When I began my tutoring ten years ago I noticed that many of the students I work with struggled with their college prep, honors and AP reading reading requirements. Many confessed they never read outside of school, a troublesome admission since unless they read outside of school 2 hours a week, many will have trouble getting scores above 500 on their SATs. They have problems with more complex vocabulary and sentence structure. Students who read for pleasure rarely have this problem.
I knew there was technology that could help because when I was in middle school, I learned speed reading with Tachistoscope. The machine flashed text on the screen, first single letters then words, then several words, then lines of text, slowly at first, then faster and faster. I was taught to move my eyes across the page faster and faster, until I developed a high reading speed that got me through high school, college, and graduate school.
After years of searching, I finally discovered a software that uses a modern version of my middle school program. It is called ACE Reader, and it’s put out by Stepware.com. Students of all ages can benefit from its graduated approach, and many enjoy the eye exercise games as well. It even allows you to load text from files and the clipboard, allowing you to train with material you already need to read. I highly recommend this software for students as well as adults. (I am not connected in any way to the company)