How to improve organization at home and school. If someone asks me about my agenda for the day, I immediately look up and see my day planned in my mind’s eye. Visualization is an essential key for organizing your day, a room or schoolwork. Children or teens that don’t visualize don’t have a ‘template’ for organization as they don’t have a way to problem solve. Picturing is an important aspect even in regard to something as simple as organizing a dresser. One can’t put clothing in a dresser without knowing what drawer to place each type of clothing item. When I organize a dresser I first visualize each drawer and then what will be placed in that drawer.  Children that don’t visualize can feel completely lost with these types of tasks. When children are cleaning their room it is best to have them focus on one area at a time, and picture...

Numerous students do well with homework but have difficulty taking tests. Others perform poorly with both homework and tests.  For many students, one main cause of test anxiety or poor test-taking skills  is weak or non-existent visualization skills. If students do not picture information in their mind’s eye when they study, then it is likely they will not retain the information for a test situation. This can produce anxiety, as students may study for hours, yet the information is not retained. Sometimes it doesn’t appear to teachers that students have even studied. Other students perform better with quizzes because less information needs to be retained, but may perform poorly on lengthier tests. Students often come into our clinic with very poor grades and no hope of attending college. After being trained in visualization skills, many of these students exhibit increased grades and are able to attend college. Other clients have...

Help your child to improve spelling skills with ease! Many students have difficulty with spelling and memorizing words for their weekly spelling or vocabulary tests. This is due in part to the fact that over half of the words in the English language don’t follow phonetic rules. This makes the task frustrating for many spellers. Phonics programs help students to spell words that follow the rules, but how can the rest of the words be learned? Words that fall in the category of sight words, or other words that cannot be sounded out, can be difficult for students to memorize. Many teachers have students write the word several times and use it in a sentence. This strategy works for some, but not all. Many of our clients have spent an hour per night working with their child on memorizing spelling words, and still their child did not pass the weekly spelling...

Help Your Child Memorize Multiplication Math Facts Once and For All My last blog post discussed how to memorize spelling words that don’t follow phonetic rules by using visualization skills. The same principal of visualizing spelling words in the mind’s eye for long-term retention applies to learning math facts as well. As we all know, learning the multiplication tables quickly and easily is a basic foundational skill for many aspects of higher math. It is imperative to learn the multiplication tables well. However, many students struggle with this skill due to poor visualization skills. There is not time to skip count every time a math problem is done. A child that skip counts and puts in an excessive amount of effort to complete even the most basic math problem will always struggle with math concepts – not to mention the extra amount of time he or she will need to complete...

Does Your Child Have ADD or ADHD symptoms? Attention disorders are prevalent in our society and may have several underlying causes, however, one cause is often overlooked. Strong visualization skills are imperative for a student to pay attention while learning and listening. In order to have solid attention skills, a student should convert what has been heard or read into pictures or movies in the brain. It has been stated that the average human brain can only retain seven non-meaningful units of information at a time – which is equivalent to seven words or numbers that have not been visualized. If one thinks about how much verbal information is spoken in the average classroom daily, then it is apparent that students who don’t visualize at all, or inconsistently, will exhibit attention disorders. These students will quickly become bored with listening and their attention will wander. Those that tune out and daydream...

Finally, the Solution for Strong Reading Comprehension Skills! I would be unable to count each time I have heard that stated by a child or teen in our clinic. However, when I taught them how to visualize while they read, they would declare just as adamantly that reading was now “fun’ for them. I often term visualization skills as the key to academic success – and the same is true for reading comprehension. The brain is intended to convert what is heard or read into pictures in the mind’s eye. Reading IS boring when we only read the words. We have no way of connecting to or gaining meaning from the written word. Conversely, how enjoyable it becomes when we are able to convert the words into a movie in our imagination. I have never heard a child say that he or she did not like watching movies, and the same...

Why can’t my child follow even one direction? “I ask my child to go upstairs and get his shoes and he can’t even do that without several reminders.” This is a common complaint stated by client after client when they walk through our clinic door. Today during a consultation one parent relayed that even asking his son to simply set the table would lead to a table being only partially set, because his child would not remember what needed to be done even for that simple task. The child is almost 11 years old. Teachers and parents are often extremely frustrated when they take the time and energy to give specific directions and the child responds with “Huh?” Often these students are not visualizing enough or at all. Visualizing or picturing each direction in the mind’s eye or imagination is imperative for a student to correctly follow directions. Many of my high...