Anyone homeschooling a visual learner? My son has a terrible time memorizing. He's doing high school biology and needs to learn the definitions word-for-word. He has an auditory processing disorder, so it is very hard for him to memorize by rote. I would love to hear what's worked for your visual learner! Thanks!
www.quizlet.com - it's online flashcards that you can look at on the internet or put on a smart phone. Kids can make their own sets of vocabulary words or can search through and edit sets that are already there.
Mnemonics.
Look it up online.
Its a method of remembering things.
Have your son also, SAY the words/definition, AS he reads it. Not just reading it.
Often, doing 2 linked things at the same time, while trying to memorize something, helps.
So AS he is reading the definition, have him SAY it at the same time. OR... have him, write it too. ie: reading it, then writing it out.
ALSO: for some people, they can remember what they are reading... if walking/pacing back and forth, at the same time. Much like Actors may do when having to memorize a script.
My daughter has dyslexia and one of the ways that one of the many dyslexia books I have read advises is to have the child close their eyes, then "make a movie in their head" of the items you are listing. I did this with my daughter and just listening she cannot remember maybe 5 things in a row, but with this movie comment and closing her eyes, she gave me a list back of about 20 things! The other thing my husband does for her spelling words, is to make silly associations. To learn to spell the word "dance" he danced around like an idiot singing d-a-n-c-e. He is very creative, where I was driving her crazy having her write it in crayon one day, write it on a black board the next day, etc. There is a pretty good book called "Unicorns are Real - a right brained approach to learning" by Barbara Meister Vitale, that has some really good practical suggestions for teaching kids that have learning differences.
I'm not sure if this would help your son, but I know it always helped me if I hand wrote whatever is was I was trying to memorize: definitions, spelling words, formulas, etc. Something about the hand brain connection of physically writing it helped me "remember" it better later.
When I was in college, I typed my class notes. So I basically re-wrote them (2nd time to see it) and organized them, leaving them easy to re-read that 3rd and 4th and 5th time.....
I can still vividly remember vocabulary words from high school spanish (12 yrs ago) b/c of the pictures (drawings) in the textbook. Can he find a picture for each definition? Looking online or by making himself a drawing on an index card? Put each definition on an index card with a picture to go with it?
Nemonic (spelled wrong I know) devices STILL help me to this day.
This may sound silly, but my 3 yr old is learning site words using these dvds. These people who make the dvds are either genius or on drugs, b/c they turn words into an animal or an action or something rather. ie: the word "to" shows the letter t dribbling a basketball (the letter o). So my son and I will make a sentence about it - ie: He's going to throw the ball -to- the basket.
Perhaps your son could somehow animate or draw a picture. (in spanish, the word ojo means 'eye' so I drew dots in the o's and drew a smiley face under the word. the J was the nose.)
Hope you get some suggestions here that help him. When all else fails, ask his teacher!
ADDED: Give us some of the biology definitions and maybe we can help!
Say it a song or chant it.
King Henry Died by Drinking chocolate Milk
Kilo,hecta, deca, base, deci, centi, millli
King Philip came over for great spaghetti,
Kingdom, Phylum, Class, Order, family, Genus Species
We also came up with King Philip's clown ordered (the) family genuine spaghetti
Please excuse my dear aunt Sally
Parenthesis, exponents, multiplication, division, addition, subtraction
Have him write them out on flashcards. then you sit with him and do the cards
Write the definitions with missing words and have him fill in the words
ASk questions about the definitions, really easy, fill in the blank ones ones.
We do this with Bible study
For he so loved the world............
Who loved the world-He...God
Who did he send-son
How did he love the world-he so loved the world
What did he do with his son-he sent him
Which son? His only begotten son
et cetera and et cetera
Say it back and forth, you say one word he says another
Say it to him wrong and let him correct you
I always had to to just write things over and over. I would have at least 4 hand-writen copies of notes. Even now, if you tell me something and I don't write it down, I'll never remember it. But, if I write it down and even throw the paper away immediately, its stuck in memory for good!
I'd suggest checking www.dyslexia.com for ideas on how to help a visual learner. There are facilitators in California that you could also contact for more ideas.
Wonderful advice so far! I bet that there's many tricks to remembering things within the Mamapedia consciousness. Please send some of them out!
For things like memorizing the names of the bones, it worked for me to use a little of everything: redraw from the book and label, touch the part and say the name out loud, and recently we bought a kid lifesize skeleton floor puzzle and assemble it over and over.
In chemistry, I always had a problem remembering which way the elections flow. the cathode is the positive one because it has a t (+),and the anode is negative (-). A leo cat ger- anode Looses Electrons (Oxidation) cathode is Gains Electrons (Reduction). another one for oxidation/reduction it's oil rig: Oxidation Is Loss, Reduction Is Gain (of electrons).
Sorry for getting off topic, just so excited about science!
I would have him write it out a couple of times. Then, have him read it over and over. I remember being in school and "seeing" my notes in order to remember what I needed to know. I could remember what the whole page looked like, I could "see" it in my mind. And, then I just read it. I still do that a lot.
My daughter was a visual learner as well, writing the definitions out word for word helped as she saw them over and over and it gave her a visual connection she could bring to memory when she needed it. We also made flash cards with the word on one side and the definitions on the other, again a "visual" connection to jog her memory.
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