Visual Spatial Learners and reading

[Embassy]

I'm not sure the right place to post this, but I'll give it a go here :) My 9 year old has been identified as a PG VSL. He learned to read without a hitch and his reading skills were quite a bit more advanced than his phonics skills. Phonics and spelling were weaker areas. His spelling is on grade level and improving. He is an advanced reader for his age/grade.

 

Now, here is my puzzle.... Several years ago this kid could not attend to a book being read aloud unless it was filled with pictures. We worked on that skill and he has no difficulty now. When he reads a book he doesn't visualize anything. He also struggles to remember what he read. If something is read aloud he can visualize and remember it very well. I'm thinking we should move to some easy books to help him learn to visualize when he reads silently. When he reads aloud he can follow the story much better. This doesn't seem to fit with the typical VSL profile, does it?

 

I've been sitting with him with both of us reading a page silently and then asking him questions about things that happened in the story. Sometimes he gets them all and other times it was like he was simply decoding. He does have some visual tracking issues and does eye exercises. It isn't a major issue, but he will jump lines occasionally.

 

Any recommendations?

[brownie]

what do you mean he doesn't visualize? He doesn't see a picture in his mind? BTW my kids are VSL as well...at least the 12 and 7 yr olds. The oldest 2 learned to read as if pictures were images so poor phonics. The 7 year old struggled more and I had to teach him to read with phonics but he's my most vsl...go figure. I just think he didn't know how to use it to read. Maybe your son doesn't know how to use his picture thinking to remember stuff. I have trained my 7 yr old to use this skill for spelling. I've talked to all the kids about seeing numbers in their heads that they need to remember. I've talked about seeing the character in the story as he/she is described so they can remember better. I think sometimes they just don't know they can use their picture skills to remember verbal or textual information?

[Embassy]

what do you mean he doesn't visualize? He doesn't see a picture in his mind? BTW my kids are VSL as well...at least the 12 and 7 yr olds. The oldest 2 learned to read as if pictures were images so poor phonics. The 7 year old struggled more and I had to teach him to read with phonics but he's my most vsl...go figure. I just think he didn't know how to use it to read. Maybe your son doesn't know how to use his picture thinking to remember stuff. I have trained my 7 yr old to use this skill for spelling. I've talked to all the kids about seeing numbers in their heads that they need to remember. I've talked about seeing the character in the story as he/she is described so they can remember better. I think sometimes they just don't know they can use their picture skills to remember verbal or textual information?

 

 

I mean that as he reads a story he doesn't picture anything in his mind so he doesn't follow the story very well. He can picture things without a problem if they are input through an auditory method though. As for math, he tells me that he doesn't see numbers in his head but he looks off into the distance when doing multi-step math problems mentally. It is as though he is seeing the numbers, but he has repeatedly told me that he sees nothing when he calculates in his head. :confused1:

[brownie]

OK yes that's what I thought. I don't know if there's an official answer on this for VSL, but I stick with my initial response :) In my experience, sometimes you need to train the kid to use their skill, especially since we tend to teach in words and print. Have him close his eyes and read slowly, asking him to picture it as you go. Ask what he sees. With number cards in a card game that need to be recalled, I tell my kid to think of a slot machine (like on the weather channel :) my kids don't gamble!) and with spelling I asked my son to snap a picture like Cam Jansen and then read it to me backwards. We also made pictures of words he struggled with in a notebook. Now we don't even do it anymore. He's doing great with spelling now.

[EKS]

I haven't used it, but IDEACHAIN addresses this issue. Visualizing & Verbalizing does the same thing, but I'm pretty sure that it's significantly more expensive.

 

You might want to ask over at the Learning Challenges board about these programs.

[Embassy]

Thanks for the resource links! I've asked over on the Learning Challenges board.

 

My son doesn't visualize any spelling words. My dh was telling me that he could see words in his head. The idea seems foreign to me. I can visualize stories, but I need to see a word written down to know if it is spelled correctly.