The First 110 Visual Readers
We systematically collect the reading speed scores of all participants on our Visual Reading course. We intend to regularly update the data as it's received.
We have provided both the mean and median scores. The mean scores give an accurate reading for the group, but the median scores give a better representation for individual progress. This is because extreme scores can skew the mean up or down, whereas the median score is the score achieved in the middle of the group. In a perfectly symmetrical set of data, the mean and the median will be the same. In our case, some readers achieve extremely high scores (the highest so far being 3000 wpm), which results in the mean scores being higher than the median scores. This is not offset by extreme low scores, because we do not have any. All our students make excellent progress.
Measuring reading speed progress can be articulated in several ways, including raw reading speed scores, analysing the difference between start and final speeds in Standard Deviations , and the multiple increase in reading speed. Each of these measures provide different angles on the progress made.
Standard Deviations are calculated from the standardised scores. Standardisation of reading for meaning speeds were calculated by measuring the reading speed of 355 postgraduates who read a 400-word text suitable for 12-year-olds (and answering 10 questions). Around 67% fall into the single Standard Deviation below and above the mean score.
Around 16% achieve below that average range, and around 16% above.
Visual Readers usually achieve above the average range (88% being in the
top 1%). The reason that non-dyslexic readers appear to make more
progress in standard deviations is because as results move above the
average range, smaller increases create greater numbers of Standard
Deviations because of the nature of the bell curve.
FIRST 100 VISUAL READERS CHART GOES HERE
All the subgroups achieve very similar multiples of speed increase (from
3.3 to 3.7), although depending where the individual starts on the bell
curve, this is represented by more or less Standard Deviations. This is
why those with the lowest initial reading speeds (neurodivergent and
children) make less increases in Standard Deviations despite similar
multiples in reading speed.
We have further subdivided them into the following categories for
comparison purposes:
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- Neurodivergent (mainly dyslexic)
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- Non-dyslexic
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- Children
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- Coaches
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- Students referred through the DSA
In each case, the statistical significance of the improvement was calculated by T-tests to be p <0.000