Love Learning

Learning Via Images

Is it really possible to sort people by their primary characteristics into neat boxes with straight walls and no overlaps? Although we tend to think of people that way, it almost always takes many subsequent looks before we begin to fully understand the many facets of a person’s personality. For example, look at the two categories of personality: extrovert and introvert. We casually assign people we know one of those general labels, but it is not that simple. There are times when extroverts may display a huge degree of shyness or when they would love to melt into the woodwork and just observe. There are other times when introverts find themselves comfortable enough to “shine” unexpectedly.

The same applies to different types of learners. We have come to the point in our society where every child seems to need a label and one that details specifically how he learns or doesn’t learn. We have visual learner, tactile learner, dyslexic learner, autistic, and many many other labels. The implication is that each of those types of learners requires a specific set of directions for how to teach them successfully. In doing research, however, and as I have read the experts in each of the most common areas of disability, one element keeps on showing up: the fact that so many of these non-traditional learners learn best through pictures and hands-on lessons.

Let’s look at what the experts have to say on this subject.

Visual-Spatial Learners

Linda K. Silverman, Ph.D., and Jeffrey N. Freed, M.A.T. published an article that discusses what a visual-spatial learner is and how these learners best understand information. Following are a few excerpts:

A visual-spatial learner is a student who learns holistically rather than in a step-by-step fashion. Visual imagery plays an important role in the student's learning process. Because the individual is processing primarily in pictures rather than words, ideas are interconnected (imagine a web). Linear sequential thinking — the norm in American education — is particularly difficult for this person and requires a translation of his or her usual thought processes, which often takes more time.

In most cases, the visual-spatial learning style is not addressed in school, and these students' self-esteem suffers accordingly. Traditional teaching techniques are designed for the learning style of sequential learners. Concepts are introduced in a step-by-step fashion, practiced with drill and repetition, assessed under timed conditions, and then reviewed. This process is ideal for sequential learners whose learning progresses in a step-by-step manner from easy to difficult material.

By way of contrast, spatial learners are systems thinkers-they need to see the whole picture before they can understand the parts. They are likely to see the forest and miss the trees. They are excellent at mathematical analysis but may make endless computational errors because it is difficult for them to attend to details. Their reading comprehension is usually much better than their ability to decode words.

Concepts are quickly comprehended when they are presented within a context and related to other concepts. Once spatial learners create a mental picture of a concept and see how the information fits with what they already know, their learning is permanent. Repetition is completely unnecessary and irrelevant to their learning style.

A key component in the recovery of motivation for visual-spatial learners is experiencing success. Individual tutoring should be sought to help these students learn to use their strengths and build their feelings of competence. Sincere praise works wonders. Spatial learners often excel at activities such as Legos, computer games, art or music. Any skill in which these young people experience success should be encouraged and nurtured. Their skills, interests and hobbies may lead to careers in adult life.

(http://www.dyslexia.com/library/silver1.htm)

Those with Autism

Rachel Evans, author of two popular books, talks about autism as it relates to learning. Following is an excerpt:

Reading Comprehension

Although many autistic children are able to read, some parents find that comprehension can be an area of concern. Special education teachers and parents of autistic children believe that autistic children learn best with hands on or very colorful activities. Books with pictures, audio books, and touch and feel books all work well.

Learning Words

According to Temple Grandlin, professor at Colorado State University, autistics are visual thinkers. Temple Grandlin lived in the world of autism and was diagnosed at a young age. Today, she uses her knowledge to help others. The easiest way toward teaching autistic children reading is to demonstrate words that aren't concrete. For example, a noun is typically concrete and easy for the autistic child to picture. A word such as "boy" is easy to relate to a mental image. However, words such as "up" are harder for the autistic child to picture. When teaching such words, the teacher should show the word by acting it out. Saying the word "up" and lifting the arm goes a long way toward helping the autistic child understand.

Teaching Methods

Most of the standard methods for teaching reading simply won't work for an autistic child. Temple Grandin, the high-functioning autistic woman mentioned earlier, explains that some autistic children learn to read better with phonics and others with a whole word approach and still others a mixture of the two approaches. One thing that may be of great help is testing the child to see which approaches might work best and to evaluate strengths and weaknesses

Final Tips

Reinforce what the child is reading with repetition. Read books out loud, act them out, create visual aids and watch movies based on books. Don't be afraid to try new things and be patient. It may take a while when teaching autistic children reading to find the methods that work best for each individual child.

(http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Rachel_Evans)

Temple Grandin, professor at Colorado State University and referenced above, expands on these ideas:

Anyone teaching an autistic child to read should remember that many think visually. This means they are more likely to learn about words and letters through visual stimulation. Almost every child has a special interest, and autistic children are no exception. If they like trains, you may want to use them as a visual guide to learning how to read. If they are interested in the subject matter they are more likely to pay attention for longer periods of time, and are more willing to learn because they will find it interesting.

(http://www.grandin.com/inc/visual.thinking.html)

 Dyslexic Learners

Studies from the National Institutes of Child Health and Human Development have shown that for children with difficulties learning to read, a multi-sensory teaching method is the most effective approach or treatment. This is especially crucial for a dyslexic child. But what does it mean? Using a multi-sensory teaching approach means helping a child to learn through more than one of the senses. Most teaching in schools is done using either sight or hearing (auditory sensations). The child's sight is used in reading information, looking at diagrams or pictures, or reading what is on the teacher's board. The sense of hearing is used in listening to what the teacher says. A dyslexic child may experience difficulties with either or both of these senses. The child's vision may be affected by difficulties with tracking, visual processing or seeing the words become fuzzy or move around. The child's hearing may be satisfactory on a hearing test, but auditory memory or auditory processing may be weak.

(http://www.dyslexia.com/qagift.htm#981026)

Conclusion

So what does all this mean? One common thread running through all of these articles is that many people who are diagnosed with learning disabilities learn most naturally through images. If this is true, it helps to simplify our approach to teaching many types of learners at once. Instead of taking the time to create multiple plans, one for each child, why not try a multisensory approach and incorporate visuals and movement into each lesson? This will ensure that every learner is reached and make the teacher's life simpler at the same time!

(One of our favorite multisensory products this season is the Help at Home Kit that teaches sight words through visuals and movement without resorting to flashcard drill and memorization.)

Multisensory Reading Components

The Easy-for-Me™ Reading Program is specifically designed to be a multisensory reading program that addresses the needs of the myriads of children who are visual-spatial learners, including those identified with autism, dyslexia, ADD, ADHD, and many other “disabilities.”

But what does it really mean when we say multisensory? In the last post I referenced “non-traditional learners” and in this post, I will be more specific about the term. The accepted, traditional teaching techniques typically used in the classroom meet the needs of (left brained) sequential learners. Concepts are introduced in a step by step sequence and are practiced and reviewed using drill and memorization; children must also show evidence of their learning in a particular time frame. This is all very good for children who are left-brained or sequential learners. The problem is, of course, that while the approach to teaching is great for those children who are sequential, every learner is taught this way and this traditional approach is ineffective at best for all the non-sequential learners.

In the next post, we will look closely at the identifiers for visual-spatial learners, but for now, let’s look at how Easy-for-Me™ meets the needs of the non-sequential learner. Each heading in the post is a descriptor of how a visual-spatial child does or does not learn. Visual-spatial learners learn holistically, learn from whole to part, learn via images, learn all at once, need to see how elements are related to each other, need to put each detail into the global whole, do not do well with auditory sequences, are systems thinkers, struggle with too much external stimuli, learn by doing, learn by seeing, need to experience success and are strongly intuitive.

Visual-Spatial Kids Learn Holistically

A visual-spatial learner learns all at once using brain and body.

Easy-for-Me™ Reading addresses the visual-spatial learning style in many ways. SnapLetters™ cards contain images which connect symbol and sound in one picture and engage the body in a motion that replicates the shape of the letter. The learner sees the visual, says the sound, and does the body motion to engage body and brain in instant learning. Alphabet Tales deepens this learning experience via whimsical stories about each alphabet letter and how it came to be formed as it is. SnapWords™ cards perform similarly. A visual-spatial learner can view the stylized word and capture its meaning just like a camera snaps a picture. Along with the visual embedded in the letter symbols for each word, a story or situation is implied that the child can identify with, (in the example, a mom is telling her child that IF he makes his bed, he can go play soccer) a sentence on the reverse of the card uses the word in a meaningful sentence that correlates with the picture, and finally, a body motion that mimics the word is suggested. Again, the child is seeing the concept within a visual, is hearing his own voice saying the word, and is moving his body to replicate the meaning of the word. Both the brain and body are fully engaged. Easy-for-Me™ Reading utilizes this multisensory pattern in every lesson. Anything the child learns via visual and motion he will also say and write on a whiteboard. This last element in the lessons is critical because learning happens best when the child is actively engaged in the cycle of learning and showing learning immediately.

Visual-Spatial Kids and Too Many Details

Visual-spatial learners can have trouble with too many external stimuli such as noises, details, and activities that they must struggle to filter out while learning. They frequently cannot distinguish between what is extraneous and what is vital to learning. With a lot going on, it can become hard to know where to focus attention.

Those who know me the best understand that when we go out to eat together, my visual-spatial characteristics will immediately march out on display. Depending on how the menu is designed and organized, I can go into full-blown panic mode over the simple process of choosing what to eat. Then, if I find myself confronted with a waiter who wants my choice, everyone else having easily identified and verbalized what they want to eat, my brain freezes, and most frequently I will stab at the menu randomly with my pointer finger, and later regret my choice! (This is exactly how I learned that I do not care for seared tuna on a cold lettuce leaf.) When I look at a busy menu, everything begins to swim in my head. I see words I should know the meaning of, but they are not conveying meaning to my brain. Furthermore, how in the world am I to select from that vast array of choices when all are equally screaming for attention?

With a whole language approach to learning to read, children are fully expected to “catch on” to reading skills if they are surrounded by print, supplied with plenty of books, are read to, etc. Unfortunately, this approach bombards children with a multitude of stimuli that they cannot order, evaluate, or distinguish between. Sensory overload occurs and what often follows is very little learning.

Easy-for-Me™ Reading has streamlined the process of learning to read by identifying precisely what elements a child must know and teaching those in a whole body/whole brain manner. For example, a child learns the sound of Aa in a multisensory manner, and immediately learns the sound of Tt the same way. The very next step is to combine these two sounds to make a word.

So far the child has not had to manage a barrage of details (such as learning all the names of the letters, the sounds of the letters, the shapes of the letters – to many visual-spatial learners doing this is like handing them a box of 1,000 tiny puzzle pieces and asking them what the picture is). She has learned through using her whole body a tiny sound, another tiny sound, and then stuck them together to make a word. It is neat and effective. Similarly, the Easy-for-Me™ Books (Sets A and B) stand out from other readers in that they only contain specific sounds and words that the child has already learned. The first two books in Set A require only eight letter sounds and two sight words: A and AT. As more concepts and words are introduced, each is taught in a whole-body/whole-brain method and then used in reading a book. Nothing is left to chance; nothing is left to guesswork.

Visual-Spatial Learners Are Systems Thinkers

Visual-spatial learners need to see the whole before they can see details.

Visual-spatial learners do not just remember a fact in isolation. Once they create a mental picture of a detail and place it in its context, learning is permanent. SnapWords™ have proved to be highly effective in propelling children into reading when they were once failing because they were suddenly able to snap a picture of the whole word and recall it intact when they later encountered the word in reading. Once visual-spatial children learn these high frequency words, the teacher can take the words apart and study the details of how they are constructed (sometimes called phonics rules).

Easy-for-Me™ never teaches a word in isolation. Let’s say we are going to learn the word LITTLE. Traditionally, the word would be printed on a card for the child to memorize, he would be asked to learn the spelling of the word and then recognize it later in reading. Because we design for visual-spatial learners, we show the word LITTLE in a visual which shows the meaning of the word instantly and of which the child’s brain snaps a picture. Then we immediately connect the word LITTLE to many other words with similar characteristics so the child can see the way this word fits into the whole collection of words he will encounter in reading. LITTLE has the LE ending and double consonant middle just like these words: PUZZLE, DRIBBLE, NIBBLE, SNIFFLE, MIDDLE, FIZZLE, DRIZZLE, WHITTLE, etc. By showing the word LITTLE within its system, the child gains several phonics rules and has a much easier time reading words that also follow that pattern.

Visual-Spatial Learners Are Not Auditory Learners

Visual-spatial learners do not learn from teaching done verbally and in a sequence.

Many things are taught in verbal sequences. Spelling words aloud is a verbal sequence. A child may be directed to chant L-I-T-T-L-E. For a visual-spatial learner, this is an exercise with no benefit. Phonics  rules are taught as verbal or auditory sequences for the child to grasp and memorize and be able to use. 
We’ve already talked a lot about how Easy-for-Me™ Reading shows the child pictures of the object of the lesson. But there is more to it than that. The first lesson includes an illustrated story, a stylized letter card, and a jingle that goes with the letter. But happens immediately after this is that the child visualizes the letter complete with image, then opens her eyes and draws on her whiteboard while saying the sound of the letter she makes. Since she visualizes the letter first, she draws on the picture she mentally snapped of the letter. And when she draws it on her whiteboard, she is replicating the letter for her eyes to see and her body to engage with; sounding out loud while drawing the letter completes the mind/body connection. The exercise not only deepens learning for the child, it allows the adult to see what she has grasped.

Similarly, when learning SnapWords™, children snap the mental picture, visualize, then sound and write on whiteboards in every single lesson.

Another way Easy-for-Me™ shows learning rather than telling it is through use of color-coding similar to the color coding in the previous section. Having the target colored makes it stand out for the child to quickly grasp. A vital way Easy-for-Me™  shows kids the structure of a word so they can tie all the pieces together in a correct sequence is through fingermapping, which is a component of every lesson. Read more about fingermapping here.

Visual-Spatial Children and Memorization

Visual-spatial children do not use memorization with any success in learning.

One quick way to ensure a visual-spatial child is identified as learning disabled is to teach material verbally and expect a child to study and memorize. Because visual-spatial children do not learn via memorization, this approach to teaching reading is damaging to these learners. They learn in an instant all at one time, just like a camera taking a picture. If a child doesn’t get it the first time it is taught, drill and study will not make it any clearer. At this point, the natural result is to place the child at fault for not learning. However, Child1st strongly believes in avoiding the spiral of unnecessary failure by providing materials that visual learners or picture thinkers can use to learn according to their own particular wiring.

Any time there is a concept you want a child to remember, give the child a hook to hang the hat on. For instance, kindergarteners learning the words for measurement might have trouble recalling the words inch and foot and yard unless these words are tied to a visual reminder.

This hastily-constructed visual is not only a visual reminder of the measurement vocabulary, but the words are tied to objects children are familiar with (inchworm, his foot, his yard) and relative lengths are implied. Snap a picture and learning is done. If a child is not sure about remembering it, he could take a second to draw his own version of the visual. He will not forget the words, however, that is pretty certain! In the Easy-for-Me™ Reading Program, all difficult concepts have a visual to help the child recall the concept.

Visual-Spatial Children and Failure

Visual-spatial learners are often perfectionists who do not handle failure well.

Of course, no child enjoys failure. But since visual-spatial learners learn instantly and through visuals, if they fail at something, going back to drill and study will not help. What they come away with is a deepening sense of failure, of not being ABLE to learn. Frequently this causes “brain freeze,” leading even further towards ensuring failure.

In the Easy-for-Me™ Books, the reason we outline every single thing a child will need to know before she reads each book is to prevent her from starting to read a book she is not yet ready to read. I have personally taught reading groups using commercially produced leveled readers which included very difficult phonics concepts and unknown vocabulary. In general my experience with those books children struggled terribly while attempting to read, thus rendering reading a chore at best.

When a child is learning to read, the last thing we want to have happen is for her to come out hating the exercise. The Easy-for-Me™ Reading Program instead gives her all the tools she needs to read 22 or 44 books that include carefully selected concepts, as well as over 100 high frequency words and many sound spelling patterns. When she has gained all that, we will have given her the gift of preventing failure and of equipping her with the necessary tools to read any book that catches her fancy. There is nothing like success to breed more success!

Reading for Multisensory Learners

Here’s a riddle for you! If you only have time to teach it once, how do you teach so that a variety of learners can learn? In the last two posts, we discussed the various gaps in understanding children experience when they are taught to read in the traditional way. It is possible to teach one time but include various strategies that will reach those children who are not traditional learners. I want to clarify that when I say “non-traditional learners,” I am not implying that something is wrong with the kids or with their natural method of learning. I use the word “traditional” only to mean “how we usually teach.”

The Easy-for-Me™ Reading Program has taken many of these strategies and embedded them into a reading sequence that teaches in a multisensory way and includes explicit phonics instruction as well as valuable sight word acquisition. Some of the helps included in this approach to teaching reading are laid out in the next few paragraphs.

Snowball New Concepts When Teaching Reading

Rather than teaching concepts in isolation, snowball them. For instance, teaching a child to recite  her ABC’s and learn the sounds is like giving her a box of puzzle pieces to memorize. The facts are just a collection of facts with little to tie them together or give them meaning or relevance. If you snowball teach, you start with one little concept and then tie every new concept directly to the previous one. If you teach a child one little fact – the sound of short A related to the symbol A, you are starting with the first handful of snow packed tightly in your hands. When you teach the sound of T and tie it directly to the A to make AT, you have just added the second handful of snow to the first one. The ball is getting bigger. As you teach the sound of F, you are add it to AT to make FAT. Third handful of snow. It is really hard for a child to lose details when they are stuck together!

Use Images for Sight Word Acquisition and Comprehension

We’ve talked extensively about using images for those children who learn best via visuals, who have    attention challenges, who are kinesthetic, who cannot memorize, etc. Images not only help with sight word acquisition by snapping pictures which are stored in the brain, but they instantly lend meaning to the word. If you use an image, children are not going to just be mindlessly naming a word without thinking about what it means; instead, they will grasp the meaning of the word because of the visual.

Show Relevance

For those children who need to understand why they are learning various concepts, understand how what they are learning will work, and what they are going to do with the concepts, show relevance very early. For instance, if you snowball teach eight sounds like we do in Easy-for-Me™ Reading, let the child move right into reading text that uses those eight sounds only. They will be able to fully understand why they are learning the sounds and relating them to their letter symbols.

Provide Successful Learning Experiences

There is not much that is more effective in encouraging a child to want to learn than experiencing success in learning. If a child works to learn and blend their first eight sounds and then find that they can successfully read two books with those tools they have gained, they will feel so empowered by the fact that they can read, that all subsequent learning will be eagerly absorbed.

Teach Phonics and Sight Word Recognition Simultaneously

Obviously, no one could memorize all the words in our vocabulary! Kids need to learn phonics or sound spelling patterns in order to decipher new words they encounter while reading. However, it's very important to enable children to quickly gain a solid sight word base while they are learning sound spellings. Having that solid base of words they can quickly recognize makes reading much easier for them and helps keep them from viewing learning to read as a chore. If they come to see it that way, they will certainly not want to study reading and will ultimately avoid it. Using SnapWords™ propels children into acquiring over 300 sight words that frequently appear in kids’ text.

Teach Whole to Part

Some kids have a difficult time dealing first with all the little bits that go into reading (letters, sounds, etc.). They do much better if they can see and understand whole words first and then learn to pick them apart into their components. Our method of systematic phonics instruction combined with sight word acquisition allows both left and right brain learners to learn in the way that's easiest for them. Left brainers are able to acquire all the little bits and place them into order, while the right brainers are able to see the finished product and then discover all the little bits that go into making up the whole. It really is a beautiful idea!

Provide Tactile Helps

Learners who need visuals and tactile elements tremendously benefit from fingermapping and the use of whiteboards, as we outline in daily Easy-for-Me™ lessons. Fingermapping provides a tangible, visible map of the words that keep visual and kinesthetic learners from becoming confused about the construction of a word. They use the fingermap very much like we use road maps on a trip to a new place.

Teach Phonics Concepts in Real World Situations

We rely heavily on our Easy-for-Me™ Books (sets A and B) to teach phonics concepts in real text. Rather than sharing phonics rules for the kids to learn, we embed them in text that is engaging and funny so that the children can see the rules play out in the stories. What is more fun for a kid after all? Memorizing rules and drills or reading a funny book as a means to learning? Um, I think number two!

Rely on Visualization in Learning

The Easy-for-Me™ Reading Program leads children into the practice of visualization. This practice is hugely important for all students in learning across the curriculum, but it is vital for visual learners. The program begins day one teaching the child to rely on the pictures he makes in his imagination for learning and for remembering what he has learned. With our society’s emphasis on giving constant images to kids via computer games, TV, movies, etc., many children are out of the habit of visualizing. This is a real detriment to them when they read and are expected to understand and remember. Visualization is critical to solving math problems – visualizing the problem and using that visual to create a solution to the problem. Visualization also helps tremendously with understanding consequences to choices a child makes. Whatever we can do to encourage a child to make mental images is going to enhance his school experience at the very least.

Use a Teaching Approach That Prompts the Child to Work Out Meaning for Himself

Much of traditional education is designed in a way that allows the teacher to tell the students what he or she wants the students to know. Far too often there is not enough time spent with kids creating and working to discover how things work, too little that is hands-on and learner driven. Children in the teacher driven environment are allowed to remain very passive, letting the teacher’s words wash over them, but not being required to engage their brain in the act of learning. We need our children to be actively involved in working out meaning for the material they are learning. The Easy-for-Me™ Reading Program is full of daily independent activities that engage the child’s brain and provide tactile experiences in learning.

For more information, stay tuned. Our next post will show specifics of the program.

Reading and Learning Disabilities

It is sad to me that one approach to teaching reading has become the yardstick against which every  child is measured, and those who do not measure up are labeled with a disability. In my opinion, a large percentage of the children who have been branded disabled are not disabled at all. Somehow we must lose the idea that there is one right way to teach reading. How have we let the situation get so skewed?

I have spent a lot of time nose-to-nose with kids who had been sent to special education classrooms and have seen the resulting emotional pain. They carry the disability label as a brand on their hearts and minds. It colors everything in their world. By labeling children with disabilities, educators intend to identify children who need to receive special help, but all too often what results inside the child is completely detrimental.

Talking to Anne About Special Education

I remember talking with a  middle schooler who I will call Anne. She was, as many children are, absolutely defeated. She’d been told that she was learning disabled, and what that did for her was remove any reason for trying. Telling a child she is disabled is like holding up a mirror that shows her a version of herself, a version that will never measure up to what is expected. To a child, being disabled means they are never going to make it. Very few people try hard if they know failure will be the outcome of their efforts.

As I spoke with Anne, trying to find something I could use to motivate her, she brought up being in special ed and how much it bothered her. Rashly, I asked Anne what she’d be willing to do if she could get out of the program as a result. She said, “Anything. I will do anything.”

I went to the head of the special education department and asked exactly what Anne would have to do or what skills she’d need to acquire in order to test out of special ed. Some eyebrows went up, but we got some specifics to take back to Anne. The change in her was startling. She saw hope. Immediately Anne’s work ethic changed and she began to try very hard and make progress in her work. Rather than having a sentence, Anne now understood she had specific skills to learn.

What If the “Cure” Ends Up Killing the Patient?

Apart from the emotional damage labeling a child can cause, there are other reasons to exhibit great caution before identifying a child as disabled. Too often, once children have been taken through the process of identification, the label they receive is so broad as to be non-descript and certainly unhelpful. Worse yet, once the child has his label in place and he receives help in or out of the classroom, that help frequently comes in the form of dumbing down the expectations for the child.

Many children who have been identified for special education have their requirements cut in half (half the math problems, half the spelling words, etc.) The problem with this scenario is that the number of problems or words a child is given is not usually the issue. The issue is that the child might just not know how to do the work! So it doesn’t matter if you assign five problems or ten. Ten words or 20. If the problem lies in missing skills or if the child simply cannot memorize, you are not really helping him by cutting the amount of work in half.

Look at the Child First, Then Make a Decision

If I am correct in surmising that a large percentage of children who are in special ed don’t belong there, it makes a lot of sense to spend more time identifying where the gaps in learning are for the child and finding resources that teach in ways that make sense to him before labeling him as special needs or disabled.

We, at Child1st, believe that many children who are seemingly not able to read COULD read if they had the right method. The next post will describe what one such method looks like and how it helps non-traditional learners.

Reading and the Non-Traditional Learner

Quite a few different types of learners do not thrive when learning to read in the traditional classroom. Because I’ve worked with many children who struggled with reading, when I think about teaching reading, I instantly visualize various pitfalls that yawned in my students’ faces.

Look at how reading is normally taught

Typically, children learn to say their ABC's, and then they're taught a sound that goes with each letter. The next task is usually to begin to sound out words made of a few letters. When children see a letter symbol, they must recall the sound that goes with the letter and retain that sound in memory while viewing the next letter, learning its sound, and storing that sound while approaching the next letter. And the process continues. Once children have learned to sound out words, they are supposed to know that they can recognize those words when encountered in other books. They are also supposed to understand that they are reading to extract meaning from the text, and this being true, they are to understand what they read and remember it once reading is completed.

Areas of difficulty in learning to read

Global Learners: Children who are global need some very specific helps if they are going to ease their way into reading. They need to know why they are learning all the letter names and sounds, or learning all those facts will be difficult for them. Telling them, “You need to learn all this material so you can learn to read” is not sufficient. They need to experience the art of reading in order to successfully begin to acquire the necessary skills. They need the goal or reason or relevance to the exercise clearly spelled out in order to be able to focus their attention and memory on the tasks at hand.

Visual Learners: This label encompasses many children. Children who are visual learners may have  acquired other labels along the way, including dyslexia, autism, etc. These learners may have a difficult time remembering the name of each letter and have an especially hard time relating sounds to letter symbols. When visual learners are working on reading, memorization is not their strong suit. They need something to help them learn the way they learn best, which is in pictures. They are picture thinkers who don’t learn by memorizing details and then constructing a whole out of them. They capture information all at once, just like a camera snaps a photo.

Kinesthetic Learners: Children who are active, kinesthetic children need to have some helps since it takes a lot of concentrated focus to get through the tasks usually associated with reading. Snippets of information, preferably ingested through visuals and movements, prove most successful. Kinesthetic learners typically prefer hands-on learning and activities that let them make things. Their attention will follow their hands.

Other Learners: Some children have short-term memory issues, and so decoding (or sounding out words) definitely presents a huge challenge to them. A myriad of characteristics of learners make traditional approaches to teaching reading not suitable. One size fits all certainly does not apply to methods of teaching reading.

What can be done to teach non-traditional learners successfully?

It seems logical to me that if we first study the child (and by this I mean many children who struggle), we will learn over time where the gaps occur, where the areas of difficulty lie within the traditional system of teaching reading. We can then take these areas of difficulty and address them. Rather than have two fistfuls of approaches to use, why not combine all the helps into one lean and clean approach to teaching reading that will close the gaps for learners of every ilk?

In our next posts we will talk about what happens to a child when he/she’s given a label and how that might impact his/her ability to learn to read. And finally, what would a reading program look like that addresses the needs of non-traditional learners? We’ll talk about that a step at a time.

Success through Visuals & Play

I read an article the other day that really tugged at my heart. The author mourned the fact that  kindergarten as it should be seems to be a thing of the past. Gone is the free play, the crayons and paint, the housekeeping center, the emphasis on learning social interactions and skills. She painted such a poignant picture of sunlit rooms and happy children thriving and creating. She decried today’s widespread, headlong dash towards increasing academics in kindergarten.

No matter how much I agree with the author’s viewpoint regarding the true work of kindergarten, I  am not sure there is much we can do to change that academic push for beginners. Because I am totally aware of the segment of our population that frowns horribly on teaching our young children anything smacking of school, I always squirm a bit when customers write me to say that their preschoolers are devouring our stylized SnapWords™. I think my guilty conscience is rooted in a book I read by David Elkind called Miseducation. The premise of the book is that we are going to create a whole generation of at risk children if we begin to push schooling in preschool. Elkind followers, including the head of the education department in my graduate school, apply a blanket rule towards teaching preschoolers. You cannot do it, apparently, without mistreating them. Elkind makes an impassioned point, my department head is far more educated than I and surely knows better, but still I raise a timid hand to ask, “Might this only be one part of the story?”

Most Issues Are Not Black and White

Have you ever found yourself listening to a well-delivered argument which you feel is so airtight as to be unanswerable…only to find yourself listening to an equally well argued point directly opposing the first viewpoint? I have many times! I think in such cases what this means is that there is no clear cut way to choose a course of action and make a blanket rule that could be applied across the board. Far from being black and white, there are myriad shades of meaning between polar extremes.

Do I believe kindergartners should play? YES. Yes I do. Do I also believe in teaching very young children? YES. Yes I do. But what I believe lies somewhere in the middle of the argument for and against teaching young children. I do not believe that you prevent learning problems by starting to teach children when they are younger. The problem No Child Left Behind tried to address is not going to be solved by starting to teach reading and math in preschool. Not unless the method used is drastically changed. Ironically, if we change the method by which we teach, we could wait and begin to teach in first grade – or even second grade!

Use a Barometer

Recently I’ve heard from several parents who called to say they were distressed because their kindergartners were beginning to move from loving books to hating them because of what was being required of the kids in school. The children were not responding to the drills and flashcards, and the result was that they were turning away from an earlier love of books and reading. In cases such as these, STOP what is being done. If a teacher insists you drill your child at home, find an alternative right away. I think the decision about whether or not to teach young children can be made by answering the following questions. Iis the child playing? Is he having fun? Is she engaged? Does he want to do this? If the answers are no, the only option we have is to stop what we are doing immediately because we will cause harm.

Change the Approach: Use Visuals and Play

What we can do is change how our children learn the basics of reading, writing, and arithmetic. If we can utilize visuals and play, kids will gain the knowledge they need, but will not feel the stress of “doing school” too early. Best of all, using visuals and play will have the effect of cutting “school time” greatly. When I taught kindergarten in my home, the children far surpassed grade level expectations, but we did all our learning through creative play and visuals, and all our learning was done in less than two hours a day including coloring and craft time. Those were the days! What we were doing was working inside a system (school), but not using the regular system’s methodology. I went where the kids went – to what drew them. And it worked so well!

Is It Possible That Neither Side is Totally Right?

I think in the debate about academics and kindergarten, the point might have been totally missed. The point is not should we teach the very young, but rather HOW shall we teach them? At Child1st, we believe that if you have an engaged child, that child will learn and will love learning and we work very hard to find ways to make learning effortless.

Building Visual Memory for Number Relationships

Global children will benefit greatly from building a visual base to understand where each number falls in relation to other numbers. We’ve spent some time using dot cards to build a visual memory bank of how many each number is, of which combinations of numbers equal each target number, and now we will move on. For these games let’s use a different kind of number card.

Use a Five-Frame

I personally prefer the Five-Frame Dot Cards because when you make an array of numbers in rows of five instead of ten, the result is quite a few benefits. One benefit is that the five frame reveals wonderful patterns in numbers. Another is that we use fives for so many things in life. We have five fingers, five toes, we read an analog clock (do they still make those?) in increments of five minutes, etc. Another less obvious benefit of placing numbers in Five-Frames is that it provides another great opportunity for visual imprinting for computation.

Note the patterns that exist in the columns. 1 and 6 alternate rows, as do 2 and 7, 3 and 8, 4 and 9 and finally 5 and 0. To add five to a number you just pick the number just below it (ie:  3+5=8, which is found just under the 3). To add 10 to a number, just jump down two rows. 4+10=14, which is just below the 9 on the Five-Frame.

Seeing the numbers arrayed in this fashion is going to help your child in thinking about numbers.

But for now, let’s go back to dots instead of numbers and play some games!

Five-Frame Dot Cards

If you make some Five-Frame dot cards, you may play the same games you played with the other dot cards. Numbers are anchored to 5 and to 10 in this two-row dot card. Study this first dot card that shows 7. Notice that the dots on the top row are blacked in, plus two more dots on the next row. Children can learn rather quickly that the top row is like the five fingers on their left hand, while the second row is like the five fingers on their right hand. So, the 7 in the Five-Frame is like one hand and two more fingers. The visual background the child will gain is that 7 is 2 more than five and 3 less than 10. You will be letting your child gain a visual background for how each number relates to the numbers around it.

In the next dot card, 4 is shown. You can see 4 anchored to both 5 and 10. 4 is one less than 5, and you need six more to get to 10. Relate this dot card to your child’s hands by having him show you four fingers up on his left hand, but not his thumb, nor any fingers on his right hand.

Playing with the Five-Frame Dot Cards

1. Begin with number-recognition games. Show a card and ask, “How many is this?” Remember as always that the child is going to guess at how many, not count dots!
2. Next make the connection to the child’s own hands. Hold up  a dot card and have the child show you on her hands how many as she tells you orally how many the dot card shows. For example, if you hold up the 7 dot card, the child will hold up all five fingers on her left hand, two fingers on her right hand, and will say “seven.”
3. Next, ask, “How many more than 5?” She will answer “two.”
4. Finally ask, “How many more to 10?” She will compare the three fingers she’s NOT holding up to the three white dots on the Five-Frame and will answer “three.”
5. If the child is still engaged and having fun, ask questions like, “How many would it be if I took off one dot?” or “How many would it be if I colored in one more dot?”

Play Other Games with the Five-Frame Dot Cards

Turn the child loose to play memory or war or go fish with another child, or play with him. Try to limit the teaching moments and just let the child have a lot of experience focusing on playing the games because as he’s playing, he will be storing up a wealth of visual information about numbers! Visuals and play are great ways to help your child love learning!

More Dot Card Games

Visual Imprinting for Computation

The goal of these activities is for children to develop such a rich visual background for computation that they will “see” the answers in their heads in the form of visuals when confronted with abstract problems on a page. When playing the games, however, the process of laying a visual background is passive. The focus will be on the game, and during the game, visual images will be building in the child’s memory.

Introductory Game

Give the children blank squares of paper and a crayon or marker. Tell them you are going to play a different sort of memory game. You will show them a dot card, they will give it a good look, then you will hide the card and they will draw on a blank card what they remember seeing on your dot card.

Procedure

• Show the children a card.

• Let them take a good look at it, then put the card back into your stack.

• Ask the children to shut their eyes and “see” the card in their imagination. Can they see the pattern of dots? Great!

• Now ask them to open their eyes and draw the same pattern on a blank card.

• When they have completed this task, show them your card and compare yours to theirs.

Computation Imprinting

For these games it will be best to have two identical sets of cards – two copies of each dot pattern. 

Explore the dot patterns before you begin. Pay particular attention to how many different combinations of numbers that each number has. You can only make a three from 2+1. (We are ignoring 0 + the number for now). Four is made of two combinations of numbers, as is five. Six and seven have three possible number combinations, while 8 and 9 have four. Over time, the children will learn that if  you divide a number in half, it will have that same number of possible combinations. Odd numbers can be divided in half but will always have one extra “odd” number that cannot be paired up. I think  there is value in creating dot cards that have two colors like the ones in the illustrations. The color will help the children as they form visual memories. It is likely the children will forever more associate pink and blue with five, and orange and blue with four, however!

Go Fish

The first several times you play Go Fish, play it like you did before, using the total number of dots on the card when asking for a card. When the child has played this way a few times, switch. This time when you play Go Fish, instead of saying “Do you have a  5?” you will say, “Do you have a 1+4=5?” or “Do you have a 5+1=6.”

Memory

Similarly, when playing Memory, at first when you make pairs,  say the total number of dots on the  cards. After a few times playing that way, switch. Rather than calling out the total number, you will say, “6+1=7,” or “2+3=5.”

Next, we will explore ways to build visual memory for number relationships, so watch for that post next Tuesday! And by all means, have fun playing!

Games Using Math Dot Cards

Last week we made dot cards, and by now they are beautifully dry and ready to use.

Introducing the Games

My own preference when using math cards with beginners (four and five year olds) was to choose dot cards that only went up to 3. The instructions were that I would toss a card on the table and the children were to quickly say how many dots. The one rule was that they were not to count the dots, but just look and guess how many. If you have more than one child playing with you, let the kids take turns answering. Go through your stack a couple of times.

The next time you meet, add cards for number 4. Talk briefly about four and the dot arrangements on the four cards, and then shuffle the cards into the stack. Play the toss game again. Add another number each day until you have all the numbers to 10 in your stack. The following games should be modeled for the children first, and then they can play independently. If you are playing with one child, no problem!

Dot Card Flash

Pair up with your child or divide your group into pairs. One child will display a card and the partner will call out how many dots he sees. Remember, no counting allowed!

War

Again, this game is played in twos. Each player has a stack of dot cards held face-down. At the signal, “1-2-3-WAR!” players lay a card down, face up, saying the number of dots on their cards. The player who played the higher number gets both cards. The object of the game is to win all the cards.

War Variation

Before players lay down their cards, each says a number aloud. When cards are played, if that number shows up in the cards played, the person who chose that number takes the cards. If neither number shows up, cards go to the center pile. The next person to correctly call a number that is played gets all the cards in the center stack. For example, player 1 calls out “7” and player 2 says “5.” Both players lay down a dot card. The cards played are 3 and 4. Because the played cards do not match the numbers called, both cards go into the center pile and new numbers are called. The next time, player 1 calls out “8” and player 2 calls out “5,” and then both players lay down a card. Cards played are 5 and 7. Player 2 gets both cards. If by chance both players call numbers that match the played cards, each player gets the card she called.

Go Fish

You will need two sets of dot cards for this game. Shuffle the stacks and deal five cards to each player. The player who goes first will look at the dot cards in his hand and will ask the second player for a card to match one he is holding. For instance, if player 1 is to go first and she has dot cards 3, 7, 1, and 9, she will ask player 2 for one of those cards. If player 2 has one, he must surrender that card to player 1 who will place the matching cards face down beside her. Player 2 then asks for a card. If the requested card is not in his partner’s hand, she will say, “go fish” and the requesting player will draw a new card from the center stack. The game ends when the one player is out of cards. The player holding the highest number of pairs wins the game.

Follow Up

After your child has become very familiar with the dot patterns on the cards and has mastered the ability to name the numbers without counting the dots, it will be time to utilize her visual number sense in computation. Check back on Thursday for a new post about visual imprinting for computation. If you missed last Thursday's post about creating the dot cards, click here.

Making Multisensory Math Materials

In my October 22 post, I said the following, and now I want to jazz it up!

For the visual & tactile learner, use dot cards to practice learning how many each number is. For instance, if you steer a child away from counting up to add, she will begin to rely on her strong  visual sense to understand the “how many” of each number as well as to learn the combinations of numbers that equal each target number. These dot cards show various ways to arrange five dots so that not only will a child have practice just glancing and guessing “how many,” but also a strongly visual learner will begin to absorb that 5 can be made of different combinations of numbers. If you encourage your child to rely on her visual strengths, she will be much farther ahead than if you sit her down to do math the old way, which is to count up, count on her fingers, or just write the answers to problems written on paper. SO BO-ring! I call the practice of learning via images, Visual Imprinting.

Visual Imprinting Sets the Background for Success in Math

Our goal in visual imprinting activities is to connect abstract concepts to a visual image that is meaningful to your child. Visual imprinting just happens; it is a subconscious form of learning. You could call it “learning through the back door.” Visual imprinting occurs any time we see a complete picture or a specific part of a picture in our minds. Even though the idea of visual imprinting is elusive and hard to describe, we can deliberately take advantage of it in our teaching. If we can embed concepts we want a child to learn within a visual or a pattern, learning will happen unconsciously.

There are many methods out there for bringing kids up to speed in computation, but the most fun and the most effortless involve visual games. Let’s make some dot cards, making that process into a craft, and then play games with the cards. If your child is having fun, he will not even know he’s learning!

Making Math [dot cards] – A Multisensory Activity

• The first thing you will need is a small stack of sturdy, square blank cards. Ideally they would be between 3½ and 4 inches on a side. Make them bigger if you’d like to.

• Tempera paint in bright colors

• Wet sponge on a plate

• Paper towels

• Old newspapers

• A place to let the cards dry

Making the dot cards

1. Start with one number first – say the number 3.

2. Make several dot cards using a variety of arrangements and color combinations.

3. The child will dip her fingertip into the paint and then press her fingertip carefully onto the card, making sure to only make the number of dots you planned to make.

4. First card can have dots of the same color.

5. Second card could have one dot the same as the first card, but then the remaining two dots in a new color.

6. Name your cards according to what the pattern reminds you of. See examples below.

The first card just has three red dots. The second card has one red and two blue. It reminds me of a bear face. The bear has a red nose and blue eyes! In the third card, the bear is looking over his shoulder to see who is behind him. The third card can be a slide or stepping stones in the garden, or whatever else you fancy. Even if you do not stress that 3 red dots and zero other dots makes three, or that two blue dots plus one red dot make three, the child is storing up the visuals in his mind to serve as a reference point later. In addition to the visual, the child is feeling the squishy paint, smelling the tart aroma, and is seeing the color on his fingertips. It would be a powerful multisensory experience if you had your child dip three fingertips at one time in the paint because he would feel the three, see the three fingertips coated in paint, and then he’d feel and see himself transferring the color from his fingertips to the card stock.

Making More Patterns

When you make dot cards for fours, play with the arrangement of dots. The first card reminds me of a child sitting down reading a blue book. The third card looks so much like a footprint to me. The middle card could be anything. To me, it looks like sets of twins walking, as viewed by a bird flying over their heads.

Note that I have shown 3+1, 2+2, and 1+3. Use the first and last dot cards to explore the fact that no matter how you arrange the dots, 3 dots and 1 dot will always equal four.

One more set

Fives are fun. Card one is a box with a blue belly button. Card two can either be a house, or a sitting bear with blue shoes. Card three could be a baby chair with pink feet. Note that in my cards, I’ve covered both combinations of numbers that equal five. Once again, two cards show the same combination of numbers (3+2 and 2+3), both equaling 5.

When you have made your dot cards through the number 10, lay them out in a safe place to dry. Check back here on Tuesday for games to play with your dot cards! In the meantime, have fun creating!