What is the secret of helping children read faster? It takes my children forever to plow through a book? - Too Slow
Answer: As children progress through school, the amount of material that they must read increases dramatically. Children who read slowly are at a definite disadvantage. Reading rate does not increase naturally. Children must work at it. This, however, is not a skill that should be focused on with most children until the start of sixth grade.
Any efforts to increase the rate at which your children read should only be made if your children do not have serious reading deficiencies. The first step is to eliminate the bad habits described in an earlier column (reading aloud while reading silently and reading individual words instead of groups of words). Then you can begin having your children train to increase their speed for approximately 10 minutes a day.
Children should read very easy material when working on improving their rate. Using an index card cut on a slant so it will cover the beginning of a line when they are reading the end of a line will stop them from going back and repeating material. During a session, they should start reading at their normal rate and then make an effort to speed up. Then they can finish a session by reading without pushing themselves so much.
At the end of each week, your children should figure out the number of words they are reading per minute for the first few pages. Making a chart will let them see how their rate is improving.