Just for a moment think back to when you were at school learning to read.

You might have been 4 or 5 years old.

If that is too far to go back for you then just think about young kids reading in the classroom.

How do they do it?

Well the chances are (assuming they have a grasp of the alphabet and can read basic words) that they will be using their finger to guide their eyes to the words and they will be reading out aloud what they hear.

Why do they read out aloud?

Well it gives them feedback on what they are reading and it is a great way for the teacher and her assistants to make sure the child is on track and is actually reading properly.

It is one of the standard practices in teaching kids to read.

Of course this makes for noisy classrooms so there comes a point at which the teacher is satisfied with the standard of reading and so she encourages the child to stop reading out loud and to start reading to themselves quietly.

Of course the noise level in the room drops significantly as fewer and fewer children need to say what they are reading.

There is a transition stage from reading out loud to reading completely silently and that is the stage where the words are mouthed but not actually spoken.

However the noise inside the childs head continues as they "read to themselves".

Inside his or her mind the youngster will still "hear" the words mentally as they read out and so the only real difference between this and what they were doing before is that the words are not actually expressed as sounds.

This is a habit and reading trait that continues and is perpetuate in adult life.

That is sub-vocalisation.

So what does this mean?

Well over time as the child gets older and their reading ability improves, they will read more and more information of increasing difficulty and complexity.

But they will still be reading it to themselves inside their head because that is how they were taught to read - first out loud and then silently to themselves.

Of course with practice they will be able to read faster compared to their first faltering reading steps but there is a limit to how fast they can read if they continue to use this approach.

You see by relying on the ongoing verbalisation of the words inside their head as they read, the student is limiting themselves to how fast that verbalisation can take place.

The maximum speed at which individual words can be verbalised is about 400 words per minute.

Our speed goes up slightly when we are not constrained by having to move our jaws, lips and tongues to make the sounds i.e. when we are sub-vocalising but not be very much.

So continuing to adopt this method of reading will set a ceiling on just how fast someone can read and in the courses I run, the average reading speed of my participants is in the region of 250-350 wpm primarily because of this sub-vocalisation.

One of the first things to do when looking to increase the rate at which you read is to eliminate or dramatically reduce the amount of talking that goes on inside your head.

So how do you do that?

Well there are two ways you can do this.

The first is to overcome it by practicing taking in groups of words (another cornerstone of effective reading).

With practice, the mind will not have time to "talk the words" as it reads but will still pick up the meaning of what is written simply by looking at what is there.

It is a little strange at first because we are so used to saying the words inside our head, but our brains can take in these chunks very easily and will adapt given sufficient practice.

The second way is to imagine turning down the volume of the voice in your head as you read until you can no longer hear it.

Imagine a large black volume control knob or slider (whichever works for you) on the control panel of your mind and as you start to hear your reading "voice" just adjust the control until you can no longer hear it.

If you combine this idea with constant practice, in time you will no longer need to say the words as you read them and your reading speed will definitely improve.

If you have your own way of reducing sub-vocalisation, then do let me know.