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Jory
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28 Aug 2011, 2:48 pm

I’ve posted on various WP forums here many times about my concentration problems when reading, about how it’s usually relatively easy for me to focus on something I’m interested in but almost impossible to focus on something I’m not interested in. But even with something I’m interested in, I still often have trouble sitting and focusing on it, even without outside distractions. In these cases, I almost always read out loud, either in my normal speaking voice or at least in a whisper. Otherwise, the words just sort of blend together into a jumble in my mind, if that makes sense. This goes for fiction and nonfiction, books and magazine articles, e-mails and forum posting. Anyone else this way?



AngelKnight
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28 Aug 2011, 2:54 pm

I'm the opposite. Focusing on the sounds of words distracts me; I can only imagine deliberately speaking aloud is doubly distracting.

(Oops, I remember now, it *is* distracting! It's all sorts of difficult for me to read aloud to an audience, even just 1 little child.)



Jory
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28 Aug 2011, 2:57 pm

AngelKnight wrote:
It's all sorts of difficult for me to read aloud to an audience, even just 1 little child.


I can’t imagine reading out loud to an audience. I’ve got no reading “rhythm.” I get the inflection wrong, don’t pause correctly for commas, and I just sound like some as*hole speaking in monotone in general.



mb1984
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28 Aug 2011, 4:54 pm

I also have concentration problems that worsen with decreasing interest level. If I am reading, I find that whispering it to myself helps keep me on it. Otherwise I realize that while my eyes have read the words, my brain has sung a song, made a list, who knows what else, simultaneously. All the while, I'm also telling myself that I'm distracted and need to focus. Then I re-read, and get frustrated because by that point my brain is swimming too much to make sense of the words.

I think that if I could get my inflection right, I would be better at reading aloud. I also read the words so quickly by sight, automatically, that my brain goes faster than my mouth and things get jumbled together.


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MagicMeerkat
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28 Aug 2011, 4:57 pm

If I read outloud, I can't comprehend what I am reading because all of my mental energy is going to saying the words. I need someone to read the text to me in order to be able to get the most out of it. I've never been good at reading because the text jiggles on the page and is impossible to make out. I've always been told I was horrible at reading comprehension, but I wonder if it's becuase I couldn't make out what I was supposed to be reading in the first place. I think I may have some dyslexia as well but it was never diagnosed. I'm looking into getting some blue tented sunglasses (Irlen Lenses) and seeing if that helps.


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Jory
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28 Aug 2011, 5:17 pm

MagicMeerkat wrote:
I think I may have some dyslexia as well but it was never diagnosed.


Same with me. There's clearly an undiagnosed learning/reading disorder there, since I often need to read the same sentence five times before it sinks in, and clear and simple English often appears like a jumble of words from an incomprehensible foreign language. It can't just be attributed to ADD alone. I call it dyslexia since I don't know what else to call it, but I can't diagnose myself.



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28 Aug 2011, 5:50 pm

I love listening to audiobooks.
I read out loud sometimes just so I can act out the characters' voices, but my speaking muscles get worn out after a while and I end up not having absorbed the words anyway.



Jory
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28 Aug 2011, 6:12 pm

Ellytoad wrote:
I love listening to audiobooks.


Me too, but only after I've read a print copy first. I once heard someone say "I can't hear that fast" when talking about someone who spoke too quickly. That's how I am when I'm being told a story. It's like my brain can't keep up with normal speaking speed.



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28 Aug 2011, 10:53 pm

I have trouble with reading too but it's not just concentration. I'm not going to be able to explain it all but one thing I do is get stuck on completely not understanding a sentence. paragraph. or chunk, no matter how many times I reread. Other times I space out.

I tried an audiobook with similar issues of not understanding what's going on or meaning. And so I have to scroll back and listen over and over. Or I find out I have spaced out.

I could try reading out loud but I'm not sure it's going to help. I think I may prefer reading but I might try audio again. But I can find it's too fast as well.



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29 Aug 2011, 5:10 am

I have to read out loud for two reasons:
1) I hear voices and sometimes I have to talk over them to shut them up.
2) I get what the OP gets with topics I'm not interested in; I find it hard to process the words in their original order.


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Jory
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01 Sep 2011, 2:02 am

Tonight my concentration was doing fine until I came across this sentence:

Quote:
“The growing popularity of science fiction in the 1950s,” Booker writes, “can be related, at least in part, to the desire to recover some sense of the marvelous, to gain some reassurance that the very technologization that was helping to make life routine might also help make it magical once again.”


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