While preparing for a speaking engagement about the nuances of left and right-brain thinking, I spoke with a friend of mine who is a software engineer. He identifys himself as a right-brain, visual-spatial thinker. He is also a musician — an excellent guitar player — so I asked how he thought that impacted his abilities as an engineer?
Classrooms and homework tend to be very language heavy and may overwhelm visual students,
We recently had a wedding in the family – our first. While planning and executing such a grand and lovely event was thoroughly enjoyable, it was also a brilliant study on the way left and right-brain people approach a given task.
Our oldest daughter, the bride, is a visual-spatial thinker, full of ideas and vision; there’s a lot of that going on in our family. The groom’s, a social, left -brain analytical thinker, prefers numbers, budgets and excel spreadsheets; there’s a lot of that going on in their family. When it came time to plan the wedding, the right-brain, visual bride and bridesmaids immersed themselves in magazines, websites and social media, searching out ideas – visually. Pinterest became a family obsession, with everyone in the family searching out and sharing ideas. A few trips to stores, photographers, florists and wedding vendors, brought more options and ideas.
All I wanted was to do art with kids — to teach and empower — to see their sweet faces light up with every new discovery. My young students thrived when they got the “how to” information they craved. And while teaching children how to draw, they taught me — again and again — how important art is to them. In my book, Being Visual, I talk about my 20 years experience teaching young kids how to draw by using their preferred learning style. The classes and teaching method were popular and effective, so I made a business out of it. But it’s never really been about the business.
As parents, we have a vested interest in understanding the nuances of left and right-brain thinking. A child’s ability to learn is directly affected by the way their brain sees and processes information. Knowing if your child is an auditory, visual or kinesthetic learner will enable you to choose activities that support their learning needs, while working to develop their weaker areas. Click HERE to take our quiz and find out if your child is a VISUAL learner!
Being Visual was released in September with hopes of influencing some education practices, what I was not expecting was how much my book impacted the relationships between parents and children. I am honored to be a part of this evolution and am truly touched by the words some of you have shared with me.
Teachers are very special people that give so much of themselves to children. They delight in seeing who children are and finding ways to share information, build skills and help them become the best of who they are.
