(cross posting as this seems the more appropriate place)
cross-posted from: https://lemmygrad.ml/post/3198573
I have ADHD, I think it’s possible I had some other form of reading disability when I was younger, but I’m not sure. Just a hunch, my therapist has. One thing I do all the time, that really slows me down, is subvocalizing. If I’m not subvocalizing, I feel like my retention and comprehension are almost nonexistent. For easier literature, it’s not a big deal, but wanting to read more theory, I find myself struggling.
I think, according to some reading tests I was taking today, I read at about 144 wpm which isn’t great. That’s me mostly subvocalizing. If I stop, I can get to 270, but my retention and comprehension goes down quite a bit.
Any advice, tools, websites, services, you might be aware of that can help me unlearn a lifetime of bad reading habits? Everyone wants to sell you a tool or service for STEM shit, but when you’re looking for adult assistance with reading, all I seem to be finding is stuff for Elementary and Middle School level reading.
You mentioned reading theory. Some styles of text are just hard to read and it takes practice to get fast. I had to read a lot of scientific papers and immerse myself in the concepts and lingo before I could parse through them quickly. It might make sense to just read theory as slow as you need to to absorb the concepts and get comfortable.
As for subvocalizing, I think I would draw a distinction between speaking the words in your head and hearing the words in your head. When I speak the words in my head I find that it slows me down, probably because it engages the speech production part of my brain too much. But even when I stop speaking the words in my head and just scan my eyes across the text, I still hear the words in my head in a more passive way. And it’s strange, because if I heard real audio at that speed it would sound weird, but when it’s just in your head somehow it feels normal. You’re not having to actually parse a real audio signal, your imagination is just ghosting over the sounds of the words as they enter your brain.
Maybe I would read even faster if I stopped hearing words entirely, I don’t know.
I will say that subvocalization literally is reading aloud to yourself. Your larynx flutters when you subvocalize and so iirc the current theory is that it’s a way of promoting comprehension and retention because you are processing it through both audio and visual centers of the brain