This is a blog post from a colleague of mine. Try it out – maybe it will get you thinking how you think, and what about how your child thinks?
Why not ask them to do the exercise and see what happens?
I taught neuropsychological research with an emphasis on special education for 25 years. I got started in this area when I told a friend that I did not have visual imagery. Her reaction was, “How do you think?” I think by talking to myself but she thought via mental imagery. From there I developed a theory of the causes and remediation of reading disability.
To get started, try a simple experiment. Image an animal. Now rate it from 0-10 in terms of vividness and being lifelike. Did you image with your eyes open or closed? Now image with your eyes closed if they were open or open if they were closed. Now rate the image. Did it change?
I have tried this demonstration many times and about 50% of the people image with their eyes open and a majority of them, find the image decreases in vividness when they close them. But how often do we hear the instructions: Close your eyes and imagine…..
Try this in your classroom and let’s hear what you find.
A closing question: When a song runs through your head, who is doing the singing?
Send me your comments and I will forward them to him.
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What about if the image is sharper when you close your eyes (I find it block out the the noise)
I hear the performer – I couldn’t give myself goose bumps hearing myself in my own head