"I pictured the abacus in my head"....

[Beth in SW WA]

was the response from dd 6 when I asked her how she came up with the answer (quite quickly) to '8 + 6' today.

 

What does that mean? Is she VSL (a term I just learned here last week)?

 

I searched for VSL and read some interesting threads.

 

Thanks in advance for any input you may have.:001_smile:

[nmoira]

 

What does that mean?

If you're using Right Start, it means it's working. :D

[Capt_Uhura]

And if you're not using RS, you might consider getting a RS abacus and the book that goes w/ it if you're using a different program. It's a good supplement to any math curriculum.

[asta]

Ask her if, when she thinks of things, if she sees words, just knows things, or sees pictures of things.

 

 

a

[Closeacademy]

A VSL often thinks in pictures. When I read a book it is like watching a movie. The words disapear and I only see the characters moving about and talking.

 

With a VSL you have child who can think back to the text, scan through the page and find the sentence that had the right answer. It is more helpful to do things with a more visual bent like lapbooks and notebooking. But when they get older they will learn to visual texts or tables just like they do pictures when they are little.

 

It's not a bad thing just another way of learning.:001_smile:

[Shelly in IL]

Doesn't everybody? More info, please!

[unsinkable]

Doesn't everybody? More info, please!

 

Try this site

 

The articles are awesome

[unsinkable]

I'll never forget the day I asked my then 4 year old how he got an answer to a math problem and he said, "I see them in my head."

 

I immediately flashed on trying to figure out how to "show my work" in algebra when I didn't have any work to show!!!! I saw the answer in my head!

[Pippen]

I'll never forget the day I asked my then 4 year old how he got an answer to a math problem and he said, "I see them in my head."

 

I immediately flashed on trying to figure out how to "show my work" in algebra when I didn't have any work to show!!!! I saw the answer in my head!

 

I heard one mom who had a very visual learner in ps say the "tell how you got the answer" questions in math always threw her young kiddo. On one worksheet he wrote down "The answer just popped into my head" on every blank. :D

 

I wish answers to math problems just popped into my head when I was in school. :001_huh:

[asta]

Doesn't everybody? More info, please!

 

Nope. It was quite a shock to me as well when I found that out. Especially the part about "seeing" books.

 

Now if you *really* want to get some weird looks, tell someone you see classical music... (as in, you see the time period and general place in which it was written before you even know who wrote it, when they wrote it, or where they wrote it).

 

 

a

[Guest]

If you're using Right Start, it means it's working. :D

 

:iagree:It sounds like she is doing great!

[angela in ohio]

Doesn't everybody? More info, please!

 

I always thought so, too. :D

 

I used to create one page or card for each college class with all the memory work, formulas, names, dates, etc. I needed and then just "snap a picture of it" to use during the test. I tried to teach one of my dd to do that, and she freaked. I thought everyone could do it. :tongue_smilie: (The other dd can, though.) That started my quest to figure out study skills for different types of learners. :001_smile:

[asta]

I used to create one page or card for each college class with all the memory work, formulas, names, dates, etc. I needed and then just "snap a picture of it" to use during the test.

 

I did that!

[MelanieM]

A VSL often thinks in pictures. When I read a book it is like watching a movie. The words disapear and I only see the characters moving about and talking.

 

With a VSL you have child who can think back to the text, scan through the page and find the sentence that had the right answer. It is more helpful to do things with a more visual bent like lapbooks and notebooking. But when they get older they will learn to visual texts or tables just like they do pictures when they are little.

 

 

Wow! This is exactly how reading works for me! I did extremely well in school with little effort because I was a great test-taker... I simply looked over the book/notes a few times and recalled them in my mind during the test so I could "see" the answer.

 

This also brings to mind many other tricks I've learned for remembering over the years, and now I can see why it all works so well for me. (For example, I often have people spell their names for me when I meet them so that I can recall the word as a picture. If I don't do this, I often have a hard time remembering names to faces.)

 

I can't wait to look at the VSL site and read up on this some more. Thanks for the great discussion and resource!

[kewb]

I just had this conversation in our house yesterday due to something that occurred in the philosophy class my children are taking. It turns out my ds just sees the answers in his head. I don't see stuff. Answers don't just pop in as pictures. So, I ask my dh how he sees things, lo and behold, he was floored that not everyone sees things that way. So he asks me, if I ask you what's int he friidge do you just make a list or are you looking in the fridge? Me "What are you talking about? I list what is in there." He tells me that he sees the fridge as if he is standing in front of it and looks at what is in there. I had no idea that this happens.

 

My dd doesn't think in pictures, either. After talking to dh and ds it seems like a pretty handy way to be but I also see why my dh and ds get totally frustrated when it takes everyone else forever to get what they have already gotten.

[MelanieM]

I used to create one page or card for each college class with all the memory work, formulas, names, dates, etc. I needed and then just "snap a picture of it" to use during the test.

 

Cross-posted with you... This is what I used to do as well! My classmates couldn't understand why I always did so well with so little studying, and I don't think I quite realized that others were approaching the data differently. How fascinating!

[Guest RecumbentHeart]

A lot of the visual stuff sounds exactly like my own experience except - I'm extremely sequential. I was looking at the first page of the site linked to and I don't fit all those descriptions. I can learn from just hearing but I have to translate it to a visual image whereas a friend of mine will stare blankly if anyone tries to give her verbal directions - perhaps she is more likely VSL .. but .. what am I?

[prairiegirl]

I don't know muc about VSL but I do know that, for math, you want her to be able to visualize the abacus because that means she is tiptoeing into the land of mental math.

[MelanieM]

A lot of the visual stuff sounds exactly like my own experience except - I'm extremely sequential. I was looking at the first page of the site linked to and I don't fit all those descriptions. I can learn from just hearing but I have to translate it to a visual image whereas a friend of mine will stare blankly if anyone tries to give her verbal directions - perhaps she is more likely VSL .. but .. what am I?

 

I don't think the ability to translate from auditory to visual means you aren't a VSL. In fact, I would say it means you've adapted to use your natural bent toward visual storing of data to handle other sources of information. Likely your friend would be able to do the same with some practice.

 

Also, nothing is ever going to be exactly like the lists say. There are always lots of people that are on extreme ends of any spectrum and then others that fall somewhere in the middle.

[Shelly in IL]

Amazing what you learn through life. I think all three of my sisters and I, plus my dad are this way. I also think my youngest son is. It is really helpful to find some ways to teach to them!

 

I also take mental pictures and remember in that way. I also can move rooms, furniture, change paint colors, cabinets, all in my mind. It has made our remodeling of this old house we live in, much easier.

 

Sometimes when I am doing about 10 things at once, my brain feels freer and smarter than when I am just doing one thing! I scan around with my eyes when I am trying to remember something, but I am not seeing what is in front of me, I am seeing where I am trying to think. I am actually looking around the house/barn/whatever. I just thought everyone did that kind of stuff!

[Beth in SW WA]

Good morning & thank you! How fun to wake up to your responses!

 

We use the RS Abacus every day. She really likes it. I'm really going to take note of how she operates during other subjects & just daily life. (This is fun.)

 

I think I'm VSL, too.

 

I look forward to reading more about this!

 

Thanks again!:001_smile:

[golfcartmama]

 

Sometimes when I am doing about 10 things at once, my brain feels freer and smarter than when I am just doing one thing! I scan around with my eyes when I am trying to remember something, but I am not seeing what is in front of me, I am seeing where I am trying to think. I am actually looking around the house/barn/whatever. I just thought everyone did that kind of stuff!

:iagree:

 

This is TOTALLY what I do!

[stripe]

I was listening to a report in the last week or so on the BBC about a math competition -- the reporter mentioned that the winner, an 11 year old girl, had her fingers moving as if she was using an abacus, even though there was no abacus there.

[Lovedtodeath]

 

it means it's working. :D

:iagree:Whoo hoo! Congrats!

[Guest RecumbentHeart]

I don't think the ability to translate from auditory to visual means you aren't a VSL. In fact, I would say it means you've adapted to use your natural bent toward visual storing of data to handle other sources of information. Likely your friend would be able to do the same with some practice.

 

Also, nothing is ever going to be exactly like the lists say. There are always lots of people that are on extreme ends of any spectrum and then others that fall somewhere in the middle.

 

That makes sense.

 

I can't imagine how anyone thinks without seeing things (words or images). :tongue_smilie:

[FO4UR]

My ds7 VSL "sees" Cuisenaire Rods like that.

 

I am a VSL too.

 

It means that sometimes we need to see the big picture before we can put together the parts. I cannot follow verbal directions to another town if I don't have a picture in my mind for the highway needed. It all sounds like the adults in Charlie Brown's world (mwa, mwa, mwa...) I have a hard time following recipes in a sequential order b/c as I go to grab the flour I see the chocolate chips in the pantry and think about making cookies instead...and I become the Moose who was given a muffin (yet, I can bake well from a mental "knowing"...but don't ask me to give you a recipe for what I make LOL...keep adding flour until it's "about-so-sticky" doesn't translate well to some, I guess). I canNOT sew with pattern, but I'm really pretty good at "eye-balling" it.

 

Math - my ds understands the concepts easily. He would DIE if the only math he saw was incremental and spiral. I had this kind of math and I never EVER saw the big picture...I made good grades even up through calc (b/c I could visualize my notes for the test), but b/c I had no CLUE what I was calculating at the time I have ZERO long-term benefits from the pain and agony of calc class.

 

Sharpen that photographic memory. Give the big picture first. For the most part, take the traditional scope and sequence and go backwards. LOL Start with applying the info, and THEN break it down. If your dc "sees" that abacus, stick with it!

[FO4UR]

I always thought so, too. :D

 

I used to create one page or card for each college class with all the memory work, formulas, names, dates, etc. I needed and then just "snap a picture of it" to use during the test. I tried to teach one of my dd to do that, and she freaked. I thought everyone could do it. :tongue_smilie: (The other dd can, though.) That started my quest to figure out study skills for different types of learners. :001_smile:

 

 

I did something like this too. My notes were unreadable to anyone but me, but I "organized" them in such a way that I could close my eyes during the test and see how/where the keyword was written and logically deduce the answer (Lincoln was written in the blue bubble on the left side so he couldn't have been a WWII figure and who cared who he actually WAS:tongue_smilie:...silly example, I know who Lincoln was LOL)...I rarely TRULY understood (or cared to understand) what was actually being tested. It was all a game of visual memory for me.

 

Once, in high school bio class we had a HUGE exam where we had to move around from station to station labelling the parts of disected cats. I mixed up the numbering on my test (not a sequential thinker LOL), and was NOT allowed to go back through the stations to fix it. I sat there, and from only my visual memory re-did the entire exam (it took a solid 40min to do the first time....maybe 10min to do from visual memory) and scored an A+.

 

This explains a lot about me, to tell the truth...:lol:

[MissKNG]

A VSL often thinks in pictures. When I read a book it is like watching a movie. The words disapear and I only see the characters moving about and talking.

 

 

 

 

LOL! I thought everyone did this too...

 

I have no doubt that I'm auditory-sequential but I definitely "watch" little movies in my head while reading books. That is one reason why I don't like watching a book-turned-movie because it's never the way I pictured it!

[angela in ohio]

I did something like this too. My notes were unreadable to anyone but me, but I "organized" them in such a way that I could close my eyes during the test and see how/where the keyword was written and logically deduce the answer (Lincoln was written in the blue bubble on the left side so he couldn't have been a WWII figure and who cared who he actually WAS:tongue_smilie:...silly example, I know who Lincoln was LOL)...I rarely TRULY understood (or cared to understand) what was actually being tested. It was all a game of visual memory for me.

 

Your blue bubble makes me think of... The day I found out about 'mind mapping' was one of the best days of my life. :D It was a method I already used a bit, but it went even further. Finally, someone understood how my brain worked and could teach me how to use it mre effectively! I have mind mapping software downloaded on the PC, and I often use it to sort things out. I tried to show dh how to use it, so that he could do a graphic organizer exercise for a grad class, but he hated it. He must be responsible for that one non-visual child I have. :glare: :D

[my2boysteacher]

I don't know what I would have done without this board. I had never heard about a VSL, but after seeing a thread someone posted about it I quickly identified my oldest DS as strongly VSL. He is going into 4th grade and I wish I would have identified him sooner, but at least it's early enough we can play some serious catch-up.

 

I think I am a VSL too. I remember when I was in 3rd grade in public school, we had to do our multiplication facts (flashcards) out loud in front of the whole class. I think I was the only one who couldn't do it in the alotted time and I was so embarassed! I'm glad my son won't have to go through that!:001_smile:

Now I know why he can't do flashcards. :lol:

[Wee Pip]

I think people can be a mix in different areas. Pegging my 1st dd's learning modality has been a trick (I still don't have her figured out). I always thought she was auditory, but lately she's anything but auditory:tongue_smilie: Now I'm realizing that VSL can come into play, but not to the full scale, full spectrum as the lists say. I think I'm very VSL in some ways, but can't read maps, can't tell left from right, and I struggle with perspective (these are things that VSL's tend to do well - but flip a puzzle and I'm lost!)

 

I cannot see math in my head. I was taught the traditional algorithm ways in school but never saw the math. Imagine my surprise as a 30+yo when I discovered that 1/4 + 1/4 = 1/2, and how it all relates to quarters (both money and fractions). I was floored to realize that quarter after an hour on the clock really referred to dividing the clock up into 4 pieces (quarters), and finally now at 30-something I understand and relate to it all! So I'm quite excited now to "see" math with manipulatives and get the relationships.

 

I think in pictures so when someone asks "where's the bread?" I can't answer them because I only have the picture in my head, not the words. Or, when thinking of a word, I often have to describe it before the real word finally dawns on me. It looks and sounds like I'm playing charades (complete with excitement when I finally discover the word I'm looking for). It's tough to be me, LOL.