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.)

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.

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!

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!

Teaching Picture Thinkers

I’ve been thinking about visual learners for several years now--teaching them, working to understand how they think and learn, and then creating visual helps embedded in left brain material so they can grasp new material with ease. My goal has been to provide a connection between left and right brain processes so that more and more right brained learners will be successful. I’ve been primarily focused on getting material into a child’s understanding and memory.

A few short weeks ago, I began thinking more about not only how people process new ideas and information, but then how they re-articulate that once they've digested it. My focus shifted from thinking primarily about channels into the brain, to how people express the learning. I was doing some research in unfamiliar territory, with the goal of first understanding the content, and then distilling the critical parts of the research so I could share it with others. During the process of research, I drew several pictures and mind maps to help me organize the content. When it came time to share the material with my colleagues, I found myself really struggling. What I had digested was so rich and deep, but I felt completely inadequate when it came to verbalizing the amazing ideas I had gained. It dawned on me that the breakdown occurred somewhere between the hemispheres of my brain. I had spent a week reading words, translating them into pictures and visuals so I could learn the material, and now it was time to take those pictures and change them back into words. I think I understood more fully what it really means to be a visual learner. I realized how frequently I think in pictures rather than words. I thought everyone did that. Pictures I make in my mind or ones I see help me remember.

The problem with thinking in pictures

The trouble comes in that I cannot always form a picture from words I am hearing. In graduate school, I recall sitting in a class and hearing strings of words each of which I had heard before, but being completely unable to extract meaning from them. Particularly painful were the times in which the professor was verbalizing directions for the current class activity, and everyone around me seemed to be totally in tune – except for me. Everyone set to work – except for me. I was too mortified to ask a question and betray my ignorance. Surreptitiously I would peek at what my neighbors were doing, and if I felt ok with the person seated next to me, I would ask him/her to translate for me what we were to do.

In a third type of scenario, I was confronted with problems to solve, which I felt unable to solve until I hit on the plan of drawing sketches of what the problem entailed. When I did this, a solution presented itself.

What if the picture thinker is a child?

At that time when I found myself not understanding the professor, I had grown children. Imagine what I would have felt like had I been a child. If you do a search for terms such as right brained learner, teach visual learners, reading programs dyslexia learners, or a similar phrase, you will access a lot of information about the percentage of children in the world who are suspected to fall into the category of picture thinkers or visual learners. There are quite a few children that can be described this way. So, what happens when you have a high percentage of children who think in pictures, but our primary means of teaching them is verbal or approaches that use symbols rather than images?

Provide images

Certainly it would be advantageous to provide the very young with images as they are learning the critical skills that lead to reading and math. We have written a lot about our products that tie symbols to meaning using embedded visuals. These materials are critically important when you are teaching a young child. Children between the ages of 4 ½ and 7 are highly visual thinkers anyway; that is the time of life in which their right brain is rapidly developing. It makes the most sense to start out right and teach these young learners in a way most compatible with how their brains are working.

We can quite easily provide visual cues as we teach sight words and even explicit phonics concepts. But the great good news is that there are ways to help teach the visual learner to begin to make his own mental pictures. Children are their own best allies when they are helped to understand what they need in order to learn.

Show her an example of what you want

To this day, if I am asked to do something I’ve not done before; failure is pretty much guaranteed unless I can see an example of a finished product that is considered to be successful.  I need to SEE something to understand the expectations for me. If you ask your child to draw a picture to help him solve a math problem, show her an example of you doing just that with a similar problem, modeling for her your thinking process as you do it.

Practice visualization

When young children are working on learning to read, in many cases, they don’t instinctively know that the reason they are learning to read is to extract meaning. There are many, many children who “do not comprehend” what they are reading, but really, did anyone ever tell them to think about what the passage meant? Or did we just tell them the phonics rules, teach them how to recognize high frequency words, or drill them on correct spelling? Did we ever explicitly tell them to visualize what they are reading? As I worked with young children on learning to read, I found it very helpful to prompt them to stop, close their eyes and make a picture in their minds of what they had just read. If they answered, “It’s just dark in here,” I prompted them to open their eyes and read the passage again with the goal in mind this time of making a picture. I have done this with kids as young as kindergarten. It was not an instant process, but it did work better and better over time.

The starting point was to show them a stylized letter from our Alphabet Teaching Cards. We’d explore the details in the picture, then I would have them close their eyes and wait until they could see the picture in their minds. At this point, they would open their eyes and quickly draw on a whiteboard what they saw in their minds.

Using our SnapWords® is a next step. The image that is embedded in each word conveys to the child the fact that the collection of symbols MEANS something. The image makes it impossible to ignore the meaning of the word. But again, if you ask the child to close his eyes and “see” the word in his mind, you can even focus in on details. You can show the child the SnapWord for CLEAN. Talk about the lady with the blue bandana that has not one but two dusting rags. Is she in a hurry to get a lot done? Give the child a chance to study the word, then lay the card down and ask him to close his eyes and see the word again in his mind. Ask him to describe for you what he’s seeing.

Finally, as a child is reading a book, stop him after each thought and ask him to close his eyes and imagine what he read. If you prompt him to do this, visualization will become easier and easier. In addition, he will learn that he needs to focus in this way in order to extract meaning not only out of reading material, but out of people’s words he is listening to.

Write directions out

One easy help to offer your picture thinker is to write out for him what you want him to do. I know it takes me a few reads sometimes to make sense out of directions for a new task. If there are only auditory directions provided, there is nothing to refer back to. A middle aged graduate student might have the motivation to ask for clarification, but I pretty much can guarantee you that a first grader won’t always feel the burning need to do so. We can save ourselves some frustration if we take a few more steps in helping picture thinkers know what is expected.

Turning pictures into words

Helping visual learners grasp new information by using images and helping them learn to visualize is great. However, my recent struggle to put words to my research made me understand in a very personal way more about the challenges our picture thinkers have in our traditional school setting. Once visual learners have made pictures in their minds, the other half of the issue is helping them learn how to put their mental images into words. I have thought carefully about how I felt when in the middle of trying to verbalize what I’d learned. I’ve relived the frustration, the suspicion I had that I was somehow a bit slow, and the resulting discouragement, and it makes my heart go out to children.

What can be done?

If so many of our population are picture thinkers, we need to spend a lot of effort reevaluating our teaching approach and materials. Much of our traditional system is not kid-friendly. It hurts me that this is so, and that we are calling children disabled when they can’t learn via traditional approaches. Some of our most creative potential problem solvers and designers are kids who think in pictures. Let’s encourage them to use their giftedness by opening the door to alternate ways of learning and new ways of expressing their learning. We can make it so that all our children love learning.

Child1st Publications, www.child-1st.com

A Customer Asks About Stylizing Words

Hi Sarah-

I am working with a child who has a very high IQ and is also very visual. She isn’t great with long term memory, however. The words on your SnapWords® cards are mostly short sight words. What about longer words such as “outlandish?" Do you recommend stylizing larger classroom words also for strongly visual learners?

Different ways of learning and remembering

I have noted that children who are highly visual usually struggle to remember anything they learned in non-visual ways; thus the seemingly poor long-term memory. Visual children learn most readily and most effortlessly from either seeing an image along with learning, or by making their own mental image.

An example of making a visual for oneself is a person who imagines a drawn map when listening to someone giving them directions to a new place. Seeing a map of the route is much easier, but it is possible for strongly visual people to visualize a route in their heads. I know this because it is what I have to do if I ask for directions and don’t happen to have a pen handy!

When it comes to reading new words, it would be nearly impossible to undertake the task of stylizing every word a child will encounter in school. Nor is it necessary, really. Once children understand what they need for learning and remembering, they can learn to help themselves, whether it be through mental maps etc. I've seen this happen with children even as young as kindergarten. How empowering for the child!

Taking Words Apart

My experience with the SnapWords® is that they are necessary only for getting a child up to speed (or for initial teaching of reading). Once a child masters the stylized words and we’ve “dissected” them along the way, she truly does not need them for more advanced reading. So, for your very visual student, I would go through all the SnapWords®, pointing out word chunks or sound spellings so that when she comes to a more complicated word, you can show how the larger word has pieces that are similar to much smaller words she already knows. The brain loves making connections, and discovering the patterns in words is a great place for this brain exercise!

For instance, for the word “outlandish” I would have her practice taking it apart, maybe writing on a whiteboard so that it looks like this:

OUT – LAND – ISH

Finding Patterns in Words

You can point out that OUT is a sight word, as is AND. You can generate other OUT words so the child can enjoy how many words have that same sound spelling: OUT, SHOUT, ABOUT, STOUT, GOUT, CROUT, etc. The AND in LAND belongs with all sorts of other words: BAND, HAND, STAND, COMMAND, ABANDON, etc.

When Visual Learners Rely on Their Ears

I found over the years that all of my children who struggled with reading greatly improved when they began to rely primarily on their ability to hear sound chunks in words. Odd to think that my visual learners relied on their auditory abilities for help! But it worked wonders for them because it simplified words for them, and kept them from having to memorize loads of words and their spellings. A child can HEAR every sound and all that remains is learning how to represent them with letters/symbols.

For instance, he can learn that /O/ (short vowel sound) is spelled several different ways:

·         O as in pot

·         Aw as in law

·         A as in water

·         Ou as in cough

·         Ough as in fought

·         Augh as in taught

·         Al as in walk

My visual learners LOVED it that they could make sense out of all the spellings. We would generate a list for each spelling and then practice writing them on white boards.

Their boards would look something like this:

Visual learners greatly benefit from seeing a different color for the target sound – in this case, of course, it is short O. I always told my students that they didn’t have to remember how to spell ANY word; they just needed to listen to the sounds. When the target sound is written in another color or highlighted or underlined, the child just needs to say /O/ every time she gets to a red section in the words.

We enjoyed making lists of words, posting them in groups by sound, and after some time, those words became friends and the space on the bulletin board or wall was ready for new sound spelling postings.

Children do not have to memorize which words go together. Having done the work/play of putting the words into like groups and writing them, talking about them goes a long way towards helping the child remember how to spell the sounds in each word – and most importantly, how to read words he encounters with these sound spellings in them. It's very powerful for global learners (and often, visual learners also learn globally) to know how many sound spellings there are and that there is not an infinite number. That way, the children feel that any word they come to can be taken apart and mastered. This is also very empowering!

Easiest of All

We did add one element that cemented sound spellings for the children. We’d make up sentences using the words in each column. For instance: “What I want is water, Father, I was not going to wander!” “The fawn on the lawn was in awe at the awful straw.” “I caught and taught my naughty daughter.”

Stylized words such as our SnapWords® play a very crucial role in jump-starting children into reading, but the images on the words are bridges that are used for a time and for a purpose. Other strategies need to also come into play to carry the learners into far more advanced language.

When A Picture is Worth 1000 Words

One glance at this photo and words become unnecessary. Such is the power of an image. Artists and marketers alike understand the power of images to communicate, to convince, and to sway. Images are powerful because meaning is conveyed in one instant, the image is stored in the brain, and when the image evokes emotion in the viewer, the message becomes unforgettable.

The hard, the dry, and the boring

What if we took all that is hard, boring, and dry in education and used images to teach it? Wouldn’t that be amazing? For sure, our young learners would be much happier and more successful. Learning would no longer feel like learning; it would be more like absorbing ideas from the environment.

I remember some ideas that were hard for my young students to just remember. You know these concepts as well! Reversals are some of the most common difficulties for beginners. We show our students a symbol and tell them the name of it and expect (and need?) them to remember both for the next time it comes up.

Those confusing symbols

These symbols represent only a handful of those that are problematic for young people. Verbally telling a child how to correct the number or letter just doesn’t help. Next time they need to write that symbol, there is nothing to remind them of how to do it correctly. An image can be your biggest ally in times such as these. Something concrete and familiar to the child can also be a great tool to use…such as the child’s own hands.

Strategies

A visual and tactile cue for forming an S properly involves a tiny story, a hand cue and voila, the tricky S is done! Story? Make a cave with your left hand. Start with your pencil at the end of your pointer finger and trace the cave and then your thumb below the cave.

For lefties, have them use their right hand pointer finger (cave-seeking bear) and point into the cave. They will trace around the pointer finger tip and then curve around the other way to make “stacked caves.” Apartment caves for bears anyone?

Group similar symbols together for ease of learning

Let’s ease learning hard concepts by grouping like things together, rather than teaching in isolation. Here we see some “cave letters” that can be taught all together. The cave is made as in the S example above, then each of the letters are formed from inside that cave. Lefties would substitute the bear pointer finger that is going into his cave. These helps are all available in our Writing the Visual, Kinesthetic, Auditory Alphabet.

Include a jingle

When working through refining the difference between b and d, use the jingle “B’s like to walk, while D’s like to talk.” Then display the visual for reference. I actually had my students act out being b and d. We lined up and all the little “b’s” who were ready to walk faced to the right. Then we’d insert a few talkative “d’s” who of course were facing the wrong way (face to the left) and chat about how those “d’s” might bump into walls or crash into the person behind them because they were not looking where they were going. The poster to the left is available for purchase from our store. Watch Twitter and Facebook for specials involving this visual aid!

Of course, using one’s own hands for the bd connection is powerful as well. I had my students make a bed with their hands and use that as a quick reference for the correct direction for these tricky letters. Many times I caught a glimpse of a child making the bed surreptitiously under his or her desk so no one would see, then quickly would continue writing, able to form the letters correctly!  Any child can sound out the word bed, and in doing so will note that the left hand makes the shape of the b, the knuckles of both hands make the mattress, while the right hand forms the d.

I am sure there are a myriad of other ideas that help children with reversals! Feel free to jump in here and share your own helps! And when you have a few minutes, come by and visit our website because visuals is what we are all about.

A Recent Testimonial

August 2009

As a result of the great success I am having with my kids with Child1st Publications products, I have been asked to do a small workshop on September 19th. My three year old son has mastered over 200 of the snap words. He loves the little stories behind the words and often acts out the scene. My two year old son (turned two years in July) has mastered over 30 of the snap words [in two months].

-Trinda

Trinda's experience with her children affirms just how effective Child1st's products are with tiny tots! Trinda's children presumably did not have the goal of mastering a certain number of sight words. Instead, the kids enjoyed the pictures and through interacting with them, they absorbed the learning that was embedded in them. Isn't this cool?

What are your stories?

The Bridge Won’t Stick to His Foot. I Promise

I have worked extensively with children who struggle with reading. What I learned is that if there is a gap in understanding, that gap might as well be a mile wide because of how effectively it stops the child from progressing. If the child is in kindergarten, educators and parents don’t worry too much because they see that he or she is very small. Surely with more repetition, the child will begin to catch on and all will be well. It is a lot harder to be sanguine about a child in sixth grade that is still rooted to the same spot as he was in kindergarten. Unfortunately, now the issues have multiplied because the early foundation for learning is not in place for that child.

The gap, or the missing element, might be a very small and insignificant concept, but not addressing  the gap could result in failure for the child. Many gaps arise from our traditional system  of teaching reading in a sequential, highly left-brained manner. Children who are strongly right brained will simply not understand material, from time to time, that is presented verbally, sequentially, and through symbols. These children will greatly benefit from tools which utilize visuals, movement, or story to create a bridge to understanding. It is easy to ignore the gap, and yet it is not hard to remedy, to provide a visual or kinesthetic bridge just in the nick of time.

Sometimes, a concerned parent took a close look at the visual materials I was using and became really concerned that their child would end up depending on the visual tool and never move past it to doing “real learning.” I can totally understand this concern. I wouldn’t like having my child reach high school still singing the ABC song in order to identify the alphabet.

The great news about visual tools is that they truly bridge a gap in learning, but the moment the child skips across the bridge that spans the gap, they understand the concept and do not consciously depend on the visual tool any longer. I can assure you that if you use visual tools as you teach, the bridge will not stick to your child’s foot! He or she will walk over the bridge and move on.

Let’s look at some examples of visual tools and how they work to bridge a gap in understanding:

Learning Numbers

If you have a child that finds it hard to relate number name to symbol, create a visual out of the number so there is a memory prompt embedded in it. At Child1st, we have a stylized number set and a song about the stylized numbers which make it easy for even toddlers to learn their numbers. I discovered by accident that some younger siblings of preschoolers could locate a number on demand because they had overheard us singing the number song and talking about the stylized picture of the numbers. WOW! While I am not a proponent of urging younger and younger children to count and read, my point is that visual tools are nearly magical for conveying learning effortlessly.

Our image for number 8 is the snowman. The child can learn that 8 is the snowman who ate a carrot. At first, in order to recall the name of that symbol, the child might call the number “snowman.” At this point, a concerned parent will understandably worry that her child might not ever call 8 “eight.” But be patient. It won’t be very long at all before the visual fades and your child will just see an 8 and will say “eight.” Using the visuals just makes learning easy and fun.

Teaching Digraphs

 It is not easy for a young child to remember which digraph makes which sound. They all look very  similar. All have an h, for one thing. We have stylized the digraphs to help your child quickly learn and remember. See SH for instance: Any child will be able to recall a time they heard a baby crying and maybe even hear a mother saying “Shhhh.” Making the S in the digraph into the crying baby, and the tall H into the mother who is saying “sh” makes it very easy for your child to learn and recall. The obvious hand motion to go along with this digraph is the one the mother is making. This visual/kinesthetic tool is simple and powerful.

Teaching Sight Words

Some children simply will not have much success learning all their letter names, then attaching a sound to each symbol, then learning to combine these into parts of words (such as blends and word chunks). By the time they are finally asked to make a word and remember it, they are snowed under with a myriad of details they have no idea what to do with. It is a well-known fact that a large percentage of the population is global in the way they perceive and process information. Globals have a tough time with steps and sequences when they don’t know what the point is. In other words, globals struggle to learn anything until they have seen a picture of the goal. If you take stylized high frequency words and enjoy them with your young child, then most of the time, having seen the purpose or the final goal behind learning letters and sounds, breaking the words apart is child’s play. (No pun intended). If we assume reading HAS to be taught in a step by step sequential manner, we are going to keep on teaching that way, and we will keep on losing a large percentage of our children.

My experience with kindergarteners who struggled to remember anything about letters and their sounds was that once I began using the stylized materials with them, I could hardly keep up. That is how powerful the visuals and the motions are for these young children. It did not take more than a few passes through the list of stylized words before the children were reading the plain backs of the words. In fact, after ONE pass through the cards, the next step is to have the child call out the words on his own. The third step is to turn the cards over to the plain font side and see how many the child can read without the visual prompt. Usually the child can read a large percentage of the words. Those she cannot recognize will be set aside to enjoy again via visuals.

The visual is the bridge to memory, not a crutch or a permanent condition. Using visuals with learning is the best way to work smarter, not harder! Think of the discouragement and failure you will save your child from!