The kids are back in school and while this is good news, some kids may be struggling.  It’s important to understand why so you know how to help. School is structured for left brain, auditory learners who thrive on words and step by step instruction. But many kids are right brain, visual, big picture, creative learners who struggle with sequential learning. By understanding how your visual child learns you can better support them in the areas in the classroom they find challenging. Here’s what it means to be a visual learner.

Your child is a visual thinker. When they think their brain sees pictures and movies. They are creative. They have lots of ideas. They like to build, draw, dream and make things. They have an active mind and a great imagination. They have so many ideas sometimes it’s hard for them to quiet their mind. But quiet can be a good thing. Organization is not their strong suit. But being organized in mind, body and school work is important, and there are lots of ways to help make that happen.

Your child is a visual learner. They learn best when they can see what they’re learning. Visual learners are really good with math ideas but can be slower doing math problems. They may struggle to memorize math facts and do better with a more holistic understanding of math concepts before they do problems. Writing can be hard for visual learners because their minds are thinking faster than their hands can write. Getting faster at handwriting can help. Writing essays can be hard for visual learners because they think about so many things, it can be hard to choose which ones to write about. Visual learners don’t always like or do well on tests because tests are not designed to show what the right side of the brain can do. Remind your child to do their best; tests are a small but important part of school.

Being a visual thinker is not an excuse. Understanding the way your child learns is just the starting point. Celebrate the gifts and strengths of being a visual thinker – now use those gifts to develop the weaker areas. Some of the greatest inventors and great minds are visual thinkers. As a visual thinker your child can be a scientist, an artist, a computer programmer – and anything else they want to be – but they will need to develop their left brain skills to get there.