The psych who assessed DD and gave her the WISC said that she is a VSL. She was very high with perceptual reasoning on the WISC and hit ceilings on two of the subtests. Verbal was quite a bit lower (still above the 99th percentile though). I didn't ask her about VSL's, she just mentioned it and put it in the report. DD is on the hyperlexic side of things--reading came very easily to her. The psych put some websites in her report, I think this was one of them. http://visualspatial.org/
We were talking about DD's troubles w/ remembering math facts though, and she said that's not surprising, and that that website could help.


My 6 year old DS is another kid who most people would probably say is a VSL based on the description. Like DD he hit the ceiling on two of the perceptual reasoning subtests (the same two), and when he was given a test of visual perceptual ability (the TVPS I think it was called) he hit the ceilings on the subtests for visual spatial ability and visual memory. If you ask him where Alabama is, he can name all the states surrounding it and draw a picture of Alabama from memory. But I don't think he is actually visualizing Alabama, I think he remembers details of how the borders of Alabama look. He is also hyperlexic and learned to read very early, around his 4th birthday.

I read this by Temple Grandin about "Thinking in Pictures" and it was interesting how near the end she said that some people think visually, and others see patterns in everything. I think my two kids might be the type to see patterns and notice visual details, rather than being true visual thinkers or thinking in images. They may be good at reading, or "hyperlexic" because they notice patterns with phonics that other people might not notice. http://www.grandin.com/inc/visual.thinking.html

So I don't think there is a clear link between having a strength in visual spatial ability or visual memory and having troubles with reading. It may be the case for some kids, but not all. The website I posted might have some resources for kids who truly do think in images or see the "whole" rather than parts.