Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums General Discussion Visual/Spatial Learners

Anyone else have a child who scored higher on PRI? I could really use some advice on how teach a child who is a visual/spatial learner. I especially need advice on the best way to teach reading and spelling. Thanks!

How are your child's hearing, auditory processing, and phonemic awareness? If any of these are weak, they can hinder reading and spelling, because English uses a phonetic code where combinations of visual symbols are linked to specific sounds.

Using a multi-sensory approach that links vision, movement, and sound and that takes advantage of word patterns can be useful for many struggling readers. Orton - Gillingham and related methods are often used to teach dyslexics to read, and they would most likely work for anyone who was not spontaneously picking up the code.

My DD8 has an identical PRI, but slightly higher scores in other areas as compared to your child. I had asked a question about lower comprehension instead of higher PRI, so I will attach the link.

My DD is highly gifted in Math and is about 5 years above her age level, but her reading comprehension is more commensurate with the her age, but on the high side. She is an excellent speller. Her auditory processing and phonemic awareness is amazing. She can nail any word perfectly, although her problem was that she did not know what many words meant. We kept her very sheltered, so a lot of the vocabulary and understanding of real life hinders her ability to fully comprehend things. We use dictionary.com alot to help with those issues.

She has sensorial issues with hearing as well, where she is very sensitive to certain noises.

We used Hooked on Phonics for reading, and DD flew through that at ages 3 and 4. Spellingcity.com is a great site for spelling.

http://giftedissues.davidsongifted....IV_low_comprehension_scor.html#Post79674

Good luck!

DC20 and I are both visual-spatial learners (he's dyslexic, I'm not). Our approach is usually videos/recorded talks, graphing problems in math (especially algebra), and seeking out opportunities at places like museums and aquariums (where the learning is more interactive). He really needed those alternates to catch up with his ability and struggled with the format of classrooom learning; I was able to learn both ways for most of my education but began needing it in grad school. If she's strictly visual, there may be difficulties with traditional approaches, but, if she's pretty strong in auditory learning as well, she may do fine without needing to fall back on visual styles.

I went back and looked at your intro thread - if you haven't had your ds go through a neuropsych eval yet, I think a consult with a private neuropsych would be helpful, both in understanding more thoroughly what might be at the root of the discrepancy in PRI vs VIQ (which will help you understand how to address challenges) and also in helping you learn about what resources are available in your area to help with schooling.

FWIW my ds is a visual-spatial learner with many (but not all) of the symptoms of dyslexia. I can totally see my ds not remembering how to find his classroom! When he was in 3rd grade we consulted with a tutor who used a visual method of teaching how to spell. I wish I could remember the specifics of her approach so I could explain it to you, but it's been to long ago for me to remember - it did work for our ds, but otoh it didn't make him a good speller either. He can know how to spell a word and still isn't able to spell the same word when he's in the midst of composing written expression so we eventually gave up on worrying about spelling and provided him with accommodations for spelling so he could focus on written expression (which is also a challenge for him).

Best wishes,

polarbear