Love Learning

Q: How do I help a child who is bright but has poor retention?

A: Many, many visual learners and right-brained learners are very bright. They come across as not bright when they are asked to do things that are very hard for them, such as work with symbols (1,2,3, A, B,C) and formulas and rules--in short, anything that involves a symbol or that requires memorization. The good news is that these children learn very quickly and efficiently when the materials they're using have elements that tie (left-brained) symbols to (right-brained) other elements such as pictures, body movement, story, metaphor, humor, color and more.

Read about how hemispheric dominance affects a child's ability to learn to read.

Check out our SnapWords™ cards that tie left-brained symbols to right-brained images and body movement.

The Impact of Hemispheric Dominance on Learning to Read

As is often the case when we discuss people in terms of classification, we tend to over generalize and label people. This is certainly the case when discussing right- or left-brain dominance. I would love to have a dime for every time I’ve heard someone say, “I’m right-brained” or “I’m left-brained.” When I hear those terms, a picture flashes into my head of a hemisphere in the brain running around on little legs and bare feet.

The fact is, we think and learn using both sides of our brain. Having said that, however, it is a fact that each of us has a dominant hemisphere that dictates our learning strengths, impacts our view of the world, and determines how we function in it. It is particularly important, then, for us as parents and teachers to understand our children’s dominant learning styles and adjust our practice to those preferences. If we don’t, chances are very good that the children will struggle with academics to one extent or another.

The functions of the hemispheres

A person’s dominant hemisphere is usually the one that processes incoming information, and the less dominant hemisphere can be strengthened through practice. If we want to help our children learn to the best of their abilities, it will naturally help for us to know which are their dominant hemispheres, and which are their less dominant ones. Armed with this knowledge, we can teach new information in a way that is best received by their dominant hemispheres, and then we can review or practice that information in ways that involve their less dominant hemispheres. Doing this will strengthen the connection between hemispheres and improve the children’s ability to do well with reading.

The hemispheres go to school

Academic skills associated with the left hemisphere include:

• Handwriting

• Symbols (letters and numbers)

• Language (spoken and written)

• Reading

• Phonics

• Working with details and facts

• Talking

• Following directions

• Listening to spoken language

Academic skills associated with the right hemisphere include:

• Haptic awareness (recognizing objects through touch)

• Spatial relationships (where things are on a map, relationship of one object to another in space)

• Shapes and pattern recognition

• Mathematical computation

• Sensitivity to color

• Singing and music

• Art expression

• Creativity

• Visualization

• Feelings and emotions

(See Unicorns are Real: A Right-Brained Approach to Learning by Barbara Meister Vitale, p 11)

Hemisphere dominance and reading

Hemispheric dominance has everything to do with learning to read. This might explain why so many, many children are struggling to learn to read and why some don’t learn. In spite of our society's focus on trying to make sure every child learns to read, we have not yet embraced the notion that maybe it is not our children that are at fault when they don’t learn to read but is instead the fact that we often continue to insist on a wholly left-brained approach to teaching reading. Also very much to the point is that when children are entering school, they are at a developmental stage in which their right hemispheres are developing rapidly; this means that children at the age for learning to read are not as developed in their left hemispheres!

This left-brained approach has been in place for decades; it has been endorsed and blessed by national associations, and it is taught in all our teaching colleges. It is no wonder that we educators are comfortable in believing that this method of teaching reading is right. But what follows that assumption is that children who cannot learn in that universally accepted way of teaching reading are broken, disabled, and incapable. Sadly, it is one reason why thousands of people grow to adulthood unable to read.

Specifics of how teaching reading is related to hemispheric dominance

1. The traditional way to teach reading is from part to whole using specified sequences of learning. We teach in little steps and expect the child to remember the little pieces until he gets to words in a book. This is perfect for dominant left-brained children! Right-brain dominant children take in information exactly the opposite way. They work from whole to part. What does this mean really? Right-brain dominant children must first see the final product, the goal, the whole thing, and the whole pattern; only then can they make up a way of learning and remembering. If you give a right-brained learner a sequence of little steps to learn, he cannot learn them well because this is not how his brain processes. He will be unable to remember the steps because he needs the final product in order to make sense of the steps. The perfect way to send a right-brained child into a coma during language arts is to ask him to learn the blends, for instance (bl, pl, pr, sl, sw, etc.)

2. Left-brain dominant learners think just fine using symbols. Right-brain dominant learners learn most easily through touch, the senses, and body movement. Their strong suit is not paper and pencil exercises. Phonics worksheets fall perfectly into this category of activities that are difficult for right-brained learners.

3. Left-brain dominant learners are most secure when they have a sequence to follow. For example, step by step directions, guidelines, rules of thumb, and details they can check off. Right-brain dominant learners are random in how they perceive. With these children, it works really well to surround them with learning and let them notice patterns and make connections.

4. For instance, it is the rule in most classrooms that the teacher should teach words in a particular sequence and only put on the word wall the words as dictated by school or district. Because I am a right-brained person myself, my classroom walls were covered with words from day 1. Literally every wall had words. Some were high-frequency words in alphabetical order, others were huge words grouped by part of speech (that were considered way above the grade level of my students). What I found was that my little rebellion worked in the favor of the children in my classroom who automatically began noticing patterns in words (the “part” in the phrase “from whole to part.”) They noticed, for example, that the “tion” in “nation” showed up in really big words like “vacation” or “abdication” and because they noticed this on their own, they remembered it.

5. Left-brain dominant learners are logical and work through a problem step by step. They start with a little tidbit and begin to logic through to the answer. “If this is fact, then this is also fact.” Right-brain dominant learners rely a lot on their intuition. Where this becomes a problem for them is when they have to explain or justify their answer using words. For example, a right-brain dominant child might solve a math problem by visualizing images or shapes in his mind, but when it comes to translating images he saw in his head into words and words in a sequence, he will likely struggle.

6. Left-brain dominant learners are usually quite verbal. They usually acquire and recall words a plenty. They think in words, or so I’m told. Right-brained dominant learners are not primarily verbal. The stronger the image in their mind, the more important the concept is to them, the less they will be able to translate that into words. Let them draw a picture or make something with their hands to show what they see. Interestingly enough, some right-brain dominant people can communicate in words best when they can write or type—it is a tactile activity that frees their mind from the need to verbalize the words, which I suppose adds an extra layer of left-brainedness to the process.

7. Left-brain dominant learners can hear, absorb, and deal with abstractions. By this I mean things like math rules, equations, phonics rules, spelling sequences (letter sequences). You can give them a rule, which is an abstract concept, and they can remember it and apply it to a problem in their homework. Right-brain dominant learners do not learn this way. They do not handle abstracts. They need examples, analogies, stories that explain why, and a habit of relating to known objects to help them remember abstract facts.

How do I know if I have a right-brain dominant child?

Good question! I’m so glad you asked! First of all, make a habit to pay very close attention to your child. A dominant right-brain child will:

• Tend to daydream

• Lose track of time

• Have a hard time expressing ideas in words

• Tend to handle, touch, pick up objects

• Have difficulty with verbal directions

• Communicate non-verbally (body motions, faces, etc)

• Remember faces, places, events but not names or numbers

• Be active

• Embellish a story at times

• Like to handle things and bepretty good at taking something apart and reassembling it

• Rather attempt to put something together without following directions

• Maybe be good in athletics

• Be impulsive

• Not sit still in his seat very well

• Have a messy desk, room, backpack, etc.

• Sometimes go into a room and forget why he went there

• Intuit a right answer, but might not be able to show proof

You might find it helpful to help your child take a casual online quiz that will point you in a direction of which hemisphere is dominant. Of course I am not sure how utterly scientific this test is, but I did take it myself.

It was no surprise to find out that I am 5 parts left-brained to 15 parts right-brained!

I have a right-brained dominant child. So where do I go from here?

While most of the traditional teaching materials are geared perfectly to left-brain dominant learners, there is hope for your right-brain dominant children. Here are some suggestions for helping right-brained learners read.

1. Start with whole words. Talk about what the word looks like. Use it in a sentence or five. Have your child come up with a body motion that reflects the meaning or shape of the word. Find the word in books. Have your child write it and draw a picture of it or build it out of materials of some kind. Or, check out our sight word cards that already include pictures and body motions.

2. Post the words on the walls of your school room. Post LOTS of words. For instance, if you introduce the word PLAY, post lots of words that have the AY ending. If you introduce OVER, post other words that have the ER ending. Never introduce a piece of learning in isolation from other similar or related items.

3. If you introduce small words such as PLAY or OVER, play around with bigger words that contain those smaller words such as PLAYGROUND or OVERPASS.

4. Introduce words from a story well loved by your child. You do not have to introduce particular words in a particular sequence. Your child might want to learn DINOSAUR first. So, do that word first! Whatever the child’s brain is captured by, he will learn and remember.

5. Use drawing every day. I always began school with very young children by giving them lots of coloring and drawing implements in flat boxes that allowed for easy access. Avoid broken or grimy crayons! Let the child draw whatever is on his mind and then begin to work on labeling the picture. For instance, if your child draws a dinosaur in his back yard, ask him what he drew and how he would like to label the picture. If he says, “I have a dinosaur for a pet,” help him write those words, and then put any word that is new on a card on the wall. This is how many young children acquire the ability to read.

6. Look for teaching materials that utilize images, body movement, rhyme, and other right-brained teaching elements.

7. And finally, do all you can to affirm the beautiful design of your child’s mind!

 

Check out these alphabet materials for right-brained learners.

Find out more about whole words with pictures.

Read about this effective reading program for right-brained learners.

Check these Math resources for right-brained learners.

Help Your Children Have a Ball with Multiplication and Division

We have a new resource out that makes learning multiplication and division facts fun and easy. It is called Right-Brained Multiplication & Division: a Forget Memorization Book. For children who memorize and don’t seem to retain the facts in the long term, or who struggle to memorize and retain the facts even for a few minutes, why not abandon this frustration and go to a method that makes learning stick? It is common knowledge that images and stories act like glue to carry otherwise dull facts into a child’s brain. Using images and stories and body movement also reaches out to several regions in the brain at one time, making the likelihood of learning and recall very high.

Consider this: You can attack the x7 table with your child or your students and struggle through the dry facts, hoping that the facts will somehow stick to their brains OR you can take those facts and embed them in images and then attach a storyline that explains why those particular numbers are used. The story behind the images below is that the Seven Brothers decided to sell balloons. The day was very windy, so turnout was not great and they sold nothing at all. The next day, however, a couple came back (Mr. 5 and Mrs. 6). The wind had died down and Mrs. 6 saw a beautiful pink and orange balloon she felt she simply had to have! In fact she liked the balloon so much she bought two. One she carried in her hand, and the other she tucked into her purse for another time.

Oh, and by the way...

The next day, Mrs. 6 decided to go for a sail and for the occasion, she dressed up with her yellow shoes, pink purse and scarf and off she went with her two balloons! Our final chapter in the book has only one single fact the children have not learned to date (the other facts for this table have been learned with other times tables). Here is the fact that remains: 8x8=64.

 

See inside Right-Brained Multiplication & Division.

Snag a copy for yourself!

 

Hands-on activities and practice problems complete with answer key make teaching easy for the adult! 123 full-color pages.

____________________________________________________________________________

 

Parent review:

MARVELOUS!!!!! We just started using this book last week, and we have had wonderful success so far! My 2nd and 3rd graders actually look forward to math now...which is totally amazing because they have always "hated" math! This is definitely money well spent...especially for kids who are right-brained and/or don't enjoy memorizing math facts! :D

How to Make Flashcards That Truly Help Right-Brained Learners

Flash cards are NOT created equal. Where they get a bad rap is when they are used for trying to drill and cram for a test, using stark, boring memorization. The outcome of this sort of study varies wildly from child to child. When I was in school, I was somehow able to “memorize” content this way for tests – but honestly? Usually, the minute my brain spilled its crammed contents out onto the test page, my memory was wiped clean. Or take the times I got to a test thinking I was well prepared, only to glaze over, leaving me staring at a blank test paper.

Some common uses for flashcards include:

• Learning new vocabulary words and their meanings

• Learning facts for a history test

• Learning Biology terms

• Learning philosophers and their signature area of belief

• Learning prominent English monarchs

• Learning the Roman emperors and what they were known for

A commonplace flashcard will have one item on the front and the matching factoid(s) on the reverse side. This is so you can try and recall the factoid first, and can flip the card over to see if you got the answer right.

Here is an illustration of a boring flashcard. 

This one is about Trajan, a Roman Emperor, and some facts about him. The question becomes, how do I group those particulars around the name Trajan, when I am also learning about Tiberius or Augustus or Caligula, and their cronies? This is the failing of normal flashcards. You still have to somehow relate all the facts together and recall them when needed.

Here is an illustration of a fun flashcard. 

This card uses the same facts, but since we used images and a body motion (hand on ones heart to signal Trajan’s kindheartedness) it becomes super easy to remember the name and what goes with it. Dacia was a rich country that was found north of the Danube River. On this card, you can plainly see the roads and bridge that Trajan built, the bank holding the funds for the poor, and his prominent heart reminding us of his kind heart. Note that the a’s in Trajan became his eyes while the j became his nose.

If your child is an active learner, engaging his hands in making his own flashcards will do wonders. Anyone can draw stick figures and also little symbols that are visual reminders of the content. A visual learner will remember the image on the card intact as though his brain snapped a picture of the content. Best of all, he will later be able to recall it intact also!

How to Choose the Best Educational Environment for Your Child

Recently I heard from a parent on the other side of the world about concerns she had with her daughter’s difficulties in some areas of school. She expressed that her daughter is primarily a right-brained learner and that she struggles with subjects such as writing when she needs to translate information from mental ideas or images into a sequence of words, or in math class when ideas utilizing symbols are called for. All of these present challenges to be overcome.

Subsequent discussions with this parent led to her question, “What is the best educational setting for my child?” She was doubtless considering whether or not she would be able to support her daughter sufficiently from home. This is a huge question, however, and one only parents can answer for themselves and their own children. But I asked this particular parent to describe in more detail what is easy and what is hard for her daughter in the school setting. Here are some of the ideas she expressed about her daughter:

What is hard for her: 

• Spelling. She is able to learn her spelling words for her spelling tests, however the spelling words are not used correctly in her writing thereafter.

• Mathematics. Simple addition, subtraction, division and multiplication take a long time to work out and sometimes when she gets the correct answer, she will write the wrong answer on the sheet.  If she cannot see the picture of the problem at hand, she cannot understand what is being asked of her.

• She is very tough on herself and wants to get everything right.  I cannot reason with her that mistakes are a part of learning.

• Often daydreams in class. She says that she uses the time to process information, however her teacher believes she is not on task.

• Moves, rocks, fidgets all the time; this helps her focus on the task at hand.

• Cannot follow verbal instructions.

• If she verbalizes before writing, her thought process is much clearer and she can write in a sequential manner.

What is easy for her:

• Reading - her reading level and comprehension are at grade level.

• Art - is very creative and thinks outside the box.

• Dance - very expressive in her dance, always getting acknowledged at school.

• Intuition - picks up people’s moods very easily.

• Writing - if helped, she can write some very imaginative and entertaining pieces of work.

• Science - loves science and is very excited to discuss science concepts.

As I read through these bullet points, what struck me was that this lady's daughter truly does sound like a visual/tactile child! [For more information about visual-spatial learners, see this blog post and this one.]

Another idea that struck me is how thoroughly this mother had gotten to know her child. This knowledge of our children is fundamental to truly being able to guide and help them. Once we’ve identified their gifts as well as their areas of challenge, we can choose wisely for them because we will have the information needed.

So how do I choose?

While I cannot answer this question, I will say this: Once you have determined your child’s learning needs and strengths, the next step is to find out what your options are. Is there a school your child could attend where consideration is given in coursework for right-brained or visual learners? If you have various options open to you, take the time to interview and ask specific questions about how your child would be helped through her areas of need.

If you feel there are few options for your child, one idea to consider is to supplement her education at home by using materials that are designed especially for visual or other right-brained learners. Visual learners learn very quickly when the setting is right. If the materials you are using have images and body movement incorporated into them, working with her at home might be all you need to do.

Please don’t hesitate to call (1-800-881-0912) or email (info@child-1st.com) if you would like to chat about your own child and what might help him/her out the most. Or, use the comments section below.

Tips for Helping a Right-Brained Child Write in a Left-Brained, Sequential Way

A customer recently wrote:

"My 8 year old daughter is right brained and has difficulty in organizing her thoughts into writing in a sequential and flowing manner. Is there anything I can do to help her with her writing?"

The reason writing a paper can be daunting to right-brained children is because many of these learners think in images or movies. Those images and movies are full-color, detailed and wonderful. Can you only imagine having to break something like that apart and put the content into a sequence using words on paper? A picture is worth 1,000 words and yet even those 1000 words cannot adequately convey the images the child is seeing in her head. The attempts to translate that colorful image into a sequence of words to convey to another person what she is seeing often causes a huge amount of discouragement!

The first step toward helping your child begin to translate his mental images into a sequence of words is an intermediate step that will allow him to put his thoughts into another form of global whole. We will use an organizer like this one so he can see all the elements at one time:

You can use a blank piece of paper and have your child draw the circle in the middle that will be his main topic first. The next step will be to brainstorm three main topics to replace the words “first category, second category, third category.” The title, first sentence, and last sentence will be written after the ideas are complete for the three categories. This format may be used for either narrative or descriptive writing. When I used this format to help me write (yes, even into graduate school), I would write all my thoughts down for the various categories—just everything that came to mind. I would then be able to evaluate which were repetitive, which were not important, and would also of course identify which ideas I really wanted to write about. These will be put in place in the squares under each category.

This next graph shows some of the information filled in for a paper on tree frogs:

Many times I chose my categories AFTER I had brain stormed a lot of ideas I wanted to write about. This might be a difficult proposition for a young child, however, which is why I suggested identifying main categories first. Having the categories all on one page with all the other ideas will be a bit of a help to your child as she translates that image in her head into words that she can organize. At this stage in the process, we are just working on filling out the three categories well.

Bear in mind that this graph can be used with very small children just learning to write. The three categories would turn into three descriptors of the main topic. For example, “my birthday cake” might be the main topic. The beginning writer could just write three things about her cake such as that it is large, tastes like vanilla, and is in the shape of a big truck.

Conversely, the graph can also be used with more advanced children who will also include topic sentences in their categories. Having this global organizer will be so helpful to them!

When all the content of the categories is complete, direct the child to think of how she will write an opening sentence that will make the reader really anxious to read what she is writing about! Next, how will she close the writing? You might want to refer her back to her first sentence with an example. Say her first sentence is something like this: “Tree frogs are some of the most interesting creatures I have heard of.” Her last sentence could refer back to the opening sentence, but include one detail she finds most interesting about the tree frog.

At this point, the title should be simple to create. Try for something that grabs attention.

This last image shows how the content of the well-completed graph translates into a sequential, left-brained wonderful piece of writing!

Try this out and please let me know how it goes! Use the comments section to share what your child finds helpful, how he would change the graph to suit him best, and any suggestions he would like to make. After all, we learn the most about teaching from asking our children how THEY learn best, what helps them the most, and what they were thinking at any point in the process. Asking these questions helps us become better teachers and also helps the children understand more clearly how they learn and how they can help themselves.

How to Teach a Right-Brained Learner to Recognize Sound Spelling Patterns

We’ve posted a lot of information on this blog about teaching right-brained, visual/spatial children to read, but some concepts bear retelling because they are so important. A right-brained learner needs so much to see all the material they are taught with a global view so they can find patterns in it. What follows are some ideas for teaching sound spelling patterns to right-brained learners. By the way, I taught all my students this way, as even the predominantly left-brained learners gained more from this approach than from concepts taught in isolation.

But first, I wanted to share a few links that might help as you teach your students to read. The first link is to a blog post that gives some ideas for helping children transition from stylized SnapWords™ sight word cards to unadorned high-frequency words in text. Next is a post that contains tips for teaching right-brained students to read and then a post on teaching the long vowel sounds in a story before having them attempt to read it. The last link I wanted to share is to a free booklet of activities to use in learning and reviewing SnapWords™. This booklet provides teachers and parents with plenty of ideas for not only recognizing high-frequency words, but also for comprehension and using them correctly in sentences and in writing.

We recently came out with a book called The Illustrated Book of Sounds & Their Spelling Patterns that details all the sound spellings in English. The lessons are done for you in the book, but the following might clarify how to teach using this approach.

Teaching sound spellings:

Let’s say you are going to tackle long A vowel sounds.

1.    On your whiteboard or chart paper, list the various spellings like this:

        a-e        ay        ai        a       

(Also, use pages 16-17 in Sounds & Their Spelling Patterns)

Tell the students that when they see these letters, they will know to say A (long sound of a).

2.    Under a-e write a few of the following words in a column so your students can see the pattern that is made of a-e in all the words:

    Face, lace, mace, pace, race,

    bade, fade, jade, made, wade,

    age, cage, page, rage, sage, wage,

    bake, cake, fake, lake, make, rake, take, wake,

    bale, dale, gale, hale, male, pale, sale, tale,

    came, tame, dame, fame, game, lame, name, same, tame,

    bane, cane, lane, mane, pane, sane, vane, wane,

    cape, gape, nape, tape,

    base, case, vase,

    ate, date, fate, gate, hate, late, mate, rate,

    cave, gave, pave, rave, save, wave,

    daze, faze, gaze, haze, maze, raze

3.    Have the children use their whiteboards. Tell them you are going to call out words that use the a-e pattern. Don’t mix them up. Start with the “ace” words and call them out one at a time--face, lace, etc.--using the collection of words above.

4.    Next have them start a new spelling. Tell them this one will be “ade.” Call out the ade words from the list above.

5.    Continue until you have done all the words listed above even if you break this into two sessions. The reason for including all those words is that they will learn most easily that this is a spelling pattern that occurs throughout our language and it will be easier for them to notice words that include a-e after having practiced.

6.    Do page 16 in the Sounds book by having them highlight in yellow only the letters a-e, nothing else. Read the sentences together and notice how the pictures illustrate the sentences. When you feel they are ready, have them use their whiteboards and you read one sentence at a time very slowly so they can write the target words (the ones in bold print). When they can do this pretty easily, tell them excitedly that you are going to bump up the difficulty level and you are going to mix up the words. Please do not use letter names or tell them the spellings of the words. Sound out the words and encourage them to sound out loud as they write them. I always made my students sound out loud no matter how old they were. It makes a huge difference for them.

WORDS for AY:

    Bay, day, gay, hay, jay, lay, may, nay, pay, ray, say, way, bray, clay, cray, gray, play,     pray, slay, spray, stay, stray, sway, tray.

(Point out that when the students hear long a at the END of words, it will be spelled AY.)

WORDS for AI: Also use page 17 in Sounds & Their Spelling Patterns.

    Aid, laid, maid, paid, raid

    Ail, bail, fail, hail, jail, mail, nail, pail, rail, sail, tail, wail

    Lain, main, pain, rain, vain, wain

    Bait, gait, wait

(Point out that when the students hear long a in the MIDDLE of words, it will be spelled AI.)

The exception to this is MAY-BE, however, the AY comes at the end of a syllable in that word.

This same rule applies to words with OI and OY. OI in the middle of words, OY at the end of words except LOY-AL and ROY-AL.

Be sure to do all this to give your right-brained learners a solid base before having them read the Easy-for-Me™ Books. When you are ready to introduce a story, scan the storyline with them to find their sight words (which you can post on the wall near where they are reading) and to locate words that use the long A spellings. If during reading they come to a sight word and hesitate, rather than letting them guess wrong, simply point to the stylized word as a prompt. In subsequent readings of the stories you could turn the SnapWords™ over so the backs of the cards are visible.

Tips for Teaching To, Too, and Two

One thing that makes the English language so special is the number of words that sound alike but mean vastly different things. As a result, I often see their used where there would be more accurate and there used to demonstrate possession. They’re is often used in place of there. Pesky little words! (A while back, I posted some ideas for how to remember the difference between these three words.) 

To, too and two are another set of tricky words that are easy to mix up. 

Because I am strongly visual and remember best when I use memory hooks, I often create my own visual hooks to help myself remember tricky things. Visual hooks are pretty powerful!

Let's think of some visual hooks we could use to help our right-brained students remember the difference between to, too, and two.

Here is a “hook” (image) for the word TO:

In the image, the monkey eating a banana is confidently going TO an undisclosed location with a shining headlight TO brighten his path.

In the “hook” (image) for TOO, the little girl wants to go TOO.

She doesn’t want to be left behind to languish at home! I don’t know that she cares where they are going, just so she can go TOO!

Finally, in the “hook” (image) for two, it is patently clear that TWO heads are better than one when it comes to reading really tricky and vague directions.

So the TWO of them are holding the book of directions and are working with TWO brains to figure out how the directions work. Obviously this strategy is working for them, given the broad smiles on their faces (their faces, not there faces or they’re faces).

Keep posted for more visual hooks for tricky English words that sound alike but mean vastly different things.

Right-Brain-Friendly Reading and Math for Preschoolers

Most people come to Child1st searching for help for their struggling students because our specialty is designing materials for those who learn most easily through visuals, body movement, song, rhyme, personification, patterns, and other such right-brain-friendly elements. Materials that include these elements are very effective with children who are considered learning disabled in any way, including autistic children, those with dyslexia, ADD, and the like.

While the materials are effective with children with specific learning needs, they're also super preschool-friendly! Children up to age 7ish are in a developmental stage in which the right hemisphere of the brain is rapidly developing. If this is where the growth is occurring, it makes a lot of sense to capitalize on that and use those right-brained elements in concepts we want those youngsters to learn. Even after children pass the age of 7, a great number of them remain visual learners.

Following are some suggestions for reading and math materials that rely on right-brained elements as they introduce left-brained concepts.

 

Pre-Math

Hot off the press: I Can Sing from 1 to 10

I Can Sing from 1 to 10 is a first math book for the very young. Children learn a song, absorb the illustrations, do the accompanying body movement and count the objects on the pages. After enjoying the picture book a few times, they will be able to recognize and name numbers to 10 without any drill or effort.

24 pages, full color illustrations.

See sample pages from the book.

 

Pre-Reading

Also new: SnapWords™ Nouns sight word cards 

The nouns list includes 59 nouns commonly used across the curriculum, including animals, landforms, space, people, geography, seasons, weather, body parts and clothing, school-related words, and others. These concrete words are perfect for introducing words to the very young, and may be combined with sight words from other lists for sentence-building. Each card is 5.5" wide by 4.25" tall. Along with your order you will receive a free download of Activities for Use with SnapWords™, a booklet full of ideas for activities to do with the stylized sight word cards. Check out these free samples you can try with your child.

The very best way to prevent your youngster from struggling as he enters kindergarten is to introduce the concept of numbers and reading to him ahead of time in this oh-so-friendly and appealing way!

 

Read Aloud

The Charming Eli’s Books Series

We are so proud of our Eli’s Books line of picture books to share with your young child. The  illustrations are beautifully done photos, while the story lines are simple and unforgettable. We currently have 11 titles for sale with more on the way. View our current titles and see inside the books.

Titles include:

Eli Goes Fishing   (86 words)

Eli Explores God’s World   (81 words)

Eli Hears Music   (107 words)

Eli Picks Berries   (183 words)

Eli’s Spring Day   (84 words)

Eli’s Summer Day   (107 words)

Eli’s Fall Day   (117 words)

Eli’s Winter Day   (101 words)

Eli Makes Cookies   (74 words)

Eli Meets His Shadow   (61 words)

Eli’s Cross Day   (94 words)

 

Alphabet                                                                            

Alphabet Tales 

Want to introduce letters and sounds to your preschooler? Start her out with Alphabet Tales. Each tale tells a story about how the letter came to have its shape and sound, creating a memorable learning experience. Charming illustrations enhance this meaningful learning/story time for all types of learners, but especially for visual and kinesthetic learners.  

See inside the book.

 

Collect all these books for right-brained learners and start today to encourage your young child to love learning!

How to Make Spelling Words Unforgettable for Right-Brained Learners

Spelling was not one of my best subjects in elementary school. I would drill my word list and because I studied in the traditional way, I missed a lot of words on the weekly quizzes. All the words I missed I had to write in my notebook, which was lovingly called “My Personal Word List.” The words in My Personal Word List were considered special words that I should review so I could retake the quiz and hope the second time around proved to yield better results (None of this was my idea, as I would have been far happier to never see those words again!).

The main difficulty I see with this whole scenario is that it was assumed that words I couldn’t remember how to spell after drilling, writing, and spelling aloud, I would somehow be able to remember after repeating the process that didn’t work for me the first time. From my vantage point, some fifty years later, I clearly see that if a method didn’t work the first time, it is just silly to try again using the same approach.

So, the other day I was writing a sentence using the word “lavender.” Only I spelled it lavendar as is my wont. Because I was using graphics software, spell check did not save me. When the goof was brought to my attention, I knew I had to help myself once and for all. In the process, I remembered I also have trouble remembering how to spell caterpillar (I usually end the word with an “er.”). So this is what I made:

Why do these visuals work?

1.    I chose a small word that I DO remember how to spell. In these examples, the words I know without any trouble are “super” and “dollar.” I remember “dollar” because I tend to say the word like this in my head: doll–ARE.

2.    Next, I grouped the known word with other words that have the same spelling pattern, and I made a silly sentence using them all.

3.    Finally, I sketched a picture that ties all the words together and illustrates the sentence.

4.    The next time I jog my memory to remember how to spell lavender, I will think first of the picture of the lady with the lavender hair, then I will recall that she is a super gardener. And voila! There is my hint for how to correctly spell lavender.

5.    For caterpillar, I will do the same thing. The picture flashes into my mind, and then I will think of his collar purchased for a dollar.

What makes this so effective with right brained learners?

Right-brained children who have already struggled and failed will be so empowered if we can direct them to use their amazing visual memory to help themselves remember concepts. Right brainers don’t memorize in the way we are used to. They DO capture pictures intact in a snap and remember anything that is connected to the picture. When I first began using this approach with children 1st grade through middle school, once they figured out that they could rely on other pathways to their brains other than the traditional memorization of sequences of letters, they could learn a list of words in 15 minutes. Children in grades 3 and up could study their sheet of words by themselves and many times would look up at me and say, “Quiz me now!”  The most fabulous byproduct of their success is that their reading abilities soared in the process. This procedure smoothed the way for them to find the wonderful spelling patterns in words, and over time they were able to read unfamiliar, new words by comparing their components to other words they already knew.

If you're interested in seeing more visuals that group spelling patterns like the ones above, check out The Illustrated Book of Sounds & Their Spelling Patterns for a super resource in which all the sound spellings are grouped into sentences with cartoon illustrations. Make learning to read and spell a snap for those special right brainers!