Visual Learning is ‘Where It’s At”
Do you see your child or your students constantly guessing when trying to read a sentence? Maybe they crack the word “lion” no problem but seem to stumble over “for” or “from”? Are you both getting frustrated by endless reading practice without real improvements?
1 in 5 kids at age 11 fail a basic literacy test. These numbers are surprisingly consistent around the English-speaking world.
The Visual Learning Kids’ Style engages the struggling reader in a way they can learn.
In our experience, a large number of these strugglers are highly visual learners. Perhaps one of them is your child or if you are a teacher, one of your students.
Every classroom contains students with varying styles of learning. While most people can use any of the three primary styles -- auditory, visual and kinesthetic -- to learn information, their dominant style reflects their preferred form of instruction and easiest means of assimilating new knowledge. Teachers with a basic understanding of the three main styles can adapt their lessons to give all students the best chance of success.
Visual Learners
Struggling readers prefer have trouble creating pictures to go with content they read. As a result, reading comprehension is difficult short and long term. Visualization techniques help them remember things. They often enjoy doodling and drawing and can use this practice as a study tool.
What we mean by “visual learning”
There’s a lot flying around the web about whether or not neurological “learning styles” really exist. But one thing seems pretty obvious — many children show clear signs that they much prefer taking in information visually over aurally (by hearing it). We think the majority need both Visual and aural. Some of these children are even on the gifted spectrum in visual-spatial processing but because they may be forced into traditional classroom (lecture and worksheets), most end up struggling and not proficient.
Why visual learners fail to read the right way
When it’s time to learn phonics (an auditory skill, not a visual one), many visual learners choose to sight-memorize whole words instead of learning to decode. It is just much easier for them. Many visual children have been memorizing beginner books word for word, for several years and worse yet, these students don’t memorize images to go along with words. Comprehension is low. Can you imagine trying to memorize every word you read without creating a scene in your head? It’s very hard. This sets up failure form the beginning.
Research shows that when children with reading problems don’t get help by first grade, 90% of will still be struggling at the end of fourth grade if not sooner. That is a stat we cannot ignore. Unless teachers learn to teach to the Visual Learner, learning will limited.
Follow our Visual Learning Kids Curriculum. We are or were teachers in many different capacities. It worked for us. It worked for our School District. It really works.