Reading

I'd like to say there is this level of logic to my reading style but I just seem to randomly pull out a sentence. I probably didn't even read the title. I'll go back to the title to make what I read make sense.

I scan documents. It’s something that I was taught at a young age by someone that had no idea I had ADHD/ASD. I read titles, subtitles, then bold/italic words, then fill in the rest. This is why I tend to read text books easier than novels.

I don't have ADHD and I get a similar thing, probably because I get in a flap and start worrying about what it means, then theres all the translations of translations and myriad ways of contacting them, I've missed out on quite a few product guarantee's because of this, and as for anything official, total panic. I'd rather write a 10k word essay than fill in a form, my mind glazes over

I must be processing something to hone in on the mistake but I don't think I could tell you anything about the rest of the document. Perhaps my brain naturally uses the basis of the technique but because I've not been taught to do it properly, it doesn't use it fully effectively.

Expecto_Patronum said:

My brain subconsciously trying to find the interesting/important parts perhaps? It was a sentence that needed editing. Perhaps my brain has an ability to hone in on these errors without me actually needing to read it. 

This sounds like you may be using the techniques of speed reading. I was trained to do this at a time when I had to read thousands of pages of technical documents a day and at normal speed this just wasn't possible so I was put on a speed reading course.

With this you can basically scan the page in a few seconds by casting your eyes over the workds and letting your brain absorb it. When we normally read we tend to read it out loud inside our own head and this slows it down so much, but allows a very complete absorption of the info.

With speed reading you can set the speed to the level of absorption you want, so if you are just getting a taste of the document then you can do a page in 6 seconds say and you will still get over 50% of the info.

This scales up as you slow it down so you can still consume a very large amount of info quickly and fairly accurately if needed.

I find it tends to cause headaches from the rapid eye movement but that eases with practice.

The brain is a pretty amazing thing with how fast it can process info.

The thing that fascinates me is I don't always know I'm doing it. Someone asked me how I had read that far that fast. I responded I haven't, that's the first sentence I read. Quizzical look from other person wondering why that was the first sentence I'd read. Me sitting there wondering why that was the first sentence I read. I hadn't even attempted to start at the beginning.

My brain subconsciously trying to find the interesting/important parts perhaps? It was a sentence that needed editing. Perhaps my brain has an ability to hone in on these errors without me actually needing to read it. 

I really don't know but it's definitely interesting - and sometimes annoying.

I like the reward trick. That is largely how my mum got me through my GCSE revision as a teenager.

Expecto_Patronum said:

There is no issue with my reading ability and I can read a book from beginning to end. I think it's more to do with documents being boring if I'm honest

I think this is it - you lose interest in it as you are not invested in what it is saying.

I'm like you normally but have had spells when I had to work with a lot of detailed legal documents as part of my job so I could be reading contracts for 6 hours a day.

The way I found to make it work is to gamify the process - make it so I earned a prize for finding a fault or opportunity in each contract so I could have a few M&Ms for example. That kept the focus going, especially for the peanut M&Ms.

When I can find that search and sieze reflex working then I can get through a lot of very complex and very boring paperwork quite easily.

I also read a lot of books (currently 200-300 pages on an average day)  and I have noticed that where I do sometimes struggle is where authors go out of their way to make the world building part too complex with too many disposable names / places that are used once or twice only. Where there are recurring themes / characters then it is so easy to get into it.