Nobody actually knows when speed reading was first used, but it may well have been a long while ago. For centuries, reading was the privilege of a minority of the most highly-educated individuals in the world, the overwhelming majority of whom were monks and priests. This tiny, select group of men guarded their privilege and were loathe to instruct the general public to read. Moreover, throughout those hundreds of years there were relatively few books to read compared with nowadays. Books were also very expensive as they all had to be copied out by hand. Perhaps the only fact that has not altered is that the Bible was the most widespread book in existence and even now the Bible is the most prevalent book.

The world is quickly becoming a place where individuals are slowly but surely giving up on books and becoming fixed in front of monitors or television screens. In such a world, parents must not ignore the importance of developing a zeal for reading in themselves and their children. Reading is a habit that should be established when the child is fairly young, so what can you do to engender this habit?

Well, there are a number of strategies you can make use of, although one of the best to lead by example. Read with your child every day, even if its only for 10-15 minutes. Permit your child to see you reading. By this I mean, don’t only read in bed before you go to sleep, but in place of watching television sometimes and read your children a bed-time story. Encourage them to read too. You could also:

Enroll your child for reading lessons, if you really don’t have any time or your child is a little slow at reading. There are many well-structured after school reading classes that aim to make books more appealing to children. They help children with pronunciation, idioms and metaphors. These lessons can be entertaining with cartoon characters and pictures, especially for young children,. They often make use of picture books, rhymes, comical songs and short stories to spark the imagination of younger children.

You will have to learn how to arouse your child’s interest. If your child has a favorite character, pick a series of books that include this character. Endeavor to encourage your children to read proper books not comics. The style in comics frequently leaves a great deal to be desired with its sloppy English and street slang. As an alternative, go for series of books like Harry Potter or Tarzan.

You should build yourself a library of your own books. This may sound a little grand, but after all, a library is only a collection of books. Begin with a good-looking bookshelf that you can easily build on. A talent like reading cannot be learned in only one place, so you cannot afford to leave all the difficult work to the day-school or even the after school curricula. You have to pick up books that you think your child will enjoy too. Use the Internet as a resource for learning about the modern reading games that will attract young children to the superior and ancient art of reading,

When you child is interested in reading for its own sake, you might read up on speed reading. Speed reading is best suited for informative learning and background reading. It’s immensely suited to cramming or studying for examinations. It is ideal for school and university. However, the first job, before you can think about speed reading, is to get your child reading in the first place.

What have you been reading lately? In a gathering, you can soon see who the frequent readers are, since wide readers are often quick thinkers and good public speakers too. They quickly win the adulation, respect, and fellowship of others. After all, reading expands the mind and many people see it as one of the most satisfying pleasures known to mankind, being a combination, as it is, of mental agility and physical relaxation well above the level offered by television or the cinema.

Reading is primarily a mental activity, as you read with your mind and use your imagination to depict the setting of the detective thriller you are reading. You use your mind to imagine the pain that the main characters in the story are experiencing as the plot unfolds; or you contemplate the different arguments and ideas introduced by the author of that self-help book you are holding.

Being able to read effectively helps you to develop (an extensive|a wide vocabulary through reading different styles of books. A skillful reader recognizes a wide range of vocabulary. The reader may not know exactly what every word means, but he/she will have a good idea of what the sentence means.

The act of reading makes you more aware and more interested in new words. Some readers even like to employ ‘the dictionary habit’, which means that every time they find a new word, they attempt to figure out what it means from the context. If they are stumped, they refer to a dictionary.

Similarly, reading develops intellectual curiosity by exposing the reader to a variety of subjects. He/she learns to read by reading books of increasing difficulty and variety. Just as in other types of education, he/she is learning by actually doing and while he/she is reading he/she is automatically learning about the subject matter of the book too – a free by-product!

Reading trains you to have an active and open mind. Merely understanding the writers idea is not really good enough, you must have a reply to what you read. Be an active, not a passive, reader. Try to develop the habit of drawing your own conclusions, the habit of active thinking, of agreeing or disagreeing with the writer. Always keep your mind open; understand and consider the ideas that you read. A practical part of active reading is the development of one’s own conclusions.

Now let me mention the phenomenon called speed reading. All of the above applies between three and ten times over, because speed readers can read that much faster than the average reader! Imagine that! – Being able to read, comprehend and remember all those books and articles. You would surely become well-read in your field much more rapidly than others. Just think how that could help you at work, in school or in college …

Allow me to share four basic rules for effective reading and better comprehension:

1) Try to read more and more every month. Remember the saying that practice makes perfect. 2) Develop the habit of reading for main ideas. Look for the subject and predicate. Do not waste time on details or little words. 3) Learn to read with focus and concentration. Think of what you are reading. Do not let your attention wander somewhere else. Good readers read with understanding. 4) Learn to budget your time. Experiment with your reading time. Try purposely to read faster. Give yourself a time limit for a specific piece that you are reading.

Reading is a wonderfully stimulating mental activity. It expands your understanding and capability. You have so much to gain by discovering the joy of reading. So, go ahead and get down a book right this minute.