Average reading speed (WPM) by age and grade (2024)

Table of contents

• Overview
• By age and level
• Average reading speed of college students
• Average reading speed for adults
• How to read faster
• Speed ​​read denied
• The best ways to improve your reading speed
• Summer reading program
• Next step

Average reading speedOverview

Reading too slowly harms our comprehension. If you read too slowly, it's hard to keep an entire thought in place. Reading slowly is inefficient. Reading slowly makes it difficult to understand what you read.

Reading too fast and reading quickly can also lead to poor comprehension. If you read too quickly, supporting details are often lost. Sometimes people skim while reading and miss important parts. This reminds me of the story of Goldilocks and the Three Bears. This chair is too big, this one is too small, oh, this one is just right.

When your average reading speed is just right, you read fluently and with comprehension.

So the question remains: should we improve our reading speed? The first answer is yes. If you are a student and are not reading at the average level for your grade level, you should work to improve your reading speed. Indeed it will besweet place, or as Goldilocks said, “This one is just right.”

Average reading speed by age and grade

The chart below shows the average reading proficiency percentages by grade and age.

Please note that the above reading rates do not take technical reading into account. Technical measurements are read slower than the average read speeds above.

To improve reading speed, there are specific skills that need to be nurtured. Every student, regardless of age, can learn to read faster.

How fast do you and your children read? Take thisreading speed test.

Average reading speed for pages per hour (students)

Based onresearchfrom Rosalind Streichler, Ph.D., Center for Instructional Development, University of California, San Diego; Karron G. Lewis, Ph.D., Associate Director, Center for Educational Effectiveness. Department of Instructional Innovation and Evaluation, University of Texas at Austin; and research conducted at the University of Cambridge in England; we can assume that the average student can read 250 words per minute and that the average textbook contains about 800 words per minute. page. Therefore, it would take 3.2 minutes to read one page, 32 minutes to read 10 pages, and just over an hour to read 20 pages.

Average reading speed for adults

The average reader can read 238 words per minute (WPM) while reading silently. When reading aloud, the average reader can read 183 words per minute (WPM).

It used to be believed that the average adult reads at a speed of 300 words per minute. However, Marc Brysbaert of Ghent University in Belgium analyzed 190 studies on reading rates. He found thataverage reading speed for adultshas been overrated.

Adults who read silently read an average of 238 words per minute. Adults who read aloud read an average of 183 words per minute.

With more and more new research on neuroplasticity, we know that even adult brains can change their brain structure, create new neuropathies, and improve their learning abilities. This is done most effectively through consistent exercise at short intervals throughout the day. It can be difficult to teach an old dog a new trick, but it is possible to improve your average reading speed, even as an adult.

Fluent reading training

How to read faster

How do you improve your average reading speed (without sacrificing comprehension)?

The most effective way to improve your average reading speed is by doingread fluent training. Fluency training speeds up your ability to both decode and retrieve information from memory, RAN (Rapid Automated Naming).

Another part of improving speaking skills is strengthening your eye movements (eye training). To read properly, your eyes must move smoothly from left to right across the page (visual tracking).

So we need to look at eye movement research.

Rayner summarized 25 years of eye movement research in 1997. Reading involves eye movements. These eye movements are called saccades. This is when the eyes move quickly. Rapid eye movements and eye tracking are separated by fixations when the eyes are relatively still.

Saccadic movements typically move approximately 6 to 9 letter spaces. They are not affected by the print size. The full perceptual range is greater, extending to 14 or 15 letter spaces on the right and 3 to 4 spaces on the left. It is the saccade movement to the left combined with the perceptual span that ensures that every letter of every word ends up in the visual field.

Understanding this combination of visual span perception helps us realize that efficient readers do this easily. About 10-15% of the time, readers also switch back (also called regression) to look back at material that has already been read. As the text becomes more difficult, saccade length tends to decrease and regression rate increases.

If you skip words, repeat words, or have difficulty pronouncing words, the fluency and meaning of the choice is lost. However, these skills can be improved with fluency training.

Fluid trainingForbedrer RAN (Fast Automated Naming).

• A recent study(Wolff, 2014)showed that such training was largely beneficial for reading performance.
• To assist with reading fluency and visual tracking of skills, line up shapes, letters, numbers, or symbols from left to right. Then have your students read the items aloud to improve their rapid naming skills.
• Quick naming exercises
• Drill for fluent reading
• Homeschool reading program

How to improve reading and spelling skills at home

Reading fluency trainingand consistent reading is fundamental to improving reading skills at home.

At Scholar Within, we specialize in reading and spelling programs designed to improve your child's skills faster than just reading books.

How? We do this through daily activities that are small. Our activities focus on different areas of visual (seeing), auditory (hearing) and tactile-kinesthetic (doing) processing.

Program details for reading and spelling

• K-8 figures
• Speed ​​training for reading
• Comprehension strategies
• 20 weeks of lessons per level
• 45-60 minutes per day
• Video staafondervisie
• Activities at your own pace, online and offline

Speed ​​read denied

Speed ​​reading itself, the idea of ​​reading at speeds of over 1000 words per minute - much higher than the 200-400 words per minute that the average college-level reader achieves, sounds like it would be great. The problem, however, is that it is completely untrue.

Look again at the visual span example. All text outside the small field of view is blurred. So the idea promoted by speed reading that we can use our peripheral vision to understand entire sentences in one go is just… biologically impossible.

In addition oneinspectionconducted by researchers from the University of California, MIT and Washington University found that there is a trade-off between speed and accuracy. “Increasing the speed at which you encounter words therefore has consequences for how well you understand and remember the text.”

Top Ways to Improve Your Average Reading Speed ​​WPM

So when we talk about improving reading speed, we are NOT talking about speed reading! We're talking about improving your reading speed and accuracy, along with your comprehension, to a physically healthy speed for your age or grade level.

• Find your baseline or exactly how many words per minute you are currently reading. Take thisfree reading speed testFind out.
• Also train your eyesphonetic reading exercises(takes just 5 to 6 minutes per day, 3 to 5 times per week).
• After the exercise, you can read a short selection to continue the progress of the reading exercise and have the opportunity to practice comprehension.
• Set goals and monitor progress.
• Set a goal of 10, 15, 20, or even 25 additional words per minute to meet the specific exercise. It will take 3 to 4 days to reach your goal. Otherwise you haven't set the goal high enough. If it takes longer, you've set the goal too high.
• Model reading skills
  • Read aloud to your child so that he or she hears the rhythm of a story, book or selection.
  • Take turns reading each other paragraph or page with your child.
• Choir reading
  • With choral reading you read aloud together with another reader.
  • Choir reading with your child with both specific reading exercises and stories.
  • Choir reads selections, rhymes or poems.
• UsePress to readvan Scholar Within
  • Reading passages in Scholar Withinscome to lifePress to read
  • Press play to listen and follow the highlighted text
  • You can:
    • Change the reading speed
    • Change the font
    • Increase the font size
    • Turn highlighting on and off
  • AttemptPress to readbelow

Next step

Home, online and self-paced summer reading program

This summer, your children can improve their reading speed, comprehension, spelling and more in our at-home and online summer reading program. This program is research-based and results-oriented. The program lasts 45-60 minutes per day and runs 4 days per week with an optional Friday.

Read more about the summer reading program

Reading speed test

We've put together leveled reading passages that you can use to time yourself or your child. With the free reading speed test you will gain insight into how your student's reading speed and accuracy (reading fluency) compares to that of other students at their level.

Go to the reading speed test

Fluent reading training

Download the first exerciseof our specially designed reading skills training. The first set of words has extra spaces between letters, which emphasize or accentuate the letter or letter combination being studied. Thatfluid training programorganizes the exercises according to good rules and letter combinations. Each exercise builds on previous exercises and provides ongoing review and mastery of all concepts.

› Download the free reading exercise

Research supports reading fluency

Students who read slowly usually have difficulty pronouncing words, concentrating, and paying attention to reading content. As a result, both their comprehension and writing skills are affected.

Several studies by Palmer, Bashir, and Hook found a strong positive correlation between literacy, reading comprehension, and writing skills.

If a reader does not recognize words quickly enough, the meaning is lost.

Reid Lyon, Ph.D., stated in 1997: "While the ability to read words accurately is a necessary skill in learning to read, the speed at which this is done becomes a crucial factor in ensuring that children understand what they read ...a child recently commented, "If you don't ride fast enough, you'll fall off." Likewise, if the reader does not recognize the words quickly enough, the meaning will be lost. If reading the words on the page is slow and laborious, the reader may simply not remember what he or she has read, let alone remember. the ideas he or she has read. have read, for their own background knowledge.”

A 2017 study by Taylor, Davis, and Rastle found that learning to read by sounding out words (phonics) has a dramatic impact on both accuracy and comprehension of reading aloud. Researchers have tested whether learning to read by pronouncing words is more effective than focusing on the meaning of whole words. Their findings suggest that early literacy should focus on phonetics (letters-to-sounds) rather than teaching sight-word strategies (whole language approach).