Improved Comprehension

Probably the strongest feature of PR is its ability to improve comprehension. This is done by providing a progressive solution to over 18 major stumbling blocks to excellent comprehension. Part of this design is to allow the individual to move forward in technique acquisition from wherever he or she is currently at. PR can address almost any specific comprehension problem instantly, as you will see.

Decoding, Automaticity and Fluency

A student can not possibly comprehend what he or she is reading if the text is not read with proper decoding, automaticity and fluency. The PR program begins by addressing these three issues.

Three Types of Guessing

Students must learn to try to sound out unknown words, using principles of structured phonetics as a first step, instead of guessing. Inappropriate guessing when stumped takes three forms: 1) Just guessing at what a word means without trying to sound it out, 2) cognitive dissonance in which the little words around the guessed word are also changed to make the "guessed" word make sense, and 3) cognitive projection in which the rest of the phrase or sentence is just projected without even being read.

Cognitive Projection Without Being Stumped

Often students in a hurry are not stumped, but they are in such a hurry that they just guess at what a sentence is saying. They must be shown that they are doing this and taught not to do this.

Auditory Memory

Students must learn to develop and use their auditory memory, first with what they have said themselves or heard said, and then with memory of their inner voice. To this end sentences in levels 1-6 can be repeated giving the student a chance to recall how the sentence should end before hearing it end.

Visual Memory

Students must also learn to make pictures of descriptive text and connect these separate pictures into a movie; then play this movie back when they are asked questions. To this end sentences in levels 1-6 are repeated with either synthesized voice and text or a visual simulation of speech, giving the student a chance to replay his or her "movie" and recall how the sentence should end before seeing it end. Specific remedial instruction on how to visualize text is best accomplished on level three.

Thinking About What the Sentence is Saying

Students need to learn how any sentence is asking questions and then answering them as the sentence progresses. To this end sentences in levels 1-6 are repeated with either synthesized voice and text or a visual simulation of speech, giving the student a chance to think about what the sentence is saying and how it should end before seeing and hearing it end.

Combining Auditoy and Visual Memory with Thinking

Obviously, as students try to recall how a sentence will end, before actually experiencing that ending, they combine their thinking with their auditory and visual memory. The ability to have longer sentences automatically respoken either once or twice provides excellent training in this. Students must learn what it feels like to understand a sentence, and by this absence, what it feels like to have "missed" a sentence.

Overcoming Speech and Subvocalization

After students get proficient at the above tasks, they are ready to learn how to stop actually speaking, whispering, moving their lips and subvocalizing. They need to learn how to hear an inner voice. This is accomplished by presentation of text in the silent reading format at level five with speeds at five and above.

Relaxing and Being Open

Students also need to learn how to relax and become open, as in meditation and prayer. This is shown by teaching the student how to enter the Theta state instantly, and by having students experience words at high speed instantly turning into pictures if the text is descriptive, or just an inner voice if not. This is accomplished by reading level five with the higher speeds.

Recognizing Words at Shorter and Shorter Exposure

Students also need practice at recognizing the same vocabulary at shorter and shorter amounts of exposure, because words looks slightly differently with each decrease in amount of time on the screen. Level five provides automatic practice in this, especially with the ability to have longer sentences automatically repeated.

Experiencing Music as You Read

Students also need to understand the inherent music in text and to experience this music as they read. Doing this greatly aids comprehension. This is actually achieved by pausing on the longer words and on words associated with punctuation marks. Levels five and six teach this skill.

Transferring Skills to Regular Text

Students need to learn how to transfer their new silent reading skills to reading actual printed text, i.e. develop transferrable skills. After students have mastered the basic skills of level five, they move on to level six to develop transferrable skills for regular text. In level six they learn about pacing with regular text. This skill is further developed in level seven.

Looking up Words

Students learn the skill of looking up unknown words, at any level, and learn how master pronunciation by echoing real human voice.

Specific Comprehension Solutions are provided for five special situations:

1. A very few young children have good minds but can not handle any phonetics at all. They can, however, instantly process text at grade level if it is presented a phrase at a time which they echo as they look at. We provide this "Echo" reading option in level three.

2. Some young children are so ADD/ADHD that they can not handle voice and text at normal speaking speed. Furthermore, they have missed so much vocabulary that they can not handle silent reading at high speed (which works for many older ADD/ADHD students). For these young children we present voice and text at high speed, level six. This technique has a phenomenal rate of success with these students.

3. For moderately severe dyslexics silent reading will instantly provide relief from reversals with the word above, below or at either side of the word one is looking at. Level 5 will often provide immediate relief from the torture many bright, dyslexic children experience.

4. However, really severe dyslexics will also reverse the individual letters in a word. These people can not benefit from our silent reading tool, level 5. For these people we provide voice and text at up to 400 words per minute. This technique is incredibly effective. The average 250 page book can be read in just two to three hours with this tool.

5. Many middle and high school students are not learning disabled or ADD/ADHD, but for whatever reason suffer from extremely low motivation when it comes to reading. Almost every one of these students will show a complete turn around when reading with level six. They see high speed voice and text reading as a fascinating game challenge, which incidentally enables them to read a page a minute. This tool works well for these students.

For Further Information

Please read our introduction to PR. This article is called "Improve Reading Quickly". Click on the link here, or access this article from the center of our home page. This article describes our progression of seven separate steps for creating good reading habits. This article describes how the program is used and each of the specific purposes. It explains briefly how our software provides help for almost every possible reading difficulty, and describes how two of the seven approaches provide different methods for anyone to immediately read text with increased speed and comprehension.

This Introductory article also explains how ideally this seven step, interactive program is combined with initial evaluation and periodic consultation. Our 16 page paper describes in depth why this should occur and spells out in detail the specific approach used by the PR trainer in the classroom, or with individual students or adults. A detailed description of the eight step initial evaluation process is also available. We offer a Free Demo DVD with free shipping anywhere in the USA.

The introductory article on PR also explains how immediate reading improvement can occur by using specialized hardware which holds book pages open. By freeing up the hands, this tool allows the reader to sit back in a relaxed and supported position and to type notes while reading. It also enables one to stop turning ones head from side to side while typing. For many people, this tool immediately improves reading comprehension and enjoyment as well as productivity.

Please contact us to discuss your specific needs, or those of a family member or friend.