#BTColumn – Picture it!

Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed by this author are their own and do not represent the official position of the Barbados Today Inc.

by Julia Hanschell

Albert Einstein said, “If I can picture it, I can understand it”. I remember seeing my son doing CAPE Maths homework many moons ago. His books were opened on his desk and he sat staring up at the ceiling.

I remarked that he could not possibly be doing homework. He replied, “I am watching the Math move around on the wall. That’s how I figure things out.”

My mind instantly went back to my ten-year-old self after a Geography class. We had just learned about the International Date Line and I could not understand how different countries had different time zones.

Then I saw the movie in my head of the earth rotating while revolving around the sun. My brain simply needed reflective time after the class was over to convert language and facts into pictures, thereby making sense of the information.

This was my first experience in which I felt what it was like to understand through visualization, the most powerful skill we have that drives understanding and critical thinking. Sadly, not every child inherently has this skill; many need help to develop it. Even more are sabotaging it daily.

At ten years old, I was not a reader and this was why I did not have the ability to translate words into images, to ‘make the movie’ in my mind’s eye. I read my first book at fourteen although I had been coming first in form every year in primary school.

There lies the disparity between ability and achievement. There is no wonder I was easily bored and inattentive with the auditory processing expected of me – words, words, words in texts, dictation or classroom discussions were empty, picture-less language.

I was basically auditorily blind and visually deaf.

As a teacher, I discovered how common this was. The worrying thing is that I am seeing this weakness on the increase and have often mused on the reasons why.

One of my conclusions is the replacement of reading by the exponential availability and popularity of stimulating, visual platforms which are brilliantly pre-organised, simplified and multi-sensory. How can reading compete with cartoons, Disney movies and Game Boy, Nintendo 64 and computer games, Wii, SIMS, X-box, You Tube and even more sophisticated computer games?

Who would want to read when they can watch and participate with all of their senses alight and captivated? There is more addiction to this than we want to admit.

The problem is, curriculum (the basis of academic learning), requires reading, analysis and synthesis.The student must convert the raw material of words or numbers into making connections using accurate processing and memory stored as converted images and efficiently retrieving these for application. This takes active participation, perseverance and practice.

In language-based subjects (which are in the majority), the end product is written expression – the most sophisticated form of human communication. If you doubt this, just try writing Chapter 1 of your life story.

Many will face what the average student of 2021 faces hourly: fear of failure and an inability to get started. Yet we have been using language in speech from the age of two.

Fantasy and imagination are natural human thought processes. The most worrying development I have observed is the manner in which many students now use their imaginations.

11 Plus students are unable to link a topic to possible content and CSEC students will look at the picture composition and draw a complete and tragic blank. Why is there so much difficulty in converting words to images and images to words?

The reader is an efficient movie director who can imagine details and use well-developed syntax and vocabulary to design and describe worlds they are able to create or narrate.

They enjoy adaptable imaginations; they have been exposed to characterisation, scenes, plot. With these they are able to innovate because they have a strong, adaptable language foundation.

The non-readers I teach Composition to, default to the images they have physically seen – usually in online games. They tend not to think in words and their internal voice, the language in their heads, is weak; their vocabulary puerile.

Their imagination is reliant on the type of visual input they have received. In many cases they have no idea where to start or what to say. Their writing lacks excitement, creativity and sensible connections.

So what can parents do? Insist on reading at least an hour a day and if reading is compromised by Dyslexia or processing challenges, have your child listen to audio books.

The best advice I can give is to play an audio book in the car on the way to school in a genre that your child enjoys. Question and discuss the story, its characters and the action. Explore motives and predict outcomes with them.

Gradually the benefits will accrue and I promise you, within three months a noticeable difference will be evident in the classroom.

Homework will become easier, thinking will become more natural, discussions will deepen, interest will broaden, language will expand, writing will improve.

Your involvement may even produce the next Steven Spielberg. Now, isn’t that an exciting prospect?

Julia Hanschell can be contacted on smartstudying @gmail.com.