What is the #elephant in the learning room? Its something that everyone in education knows about but nobody talks about. Well actually there are 3 connected elephants:
- People learn visually, especially small children. These are the pictures they makeup and hold in their head which may not be the same as any pictures you show them. Schools rarely check the qualities of these pictures.
- We all learn best when we are calm, relaxed, alert and grounded; children who are struggling are anxious, stressed or even in panic.
- Sensitive people can easily pick up other people’s energy. This exhausts them and makes them feel very unlike their normal self. They may even behave like the person they picked up energy from.
- We all have strengths that help us to learn naturally.
Parents and teachers know about these 3 elephants but these seem to be “difficult or controversial issues that are avoided as a subject for discussion”. I am working to blow the lid off these taboo subjects.
- If you can spell and read and are using mental imagery of words, you assume everyone can do this – WRONG. Some children have simply not learnt the skill. There is nothing wrong with them it is just a skill to learn, but without it all aspects of literacy will be very difficult.
- If you struggle with literacy and numeracy you assume this is just the way you are and nothing can be done – WRONG. You can learn how to visualise words in about 1.5 hours. Yes, just 1.5 hours and then like any skill you need to practice. If you are motivated this won’t take long.
- If you are so stressed you have multiple mental images flying around every minute of the day, then you turn to, for example, medication, special glasses, special diet as the only solutions – YES these all contribute and you are ignoring the elephant in the room, getting calm and grounded stabilises mental imagery.
- Learn how to maintain your own energy and say NO to picking up energy that isn’t yours. You can be the sovereign of your own energy.
- Look at a child’s strengths, they are often very visual, e.g. Art, creativity, building lego, design, making up stories, recalling previous experiences. YES, these strengths can be flipped into invaluable skills for #literacy, #numeracy, #concentration, memory and so much more.
- Teachers are trained in multi-sensory teaching the learning – WRONG, teachers are great at teaching visually but not trained in how students learn visually through being in control of their mental images.
Go to http://www.empoweringlearning.co.uk and learn more about what you can do to better understand visual learning and help your children do the same. There are 2 free chapters of my new book to download there. Signup here so you don’t miss any future stories about these elephants.
#empoweringlearning #literacy #numeracy #concentration #mentalimagery #elephants #teachers
Olivehickmott 