Love Taking Over This Visual Thinker

A young lady that I know very well, who will remain nameless for fear of embarrassing her, has been developing a crush on a boy for quite awhile.  When her mother picked her up from school, the young lady hesitated but then said, "I think I'm...I think...I think I'm in love," as if she finally succumbed to the illness.  The young lady said that when she looked at her name on her math paper earlier that day at school, she suddenly saw her name transform into the name of the boy she likes.  She said that now whenever she looks at a word, she sees the word transform into his name.  Not only that, his name is in the font and color of the word she is looking at.  The drive home from school is through an urban environment where there are lots of store signs, billboards, etc.  At one point, half giggling and half exhasperated, the young lady had to put her head down so she wouldn't have to see his name all over the place!

Then the young lady continued with her story and told her Mom that also during math class, she suddenly "woke up" from being in her own little world and found her paper filled with hearts that she didn't remember drawing. There was one giant heart with the boy's name written inside of it. She said that she was sort of talking to herself trying to figure out what had just happened. Her classmates were puzzled at what she was talking about.

I hope for the mother's sake that this phenomenom doesn't continue for it would sure be hard to explain why her daughter has been so distracted in class.  "Well, you see...when she looks at words, all she can see is this boy's name..."  I'm sure that will be a first!

All in the Family

Although the focus of the blog is on my daughter Meredith, I wanted to tell you about my son Tyler as well.  Although (so far) Tyler does not seem to possess the same visual processing style as Meredith and my husband with the filing cabinets and assistants, he certainly shows signs of having pretty exceptional visual skills.

When Tyler was six, we walked into the living room to see him quietly drawing away on a piece of paper.  He had been watching Star Wars, but paused it on a frame of Yoda.  When I looked at what Tyler was drawing, I was shocked.  This is what he drew:

Now, I realize I'm Tyler's Mama and as such, I'm hugely biased.  But even trying to keep my objective hat on, I think this drawing is pretty remarkable for a six-year old.  I'm not sure too many adults could draw that off the tv with such symetry.

Here is another example of a Pokemon character the Tyler copied from a book at the same age:

And just today, Tyler told me that he does in fact have some colors for letters and days of the week, indicating that he is also a synesthete (i.e., someone who experiences synesthesia) like Meredith (see this earlier post on Meredith's synesthesia).  Just for the record, Tyler said his days of the week are colored as follows: Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday.  He described his letter "a" as illustrated below.  Tyler spent time with me on the computer to get the turquoise background, the font for the letter "a", and shadow on the letter just right.  I find it interesting that it is three-dimensional.  As with most synesthetes, the colors and details are very, very specific.  That's usually how I know that someone is actually "seeing" the color and not just making it up. 

I'm going to keep this as a record and see if it remains stable over time.  If you are a synesthete, you too can record your synesthetic experience for a large study called the Synesthesia Battery that Dr. David Eagleman is conducting at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston. 

I once corresponded with a doctural student in England who studied at what age synesthesia emerges in children.  She found that it seems to emerge in the early elementary years.  This could be why Tyler never said he had colored letters before, but now he does--he's now in Second Grade.

This discussion about Tyler illustrates two points that I want to share with you:

     (1) Visual thinking is genetic, and
     (2) Sibling IQs are closer than you think.

Dr. Cheri Florance says that brainprints -- or basically the way you think -- is genetic to some degree.  It is very commonplace that if there is one predominantly visual thinker in a family, there will be many more. Take my family, for example. My father was an electrical engineer and designed nuclear plants. My mother was an English teacher, but also is a talented watercolor painter. My oldest brother is a brilliant engineer and mathemetician as well, and my second oldest brother is a talented architect (hello visual-spatial talent!). I have had various positions and interests, but have been drawn to the visual arts as well with photography (www.angelaeatonphotography.com). My youngest sister has found her niche in nature study and also has various visual arts as hobbies (www.montanapulpworks.com).  Those weren't shameless plugs--just wanted to give you something to look at!

Doctors, engineers, mechanics, artists, hair stylists, graphic designers, computer programers, first responders--these are all examples of highly visual career paths.  It is interesting to look at people's hobbies as well.  If you have a highly visual person in your family, look at a little closer at the family picture to see if you see this trait more often than not.

To my second point, Dr. Linda Silverman (the person who coined the original term "visual-spatial") explains that siblings generally are within 5 - 10 points of each other's IQ scores (go here for more information).  I mention this because I think it is very common for parents to say that one of their children is gifted and the other is not.  Dr. Silverman discusses how often the second child will have very similar traits, but because they compete with the first-born child to some degree, their gifted traits may manifest themselves differently.  It is worth giving your "non-gifted"children a second look!

A note on "gifted."  Who really knows what gifted means.  There are many different definitions by many different institutions.  I don't like to toss that word around and proclaim to the world that I have "gifted kids."  What I have found, however, is a pretty high correlation with what I'm reading on the "overexcitabilities" and high-intensity nature of gifted kids and my own kids.  I have found the literature on the emotional needs of the gifted to be extremely helpful in dealing with my kids.  It is really in this context that I talk about gifted.

"And, We're Renovating!"

One evening Meredith asked me to help her study for a test she was having the next day. As often happens, I could see the stress building and building as we started. Meredith kept complaining of a headache. Finally after it was clear we were getting little to no return for our efforts, I told Meredith (in all seriousness) that she probably had a headache because Merebith was running all over her brain trying to get the files she needed. Without skipping a beat, Meredith responded with gusto, "Yeah, and we're renovating."


Renovating? I wasn't expecting that. "What do you mean you're renovating?" I asked. "Mom, whenever I get smarter I have to make more room for my files," she said as if this was basic information I should already know. She explained that everything was a mess, that all the files were on the floor, and that a new area was being constructed. "That's a lot of work for Merebith...does she do that all by herself?" I asked.  She responded with new information: "Mom...all the characters that I've ever drawn make up the construction crew. Even that first person I ever drew in preschool--the one with the head and the legs coming straight off of it with no body."

Wow...Meredith must have drawn thousands of characters over the years. She's always adopting new ways to draw hairstyles, clothes, shoes... That's pretty amazing. Once again I had to digest this new information. I asked where Merebith slept while all this was going on. "Oh, she goes to her house. The Treasure of Files is just where she works." I followed up with, "What's Merebith's house like?" imagining the treasure trove that must be. Meredith explained that it is a really big house. "And Mom...all the artwork that I've ever made is hanging on the walls," she added with enthusiasm. Once again, I get the little shock from this new information. Like the characters, Meredith has made an abundance of artworks over the years.

Speaking of being a visual thinker, it's fun to imagine myself what Merebith's house looks like. I wonder how far my vision of Merebith's house differs from Meredith's vision. Do you make pictures in your mind of things that people describe to you?   I was talking to my hairstylist and the owner of the hair salon--imagining that they must both be very visual thinkers. The owner told me that he always has this experience of making a mental picture of what a client looks like when he is on the phone with her taking the appointment. Then he is often surprised when the client walks in the salon for the first time because she doesn't look like the picture he constructed. I would assume most people have this experience to some degree (or not?), but the people I've spoken with who are extremely visual seem to take it to a new level!

Oh, I just remembered that Meredith also said somewhere in that conversation that while Merebith is away, a security force of ants guards the Treasure of Files. She added that in emergency situations when the ants need to get the people out of the area, they yell, "Move it, move it, move it," gesturing with their hands (or legs, I suppose) to get moving on the double. I wonder where in the world the idea for army ants came from! I'll have to ask her and report back to you.

The BIG Discovery!

Meredith was in fourth grade and starting to struggle academically.  She had always been a poor speller, although she would ace her spelling tests.  She received good grades up to this point.  But, fourth grade relied more on reading for learning.  I enrolled Meredith in Kumon--a private enrichment or remedial academic program, depending on your use of it.  Kumon relies heavily on building block teaching and uses lots of drill and repetition, a protocol I later learned is a terrible fit for a visual learner.  Visual learners do best getting the whole picture first and then filling in the details. They do not learn in a sequential manner.  And drill and repetition bore them to tears I have now learned. So, I asked the teacher on her initial visit to Kumon why she thought Meredith might have trouble with spelling. She responded by asking me whether Meredith was a visual learner.  I didn't know.  I said that she was always drawing pictures, so maybe?

Later the next day, after I had a chance to research what a visual learner looked like, I asked Meredith whether pictures worked well for her.  She said, "Yes...do you want to see my picture for 9+7?"  "You have a picture for 9+7?" I asked.  She took out some colored markers and this is what she drew:

She described number 9 as an alien who gives a gift to the little boy number 7 (see the helicopter hat?) who then gives the gift to his sister number 16 for her Sweet 16 birthday.  I asked Meredith if she had pictures for every number and she said she did.  "Every number?  12? 19? 51?"  "You're so funny, Mama," she said to me as if it was so funny to her that I didn't know that.

As I picked my jaw off the floor, we continued talking and I discovered that she has pictures for every number as well as every word.  Holy cow!  This was a lot to take in.  And if that wasn't enough, she then told me about her little "helper" friend in her mind named "Merebith."  Looking back, the dyslexia factor between "Meredith" and "Merebith" is fascinating.  Apparently, Merebith is a little tiny girl--sort of an alter ego (she describes her as basically herself, but a different person).  Meredith described to me in detail how Merebith wears a school girl outfit complete with a plaid skirt, a white shirt, a matching headband, Mary Jane shoes and black glasses.   This is the picture of Merebith that Meredith drew for me:

I really will never forget that day for as long as I live.