Any one with experience with Visualizing and Verbalizing or Idea Chain/Mind Prime?

[CindyH in NC]

My dd ( 11 yrs. old in 5th grade ) has always been homeschooled and is a good reader. She has always been very distractable and has always had much more trouble following directions ( esp. multi-step ) than her younger sister. Her handwriting is horrible as well

 

Just recently when trying to explain for the millionth time, how to visualize her spelling words in order to spell better ( spelling is by far her worst subject - a few years behind where as she is at level or above in everything else ) she just looked at me and said she couldn't see pictures or words in her head. I quizzed her further and she said that even when reading( she reads quite a bit ) she rarely pictures what she reads in her mind.

 

In researching visualization online, I have found that several of these things may be interelated with mental imaging problems. The programs listed in the title are two that I found refered too. I would love to hear anyone's experiences using these - whether positive or negative. The Visualizing/Verbalizing program would have to be done at home as we don't have a facility nearby nor could we afford it if we did.

 

My younger dd is currently in vision therapy twice a week and we are seeing improvements with her issues. I plan to ask her therapist about whether or not vt could help big sister with visualizing problems, but honestly I don't know whether or not we can afford another child in therapy at the same time or even soon after dd 8 finishes. If you have made it through this crazy ramble thanks a lot. Any advice on these programs or others is greatly appreciated.

 

Cindy H. in NC

[Mom0012]

My son did the V/V program at a center when he was 5 years old. He had pretty severe receptive language issues. He made dramatic improvements with the program. I believe we did it for 2 hours a day for 6 weeks. Now, he is 9 and his reading comprehension is very good for factual information, but weaker for inferential questions. Not terrible, but not really strong. His receptive language is probably average, which is way more than we expected.

 

One of the areas that V/V should have helped is in following directions. He scored extremely low in this area, maybe the 2nd percentile, and he only improved a small amount. I do remember being told that children at the far end of the bell curve like that will likely not make huge improvements, but even small improvements can make a difference for them. Gander publishing sells LMB materials and they also sell some books to help strengthen the ability to follow directions. I haven't used them, but may in the future.

 

I would love to take my son back to LMB for a refresher. He got so much out of it the first time, and it's been such a long time since we did it, I think he would benefit from it. Unfortunately, we can't afford it right now and I'd have to drive 1.5 hours to DC and back each day and I don't know if I have it in me. I have looked at IdeaChain and am considering that, but one thing that is really stressed at LMB is the "intensity" factor. I was told that in order to make big changes, the program needed to be implemented for a number of hours a day. I don't know if this is true or not, but it discourages me from trying it at home. Also, the IdeaChain program only walks you through the visualization process up to the sentence level. It doesn't take you through paragraphs and I think that's what we need here.

 

You can order the V/V book for $100 or less and that's really all you need. You can also order training tapes or attend a training session as well.

 

Let me know if you have any specific questions.

 

Lisa

[Mandamom]

We use V/V at the school I work for (learning disabilities) and it has been a great success.

 

I really recommend it.

[Perry]

We started Idea Chain last fall, but had to put it on hold because we also started VT around the same time. I decided to put IC off until we finished VT because I just didn't think we had time to do both. We only did it for about 2 weeks, but I was very happy with it and am looking forward to starting up again next month.

[LizzyBee]

I haven't used either of those programs, but I wanted to mention another source for at least some, if not all, of the LMB programs. I started to order LiPS from Gander Publishing, and the shipping was going to be $32.40. I decided to check LinguiSystems to see if the shipping would be cheaper. LinguiSystems offers free shipping AND a Linguiloot program where you get 10% credit on all of your prepaid orders. So instead of paying $32.40 for shipping, I received a credit of $32.40 that I used to buy some auditory processing games.

[Mom0012]

Mandamom -

 

Do you find that using V/V for shorter periods of time is effective? As I said in my post, it was stressed to me that the program is most effective when used intensively for a number of weeks rather than a shorter period of time each day. I'd love to hear that 15 minute sessions are effective. How is it implemented at your school?

 

Lisa

[Virginia in Tx]

I used V/V at home when son was 12. I used it to improve reading comprehension and was very pleased with the results. I used it for around a year and probably for 1 hour a day. I also purchased the computer program for the days when I needed a break. The computer program is good but in my opinion it wouldn't have worked stand-alone - you really need the interaction between student/teacher to figure out where the issues are.

 

If you are interested in buying the program used - you can contact me at vphillips2@msn.com. My son is now 16 and we won't be using it again.

[Mandamom]

Mandamom -

 

Do you find that using V/V for shorter periods of time is effective? As I said in my post, it was stressed to me that the program is most effective when used intensively for a number of weeks rather than a shorter period of time each day. I'd love to hear that 15 minute sessions are effective. How is it implemented at your school?

 

Lisa

 

 

Our school is designed with small groups (1-3 students) for math, phonics and comprehension. We primarily use V/V in comprehension which is about 50 minutes -- but given that we have to do vocab, a little writing generally v/v only lasts about 15 minutes. That being said, though, we generally implement the ideas in our other content subjects and even phonics and math if we need to. So, yes, 15 minutes might be enough but once you get started on it you might find yourself using it more often which will build the practice.