Eye to Eye: Connecting with Gifted Visual Spatial Learners

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Eye to Eye Connecting with Gifted Visual
Spatial Learners
Rebecca L. Mann rlmann_at_purdue.edu web.ics.purdue.e
du/rlmann
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Strengths of individuals with spatial reasoning
gifts
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• Visual Spatial Learners are adept at
• Puzzles and Mazes
• Block Counting - 3D arrays with hidden blocks
• Visual Transformations
• Envisioning a folded cut piece of paper when
  open
• Spelling words as well backwards as forwards
• Getting around in unfamiliar territory
• Reading charts, maps, diagrams
• Picturing objects from different angles
• Recalling series of numbers/letters they have
  seen

g n i z a m a
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Strengths of Visual Spatial Learners

• Visual Spatial Learners
• are adept at
• Pulling
• everything
• apart
• Visual Spatial Learners enjoy
• Blocks and Boxes
• Construx and Legos
• Computers
• Daydreaming
• Gears and Tinker Toys
• Movies

None of my toys work because I took them all
apart to see what makes them work.
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• Sequential Spatial
• Profoundly influenced by time
  Preoccupied with space
• Western thought boy
  Eastern thought
• Rapid processor
  Slow processor
• Step by step Whole to part
• Learn by trial and error
  Learns concept all at once
• Phonics
  Sight words
• Left Brain Right Brain

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• The report card of a highly visual spatial
  learner
• Concepts
• Computation

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• Sequential Spatial
• Good organization
  Organizationally impaired
• Progresses from easy
  Gets difficult concepts,
• to difficult
  struggles with easy
• Needs repetition
  Learning sticks
• Orderly progression
  Intuitive grasp
• Early Bloomer Late
  Bloomer
• Does well with Algebra
  Does well with Geometry
• Academic talent
  Technology/Creative talent

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Traits ofVisual Spatial Learners
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Learning Traits of Visual Spatial Learners

• Visual Spatial Learners are
• Holistic Learners who
• Perceive relationships
• between the parts
• and the whole
• Dont understand if
• learning is doled
• out in small chunks
• Cant grasp isolated facts until the big
  picture is in view
• Have difficulty attending to details

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As Learners, Spatial Learners are

• Aha Processors who
• Understand all or nothing
• Often cannot explain the steps of their thinking
• Detest routine, repetitive tasks and do not
  learn by rote memorization
• Once the Aha occurs, learning is relatively
  permanent

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Spatial Learners are CREATIVE, they

• Arrive at surprising conclusions
• Have amazing imaginations and
• often have imaginary playmates
• Make up rich stories but cant
• always write them down
• May do great drawings and be elaborate doodlers
  but have awful handwriting

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As Thinkers, Spatial Learners are

• Reflective
• They need extra thinking
• time therefore, they can
• appear to be lazy or to
• be daydreaming.

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Visual Spatial Learners are perceived as

• Unwilling to fit into time schedules or routines
• Careless - Regularly forgetting homework and when
  they do it their handwriting may be illegible
• Reluctant to take risks

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• Visual Spatial Learners are
• Highly sensitive hypersensitive to their
  environment such as
• Clothing - the sweatpants kids
• Noise -They have poor listening skills but keen
  hearing, may get more information than they can
  sift out
• Emotions - They are good at reading people and
  can sense a teachers anxieties and ambivalence

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Whyshould wecare about these children???
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Heres the Problem

• Emphasis on verbal skills in schools
• Traditional assessment measures (SAT, GRE) do not
  assess spatial ability (Gohm, Humphreys, and Yao)
• Undergraduates in 2000 5.6 majoring in
  engineering and 0.8 in mathematics
• Doctorates earned in 2001 in the U.S. by
  non-citizens
• mathematics 43
• engineering 51 (NFS)

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and

• Individuals gifted in spatial ability
  undereducated and underemployed (Gohm, 1998)
• Increasingly technological world needs ability to
  comprehend complex relationships and problem
  solvers with unique strategies (Shea, Lubinski,
  Benbow, 2001)
• Selecting top 3 based on verbal or mathematical
  ability results in loss of more than half of
  students representing top 1 of spatial ability
  (Shea, Lubinski, Benbow)

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• Einstein
• da Vinci
• Edison
• Picasso

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General Strategies for Teaching Spatial Learners
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• The Whole Picture
• Explain major concepts so child understands
  instructional goal
• Allow opportunities for inductive learning
• Provide real life scenarios - service oriented
  projects are good
• Discovery Learning-tell child the goal of the
  instruction and let him figure out a way to get
  there
• Use a multidisciplinary emphasis

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• Hands On - Minds On
• Provide manipulatives and create hands on
  activities
• Encourage the student to make models

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• Visualize
• Show everything - use overhead or white board,
  color is better than chalkboard
• Encourage the child to visualize lists, patterns,
  situations
• Ask the child if he can make a picture of what
  the topic represents
• Ask yourself, How would I teach this concept to
  a deaf child?

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NLP Neuro-Linguistic Programming

• Visualize words
• - spell them both forwards and backwards
• Visualize concept
• - how the system works

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• Technology
• Encourage the use of computers for learning and
  allow the child to keyboard teach keyboarding
  early
• Venn Diagrams

Multiples of 5 Multiples of 3 40 9 10
15 12 25 30 18
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Increase the Difficulty

• Do not force the
• student to succeed
• at easier material
• before trying the
• difficult work.
• Emphasize
• mastery of
• higher level
• concepts
• instead of
• perfection of
• simpler concepts.

How many times do I have to tell you youre not
supposed to read ahead.
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Color!

• Have the child use highlighters to
• highlight directions or key concepts.
• Color coordinate everything that has to do with
  one subject
• i.e. purple math book cover, purple notebook,
  purple portfolio, etc.
• Use overheads or white board with a variety of
  color categorize by color.
• Have the visual spatial child create his own
  flashcards in color.
• Copy worksheets and study guides on colored
  paper, it is easier to keep organized and easier
  on the eyes.

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Strategies for Lectures

• Pause to allow words
• to register
• Allow student to tape
• record lectures
• Encourage child to take notes in pictorial format
• Encourage student to take notes in the 1/3 -
  2/3s format
• Emphasize concepts not details i.e. dates
• Distribute handouts - dont expect these students
  to take dictation

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Strategies for Teaching Spatial Learners in
Specific Content Areas
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Strategies Foreign Language

• Classroom instruction may be difficult
• Total immersion in a language is much more
  effective

Japanese
German
French
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Better yet American Sign Language!
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• Spelling
• Draw configurations for words
• on graph paper

dog
Write each word on a card in color, trace over in
multiple colors
project
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Strategies - Writing

• Visual the entire sentence before writing it
• Take them on an Imaginary Journey
• Grade ideas (content) and mechanics separately
• Use webbing and other graphic organizers to
  formulate ideas
• (www.inspiration.com)
• Allow them to dictate or tape record written work

Editing can be difficult Many have
difficulty with handwriting Some are
continually improving their work therefore, it is
never done - it can always be better - cant
recopy anything without changing it
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• Visual Spatial Learners are
• Readers who
• Have better reading comprehension than decoding
  skills
• May never be good oral readers
• Tend to skip over words but still get the thrust
  of the story
• Prefer reading heavily illustrated material

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Strategies - Reading

• Oral Reading - A visual spatial child may never
  be a good oral reader
• Get to the child before she makes a mistake so
  the word wont imprint incorrectly
• The student may tire easily and lose
  concentration
• Decoding - Sight words, not phonics - cant hear
  vowel sounds
• Encourage use of Context Clues
• Comprehension
• Good speed readers since they dont read every
  word
• Get content first then scan for details
• Study captions and graphics in texts
• Read first and last sentence of each
  paragraph
• Skim material 4 times vs. reading slowly
  once
• Junior Great Books is terrific program
• for these kids

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• Mathematics
• Give chance to devise own method of problem
  solving
• Avoid drill and repetition - No timed tests
• Do five hardest problems on the page and go on
  if successful
• Multiplication table - Look for patterns in
  multiplication charts
• 5678 567x8 4x96x6
• Teach within the context of entire number system
• Division - give divisor, dividend quotient
  then let child figure out the system
• Look for patterns within math
• Make it meaningful
• Flashcards with answers
• Geometry and Physics are spatial

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Patterns in Multiplication
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Strategies Organizational Skills

• Color code calendars, assignments, books and
  supplies
• Use an hourglass to visualize the passage of time
• Make sure they have watches that are reliable
• Teach them to take a picture of assignments as
  they are given
• Help them learn to look up to their recall side
  to remember what it is they need to do
• Teach them how to create priority lists and
  schedules - they may not like it but it is an
  essential survival skill!
• A quote from a highly Visual Spatial college
  student, Be involved in so many activities that
  your life is scheduled for you!

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Teacher-Student Interaction

• Teach the child to become a spy and notice what
  is going on in the classroom
• - take clues from classmates
• Dont spy on just any student, some are
  better choices than others!
• Institute a moment of silence at the end of class
  so students can visualize what they will need for
  homework
• - this works well for all children in the class
• - have them take a few deep breaths and relax
  then picture what happened during the day and
  what they will
• need to take home

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Reduce unpredictable noise - music works well as
it is predictable Walkman ground rules must
be working continually must be appropriate
music must be quiet enough so no one else can
hear it must not start singing

• Use wait time
• Allow time for the child to translate the
  spoken word
• to images
• It may take a visual spatial child longer to
  begin to
• answer the question than it took you to ask it.

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• Let the child completely finish answering the
  question even if she appears off target as she
  may eventually get there.
• A visual spatial child may start answering a
  question and sound completely off target even
  though he knows the answer because words can get
  in the way of his thinking.

Discipline the visual spatial child in private
and be nonjudgmental as any negative messages
will cause the child to shut down (www.loveandlogi
c.com) Often these children appear aloof or
arrogant when, in fact, they are really highly
sensitive
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And remember

• Encourage the childs strengths, dont dwell on
  his weaknesses. This can be difficult as their
  strengths are outside of the traditional
  educational system
• Allow for their learning style but dont allow
  them to use their learning style as an excuse.
• And most of all..

Believe in these children, they may well be the
future Edisons and Einsteins of the world.