Upside-Down Brilliance: The Visual Spatial Learner (Paperback)

~ Linda Kreger Silverman (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

Do you know things without being able to explain how or why? Do you solve problems in unusual ways? Do you think in pictures rather than in words? If so, you are not alone. One-third of the population thinks in images. You may be one or you may live with one. If you teach, it is absolutely certain that some of your students—probably the ones you aren’t reaching—are visual-spatial learners. Dr. Linda Silverman coined the term "visual-spatial learner" in 1981 to describe the unique gifts of people who think in images. They get the big picture because they see the world through artists’ eyes. They remember what they see, but forget what they hear. They’re disorganized, can’t spell and have no sense of time, but they have an infectious sense of humor, wild imaginations and can lose themselves completely in the joy of the moment. A visual-spatial learner created the computer and the Internet, the vivid displays at the Olympics, and the International Space Station. Upside-Down Brilliance: The Visual-Spatial Learner is the blueprint for parenting, teaching and living with these delightfully different beings. It is also a manual for discovering and honoring your own hidden gifts.

Learn practical ways to recognize, reach, and develop visual-spatial abilities!

* Imagination

* Visualization

* Intuitive Knowledge

* Invention

* Discovery

* Spirituality

* Three-dimensional Perception

* Artistic Expression

* Scientific & Technological Proficiency

* Emotional Responsiveness

* Holistic & Whole-part Thinking

* Holographic Understanding

From the Inside Flap

Endorsements:

Whoever you are—parent, educator, or just a plain person—read this book! In its pages you will find new ways of understanding and supporting some of humanity's most useful minds. Linda Silverman provides a map to a complex and magnificent mental world where you or someone you care about may have felt lost. Stephanie Tolan Co-author of the award-winning book, Guiding the Gifted Child, and author of numerous books for young adults. 2003 Newbery Award recipient

I’ve been waiting for this book for years, and it is everything I hoped for and more. It is wise, warm, funny, practical, intensely personal, and truly inspirational. It belongs on the shelf of every parent whose child does not seem to fit in the mainstream, and of every teacher who wants to reach those students who have clear potential but just can’t seem to "get it" when it comes to tests, and of all adolescents and adults who have struggled with those problems themselves and may still be struggling. Richard M. Felder Co-author of Elementary Principles of Chemical Processes Hoechst Celanese Professor Emeritus, North Carolina State University

Linda Silverman has written a graceful and much needed book that highlights different kinds of spatial intelligence. She has focused on the type of visual thinking women use and in so doing has turned the searchlight on a relatively unexamined area. This book will help change the way you think about "seeing." Leonard Shlain, M.D. Author of the best-seller, The Alphabet vs. the Goddess, and Art & Physics

Linda Silverman provides us with a holistic–visual–spatial perspective of the complexities of brilliant, but academically challenged, minds. She offers an understanding of their upside-down world. More importantly, she tells us how their struggles can be overcome! Ronald D. Davis Author of The Gift of Dyslexia

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Product Details

• Paperback: 436 pages
• Publisher: DeLeon Publishing, Inc. (September 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 193218600X
• ISBN-13: 978-1932186000
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (15 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #334,885 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

78 of 78 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars New perspective on how people think and learn, April 13, 2004

By	M. Christensen "dmchr2" (Orem, UT United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Two years ago, I had my son tested at the Gifted Development Center (run by the author), and found that he was a visual-spatial learner. He's a very bright kid with a great building/inventing aptitude and imagination. He understands higher mathematics, but it took 2 years to learn all the addition facts (which are still not fast). He has an incredibly good reading comprehension, but has a very difficult time spelling. He was a frustrating child because he seemed so bright, yet struggled with the simplest things. The GDC gave me some tips on teaching visual-spatial learners (which helped), but until I read this book, I didn't know that I didn't have much of a clue of what a visual-spatial learner was!

Essentially, visual-spatial learners (VSLs) are more right-brained thinkers and tend to visualize everything at all once. Left-brained thinkers are auditory-sequential learner (ASLs)- they learn by hearing and do things in order. Not everyone is just a VSL or an ASL, many are combinations of both. The hard part comes for children who are mostly VSLs. The schools teach to ASLs, and that is the type of student who does well.

This book really gave me a whole new perspective on how my son learns, and it gave me many great tips of how and why to apply certain teaching strategies. Fortunately, I am able to homeschool him -- otherwise I think he would really struggle in public school and start to think that he was dumb (which he is
anything but!)

The author estimates that at least 30% of children are VSLs. The author's style is fun and very readable. The examples she gives are interesting to read, but they are often extreme cases from very gifted children. At first, this led me to believe that she was saying all VSLs are gifted (which they are not.) It's just that she has a background in working with gifted children and so that is her perspective. So rather or not your child is gifted, this book can help.

I think all parents and teachers should read this book. It's an interesting perspective in learning styles and it's a lot easier to incorporate in the classroom to accomodate these two learning styles than other methods such as the multiple intelligences suggested by Howard Gardner.

77 of 79 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Is your child (or are you) a Visual-Spatial Learner?, April 29, 2004

By	Carolyn K. "Mrs. Hoagie" (Hoagies' Gifted Education Page) - See all my reviews

I never knew it, but I don't think like most people. I thought everyone recalled things in bright, colorful pictures, often with sound bites, sometimes even with smells. I assumed that everyone remembered the words in books by remembering where they lay on the page, interspersed with the book's illustrations. That's how I remember, how I think, how I learn... in Upside-Down Brilliance I learned that I am a visual-spatial learner.

Upside-Down Brilliance begins by defining the visual-spatial learner (VSL) in a "coconut shell." We aren't easy to define, but Silverman does a thorough job. And reading her description of the auditory-sequential learner was an "aha!" moment for me - I never realized how differently most people think.

Dr. Silverman explains the VSLs use of the right brain hemisphere, and uncovers the complications of early ear infections and auditory processing issues, organizational difficulties and AD/HD, even introversion and extraversion and how they interact in the VSL. She explains why VSLs don't fit well with the auditory-sequential educational style of the typical school. And she offers suggestions on how to help these children fit in and learn comfortably in the classroom.

Identification and assessment of VSL are illustrated by case studies including test profiles and descriptions, from the casual parental identification by characteristics and preferred playthings, to the professional identification and assessment by standardized ability and other assessments.

After comparing gifted learning disabled and gifted VSL children, discussing parenting and teaching recommendations, Dr. Silverman concludes with a chapter on VSL adults, including imposter syndrome and VSL women (yes, we do exist, though we are a minority within a minority!).

Upside-Down Brilliance contains so much great information, you'll need to read it more than once. There's so much great information in it that I find myself stopping, going off to deal with what I just learned, and coming back later to continue with the next chapter. I wish someone had explained years ago why my kids and I learn so differently!

49 of 50 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Ground-breaking and Essential for Teachers & Parents, July 5, 2003

By	Abigail Marshall "Parent & Author" (San Francisco) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

In Upside-Down Brilliance, Dr. Silverman takes her readers on an engaging journey through her work and her findings. The book is full of the type of in-depth, technical information that psychologists and educators will find crucial in applying her work, such as detailed explorations of assessment and testing issues -- interspersed with a conversational tone filled with anecdotes and examples, illustrated throughout with delightful and very apt cartoons (the work of Buck Jones), that will entice parents and picture-thinking adults. Added to that is a very healthy dose of practical advise and suggestions for parents and teachers.

To me, one of the most significant results of Dr. Silverman's research is the fact that fully one-third of schoolchildren appear to be strong visual-spatial learners, while less than a quarter are strongly auditory-sequential. (The remainder have heterogenous or mixed learning styles). This illustrates the strong need for educational reform, as most schools are geared to the auditory-sequential student (who learns best by listening and step-by-step instruction). Unfortunately, the group of students who learn well primarily by this approach is surprisingly small -- no wonder so many students fall through the cracks!

Parents of dyslexic children will be interested in Dr. Silverman's exploration of the overlap of her work with Ron Davis (author of The Gift of Dyslexia). Dr. Silverman presents detailed information, drawing on findings of brain researchers as well as her own studies, to show why traditional teaching methods, such as phonetic approaches to reading, leave many VSL's frustrated and confused.

I can't recommend this book enough. It is the book that parents should start out with when their kids are young - and the books that parents of dyslexic kids should keep to answer the question "what do we do now?" after the reading issues or other academic problems associated with dyslexia are addressed.

Basically, if you are the parent (or teacher) of a VSL, this is the guidebook you need to have. If you don't know whether your kid is a VSL, then this is the book you need to have to find out. (And if your academically struggling kid has recently been assessed by a professional who reports that the child is "verbal" - this is the book you need to provide the foundation for a second opinion, as Dr. Silverman busts a few myths about the widely-used WISC-III assessment test).