VSL. Visual-spatial learner. Whole-to-parts learner. FRUSTRATING. All fabulous synonyms. ;) Do any of these situations sound familiar?
Douglas can figure out complex geometric ideas in his head,
but struggles to remember 6+2.
Kathy can spend hours every day building complex structures
out of Legos, but can’t spell “Lego.”
Leila knows every species of frog by name and can tell you
various characteristics from memory. She can’s tell a noun from a verb with ten
minutes of lead time.
Marcus can read very well and explain what he reads.
However, his standardized test scores are abysmal.
Mya has been working on subtraction for a year and still
gets upset when given 10-8. She can figure out 10 times 8 instantly.
Connor writes amazing inventive stories with interesting
plots and rich characters. Asking him to write two sentences in school with
proper capitalization and spelling is like pulling teeth.
Dee spends hours outside catching bugs, waiting for spiders
to emerge and catching dragonflies by their tails. She can’t sit still for more
than two minutes indoors.
Welcome to life with a VSL.
Many gifted children are “visual-spatial learners.” They
don’t see the world quite like the standard, linear, left-brained thinker. They
see the world in pictures. They see the big picture clearly. They often grasp
large and complicated issues in an instant. It’s the details that often trouble
them. Here’s a basic overview followed by a subject breakdown. (NOTE: Not every
single thing here will apply to every single VSL child!! As in all things,
there are individual differences and variants! Your child may not work quite
like the classic VSL child. Pick what does help and go with that.)
I have a VSL daughter preparing to begin third grade work in
the fall, and I am not a VSL myself, so I have done an inordinate and possibly
unhealthy amount of research on the subject. (I take it back. There are still
books I haven’t read. Research ho!)
Linda Kreger Silverman, author of Upside-down Brilliance, describes VSLs in this way: "The
visual spatial learner thrives on complexity, yet struggles with easy material;
loves difficult puzzles, but hates drill and repetition; is great at geometry
and physics, but poor at phonics and spelling. She has keen visual memory, but
poor auditory memory; is creative and imaginative, but inattentive in class; is
a systems thinker, all the while disorganized, forgets the details. He excels
in math analysis, but is poor at calculation; has high reading comprehension,
but low word recognition; has an excellent sense of humor, and performs poorly
on timed tests."
Rebecca L. Mann wrote that VSLs are “holistic” (perceive
relationships), “Aha! processors” (grasp it all in an instant or don’t get it
AT all, repetition/drill is ineffective), “creative,” “reflective” (need extra
time to process—which sounds like it contradicts “Aha” but if you’ve ever seen
a VSL, it doesn’t), and appear careless and sensitive.
My VSL can grasp infinity, logic puzzles, adores negative
numbers and algebra, thinks area and perimeter problems are simple, but still
struggles to remember 6+2 and mixes up her place values. She is at a middle
school level in science, but struggles with phonics and spelling. She is not
merely inattentive—she is, after years of struggle and natural methods and
working around it, on medication for being, to quote her doctor, “on paper
extremely ADD, and what I’m seeing in person matches.” In Freed’s book, Right-brained
Children in a Left-brained World, he claims that all children with ADD are
VSLs (although the reverse is not always true). There is a lot of overlap
between suspected ADD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder-Inattentive, to
be precise), dyslexia, dyscalculia, dysgraphia, CAPD (Central Auditory Processing Disorder), and VSLs. They
don’t process information in the “usual” way. It can be extremely frustrating!
Visual:
These children think in pictures. They learn best with a
visual “hook” of some kind. Whiteboards with colored markers work beautifully.
Use different colors for different meanings. Draw a green line down the left
side and a red line down the right side to encourage reading left to write. We
have done place value with a different color for each place. Letting them
illustrate things appeals greatly to them. Sight words, illustrated books,
non-fiction books packed with pictures—these all work well with VSLs. One
method described by Freed for spelling involves the idea of mentally picturing
burning the word letter by letter into a wall, as if with a flamethrower or a
laser. Also, VSLs may be able to spell backwards as well as forwards! Have your
child make her own flashcards, with the answers on them, and use those or hang them around the classroom to
help burn the image of that equation with its answer in your child’s brain.
Computer games and video learning methods are also very popular with VSLs, for
obvious reasons!
Spatial:
VSLs can see how things fit together and work. Many VSL kids
have that engineering bug—building constantly with Legos and blocks, making
elaborate Snap Circuits and taking apart appliances. My girl likes those a
little bit, but they’re not her “thing.” Her spatial/engineering bent comes out
when she fixes my glasses, or walks out of the bathroom announcing that the
toilet broke but she fixed it with a diaper pin, or when she uses a laundry
basket or chair and an upside-down stick horse to lift a 6-foot-high hook &
eye latch to get into a locked room. If you want some quiet, just hand these kids
a box of Legos, pattern blocks, or a set of ½” PVC pipes and joints and let
them go.
Whole to Parts:
VSLs are “whole to parts” learners. They need to see the
entire picture first. Showing them the proverbial pieces and then trying to fit
them together one at a time will result in frustration and little, if any,
progress. More on that in a minute. Many VSLs are late talkers, watching and
observing speech quietly until BAM—they begin using it in large measure and
with gusto. In fact, my VSL did almost everything like that. She never tried
things. She waited, and watched, and thought about it, and the just did it. Reaching for things—she never waved her hand
near things or tried to grasp them. She waited. She watched. When she was at
the tail end of normal developmental range, she suddenly reached straight up
and wrapped her hand perfectly around something she wanted. Done. She refused
to even lay on her stomach, so crawling practice was non-existent. She never
scooted or scootched or army-crawled, either. She saw something she wanted,
crawled backwards once, reversed within a few feet, and crawled forward in
textbook fashion. Never looked back. She refused all phonics instruction. Any
that I did give her went, as they say, in one ear and out the other. She
couldn’t remember any of it at all. Instead, she watched me read to her. One
day I pointed to a page of Dr. Seuss and asked her what it said, not expecting
an answer. She read the entire page to me. And the next page. And the next.
This continued for several months. Once I realized she was truly reading (at a
basic level), I tried to give her actual phonics instruction, thinking she was
now “ready.” She shut down and refused to read at all for six months. Only when
I dropped all instruction and pressure would she look at a book. Then again, I
read to her and after a few months, bam, her reading level would jump. Read to
her for a few more months, her reading level would spike again. Explicit
instruction, tried again on occasion, yielded no results but a fair share of
tears. She literally ran away from The Ordinary Parent’s Guide to Teaching
Reading. So you can see that teaching a VSL brings its own challenges and
requires careful attention and selection of curricula.
VSLs are excellent at grasping the large picture while
struggling with the details. Incremental programs that teach in tiny pieces and
through drill/repetition are a death sentence to a VSL’s love of learning. They
need to see the “why” and then they seemingly intuit the “how.” Telling them the
rules of a subject without providing the context of the whole is just
meaningless data to them. Math fact drills are pointless, but using those same
facts in games and patterns where there is a clear goal and purpose to the math
facts? Perfect. On several occasions, my daughter has claimed to not know how
to solve a problem, sat in silence for a moment, then blurted out the correct
answer without any intermediate steps. She says that her brain knows the
answer. Curricula like Saxon Math, Ordinary Parents’ Guide to Teaching
Reading, First Language Lessons, and other step-by-step programs often bomb
terribly with VSLs. Curricula that are either very visual or guide the VSL to
see the large picture generally work much better. Documentaries and books full
of pictures work well. Silly mnemonics and songs help trigger the memory of the
whole package of whatever they are working on.
Organization:
Organization and focus is difficult for VSLs.
Color-coordinated checklists are an option. Workboxes are a popular choice
(we’re trying this next year.) Little hourglasses let them see the time
passing. Watches with timers or stopwatches help. Teach them to prioritize and
make lists from most to least important and then how to follow the lists.
Reduce audio clutter—try quiet music in headphones or audio-cancelling
headphones. There are several books on organization for ADHD/ADD children.
Those would also be helpful to VSL children. Smart but Scattered is the
one I see most often recommended.
Subject Mastery:
Reading, phonics, spelling, basic arithmetic and math facts
are some of the hardest areas for VSLs. There are some curricula that work
better than others, detailed later, but really in these areas I recommend
letting go. This will be a huge struggle for them and for you. If you wait
until they master these before moving on, they will be stuck on the same
material for a long time, far too long to hope to keep their interests. They
WILL get there in time, and keep working on these, but don’t hold them back
until they have full mastery of these areas or you will mostly likely have a
resistant learner who thinks school is horrible. I wouldn’t skimp on the
understanding, of course, but mastery/memorization of facts and rules is
completely out of proportion to the rest of their abilities in these kids. For
example, timed fact quizzes make my dd dissolve into tears, and we’ve worked on
addition for several years. Basic addition. However, she can also do
multiplication, pre-algebra, geometry, and so forth, despite her struggles with
math facts. Should I hold her back in first grade math for years until she can
add well when she can do most other areas of math with ease? Of course not! I
understand the huge dichotomy between the two kinds of math—the basic
computational arithmetic and “real math”--and she now uses a laminated 99-chart
behind her math work to help with facts she forgot. Then she can focus on the
important parts, like algebra. Soon we’ll add a multiplication chart. In
reading, we do ten minutes of phonics a day and I require a tiny amount of
reading but that also follows her lead... and now she’s reading chapter books
on her own.
To quote Rebecca Mann about something I have seen over and
over and over again in my house: “Do
not force the student to succeed at easier material before trying difficult
work. Emphasize mastery of higher level concepts instead of perfection of
simpler ones.” If you attempt to get a VSL to memorize all the basic math
facts, or achieve a certain speed or complete reading fluency before moving on,
you will spin your wheels for months or years, burn out your child, and
learning will become a chore. This is not how their brains work. I know of
children who are beginning algebra (and should be!) and are still working on
subtraction facts, or in algebra (and should be) and still need multiplication
tables. Play to THEIR strengths, not the typical expectations of linear
learners.
Resources:
Thankfully there is a growing body of work on VSLs! There is
a large list of VSL and gifted resources to peruse at http://www.hoagiesgifted.org/visual-spatial.htm
The most popular books on teaching VSLs appear to be Upside-down
Brilliance, Unicorns are Real, and Right-brained Children in a
Left-brained World. There is a fantastic paper by Rebecca Mann available as
a pdf here: http://www.geri.education.purdue.edu/PDF%20Files/VisSpaPresentationHa.pdf
and an essay by the author of Upside-down Brilliance here: http://www.gifteddevelopment.com/Visual_Spatial_Learner/vsl.htm
Curricula:
Some curricula that work well for VSLs in general include
the following. This is not a comprehensive list! I’m sure I will find or
remember more as soon as I post this. Feel free to add any other ideas in the
comments section!
Math:
In math, try doing the five or ten hardest problems on the
page. If they get all right, move on. Repetition and drill are not helpful with
these children. (We’ve spent two years on 1st grade math. Dd still
can’t tell you some of her facts to 10. She does much better with 3rd
grade math and prealgebra! Computation is just the most elementary piece of
math. REAL math should be much more appealing to VSLs. Last time I checked,
most people in the math field actually use calculators. I don’t advocate
handing a VSL a calculator—they need to understand how math works—but don’t
think your child is bad at MATH because he or she is bad at COMPUTATION.) Timed
tests are a nightmare to VSLs. Mine will actually curl up and cry within a few
problems. You can encourage speed in other ways—make it a game, or see “how
fast can you do (a very small amount) of
problems” and then just try to beat his or her own speed. Try word
problems—VSLs love stories. This also means a lot of VSLs will enjoy math
storybooks! Check livingmath.net for ideas there. We also do “number stories”
(from Peggy Kaye’s Games for Math) and these free-flowing math stories not only
get the girls doing math, but loving it, seeing its application, and
participating in creating the math story and more math problems. After number
stories in complete, my VSL often turns it into a full story with illustrations
and word puzzles!
Help your VSL identify patterns, such as in skip counting
and in the multiplication table.
A note about math—while manipulatives provide a great visual
and kinesthetic tool that works brilliantly for some VSLs, other find the
creative potential of manipulatives as art and building tools to be too great
and are therefore highly distracted by them. Focus, people, focus!
VSL-friendly math:
Miquon
MEP
Singapore
Beast Academy
Math-U-See
Times Tales
Timez Attack
MathRider
Teaching Textbooks
Hands-on Equations
Paper Patty Geometry
Right-Brained Multiplication & Division
Addition the Fun Way
Times Tables the Fun Way
Mathematics Their Way
Multiplication and Division Story Cards
Math Wizardry for Kids
How Math Works
Mathematical Mystery Tour
Math Mammoth is not a very visual curricula, but it works
for us because it is so clean and simple in the subject lessons. There is
nothing to distract my girl!
Base-ten blocks
Pattern blocks
Geoboards
Math-U-See blocks
Cuisinaire rods
Legos
Games for Math
Living math books/storybooks such as (just a few here):
The Cat in Numberland
Math for Smarty Pants
Penrose the Mathematical Cat
G is for Google
Sir Cumference books
Logic:
Oh, they love this. Any logic puzzle will do! Prufrock Press
makes a lot of fabulous logic items, as does the Critical Thinking Company.
Games like Chocolate Fix, Rush Hour, River Crossing, Tangrams, Pattern Blocks,
and so forth are great choices.
Primarily Logic
Logic Countdown
Lollipop Logic
Logic Safari
First-time Analogies
Rhymes, Riddles, and Reasoning Activities to Make Kids Think
MindBenders
Legos
Phonics/Reading:
Many VSLs do extremely well with sight words. They remember
the shape of the words. Some VSLs can spell as well backwards as forwards. This
creates frustration when learning to read and spell, as they sometimes write
completely backwards, too. I have only found one spelling program that works
for my VSL, but there are several phonics options.
Explode the Code
Leapfrog DVDs
Itchy’s Alphabet
Dancing Bears
Reading Reflex
SnapLetters
SnapWords
The Illustrated Book of Sounds and Their Spelling Patterns
Easy For Me Reading Program
All About Reading
Drawn into the Heart of Reading
101 Ways to Love a Book
Spelling:
All About Spelling
All About Spelling
Apples & Pears
Grammar/Writing:
Encourage your VSLs incredible creative capacity, and be
gentle with the mechanics. Whole to parts is hard to find in grammar and
writing, but those sort of programs do exist!
Teaching Writing To Auditory, Visual, and Kinesthetic Learners
English for the Thoughtful Child
Michael Clay Thompson grammar
BraveWriter
No More; I’m Done!
Teaching English thorough Art
Science:
Science is great for some VSLs, because there is such a rich
visual cornucopia to be enjoyed. In science, my VSL takes a literal approach to
the “whole-to-parts” methodology. She adores dissection. For those who do not
want to get messy, there are virtual dissection options and “look inside”
products/books. There is a series on PBS called “Inside Nature’s Giants” that
documents dissection of large wild animals, such as a beached sperm whale. This
is free to view on the PBS Website.
Otter’s Human Body (Guest Hollow) http://www.guesthollow.com/homeschool/science/otters_science/science_human_body.html
Building Foundations of Scientific Understanding
Any documentaries (Blue Planet, Nova, anything by PBS, many
others)
Any non-fiction book with lots of pictures such as DK
Eyewitness books
Creepy Crawlies and the Scientific Method
The Private Eye
The Berenstein Bears’ Big Book of Science and Nature
Max Axiom books
Bill Nye
Magic School Bus
Ellen McHenry’s science programs
Science Fusion
Nancy Larson
Dissection kits
Microscope
Bug collecting kits, butterfly nets, magnifying glass,
nature journal
History/Geography:
Long read-alouds are typical in history and will be tough
for VSLs. You can get your children more used to listening by using audiobooks
in the car and at quiet time. It works best to have something to occupy the
hands—a snack, thinking/silly putty, coloring activity, Legos, etc.
Voyages through Time
A Little History of the World: Illustrated Edition
Story of the World with Activity Book
100 Sacred Places
Horrible Histories
Liberty Kids
Hands-on Culture
Atlases
Any documentaries
Most non-fiction books
Create a visual timeline across the wall
Art:
Anything. Everything. I can’t think of an art program that
wouldn’t work with a VSL.
Foreign Language:
Most language courses involve a lot of multi-sensory
techniques, with songs and games and DVDs. Many libraries have access to
foreign language programs like Mango for free. My favorite language for a VSL
is American Sign Language, as it’s extremely visual and tactile! For that,
Signing Time DVDs and the LifePrint website are fantastic. I’m not well versed
in this area, as we only focus on ASL at this time and as I said, many many
programs would fit the bill. I can give my personal seal of approval to:
Signing Time
LifePrint
Salsa Spanish
Rosetta Stone
There are many, many more that use visual and mnemonic
techniques that would be fabulous. Please share if you ahve any favorites.
Organization:
Following Directions
Linguisystems Executive Function workbooks
Sue Patrick’s Workbox System
Concentration
What Shall I Do Now, Teacher?
Learning to Listen
Listen, Remember, and Do
Organizing the Disorganized Child
Smart but Scattered
The Organized Student
I’m ending with another quote from Rebecca Mann. “Believe in
these children, they may well be the future Edisons and Einsteins of the
world.”
(ETA: I will add hotlinks in a bit. I’m late posting as it
is! Sorry!!)
