How fast do you read?

[Bender5]

Depending on content I read at a fast pace. With fiction I often have to stop and go back and read paragraph, page or chapter when my mind went totally some where else. I talk to myself and practice scripts all the time. I have also found that I dream in text sometimes, reading newspapers or magazines. Ive even dreamed entire books, waking up trying to write it down but loosing my recolection before getting very far.

 

[Alex Bogue]

I can finish a book in 2 days.

 

[AdultAspie69]

i read extremely slow,i have extremely slow information processing and i struggle to understand many words without a dictionary plus i struggle if it isnt short sentances, but i had put that down to my intellectual disability not my autism.

It often takes me at least 5 min to read a single page depending on how many distractions are around me. Sometimes have to read paragraphs a couple times. Could be ADD, slow info processing, info retention a prob also.

 

[AdultAspie69]

For the most part, i've stopped reading books because what i read doesnt stay in memory long. Gone within a short time. I can usually remember the general idea of what i read, but cant recite word for word.

 

[Dadwith2Autisticsons]

I read very slowly, at talking pace and I'm wondering if this is an aspie trait or just a me reading slowly trait.

I hold conversations in my head all the time. Whether it is composing an email, or having a practice argument (that I never end up actually having in real life, or just generally talking to myself.

But the conversations are the same speed as actually talking, which is exactly how I read. As I read a book or a newspaper, I effectively read it silently to myself. So is this an aspie thing?

I read very slow, as I think all words are potentially important. I even re-read sentences, in order to comprehend things better, and paying attention to details which many could think is trivial, but which actually could be very important. I think this need to read slow and to re-read and analyze is because of growing up perfectionistic, and with desires to learn and understand a lot.

Also, I had limited concentration when reading fast, as learning things in general bored me, and so in order to understand my mind said I had to read in detail as I think in detail. It is as if without detail, my mind turns to mush or jello. Writing though, I write very fast, one finger at a time though, as after I understand something, my thoughts are in detail and so I know what to say quickly.

But, when reading things, I have no knowledge what it is going to be written, so, I break sentences down and have to slow myself down, to comprehend it, and then to write or quickly talk about it. As well, I think it is important to respect things you read. If reading a novel, or someones message, or an article, make sure you go at that pace where you comprehend it.

 

[AshleyDS]

I think I read at an average speed. I would say it's slightly slower than me talking, but I talk way to fast.

I frequently stumble on homographs though.

 

[JamesBon92007]

I read three books about Asperger's in one day, so I guess that fast. If I'm reading posts here I tend to read quickly, but carefully and slowly re-read anything that I am responding to. If it's something technical I may re-read it a dozen times, and usually very slowly, sometimes one word at a time. The one-word-at-a-time thing is probably Aspie and might be a result of making sure I understand the meaning precisely because NTs are always saying things that I'm not sure of.

I too hold conversations in my head.

 

[Tia_Vali]

I read very slowly, at talking pace and I'm wondering if this is an aspie trait or just a me reading slowly trait.

I hold conversations in my head all the time. Whether it is composing an email, or having a practice argument (that I never end up actually having in real life, or just generally talking to myself.

But the conversations are the same speed as actually talking, which is exactly how I read. As I read a book or a newspaper, I effectively read it silently to myself. So is this an aspie thing?

 

[Tia_Vali]

I'm a 50 year old female newly diagnosed with Asperger's, although I've suspected it for about ten years. I've had a unique set of challenges my entire life that are all making sense to me now. "I read very slowly, at talking pace" is EXACTLY how I describe my reading, verbatim! Wow! I always thought this was just my unique brain issues due to my mother being nearly 4 days in labor while giving birth to me. They told me my head was pretty beat up and purple when I finally popped out. I always just figured the trauma and/or oxygen deprivation affected my ability to read at normal speed.

If I'm reading at home, alone (which I most often am), I will usually read out loud to myself because it reinforces what I am learning to HEAR it as well as read it. When I listen to audiobooks, I almost always read along (if I have the text available) because it's too easy for my mind to wander into deeper thought on whatever topic I'm listening to on the audiobook.

Oh, and I also hold practice conversations in my head. Glad to know I'm not alone in any of this.

 

[Ste11aeres]

It depends on what it is that I'm reading, but I tend to read pretty slowly.

 

[Dusty285]

I read very slowly for years. I still do if I am trying to pull all the information I can out of a text. Like understand and remember something technical, instructions, involved or complex information. Most of the time I skim the words, see what they are and know what is being "said" all very rapidly. If I want to, like a long advertising copy, I can skim to pick up the general flow and have a passable idea of what is contained in all the text. Then stop, slow down and read carefully when there is significant information.

I think very slow reading is a version of reading aloud. Like in grade school when we had to read the words for the teacher. Some people mouth the words and whisper them as they read. Most of us keep our tongues still and don't breathe air the way we do when speaking; otherwise it is about the same.

Reading faster is taking the speaking parts of our bodies out of our process of reading. This is mostly conscious effort, self-teaching until it comes without thought. Not trying to do or even allow for the time needed to actually say the words will speed the reading considerably.

The next step for me when I felt the need to sometimes read very very quickly was to try to follow the concepts of advertised speed reading instruction. I had no intention of paying for someone to try and teach me how to do very fast reading. The concepts are usually right there in all the advertising drivel..

To read very very fast is to first focus intensely on the text. Use word order of the written language you are reading. Pick out the nouns and verbs, look for modifiers that might make a real difference in the meaning of a sentence. Learn to see entire phrases in a glance. Do it very quickly and continue on. Paragraphs should start with a sentence that identifies the content of the entire paragraph. In skimming, try to get an idea of what is in that first sentence and a little of the next sentence. Skim the entire paragraph trying to find nouns and verbs to see if the entire paragraph is following the same basic theme or idea. Reading in the middle of any paragraph can be very sketchy. If it seems you missed something important you can go back and read more carefully. Only try to remember the basic theme or idea. Look more closely at the last few lines and sentence or two of the paragraph for a conclusion and to see if it does agree with the thought of the first sentence and the content you think you got from the stuff in the middle. Doing this, you might have spent 5 seconds on my entire post. Not more than 10 seconds. Practice a lot.

If the fast scan seems to indicate something important or something of more interest, slow down and re-read more closely. There is no "score" or competition. You are saving yourself time. Much that is written out in the world is drivel because the writer is paid to create so many words or fill a specific amount of space in a published whatever. Inches of column space or perhaps 5000 words. Even fiction stories in a magazine or book are a basic idea made into a story. Then the story is extended and enlarged with largely irrelevant description and involvement. Entire paragraphs are fitted in to make the thing longer, more words, seemingly more action or detail. Learn to skim the text and identify when to read carefully and when to barely be aware of the thoughts in the text. It makes a great Do It Yourself project for whenever the mood strikes.

 

[Alaska]

I guess I am not Aspie Typical as far as reading goes. Several people on here say they read fast, but most seem not to.

I can read very fast, but slow down for a while unless I keep using fast reading ability. I did cheat and take a class to improve one's reading speed. I was in college and had read stuff about average reading speed and average reading speed for college students. I figured it was going to be a lot easier to get through school if I read faster.

We all have to work out an efficient reading speed for ourselves. Aspies being so different even from each other, our way of taking in what we read is going to vary a lot.

I can't say that this is true for all or any Aspies, but studies have shown that reading the beginning and end of something and looking at the table of contents and then reading rapidly works best. If comprehension is not good enough after one fast reading, then reading again fast, helps more than a slow reading.

When I am in peak reading form, I have read over 5 books in one day. This does not work for something like, "Gone With the Wind", or "War and Peace. Recipes, formulas, and math are types of material that can not be read fast with decent comprehension, by most people.

 

[Gracey]

I forgot to mention earlier;
I read up to date British English really, really quickly.
William Shakespeare, Robert Burns and Jane Austin - not so quickly but really enjoy working out what they mean.
I can usually work out what's been written in standard French (not colloquisms or slang) and love to hear about how the words we use today originated.

Haven't tried Latin yet. Is something I'm curious about but can't fit an obsession in at the moment, don't have the time.

 

[Tia_Vali]

I can finish a book in 2 days.

Lucky you! If I could do that, I'd be so brilliantly accomplished I'd NEVER have to worry about finding or keeping a job.

 

[Tia_Vali]

I forgot to mention earlier;
I read up to date British English really, really quickly.
William Shakespeare, Robert Burns and Jane Austin - not so quickly but really enjoy working out what they mean.
I can usually work out what's been written in standard French (not colloquisms or slang) and love to hear about how the words we use today originated.

Haven't tried Latin yet. Is something I'm curious about but can't fit an obsession in at the moment, don't have the time.

I love word origins (etymology). I'm very tuned into language.

 

[abby normal]

it seems to me that whether I skim or laboriously r . e . a. d. every letter of every word, that my comprehension is equally dodgy. I can't count the number of times I've had to re-read and re-reread what I was reading in order to make sense out of it and remember enough about it to act on it.

 

[CoffeeCat88]

I am also a slow reader. I read and re-read the same few sentences to understand how they go together. Doing this allows me to "see" an imaginary process going on, which is the idea the writer is trying to convey.

I think I need to be able to mentally visualize the idea before I can understand what is written. Therefore, I read slowly. I do prefer non fiction too.

 

[Jet Weiss]

I read, speak, and type rather quickly.

 

[zeroninja]

Not sure but I read super fast from what I'm told. Not that it seemed that way to me, it just seemed others read very slowly if at all, but I guess that is the case. As examples, I read Moby Dick in like four days or so when I was 9 yrs old. I read all of Lord of the Rings trilogy at fourteen in like five days.

 

[Lady Penelope]

I consider myself to be a really fast reader and I am able to skim read.
I do find myself reading slowly when the writing is particularly grand and I feel like getting lost in the words...more of an experience than for information absorption.

If I am on a topic I know well - or if i get caught in tangent after tangent and try to get back on point - I talk pretty fast. Conversations in my head are quite slow though.

There was a thread a while ago about reading and retention or fiction vs non-fiction... There were a few who found that they preferred fiction when younger but now can only really read non-fiction or not at all, and that after trauma or highly stressful situations find reading almost impossible to concentrate.

I wonder what you can tell about a person by their reading habits and their reading speed, retention, etc. and the changes that occur throughout their reading lives...