Crushing Tall PoppiesGifted Visual-Spatial Learners are Twice-Neglected
Traditional School is a Hostile Learning Environment for Gifted Visual-Spatial Learners
Just as gifted individuals often discover that their giftedness feels like both a gift and a curse, those who are both gifted and a visual-spatial learner experience a double whammy. The vast majority of traditional classroom settings deliver instruction via a linear, auditory and sequential method. Visual-spatial learners struggle to understand instruction and master concepts delivered to them in that linear, auditory and sequential manner seen in nearly every classroom because it is quite the opposite of the way they need to learn–which is through a more visual approach.
Visual-spatial learners are holistic learners who grasp the larger idea when introduced to a new concept or skill, and they learn best when information is delivered through more visual methods. For a visual-spatial learner, learning through a step-by-step approach (sequential) when it’s delivered verbally (auditory) as in nearly all classroom settings, is like teaching a lion how to become a vegetarian. Strong visual-spatial learners struggle in the traditional classroom setting when the needed differentiation and attention to their specific learning needs are not provided. Visual-spatial is not a learning preference, but a innate learning process and way of thinking that needs to be recognized and accommodated in the classroom. Although some visual-spatial learners can also succeed in an auditory-sequential classroom, those who have weak auditory-sequential skills will likely fail to learn and thrive.
Research has proven many connections between gifted individuals and strong visual-spatial strengths. A large percentage of gifted individuals are visual-spatial learners. Our visual-spatial learners are creative, artistic, and can quickly synthesize facts into the visualization of the larger picture–they can see the bigger idea.
Some famous visual-spatial thinkers who also struggled in an auditory-sequential environment are Albert Einstein, Leonardo da Vinci, Frank Lloyd Wright and Thomas Edison. One could easily assume that present-day creative geniuses like Bill Gates, Steve Jobs and Elon Musk are also strong visual-spatial thinkers. Didn’t a few of them struggle or drop out of school at some point?
Our world today needs these creative geniuses, but sadly many underachieve in school due to their inability to learn through auditory sequential methods, and eventually they may drop out. Many gifted visual-spatial learners are never identified as gifted because too many regular education teachers may equate only successful academic performance with giftedness. Teachers need to be educated and trained to recognize the unique characteristics and learning needs of our gifted children, especially our twice-exceptional, visual-spatial learners. We are disregarding too many of these creative geniuses who will struggle to fulfill their potential because our educational system most often does not recognize or understand these diamonds in the rough.
For the parents of a gifted visual-spatial learner who is underachieving in school, being a strong and determined advocate for your child is critical. Without parental support and advocacy, the typical school setting can be a hostile learning environment fraught with traumatic experiences that can destroy your gifted VSL child’s self-esteem, motivation and love of learning.
Homeschooling is an excellent educational option for strong, visual-spatial gifted learners who otherwise would flounder in the typical auditory-sequential classroom setting. Homeschooling provides the perfect opportunity for visual-spatial learners to learn in an optimal environment which can easily meet their unique visual-spatial learning needs.
Through my experience as an advocate for gifted children, I’ve seen first hand how terribly our public school system is underserving and neglecting our gifted children; sadly, our gifted visual-spatial children are not only twice-exception, but are also twice-neglected.
For more information, resources and how-to’s on homeschooling your gifted child, check out my book, Educating Your Gifted Child: How One Public School Teacher Embraced Homeschooling.
A counselor of mine told me I need to check out this website. Thus was the first article I read. And it brought me to tears of various mixed emotions. Someone finally understands the curse I was born and raised with. Many people through the years have told me I should be grateful with all the gift and talents I have and my response has always been, “yeah, I am sometimes. But more often than not it just seems to be a curse”. I love learning. I try to learn something new everyday. Some days I just choose to be creative, which quite often I end up learning something new anyway. The educational system was only part at fault for me you see because I switched schools pretty much every year. And a couple years I switched two or three times. To add ever more complexity to this, several time of switching schools was going from Washington State to Colorado or versa visa. An example of my gifts/curses, I draw, paint, carve, sculpt, sew, embroidery, crochet all learned before my teen years. Plus third and fourth grade I played violin, fifth grade saxophone. After that any instrument I would see I could pick it up and could play bits and pieces I knew from those three guests of music. When I was twenty a friend wanted to store some guitars with me. I told him only if he teaches me. He taught me three basic chords and how to read tablature. I’m self taught from there, mostly play watching someone play or picking it by ear. I wAs always different than the other kids everywhere I went. My mom just said it’s because I’m the new kid. But even compared to my many siblings. I could tell at an early age that I was a square peg being forced into a round hole. I have met a few people through my many travel that have some struggles that I did. I have always thought and hoped there would be some help for people like this. This article gives me new hope of those huge cracks I fell through are finally getting closed up. I’m sorry I wrote such a long comment. But I don’t know how to make all of that information more concise. Thank you for your website!
No apologies for your comment–so many gifted life experiences are similar to yours and telling your story can be helpful for you and others.
I would love to think the huge cracks are being closed up, and we are making some head way, but we all need to try to advocate and educate others about giftedness. The rest of the world needs to understand that the life experiences of gifted people are not the assured paths to success most think gifted people walk.
Thank you for your sharing your story with all of us!
Hi. My son age 14 is diagnosed as a gifted visual spatial learner, is dyslexic and had many ear infections as a young child so also has added auditory processing difficulties. He finds school stressful and difficult but does attend most days and does well in maths and sciences (but not with things like remembering times tables).
He is about to start his GCSE options in September. I have tried different revision techniques with him for school tests but he says none of them work for him. Due to low self esteem linked to his learning difficulties we often hit a brick wall with discussions on how to make revising easier for him and anxiety takes over. Do you have any top tips please on how to help him revise? Thanks very much.
Hi Lottie,
I’m not qualified to give advice, but I am a mom of gifted sons who had a similar experiences. I followed my gut and kept pursuing other resources, support, and professional opinions. I was always open and honest with my sons about their school experiences and how it related to their giftedness and learning differences. I’ve always felt that a child’s self-esteem is the most critical consideration when choosing which paths to take.
Unfortunately, some learning differences like being visual-spatial and dyslexic, which are often advantageous traits outside of school, are treated like disadvantages at school. It’s not easy to navigate all of these issues, but keep pursuing relative information, research studies, resources and support, and follow your gut.
All the best! ~Celi
I was highly gifted and dyslexic, spatial.
He needs to learn to also think with words. I was around 10 when I started seeing the limits of the different ways I could think, while lying in bed.
Just have him do his best or multiply them on the test. Times tables don’t really matter and you’ll just give him studying math ptsd. It also gets permanently mixed up in his memory, the more you mess with it. REMEMBER, they’re images to him. Maybe try different colors for 5x whatever and so on. Only show one at a time.
Also, calm down. He’s hyper aware of your stress and it might be causing some of his anxiety.
I’m definitely a more Visual Learner too, after a few months of reading blog posts and articles then taking A LOT more of a notice of the way i learn, think and understand things and then finally putting more of an effort into learning Math on Khan Academy i definitely see and feel the blind spot that comes with VLs, and although i don’t entirely believe everything about these learning styles that recently became a “trend” with teachers since we use ALL of senses as humans it still hugely helped in helping me understand the way i think.
When learning on Khan Academy i always watch the videos first because i really love the colorful visual of little pictures being drawn, colored in and color coding the numbers, equations and fractions i just LOVE seeing him shade things in, i don’t mind the Audible explanation either cos he explains most things SO clear and concise and at pace that’s not too slow or too fast and he just sounds so friendly 🙂 but the Number Lines i really really hate and have trouble following which i’d say is more of a Linear or Sequential way of learning, of course he teaches in a way where you can use multiple approaches and we can choose the approach we like best but i didn’t get that at first i just kept being tripped up by the Number Lines and don’t see the point of them.
Then when you get into Word Examples which says is Real Life Context (which it’s not nobody says things like that lol), i really hate it cos it’s just boring black and white text and i take a lot longer to understand how things are being worded and from this site i’m reading http://ken-carroll.com/2007/12/13/linear-and-non-linear-learning/ it’s because they word things backwards where irrelivant thing is first and the actual relivant part is last, luckily at some point i learned that how we word things makes a HUGE difference in our Learning so i just switch it around and simplify what was being said just focusing only on the important parts (which he helps you do in the videos too so THAT was helpful), like you choose an answer about if it’s about how many boxes there are in Total or how many of an object you put in the boxes in Total, the boxes part will be mentioned last not first, takes me 5 mins till i know how i need to switch it around and then i just say it to myself a few times like “okay so there’s 5 boxes and Jessica has (number of objects)” and i get it a lot quicker but i just don’t get it or the relevance again either that was boring and the struggle was real LOL 😛
I just feel really blind and get that feeling that you get when you KNOW your going into something blind without being given the needed and relevant information to help you understand, best i can describe it is when a robots programming gets confused then stuck and is like *voovoo* “Error! Error!” with it’s gears flipping out and then it breaks down BOY do the wheels churn. Soon as i see a colorful Visual Representation though whether a little picture or like how Sal on KA writes the Equations teaching you how to break it up while Audibly explaining it i soak it up really fast. Also when i’m going somewhere new i go to Street View on Google Maps, Visualize the way i need to go whether by walking or bus by specific buildings and then i write it down, i Visually Map the way i need to go, if i just read it by Satellite view noop… i’m okay finding the Bus Stops and shops cos there’s little images but the rest is just a bunch text of street names and lines to me totally not helping LOL. I do a good job at adapting to it though cos i’m definitely really smart, takes a bit of experimenting, persistence, trial and error but i get there i’m definitely up for a challenge but for things where i can’t get Visual Image (panic) What do i do? and i get frustrated. Definitely it can be difficult being a more Visual Learner
Being a VSL is difficult in school because all teachers teach using auditory-sequential methods–the opposie of visual-spatial learning. BUT, being a VSL is considered a talent in fields like engineering, science, entrepreneurial endeavors, and in computer tech companies.
So, although it may be frustrating now, but working in certain fields where VSL’s excel can be a very good thing!
What things do your kids get stuck on? there’s probs more things i do but i can’t recall it right now cos of how even for anyone it’s SO situational, i’ll never re-join The Education System myself i’m getting too old for all that now LOL being tripped up on things happens FAR too often when i was there, i think everyone needs a Visual of things and helps FAR more for us to latch onto info when it’s combined with Textual and Audible i know i’m great when all three are properly present.
The educational system is broken–class sizes are too large, standardized curriculum only works for the publishing company, and the era of using standardized tests to measure success of both students and teachers is crushing.
When I first started teaching, we were expected, and given the freedom, to teach to each child’s needs. I would let my students fidget, stand up to learn, talk to themselves, or I’d ask other teachers for higher- or lower-level curriculum to meet each child’s needs. We used every method of learning preferences or needs: auditory, tactile, concrete, visual–whatever it took. Now, there is no time for individualization. Schools no longer teach the way a child learns; children need to learn the way a school teaches.
Love all of your thoughtful insights that you share! Thank you for making this a better place to share and learn from each other’s experiences!
Totally agree on that, the primary i went to in the 90s is a smaller more private school it was All Saints Church Of England they’re still around and still do things the same way they even bring animals there now like rabbits and snakes i wish i had that LOL except snakes i’m scared of them eep!, i mostly got individual help although i was still always the most frustrating 1 min i wasn’t getting things then next min i was getting 1 or 2 things for some reason lol turns out i realize now i think i just need to sit on things for my thoughts to properly organize themselves then see how much i properly contained and didn’t contain.
The terms “You need to sleep on it” or “Just sit on it” is so true lol the frequency of info coming in and the overlapping of subjects in schools and colleges for me is definitely too much as well, even with a single subject especially math on Khan Academy i do it for 1 week then i take up to 1 week away to just chill and do other things i start to feel all sorts of things occuring to me i go back when i get that feeling of excitement and curiosity to learn more, i guess i prefer a natural approach to things.
Here’s a good video about schools in the 1940s – 1950s:
This one is about the problems that started happening when they started to become overcrowded it’s acting but i think they got the point across really well i really love these educational seminars from that time. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=36edFIKzcVA&t=1727s
Oh, thank you for sharing this video, Emma!
My 7 year old has been struggling in reading, she is at least 1 grade level below. They are about to start the dyslexia testing, but said she scored very high in visual spactial (14 year old level). My question is this, would this be considered gifted in this area? And also if she does have dsylexia what curriculum is best? We homeschool, so I have the flexibility with her curriculum.
Hi Becky,
Has your daughter been tested for giftedness by a professional who understands giftedness? Visual-spatial abilities can cause reading difficulties but it’s difficult to identify her strengths or weaknesses without a complete intelligence evaluation.
As far as a curriculum, I’m not an expert on dyslexia, but I would read as much as you can about the learning needs of visual-spatial learners as well as those with dyslexia. Join the Facebook groups for parents who homeschool and those for children with dyslexia—the parents there can offer you support, information and suggestions about an appropriate curriculum for your daughter.
Best of luck!
“The Gift of Dyslexia” was the title of a book on the display shelf in the office when I reported for my first day of work at an adult literacy center. I promptly took it home and read it, because I had a son who the schools labeled both “gifted” and “dyslexic.”
Ron Davis, the author, has been labeled retarded, autistic, and genius; all because he learns almost exclusively via the visual-spacial route. His theory and methods won’t apply to everyone, but the book is worth reading, or listening to, especially if the visual learning style is overwhelming most other inputs.
He says because he thinks visually, he thinks at the speed of light, rather than the speed of sound. He said he had trouble reading because he would skip over words like “the,” which can’t be easily pictured. He actually created himself some clay models of the idea behind many words like that, so he could more easily think them. I know some of our adult literacy students benefited greatly by creating their own personal dictionary by sketching their ideas of what certain words meant.
After reading most of the book, I asked my son how he thought: Did he usually see what he was thinking, or was it more like hearing himself think? He answered, “I mostly just see what I’m thinking about.”
I was stunned! I’m a book worm. I love words. The idea of seeing what I think was foreign to me. Now that I’ve paid some attention to my thinking, I realize I do in fact create some brain images to go along with the words I read, but when someone says, “Close your eyes and imagine…” I really am at a loss to conjure up any sort of vivid image.
I suppose really strong visual learners have the same sort of difficulty trying to visualize the meanings of words on a page.
His ideas might very well help those who also think “at the speed of light.”
https://www.dyslexia.com/book/the-gift-of-dyslexia/
This is in the exceptional-profoundly gifted realm. She may very well be a genius in the making. I would suggest exposing her to abstraction, metacognition, science, mental math problem solving, complex social problems, charts and graphs that can answer other questions (people like us can instantly visualize the chart in near perfection).
Also, increasingly let her teach herself things after she gets the basic concept of it. We can get to the answer without any set process and sometimes it’s frustrating to try to explain to people who don’t understand how we can possibly do it. It’s like asking a track star how they run fast.
Let her know that she can do phenomenal things with this gift and that any “learning disability” is not important and likely not a fact. Her spatial intelligence is what changes the world. Most people won’t understand things like her and not to let them tell her she’s wrong or that she is doing something wrong.
Congratulations!
We intuitively (or perhaps it was providence) selected a Montessori environment for our Visual-Spatial Learner. He has flourished. If you have the resources to provide this type of education for your child I highly recommend it. It has meant sacrifice for us, but it has been worth it. His teachers, his education for the past five years have been a joy. He loves to go to school every day. he would go on the weekends if he could. Not to say we haven’t had a few hangups here and there, but his teachers have been free, willing and able to adapt to his learning style.
Sam,
You are absolutely right–the Montessori approach is great for gifted visual-spatial kids as they are allowed to progress at their own pace in multi-age classrooms. So happy your son is flourishing there!
has anyone tryed sign language to help bridge the gap with high visual spatial children who have a hard time with verbal learning? I’m just curious.
Good question, Jackie!
We spoke sign language with my middle son until he was 2 and a half because of a speech delay. At 5 we found out he is gifted and off the charts in visual spatial with a deficit in verbal.
Yes, my kid does. He has very high IQ on visual spatial, but is struggling on language art study
Just Word things differently and change the order it’s in Visual Learners struggle with Textual and Verbal questions a lot i always have back in primary and high school i’d just sit there staring at it because i didn’t get then that how you Word things and the order it’s in makes a big difference to your Learning not just for Visual Learners but for everyone, but definitely more so for Visual Learners.
Say your doing Division Word Problems that are supposedly in “Real Life Context” (which really isn’t), the relevant part may be written at the end of the sentence not at the start which confuses me too and i can do it but i’m a bit slow at it still, i don’t see the relevance of such Word Problems to anything but in schools they’ll be made to do them, so best way to go is draw a line under or highlight the relevant parts like say the sentence says something like…
“Jessica has 6 lollipops in each bag, but she has 12 boxes” What are you trying to work out? How many you have to Divide into each box? or The Total number of boxes?…
The answer would be Total number of boxes because it’s not asking you to work out how many she needs to Divide into each box, instead you can switch it around to “There’s 12 boxes and she has 6 lollipops in each bag” putting the relevant info first and try to break it up as you explain Verbally. With other information it’s better to keep things clear and concise, short and stick to only what’s relevant the best you can. You can use a Dictionary or go online and look up a word they may be confused by to see the other definitions, i do the latter cos it gives me several to choose from :P.
This is a wonderful site I found while doing research for my book on How, What and Why an Artist Thinks.
I agree with much of what is here and deeply regret most people (including parents and teachers) do not know what to do with children or adults who have these special abilities. This has made life quite painful at times. My brain has been carefully examined as part of a research project into creativity and I can assure you the artist brain is literally “Built” differently. If we are to benefit from these special people we are going to have to change many of our assumptions, particularly at home and in school. I do what I can to meet and speak to others about this.
Yes, “if we are to benefit from these special people we are going to have to change many of our assumptions, particularly at home and in school”–this is so true! Thank you for taking this to heart and going out to meet and speak to others about giftedness and talent!
I have a Visual Spatial son. Coming to a new school the teachers reported about behavior issues. I could not understand because in his two schools before there were never any issues. I did a WISC-V Test. Like prescribed in literacy he displayed variations. Scored very high in Spatial Visual Ability, same for Working Memory and also in Similarities. Overall all all his scores were above age to superior. He does not have an auditory processing problem but if you compare all the high numbers in non-verbal to the verbal comprehension skills, verbal is relative weakness. Furthermore he speaks many languages what has an impact on the verbal numbers on WISC-V. I am so proud about my son because I see his beautiful mind, but we all have to be our childrens advocate to make sure, they get appreciated and the environment they need. I find this Thesis very interesting for all people with Spatial Visual Children, hopefully more people educate themselves. http://mro.massey.ac.nz/bitstream/handle/10179/5758/02_whole.pdf?sequence=2&isAllowed=y
Thank you for sharing this, Sarah-Julia!
I’ve just found this site and have been reading for hours, I should be in bed LOL. I have 7 beautiful and healthy children. Two are classified as 2e, both boys, the 11 year old is on the autism spectrum and has a specific learning disorder of written expression, he is however gifted in math, science and verbal reasoning. The 10 year old has adhd and dyslexia and is a vsl, I can’t remember his scores but I know his visual spacial reasoning was in the exceptionally high range, we have not medicated him for adhd, as we were advised to,because we want him to develop strategies to focus by himself without a crutch, his behaviour is not an issue, so nobody is hounding us to drug him up. I suspect that my 13 year old daughter and 6 year old son are also 2e with them both probably being similar to my 10 year old but haven’t had them tested yet and my 3 year old daughter is also showing similar abilities to my vsl children. The most frustrating thing I am having to deal with is the schools lack of interest in my 10 year old boy. He’s a serial underachiever, a B student, who is perfectly happy to remain as such. I’ve heard all the usual things, he’s lazy, he needs to try harder and even, he’s average to above average while they had his test scores in front of them. The school said he can’t be dyslexic because he can read. They tested him themselves at one grade level ahead and of course he got a perfect score. What they failed to acknowledge is that he had scored 5 grade levels ahead on his standardized tests in reading. I tried to explain that he reads everything as a sight word and if he doesn’t know the word he skips it and works it out with the context of the sentence, I received blank stares. His isolated word reading was at benchmark for his grade as was his ability to apply his phonics. Here’s where I get mad, seriously, he reads 5 grade levels ahead but can’t see the difference between the words tough and through, I mean massive red flags are waving at me, but the school has dismissed it. They will not admit him to the TAG program because he consistently misses the score on one standardized test by 4-5%. They then say they’ll consider him but because his teachers won’t recommend him because of his lack of effort he is excluded. The TAG program in this school is aimed at high achievers, which he is not, yet his teachers have noted that every now and then he’ll say or do something that’s just brilliant. Sorry for the rant, but I’m still going. My 13 year old and 11 year old are both in the TAG program because they were grandfathered in when we moved school districts but I was told they were in danger of being removed from it because their test scores were not adequate. They didn’t end up excluding my 11 year old with asd because I think they felt I’d kick up a fuss, and they do not have a junior high program so my daughter doesn’t have to worry about getting removed from it. What frustrates me the most is that only the high achievers are eligible for the TAG program here, it really doesn’t matter if you are truly gifted or not. My 9 year old daughter is a workhorse in school, she is a high achiever in every part of her life. She works hard and does extremely well, she is a smart girl but she is not gifted in the way that some of her siblings are, I am terribly proud of her work ethic and achievements . She was accepted into the TAG program this past year, her scores were great and her teacher recommended her, the same teacher that refused to recommend my son the previous year. I congratulated her and told her how proud I was, but my heart was heavy, I was so angry for my son, I actually cried for him, as I hid in my bedroom. The only thing valued in this school and I know in many others are the cold test scores. It doesn’t matter that my 10 year old boy can do the most amazing math in his head, or that he can build circuits, or that he can spell complex words by reading them off a sheet of paper in his head, because he can barely spell the word cat, when he tries sounding it out. He’s a wonderful artist, he likes to do clay models, he’s also a talented runner and can sing like a bird. The artistic abilities, singing and athletic prowess are all congratulated and acknowledged by his teachers, of course. Our school district is very small, his intellectual abilities far exceed all but possibly one child in his grade, but no one but me and his dad could care less. I know the school knows what he’s capable of but they just don’t want to bother with him because his needs are too much trouble. He’s floating happily along in a sea of mediocrity, bored out of his mind and totally understimulated, at least he’s happy I suppose, but I know his feeling get hurt when his teachers reprimand him for working problems his own way instead of using their method, even though his way may be quicker. Instead of looking at his problem solving abilities and saying “goodjob” or “that’s interesting” he has been yelled at, and made to feel ashamed and humiliated. It hurts his feelings and makes him angry. Oh how frustrating it must be to be him. I also feel like a fraud talking about him as a gifted child because he doesn’t fit the mould that the school sets out as the “gifted” child. Sorry for the lengthy post but I have no one to speak to about this who understands. Oh, by the way, I only mentioned 6 of my 7 children, my 8 year old daughter is an above average, hard working student who does well in most subjects and excels at reading, she will do well in school but she is not in the gifted range, ( that probably guarantees her a spot in the TAG program LOL)
Oh Catherine,
There is just so much I want to say. I read your comment while nodding my head in agreement and also shedding a few tears because I know EXACTLY how you feel when your gifted child doesn’t meet the high-achieving bar schools set which should not exist in the first place. I get it–as the saying goes, been there, done that. Sadly.
Did you read my article, “Giftedness is More Than a Function of Education”? Not all, in fact many gifted children do not meet the standards set by schools for their gifted programs. Nearly all public school gifted programs are not really for gifted children, but for high-achieving kids–but you probably knew this out already.
Yes, there are so many things I want to say to you because I get it, but the most important thing you can do is read all you can about giftedness–the Gifted Homeschoolers Forum website is a good place to start. And then advocate. Fight for your children’s right to be in the TAG program. They need the challenge; without the challenge, gifted children become underachievers.
Also, there are many groups for parents of gifted children on Facebook. One really good one is Raising Poppies. You can get all the support you need there.
If you need anything else, let me know, Catherine!
Thanks so much for the reply. School starts soon, I know my son’s teacher quite well, we’ve had her before, she knows what type of children come out of our house. I’m going to speak with her about him, hopefully I’ll get further than I did with his teacher last year. I can only hope. Meanwhile I’ll continue reading and reading. It’s hard to advocate for a child when you’re not sure what he needs.I try to keep on top of everything that’s going on in school with my kids, sometimes I might seem overzealous but I just don’t want any of them falling between the cracks.
I know, Catherine, and they can so easily fall between the cracks because teachers are more overworked than ever before. Your children are so lucky to have you as their mom! You’ve got this!
Catherine, just a quick note to say wow, what an amazing mum you are! With a mum like you your kids will do great in life and contribute to the greater good whatever that might be.
Follow your heart
S 🙂
“The Gift of Dyslexia,” by Ron Davis contains some ideas for filling in the gaps created by words like “the” that are difficult to picture.
https://www.dyslexia.com/book/the-gift-of-dyslexia/
I guess I am one of those. I might have underachieved in class but fortunately getting the stuff into my brain at home helped me a lot! Now im studying, being in my second masters course and i now realize why i just cant get the stuff tought in uni. Either one speaks directly from the heart or i need a laser beam focus to get any of the things tought. I failed in R class because I learned from the videos provided by the lecturer. I have watched some thrice and still couldnt get the content. Yet innately i know i’m not dumb, likely smarter than others who easily passed the tests. But oh my, now having this knowledge i don’t know yet how to proceed….
Vera, visual-spatial ability is a complex ability. It has so many upsides and so often considered a talent, a gift. It just doesn’t help when education is delivered in the traditional auditory-sequential way and then seems to become a learning hindrance.
Sounds like you are succeeding despite being a visual-spatial learner!
Thanks for sharing your thoughts here, Vera!
I am delighted to see that more individuals are finding new approaches to further the development of the visual-spatial intelligence.
Growing up, I struggled with the average classroom setting. Teachers became frustrated due to my constant questioning and need for explaination on their curriculum.
Ultimately, I gave up. I began to criticize the education system, labeled the teachers as “bad” and “unable to teach properly”. Next thing you know, I was labeled as a child with a behavioral dissorder.
A social worker, who actually listened to my stories and understood multiple intelligences, took immediate notice. It was then I was tested on my visual-spatial intelligence.
One of the tests conducted consisted of 8-16 blocks with red and white shapes and lines. They provided an abstract picture with the objective of creating that picture with the blocks just by turning them in place, not moving a block to another spot. I completed the puzzles, averaging approximately 1 block per second.
The gentleman conducting the test stated, “In 25 years of conducting this test, I have never seen anyone do what she just did…” to my parents, school staff and myself.
Sadly, by the time it was discovered, I was already a junior in High School. It was too late. I had gone unnoticed and neglected for too long.
Hi Jennifer,
Visual-spatial ability is such a paradox. In our world today, many companies, especially tech and engineering-related firms, specifically seek out potential employees with advanced visual-spatial skills. But yet in schools, advanced visual-spatial skills are labeled a learning disability. We need to learn more about visual-spatial abilities and address them better in school.
Two of my three sons are strongly visual-spatial and school was difficult because instruction in the classroom is given in the opposing manner–auditory-sequential. Unfortunately, there is not enough information yet to convince schools that visual-spatial students need accommodations and should be allowed to learn through their strength and not try to “fix” what is wrongly perceived as a problem.
I certainly understand what you mean by it being too late because you had gone unnoticed and neglected for too long. I hope that you are now taking advantage of your visual-spatial ability because, despite the ignorance of our education system in regard to visual-spatial students, your potential for future success is significant due to your advanced visual-spatial ability!
Thank you, Jennifer, for taking the time to write and share with us your experience with being visual-spatial!
How might I know whether my 7-year-old son is a visual/spacial learner? Thanks!
Tara,
There are certain subtests on the WISC and other intelligence tests which can show a visual-spatial strength. As far as I know, there is no specific tests, but here is the website of Dr. Linda Silverman who was the pioneer in bringing visual-spatial abilities to light and contributed heavily to the body of knowledge about visual-spatial abilities. http://www.gifteddevelopment.com
Also, one of the resources Dr. Silverman offers is this site dedicated to visual-spatial children: http://visualspatial.org
Between both sites, you will find information, checklists and descriptions of a visual-spatial learner. There are a few other resources which provide information about visual-spatial abilities–do a web search using the term, visual spatial.
Thank you, Tara!
Thank you so much. We are just entering the realm of testing my youngest, whom I suspect is one of those “twice-exceptional” kids who are both gifted and challenged.
You are welcome! All the best, Tara!
Hello, could I get your opinion on what I may be dealing with day to day (almost) with my son, 10 (almost 11).
I don’t know where he is in terms of IQ as he has no FSIQ due to the big scatter. I was just told that he is bright. The issue is that he takes so so so much time doing his homework, showering and eating that I am forever calling and prompting him to hurry. It’s stressful on our relationship and it kills me inside to see him living his life away not having much time for his hobbies or even to just watch a bit of TV. I have asked my self if I should just let him skip all the homework and let him Persue his interests and develop his talents (which seems to be musically inclined) just that he doesn’t have much time to play the piano.
He is very, easily distracted and does not seem to put in his efforts in his school work. Very sloppy writing and lagging in executive functioning, compared to his peers. I was told it could be a sign of him being passive aggressive but I don’t understand why he’d purposely waste his life away? Even enticing him with iPad time after his hw doesn’t work to speed him up. Only on occasionally he’ll zoom through his work to leave himself with time to play, and it can be fast when that actually does happen. At my wits end with him and don’t know what I should do about it.
Verbal 116
visual 132
Fluid reasoning 121
Memory 100
Processing 141
Hi Cinnamon,
Oh, your story sounds so familiar–almost in every detail! I’ve heard from many parents who have bright, intelligent and gifted children just like yours. There could be many things going on, but not all will be because your child has an issue.
Every child is different and every gifted child is different–some are further from what we think of as typical than others. But that is THEIR normal. Traditional school is a well-defined, often rigid system for learning–not all children will thrive in that system and this is through no fault of their own. Just as the vast majority of us grow up, get married and have children, not every adult is cut out for marriage and/or children. There is nothing wrong with them; they just don’t fit into the traditional roles the majority of society forms or expects. Too many children have been pathologized because they weren’t thriving in school. Yet, it may be helpful while guiding our children into their niche in life, we also help them see where it is also important to understand the pervasive social constructs they don’t quite fit into.
That said, when I was in your shoes, I had to do a lot of research and learning on my own about my gifted children. I had to learn to also trust my gut instincts and understand that not all “experts” understandd giftedness. Also, IQ tests are not infallible. If you need a better understanding of your child’s intelligence, strengths and weaknesses, find a psychologist who has experience working with gifted children.
Here is a link to a list of recommended professionals from SENG: http://sengifted.org/resources/recognized-professionals
Also, here are links to two gifted parent forums. I found that other parents have been invaluable for answering my questions and validating my concerns: Gifted Homeschoolers Forum – http://giftedhomeschoolers.org/online-community/ and Davidson Gifted Issues Discussion Forum – http://giftedissues.davidsongifted.org/BB/
I would also start my research here at the Gifted Development Center – http://www.gifteddevelopment.com/resources/visual-spatial-resource And also at Hoagies’ Gifted Education Page – http://www.hoagiesgifted.org
Poke around on all four of the above sites I’ve linked. They have tons of information! But the one thing I do want you to know is that you are not alone–there are many of us parents who have traveled the same road you find yourself on! Yup, it can be frustrating and maddening and crazy and exhilarating–all at the same time!
Keep in touch and let us know how things are going!
Thanks you so much for your valuable reply Celi. I appreciate that you even shared several links with me that I can read and hopefully understand more.
I am enjoying your blog and articles more and more as I have 3 children of different stages. Just read the post about teaching children to read. I am sure this will be useful for my 3rd child soon 😘
You are most welcome, Cinnamon!
Our story is similar, albeit a little different. At a young age, my son was diagnosed with a language processing disorder and ADD. His executive functioning skills are very behind. He has an IEP for school, accommodations, etc. He works hard with support from us and a tutor to maintain Bs and a few As. He does not pick up a lot of what he hears in the classroom. He is in advanced math and is a rock star at chess. As a kid, no “pretend play”, but great at building legos, puzzles, etc. For his spatial IQ he tested at 140. When you add in the verbal component of the IQ test he is barely average. He has had extensive testing and not deemed to be “on the spectrum” but has a big communication delay. He has trouble processing in the classroom and explaining what he knows. We keep looking for ways to help him in school, but since is he now 14 (8th grade) I am focused on trying to find supplemental ways to get him into more spatial-related activities in HS next year, If anyone has any ideas let me know!
Hi Valeri,
Visual spatial ability is a new body of knowledge. The very best resources are the Gifted Development Center and Visual-Spatial Resource.
It sometimes seems a long, uphill journey, but finding more spatial-related activities is a great solution. Have you tried the FIRST robotics teams? Great organization and a good place for visual-spatials!
Good luck Valeri and keep us updated on how everything is going!
Thank you so very much for these recommendations. We just had a full eval done and the dr is now certain he is in the top 1.2% on visual spacial acuity. And has massive delays with executive functioning and language processing. So we have a lot to work on with the school, but I am hoping we can find things to interest him in what you suggested. Best regards, V
Valeri, thank you for sharing this. And best of luck working with the school–hopefully working together with the school will change the game for your son! Keep us posted!
My 15 yo daughter is a visual spatial learner. During her 7th grade year in public school, she was tested and found to meet the criterial for “educational autism”, and given an IEP (Individual education program). A year later, I was seeing no academic improvement, but I was seeing a very unhappy child. I went back and looked at the test scores (low verbal and processing and over the top non verbal). I started doing my own research and discovered an article discussing Linda Silverman and VSLs. Reading the description of a VSL, I felt like they were writing about my child. After several frustrating attempts to get help through the system, my husband and I decided to homeschool. Although we have had some successes (like using Life of Fred for math), it is hard to find decent guidance for teaching a teenager, whose love of learning was pretty much wiped out by a public school system that did not honor how she learns.
I’m so sorry, Connie. I know exactly what you are going through–our story is the same. Visual-spatial ability is such a paradox. It is considered a learning disability in school, when recognized, but a valuable and sought-after talent in the work world where creativity is needed. You hit the nail on the head–schools can destroy the love of learning of children when they don’t honor how they learn!
I’m sorry you all are going through this. Be strong, be patient and don’t lose faith 🙂
I’m trying😆
AVisual Spacial learner Here.
Memory Is all relative to the mental imagery I’m able
to retain.
Learning with words feels foreign no matter what
language used.
Feels like tunnel vision with a spotlight in your eyes,
very uncomfortable and irritating.
Double spacing and symbols would help us out
immensely.
Just beginning to see the patterns and I’m nearly 40.
Chas, such a intriguing description of what it feels like to be visual-spatial. Two of my sons have similar learning patterns. I wish more teachers and administrators understood visual-spatial thinking!
Thanks for sharing, Chas!
Having parents who are calm and nonjudgmental woulda been great! Self doubt and loathing doesnt go away it seems. And self sabotage when somone sees the potential.Very crippling !!
Thanks for your acknowledgement.
I agree with you, Charley, and it is very sad how crippling it all can be!
Thanks for sharing your thoughts!
We recently had our 10-year old son tested with a full neuro-psych workup to determine why he is having issues with school when he is clearly bright, and he tested with a 152 IQ (on a 160 scale – no extended test) and as a very strong visual spatial learner. I have since devoured everything I can find online to figure out how best to help him and to get through to his school about what he needs. I am stunned at how little his “exclusive” private school knows about this and how unaccomodtaing they have been up to this point. I’m looking at a new school that was started for gifted kids and fingers crossed that it is a good match, because my son’s current school simply wants to put him in lower classes because he can’t get all of the information out of his brain fast enough for their standards. It’s heartbreaking to watch them quash his intellect (and crush his ego) at such an early age. I’ll go look up some of the above mentioned books now. Thanks for the info!
Yes, visual-spatial ability/disability seems to be a relatively new learning need and most schools know so little about it, although I know it can’t be a new “thing.”
When we learned our youngest gifted teen was a VSL, we knew the scope of what his school should do for him, but they kept insisting on calling his visual-spatial ability a “preference” to make us understand they would do nothing to help him because it was a choice for him, not an inherent way of thinking and learning. I would say, “he is a visual-spatial learner and needs XYZ”, and they would always reply, “yes, he has a visual preference.” We pulled him out.
You know that having a strong visual-spatial ability is considered a highly-desired talent–once a VSL becomes an adult. I hope everything turns out well for your little guy! Keep us updated!
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Interesting to read. My son was at a regular school here in the Netherlands and became very depressed, he wanted to die (8 yrs old). He felt unsafe, hardly any social contacts and he could not “show” what he knew. When we were told he was a visual-spatial learner and he had to learn techniques to survive in a normal school environment, we decided to try a democratic school. He is happy now, has friends, plays a lot and for example knows everything about acient Greek mythology at this moment and I cannot believe the speed he had to learn everything, but he could do it his own way, reading books, playing fantasy games about everything he read. It’s great to see and I love to read your posts, recognizing a lot. Homeschooling is hardly possible here in the Netherlands, so I am glad we live nearby a democratic school.
Jouke,
Success stories are always so wonderful to hear. To have your son educated in a way that meets his needs and nurtures his love of learning is perfect for him and must be such a relief to you! Thank you so much for sharing your experience with your son; the more we all speak up about our children not receiving the education they need, the more we will all be heard. Many thanks!
130 IQ is mildly/moderately gifted (though that translates to slightly less on the SB5, when it has been suggested that ‘gifted’ begins at 125). See here: http://www.hoagiesgifted.org/highly_profoundly.htm
Just what level of intelligence does a child have in order to be considered gifted?
There’s the million dollar question. Everyone seems to have different opinions. When given the WPPSI my son scored a 147 on the Visual Spatial Index of the WPPSI-IV. However, his average Processing and only high average Verbal Index give him a Full Scale of only 121. According to the world (and us frankly as he does not phenotypically act gifted), he is not “gifted” in that sense of the word. Will he use his visual spatial skills to change the world like those mentioned above? Probably not. But we do know what lights his fire activity wise, and what hobbies and careers to steer him toward.
Cerian’s answer below is correct, but IQ tests alone don’t always tell the whole story. There are discrepancies among the different IQ tests and also among different editions & revisions of the same test. Many professionals use several different criteria and behavioral components to determine giftedness. Also, check out Dr. Deborah Ruf’s Levels of Giftedness: http://www.talentigniter.com/ruf-estimates
It’s interesting that you cite Deborah Ruf’s estimates on a post about those that excel on the Visual Spatial Index, as her estimates are *heavily* dominated by skills that would be found for high achievers on the Verbal Index.
I feel giftedness can be determined in different ways and by different measures.
Some kids have stronger verbal skills and others have stronger visual-spatial skills. Although my post is about visual-spatial learners, the original question asked that I was responding to was what level of intelligence determines giftedness. My opinion is that there should be a variety of measures used, not just IQ tests, because not all gifted children have the same intellectual strengths. Ruf’s estimates uses behaviors that are heavy in the verbal areas, but not all. It is still a valid identification tool.
Ironically, my son is, as an example, is a strong visual-spatial learner but still scores very high in verbal skills.
My belief is that we can’t afford to not identify any gifted child, and we need to be thorough in our identification process using as many available identification tools as we can.
Forgive me, but I find this and your blog endlessly fascinating! I guess I wonder, if we can’t afford to not identify any gifted child, do we run the risk of false positives like my son using these qualitative measures like the “Ruf estimate”? He easily mastered about half of the “verbal” Level 3 traits and about half of the “verbal” Level 4 traits, but remember his Verbal Index was only high average. The “feel” would be an IQ between 130-135ish. We know this wasn’t the case from the above WPPSI, and another neuropsych at a later date confirmed the lower full scale IQ.
Do we not run the risk of misidentifying these non-gifted students via these qualitative methods and placing them in classrooms with gifted students, thus creating the same situation we hope to avoid in the first place by looking for public schools with pull-out or exam based separate classrooms?
By the same token, the reverse can be true: The Ruf Estimates would suggest that my eldest child is highly gifted; he’s not, he’s mildly so. Whereas it would suggest my youngest isn’t gifted at all. He’s profoundly so.
Fascinating in a good way? lol
Yes, of course, we do run the risk of misidentifying non-gifted students. We have several identification tools, but none are 100% accurate. Also, historically schools have done the testing and set the benchmark at which a child is considered gifted or not. And some school systems have different benchmarks. One child could be gifted in one school system but not in another. With gifted education a low priority in our schools, advocacy is needed to raise the level of focus on giftedness and subsequently on better tools to identify gifted children who may otherwise fall through the cracks.
I do have to say that, as a teacher, I believe that a non-gifted student could very well benefit from the educational strategies used in gifted classrooms. Gifted specialists use some pretty cool educational classroom strategies that any child could learn from!
My 4.5 yo ceilinged the block design subtest of wppsi-iv (solved the final question in 1/3 of the allotted time), and we were told that his raw score was well beyond the scaled score of 19. He is identified as gifted, having high verbal index (98%) but low speed processing index. The FSIQ was 136, and I don’t know what it might be if he gets full credit for the score where he is in the extended norm, but what we are curious about is what to do with this extremely high VSI, and what it means. What we see in real life, is obsession to building with any building materials that involve logic and geometry (not found/natural objects), rapidly advancing with legos (working independently completing ~1000 pcs lego in 1-2 days), and really good understanding of mechanics. He also has very good picture memory, will run the board in memory games. He does not read yet.
I highly recommend Successfully Parenting Your Visual-Spatial Child” by Alexandra Golon.
It has similar information to Linda Silverman’s book, but not so technical. The author is a mother of two Visual Spatial boys, so it’s written with love and humor. Its easy to gain insight and ideas when you see your child in the stories she tells. I felt like every story she told was about my son. I have given this book to many people who I thought could use it.
What I have learned. . . Always remember to start with the big picture or the end result first.
Look into whole word approach to reading and avoid phonics (especially as delivered by public school) until after he/she is already reading. VSL should learn spelling rules separate from “reading”. There are also good tips for teaching spelling in the Golon book.
VSL kids DO NOT need repetition to learn. don’t make them write spelling word, or do the same math facts over and over. It hurts them!
And as for school . . . I agree that currently even a gifted program in a public school is not a good fit for a VSL child. To a school, gifted means good at school, and most programs only offer more homework as a reward for qualifying. Many parents I know seem happy with Montessori style preschools, or early elementary (hard to find in Montessori for upper grades). I can personally recommend Project Based Charter Schools for offering the flexibility and understanding that truly gifted kids need. They are free public schools and admission is always via lottery. My son can finally learn everything he wants to know about a subject before being forced to move on. The teachers have time to answer questions, or explain things one on one, and we have zero homework. Every charter school is different, so do your homework -pun intended, and make sure you like what you see. If there are no great Charter School options in your area, then homeschooling is also a blessing for gifted kids. The secret is that gifted kids are usually easy to homeschool. No matter how hard it is to get your child to do their traditional homework or participate in school, it’s irrelevant because homeschool is not like school. You know that you could teach your gifted kid in 20min what the school works on for a week. Right?
If homeschool is not an option -advocate!
Oops! The book was “Raising Topsy-Turvy Kids – Successfully Parenting Your Visual-Spatial Child” . The first part got cut off.
Yes, yes, yes! Thanks for all of your excellent information! Thank you!
I agree – Thanks. My son is extremely visual-spatial and PG. We are lucky to be able to homeschool but he still hates reading and his spelling is horrible. I have noticed he gets very frustrated if he doesn’t understand the big picture before I explain something. I will have to read the book you recommended.
The first place I went to for resources on teaching my visual-spatial learner was the website: The Gifted Development Center. The Director of the center is Dr. Linda Silverman who pioneered most of the information that we know about visual-spatial learners. There is a lot of information and resources for visual-spatial learners on the website. The web site is: http://www.gifteddevelopment.com/index.htm
Books I have read:
Upside-Down Brilliance: The Visual-Spatial Learner by Linda Kreger Silverman
Visual-Spatial Learners by Alexandra Golon
Serving Visual-Spatial Learners: The Practical Strategies Series in Gifted Education (Practical Strategies in Gifted Education) by Steve Coxon
I still struggle to find the best strategies and curriculum for my visual-spatial teen. I have encouraged him to, and now expect him to, become an equal and involved partner in his education by letting me know what strategies and curriculum works best for him. I turn to him to help me give him what works best.
Thanks for your question and Good Luck!
Do you have any suggestions on books and/or curriculums that talk about teaching these gifted visual/spatial learners? I am homeschooling my 10 yr old son, and he falls into this category. Teaching him can sometimes be a challenge.