About Viconic Language Methods
Image © M. Brown; E. Arwood; C. Kaulitz
Research consistently demonstrates that at least 95% of students thinking with a visual language system. This means their mind works best when they are able to make vivid pictures, detailed movies, and intricate graphics of what they are learning. And yet, many children struggle to learn at home or at school, often claiming that learning is ‘hard,’ or ‘boring.’ The question is: why?
Neuro-Education argues that there is a mismatch between the way that most instruction is provided (auditory) and the way that most children learn best (visual). What if adults could help facilitate learning in children by matching the intuitive strengths of their minds and brains? Fortunately, such strategies already exist in the form of Viconic Language Methods.
Created by Dr. Ellyn Arwood, Viconic Language Methods are inspired by research from neuroscience, cognitive psychology, and language. When a child is learning something new, an adult can add multiple visual layers to all forms of sensory input so that all content becomes accessible. Using the principles contained within the Neuro-Semantic Language Learning Theory, children become empowered to direct their own education by learning what works best for them.
There are dozens of different Viconic Language Methods that can be customized to each unique learning situation. Below are a few different examples.
Visual Cartooning:
Here is a thought experiment: Take a moment to think about a beach. Ah, nice… right? If you are like most people, you visualized some mental pictures or graphics that looked somewhat like the image above.
Image © A. Boguchuk
Now, for a harder thought experiment: try to visualize what it looks like to ‘be quiet.’ Hm, not so easy, right? What came to your mind?
This is hard to visualize because ‘being quiet’ looks different depending upon the situation and the context. Are we being quiet in the classroom? In the dentist’s office? At a piano recital? ‘Being quiet’ means many different things. And yet, we tell children to ‘be quiet’ in school and expect them to behave.
Image © M. Brown; E. Arwood; C. Kaulitz
Instead of repeating ourselves, “Be quiet please!”, we might try cartooning what it looks like to be quiet in different social contexts. In the drawing above, children learn to see that their voices take up space in the room and ‘pop’ their classmate’s thinking bubbles. This is cartooning, and it can be used as a Viconic Language Method to make both simple and complex ideas visual in any different scenario.
Watch as Dr. Christopher Merideth brings cartooning to life in this short video example.
Picture Dictionaries:
We all need to learn new vocabulary as we immerse ourselves into a new subject. Dr. Merideth vividly remembers making flash cards in kindergarten, fifth grade, high school, and college. On one side of the flash card was the target word, on the other side the written definition. The goal was to memorize as many new vocabulary words as possible and remember them long enough to pass a test. Does this sound familiar?
There is a problem with this strategy, however: it rarely works to produce long-term learning in either children or adults. What we now know from the neuroscience of language is that our brains ‘dump’ this information after only a few weeks because we have not made the content unique and meaningful to us.
Image © A. Rostamizadeh
Above is a visual picture dictionary, a Viconic Language Method where children draw out their own understandings of the concepts they are learning. Picture dictionaries can be used to learn new ideas related to any academic or social subject. And, because we each think differently, this means that each child’s picture dictionary will look unique to them.
Join Alyse Rostamizadeh as she showcases how picture dictionaries can be used as a visual language learning strategy.
‘I’ Stories:
Let’s say that you wanted a child to begin learning about ants. How might you help them become excited about this new subject? Would you read some facts about ants? Would you watch a video? Read a book?
What you might consider doing is tell a story about ants. As humans, we are hard-wired to attune to storytelling because a story captures an authentic experience that we feel is worth sharing. An ‘I’ story is a Viconic Language Method that can bring stories to life by making them visual. After an adult shares their ‘I’ story about a time they encountered an ant, then children can share their own experiences. By watching and listening to their peers, children learn that their lived experiences hold value, and that we can all help each other become experts on any subject when we work together productively.
Watch as Alyse Rostamizadeh brings an ‘I’ story about states of matter to life in this short video example.
Hand-Over-Hand:
What about our movers, wigglers, pencil drummers, or our shakers? Some visually-thinking children require additional movement-based layers of input in order for their brains to sense and process the content that is being provided to them. In hand-over-hand learning, the educator takes the child’s hand in order to draw and write what about what they are learning. During one of her earliest clinical rotations in graduate school, Dr. Arwood discovered that these ‘movement-access’ learners needed additional motor-based movement to align with the visual input. We now know that this movement of the hand translates into meaningful input that the motor cortex of the brain can process and use to build additional neuronal connections.
Image (c) M. Brown; E. Arwood; C. Kaulitz
Stay tuned for a video of how hand-over-hand learning can be used in a variety of educational settings.
Want to Learn More?
The Viconic Language Methods shown here are just the beginning. Each book published by Neuro-Education Press is designed to walk the reader through how they might use these visual learning strategies in their own lives.
In addition, there are many more learning strategies that parents and educators can become familiar with in our resources section.