{"id":33784,"date":"2023-05-08T01:44:00","date_gmt":"2023-05-08T01:44:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/?p=33784"},"modified":"2023-05-09T17:01:01","modified_gmt":"2023-05-09T17:01:01","slug":"what-is-that-voice-in-your-head-when-you-read","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/what-is-that-voice-in-your-head-when-you-read\/","title":{"rendered":"What is that voice in your head when you\u00a0read?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Beth Meisinger<\/a>, University of Memphis<\/a><\/em> and Roger J. Kreuz<\/a>, University of Memphis<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Curious Kids<\/a> is a series for children of all ages. If you have a question you\u2019d like an expert to answer, send it to curiouskidsus@theconversation.com<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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What is that voice in your head when you read? \u2013 Luiza, age 14, Goi\u00e2nia, Brazil<\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

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When you first begin reading, you read out loud.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Reading aloud can make the text easier to understand when you\u2019re a beginning reader or when you are reading something that\u2019s challenging. Listening to yourself as you read helps with comprehension<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After that, you might \u201cmumble read<\/a>.\u201d That\u2019s when you mumble, whisper or move your lips as you read. But this practice slowly fades as your reading skills develop, and you start to read silently \u201cin your head.\u201d That\u2019s when your inner voice comes into play.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As experts in reading<\/a> and language<\/a>, we see this transition from reading out loud to silently all the time. It\u2019s a normal part of the development of reading skills. Usually, kids are good at reading silently<\/a> by the fourth or fifth grade.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The shift from reading out loud to reading silently is very similar to how kids develop thinking and speaking skills.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Young children often speak to themselves as a way to think through challenges. Lev Vygotsky<\/a>, a Russian psychologist, called this \u201cprivate speech.\u201d And kids aren\u2019t the only ones who talk to themselves. Just watch an adult try to put together a new vacuum cleaner. You might hear them muttering to themselves as they try to understand the assembly instructions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As kids become better thinkers, they shift to talking inside their heads instead of out loud. This is called \u201cinner speech.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Once you\u2019re a good reader, it\u2019s a lot easier to read silently. Reading becomes faster because you don\u2019t have to say each word. And you can jump back to reread parts without disrupting the flow of reading. You can even skip over short familiar words.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Silent reading is more flexible, and it allows you to focus on what\u2019s most important. And it\u2019s during silent reading that you may discover your inner voice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Developing an inner voice<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Hearing an inner voice while reading is relatively common. In fact, one study found that 4 in 5 people<\/a> say they often or always hear an inner voice when they read silently to themselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s also been suggested that there are many types<\/a> of inner voices. Your inner voice might be your own<\/a>: It might sound similar to the way you speak or might be just like your spoken voice. Or it might assume a different tone or timbre altogether.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A study of adult readers<\/a> found that the voice you hear in your head may change depending on what you are reading. For example, if the lines in a book are spoken by a specific character, you may hear that character\u2019s voice in your head.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, fear not if you start hearing a bunch of voices in your head when you dive into a book \u2013 it means you\u2019ve already become a skilled silent reader.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Beth Meisinger<\/a>, Associate Professor of Psychology, University of Memphis<\/a><\/em> and Roger J. Kreuz<\/a>, Associate Dean and Professor of Psychology, University of Memphis<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

This article is republished from The Conversation<\/a> under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Beth Meisinger, University of Memphis and Roger J. Kreuz, University of Memphis Curious Kids is a series for children of all ages. If you have a question you\u2019d like an expert to answer, send it to curiouskidsus@theconversation.com. What is that voice in your head when you read? \u2013 Luiza, age 14, Goi\u00e2nia, Brazil When you […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":33785,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[293,8025],"tags":[837,132,6689,6786,149,2755,228,1772,4591,695],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33784"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33784"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33784\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":33792,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33784\/revisions\/33792"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/33785"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33784"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33784"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33784"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}