past this level.

I would agree with others here that the content might be more difficult than average to absorb making the test somewhat unfair.

I have read "Do Androids dream of electric sheep?" which was the inspiration for one of my all time favorite movies, "Blade Runner." Now I don't like when people say "The book was better than the movie" because frankly movies would have to be at least 15 hours long on average maybe to account for all the book content. However in this instance, I will say the movie was better than the book.

 

[abby normal]

y'all outperform me, totally leave me in the dust, I can't seem to read [and recall] any faster than I can speak. certainly no more than 200 words per minute. if I try any faster, the words won't stick in my brain.

 

[Progster]

Watching movies with subtitles is also frustrating because I never have time to finish reading them before they disappear from the screen.

 

[Progster]

But what I's like to know is, what's going on in my brain that makes me slower to process than most other people?

 

[Ylva]

But what I's like to know is, what's going on in my brain that makes me slower to process than most other people?

It could just be what you're used to, to be honest. If you read a lot over a period of time you would get faster at it. Your brain would grow more used to processing text and it would do so more efficiently.

 

[Progster]

It could just be what you're used to, to be honest. If you read a lot over a period of time you would get faster at it. Your brain would grow more used to processing text and it would do so more efficiently.

I've been reading all my life, but there hasn't been any significant change in my reading speed. I used to read as a child 20 pages in about half an hour, that works out about the same as now. My typing speed is also much slower than average despite years of practice, too, but that's a different issue. The problem is not that I can't read faster - actually I can, but when I do, I lose the meaning and don't take it in. I don't process the meaning fast enough, or my visual processing is faster than my processing for meaning, which lags.

 

[pjcnet]

y'all outperform me, totally leave me in the dust, I can't seem to read [and recall] any faster than I can speak. certainly no more than 200 words per minute. if I try any faster, the words won't stick in my brain.

That is a very interesting way of describing it. If I want to fully interpret and understand what is written it's exactly the same for me, I have to read "aloud" in my head at the same speed that I speak. When I was at senior school I was also always the last one to finish reading a section from a book, often the teacher would want to move on when I still hadn't finished and it was embarrassing (I was sent to a "normal" school against all advice). You don't have to answer, but I was wondering whether you had slow/delayed speech development as a young child like myself?

Watching movies with subtitles is also frustrating because I never have time to finish reading them before they disappear from the screen.

I've always been exactly the same, also while attempting to concentrate on the subtitles I miss out on the action, I therefore avoid movies that are fully subbed. At least these days we can easily wind back and pause, unless we are watching in the cinema of course and it can also be awkward if we are watching with other people who can read the subtitles easily.

But what I's like to know is, what's going on in my brain that makes me slower to process than most other people?

As I said to @abby normal earlier, you don't have to answer, but I was wondering whether you had slow/delayed speech development as a young child like myself in case there's a link?

I also have issues where I have to keep asking people to repeat themselves so I can interpret what they've said, especially on the phone. I'm often accused of not listening, but this isn't the case at all, it's because I am not processing the information fast enough to fully interpret it. Even when watching English voiced TV or movies I sometimes have to wind sections back again in order to properly interpret them if there's a lot of information. I also have short term memory issues that if anything have worsened as I've grown older, this doesn't help either.

 

[Ylva]

I used to read as a child 20 pages in about half an hour, that works out about the same as now.

A rate of one and a half minute per page is no cause for embarassment. If it has stayed the same, though, it's hasn't stayed the same, because you read more advanced material now than then. It's my turn to say I don't get it. How?

Subvocalization is a thing. Speed readers say you don't need to subvocalize every word or phrase, just the ones you haven't encountered thousands of times already.

 

[Ylva]

Well, maybe if your inner subvocalizer talks like this:

 

[Forgotten Aspie]

Interesting reading people's comments. - I know I'm dyslexic too... and trying to make sense of a string of words takes me time to process as well. I think this is part of what affects my problems with conversations. I am was an interpreter for the deaf till my hearing went south.. but reading finger-spelling was a very hard skill for me to learn. Each letter appears and then is gone. Everybody spells different speeds with different shape hands etc.. I had to learn to different strategies to recall the word that was spelled.