Stimulating visual abilities

As we have explained in previous presentations, in order to change the way we read, we have to achieve, among other things, that our eyes capture whole sentences or lines without moving, instead of stopping after each word.

Today we will talk about the possibilities of training the physical abilities of the eyes and we will explain some exercises, which if you do them daily for more than twenty minutes, will allow you to increase the speed of reading.

Today we will talk about the possibilities of training the physical capabilities of the eyes and we will explain some exercises, which if you perform them daily for more than twenty minutes, will allow you to increase the speed of reading through the stimulation of visual skills.

What are the possibilities of training the physical capabilities of the eyes and explain some exercises, which if you perform them daily for more than twenty minutes, will allow you to increase the speed of reading through the stimulation of visual skills.

What are saccadic eye movements?

Humans do not look at a scene in a static way, the eyes move around looking for interesting parts of an area to elaborate a mental map referring to it. When you look at a face, you don't just focus on one area, such as the cheeks or forehead, but your eyes move in a linear fashion from one side to the other until you get a total picture of the face.

Saccadic eye movements are very fast movements made by both eyes simultaneously as they move from one point to another scanning the observed space, to capture the necessary information to create a three-dimensional map of that space.

Saccadic eye movements are very fast movements made by both eyes simultaneously as they move from one point to another scanning the observed space, to capture the necessary information to create a three-dimensional map of that space.

How are saccadic eye movements related to reading?

They are very important since they intervene in the jump from one word to another and in the change of line. When we read the eyes make very short pauses to fixate the image and jumps to follow the reading.

When we read the eyes make very short pauses to fixate the image and jumps to follow the reading.

Generally we learn to read by covering only one word at each stop (saccade 1), and we become accustomed to this form; however, often our eyes cover more than one word (multiple saccades) and we manage to grasp the meaning of the sentence. It has been proven that with some training, we can increase the distance of the saccadic movements, causing our sight to capture a greater number of words in each saccade, thus reducing the number of fixations and pauses.

What are the reading benefits of making saccades with a greater number of words?

• They speed up the reading process.
• They slow down the reading process.
• They reduce eyestrain.
• Increase concentration levels.

Exercises to stop reading word-for-word.

Read using a marker, pencil or pen: When we use a marker, pencil or pen to follow the reading, we experience a considerable improvement in our concentration and the process of capturing the information is much faster. The habitual practice of this technique, favors the gradual increase of the reading speed, element that will take advantage of the reader to instead of moving the pencil continuously, move it through jumps, trying to read placing the pencil only three or four times per line; and once you do it without much effort, you should put it only at the beginning, middle and end of the line, until you get used to take in each saccade several words instead of word for word.