Top 10 Ways to Help Visual Learners

These tips will be helpful for parents of younger visual students, who need help learning how to learn.

1. Allow him to watch demonstrations over and over until he is confident in attempting to do it himself. Don’t push him to participate until he is ready, and don’t mistake his learning style for shyness.
2. Use bright colors in visual aids; break the everything-in-black-and-white pattern.
3. Allow plenty of pleasure reading time, and count it as reading class. Books, book shelves, bookends, book marks, and more BOOKS – get them (library, eBooks, whatever), and keep them where they can be easily used.
4. Use posters, charts, diagrams, maps, and graphs. Have him color diagrams of equivalent fractions, patterns of multiples on a 100-grid, or list words with the same spelling pattern (writing those repeated letters in the same color each time).
5. Let him see it and take time to study it visually, and he’ll soak in more details than you would have pointed out.
6. Provide colored highlighters, colored pencils (splurge for the erasable ones!), and colored notecards for making printed information more visually memorable. A different colored pencil for each step of complex math problems helps show the changes. Use specific highlighter colors for dates, names, quotes, etc.
7. Provide pocket folders, file folders, and filing boxes for personal organization of notes and information. Organization is a life-skill, and it can begin with schoolwork.
8. Let him use a label-maker! The visual learner will thrive on organizing and labeling folders and notebooks, but a label-maker can also be useful in making flashcards, diagrams, and other learning tools.
9. Take notes, make charts and posters, and keep them everywhere: bathroom mirror, hallway, etc. Seeing = remembering.
10. Give him experiences in the other 3 styles to improve his overall learning abilities

For further help, visit these links:
Learning Styles v. It’s a Syndrome
“Visual Learning” topic (including all of this “Visual Learning Week” series)
“Learning Styles” topic