My son also has very high vs scores and while I'm by no means an expert, this is what I've come to understand:
*They think in pictures. This is very hard for me to conceptualize because I'm such a wordy person.
*They may be more likely to be dyslexic, or at least not as responsive to phonics-based learning. Apparently, some VSLs learn to read by building up an extensive sight word vocabulary before decoding starts to take place. I read about one person who exclusively sight reads.
*They see the whole rather than the parts. (why phonics isn't best)
I can't tell you from a BTDT perspective, but my son's known single-letter phonics since he was 3 (He's 5 now), but still struggles to put them together in a meaningful way. I'm about to incorporate a more hands-on approach to teaching reading (He's been doing countless reading games -- Starfall, ReadingEggs, Ooka Island and so far none of them have just *clicked*. For example, I'm going to have him work on writing words in sand or shaving cream, building them with play dough or pipe cleaners, and other things like that.
Pinterest is great for ideas. Try searching for "multi-sensory reading techniques" or even "dyslexic reading techniques" (even if you don't necessarily suspect dyslexia). I've also seen visually intense flash cards, but they were very expensive.
Doubtfire, the book "Upside Down Brilliance" is about the mind of the VSL learner. I know that there's someone on this board who's critical of the idea of VSL being an actual thing, since most of the research is anecdotal and done by Dr. Linda Silverman. But I've also been reading Dyslexic Advantage and seeing a lot of similar statements about these learners without the VSL label and with a bit more science-backed (mri) evidence.
