As a former educator and school counselor, I witnessed first hand the challenges of youngsters with attention deficit. Learning the success strategies of Dr. Don Blackerby, author of Rediscover The Joy of Learning, has given me new insight in the learning process of these exceptional students.

Using success skills, these children no longer need to feel their mind is out of control; they learn to be in charge of their mind. We now have tools to assist these youngsters in alleviating some of the frustration of “being different.” To a child with ADD, being verbal or auditory is the least important communication channel. Words are slow and difficult to process. Students labeled attention deficit perceive multiple internal images that move rapidly and have not learned how to learn.

For most academic subjects the best field to store information is in the visual field. The auditory field is slow and boring because we only process one word at a time. The visual field is fast and direct. Our kids have been raised in a visual world! Students learn to hear words and overlap the meaning of words into pictures. Using a visual strategy, students learn to store vast amounts of information in one detailed picture, and can access it instantly to retrieve information. Students can create a 3-D color movie of their lesson. No more boredom! The mind is now creatively engaged and note taking actually holds this type of student back.

Imagination makes learning new vocabulary words fun and easy. A fifth grader that I worked with was studying the word “friction.” In his mind he created a picture of two sticks being rubbed together. He had flames erupting from the sticks. On the sticks he wrote f-r-i-c-t-i-o-n. His visual memory of that definition was clear, concise and easily retrievable.

Learning difficulties become more discernable by fourth and fifth grade because there is much more sensory experiencing available in the primary grades. During the first few years students are learning to read, then they move into reading to learn. Some have not learned how to do this because we did not know the specific tools they needed.

If you give your child directions to do something, have them overlap the words into an internal action picture. Encourage them to “feel” their body doing it. For example, if you want them to feed the dog and empty the trash, have them “see and feel” themselves doing these activities. It only takes moments, but the extra time allows them to process the information accurately.

We can assist these challenged youngsters to succeed by providing them with specific tools to adapt to their visual learning strength. For more information on Dr. Balckerby's success skills, please visit his web site at www.nlpok.com.