woolybear Posted January 30, 2011 Share Posted January 30, 2011 I have been following some of the visual spatial threads and am thinking perhaps I have one or two of them here. So, one of the things that I read is that they often learn whole to parts. Can anyone explain to me what this actually means in terms of different subjects--writing, math, science, history? Feel free to add any other relevant information. Thank you. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rowan25 Posted January 30, 2011 Share Posted January 30, 2011 I'll be interested to read any responses to this thread! This is something that I'm just starting to wrap my head around. However, when I think of whole to part vs part to whole, I think of the way I learned to read. (My dd, too, now that I think of it.) I learned words. Later I learned sounds, though never as well as I probably should have. I do not learn words by sounding them out phonetically. I learned sight words. The word is the whole; the sounds are the parts. It's big picture vs. details. So in math, I would think that whole would be the mathematical concept and part would be the steps you need to actually solve the problem dealing with the concept. Does this sound right? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FO4UR Posted January 30, 2011 Share Posted January 30, 2011 I'm pretty certain my ds (almost) 8 is a VSL. In math, he struggles to skip count (if it hasn't been memorized by rote), yet can multiply fairly easily (esp if he can visualize the problem). He added and subtracted multi-digit #'s with regrouping in his head long before he could work the proper algorithm. He works a word problem in his head, shouts out the answer and THEN we go back and I make him go through the steps...if I make him go through the steps first he gets very frustrated. In general, the big overarching concepts come effortlessly for him, but he has to work at the things that *should* be easy...the simple sequential steps. He struggles in reading...I started him off in a very parts-to-whole program and it was not a good fit. I am not willing to have him memorize sight words he hasn't learned phonetically so it's taken him some time...plus, he has some visual processing stuff going on. Even though I've been very careful about teaching the words - no guessing - he will try to gulp the whole line in one glance and stumble and rearrange words. (I do this too...I'm just better at the rearranging LOL.) His listening comprehension is fantastic! He visualizes the stories and/or information and has an excellent memory. He's really too young to see this much in other subjects, I think. He likes to take a concept and apply it to everything...some of the things he comes up with though:tongue_smilie:... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LizzyBee Posted January 30, 2011 Share Posted January 30, 2011 My 14 yo is extremely VSL. She has a good conceptual understanding of math, but struggles with the details such as the steps in solving a particular type of problem, etc. Concepts are easier than computing for her. When learning to read, she read whole words in spite of being taught phonics. Around the beginning of 5th grade, years of phonics instruction finally kicked in and she began accurately sounding out new words. Spelling was a major struggle for her because she couldn't hear the separate sounds in words. She could often choose the correct letters, but she couldn't get them in the correct order to save her life. For science and history, she learns more from books with fewer words and more pictures. From a young age, she would sit for hours with adult nature books that have lots of pictures, and she learned a lot in spite of not being able to read most of the words. Same with the Kingfisher History Encyclopedia; she seems to absorb information from the pictures, while I barely look at pictures in books. For history, she particularly loves the Choosing Your Way Through History books from Walch. They allow her to experience history rather than simply read about it. For dates and other details that she must memorize, it helps to have 2 sets of flash cards so that she can lay them out in such a way that she can see the year and event at the same time. Likewise for math flashcards - the triangle cards worked much better than the two-sided cards. She needs to be able to see all the information at the same time. We let her use a multiplication table while doing math, and eventually, she knew all her multiplication facts from using the table. She liked Vocabulary Cartoons and thanked me for buying them for her. She didn't realize they were schoolwork. :lol: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wapiti Posted January 30, 2011 Share Posted January 30, 2011 I have been following some of the visual spatial threads and am thinking perhaps I have one or two of them here. So, one of the things that I read is that they often learn whole to parts. Can anyone explain to me what this actually means in terms of different subjects--writing, math, science, history? Feel free to add any other relevant information. Thank you. I believe the idea would be to provide the big picture first, which may or may not be time-intensive, depending on the subject. You may have already done so, but I recommend checking out several of the articles on the vs website. You might want to start with these: http://www.visualspatial.org/files/garden.pdf (place information within a context whenever presenting a new idea) http://www.visualspatial.org/files/appenda.pdf Without the context/big picture, smaller bits of information may seem meaningless and are difficult to learn and remember. With history for example, I'd "set the scene" by talking about what had been happening in history just before that time, maybe by looking at a timeline or map, before giving a reading assignment. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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