Upside-Down Brilliance: The Visual-Spatial Learner

by Linda Kreger Silverman

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 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

Genres: Education, Parenting, Nonfiction, Psychology, Teaching

436 pages, Paperback

First published September 1, 2002

About the author

Linda Kreger Silverman, Ph.D., is a licensed clinical and counseling psychologist who has contributed more than 300 publications to the field, including the textbook Counseling the Gifted and Talented, based on Dabrowski's theory, and Upside-Down Brilliance: The Visual-Spatial Learner. She founded and directs the Institute for the Study of Advanced Development and its subsidiary, the Gifted Development Center (www.gifteddevelopment.com), which has assessed more than 5,500 children in the last 30 years.

Silverman created the only journal on adult giftedness, Advanced Development, dedicated to promoting Dabrowski's theory. Co-chair of the NAGC Task Force on Assessment, she advises major test publishers, organizes symposia on assessment of the gifted, and has been instrumental in the development of extended norms for the WISC-IV.

Her latest book, Giftedness 101 (New York: Springer, 2013), went into third printing within 6 months of its release. A popular presenter, Linda has keynoted conferences in New Zealand, Singapore, Hong Kong, Australia, Denmark, Ireland, the U.S., and others.

Reviews

[Elizabeth · Rating 4 out of 5]

I don't like the author's style of writing. I kept aching for her to get to the point already. I rarely read books like this, really anything non-fiction, because of that and I imagine I'm in the minority here. So many people love the non-fiction so please take the next paragraph with a grain of salt.

With fiction, the journey of the story is the point. For non-fiction, the point is the point. Don't lead me along the garden path. State your thesis, back it up, preferably with three examples, provide more explanation for those interested in more thoroughly understanding and then move on.

But I gave this book four stars because I gained some insight into myself but a lot more insight into my mother who cannot think things through sequentially if guided by the best possible sequential thinker in the world who was also the best explainer of things in the world. And this drives me insane. She is also ADD but not diagnosed until a few years ago. And she's under a tremendous amount of stress and she does not handle change well which is what all the stress is related to for her right now. I've been trying different ways of sharing information with her and I need to help her gain control over her new environment in a way that will work best for her. She has moved in with me until she sells her old house and buys her new one so this is all in my best interest and will probably help me have an even better relationship with her down the road. Already, things are better. I feel better. She feels better. And all because I read this book. Now I need to read more on ADD.

The best insight into myself was why I have trouble talking to people on the phone in airports when my coworkers have no problem with it. We all work in the "field" and travel fairly often so it's not unexpected to have to be on a conference call while the gate attendants are announcing flights and people are having conversations nearby and the TV is on a news station. I was really frustrated with myself for being unable to concentrate on the call. Now I'm not going to worry about it and will only attend compulsory calls that I am unable to reschedule for a better time.

[Grace · Rating 3 out of 5]

I learned a few useful things, but right/left brain research always reads a little bit like horoscopes. You can read into it what you want.

I didn't buy into her basic premise that visual spatial learners are a beleaguered minority. After all, her research showed that 30-40% of children are VSL and 20-25 are auditory sequential learners with the rest lying in between. Thus, the ASLs are the minority.

[Elise · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow! This book is amazing! I now have a completely new understanding to the way my mind works and how I learn. Visual-Spatial Learners are not usually recognized for their strengths, abilities and gifts in a traditional school environment and often struggle to be understood and to show their understanding and grasp of concepts and material. Most school environments are geared towards Auditory-Sequential Learners and it often takes a special teacher to tap into a Visual-Spatial Learner.

Of the 18 questions at the very beginning of the book "Are you a Visual-Spatial Learner?" I was able to answer 16 of 18 with a VERY AFFIRMATIVE "Yes" (you only had to answer 10 to be a likely visual-spatial learner). I had my husband and mother-in-law answer the questions and they answered no more than 5 or 6 of the questions. Not surprising! My husband and I often have very different approaches to tasks or problem solving. I'm definitely going to have my husband read this book so that he can better understand my style (and my daughter's) and perhaps minimize some conflict that sometimes arises from our different styles.

I will certainly be recommending this book to many!

[Abby · Rating 4 out of 5]

How do we identify and serve visual-spatial learners? How are giftedness, ADHD, auditory processing disorder, dyslexia, and even introversion related to a visual-spatial orientation?

I really liked this book. Some of Silverman's work is on the web, but this book is a more comprehensive treatment of her ideas. In a philosophical sense, she draws heavily from Leonard Shlain's The Alphabet Versus the Goddess: The Conflict Between Word and Image (which I haven't read, but I'm not sure I need to now). I appreciate her clinical experience. And she definitely knows her stuff about giftedness, so if you are (or parent, or teach) a gifted VSL, this is the perfect book for you.

http://www.visualspatial.org/

[Cathy · Rating 2 out of 5]

A largely anecdotal, and inconsistently conceived construct of visual-spatial learners.

[Catherine Mikkelsen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Linda Silverman is a brilliant thinker, and her specialty is quirky gifteds. Another type of child who falls into her particular specialty is the dyslexic who has strong ability to visualize complex items, assemble toys, and so forth.

This is a wonderful book, chock full of amazing information. However, if your child doesn't fit exactly into the specifications, this book can be annoying. Many different types of children have many of the challenges mentioned in this book, and much of the information in this book should actually apply to all sorts of children, but it is framed tightly, pretty much only for the mega-gifted kid.

So this is a great book, As it says on the back, Dr. Silverman has worked with over 4,500 children, and she has a ton of wisdom to impart. It's almost 400 pages. But it's more of a data dump than a guidebook.

My advice? Use other books to give you an overview of the situation and help to create your own view and goals of your child's relationship to school. Figure out what the problems are and set some goals. THEN read this book. If you have a mental structure set up, you'll have places to tuck the information, and you'll be able to use it. Otherwise, it can feel like a 25 foot wave of information, knocking you over.

[Cynthia · Rating 5 out of 5]

Linda Silverman is renowned for her groundbreaking research and gifted children, especially those who also have dyslexia, ADHD or a learning disability. You can’t go wrong with this book.

[Kisha · Rating 4 out of 5]

This had some spectacular information in it, and there were parts that I read aloud or bookmarked for my husband, as well as giving him short "book reports" of the book as I was reading it. Many things describe our daughter--not everything. She doesn't have many of the verbal/written weaknesses that are described, but she is lost in space and time and has told me many times about how she thinks in pictures and colors and not just words. Actually, a lot of things in this book describe both of her parents, too, and the part about the connection of ear infections and auditory weakness and being visual-spatial was particularly interesting to me, based on both my history and my daughter's. There were some good tips on how to work with a visual-spatial kid, and I'm exited to try incorporating some of those in the future.

I gave the book 4 stars instead of 5 because we took a very winding road to get through the book. There was a LOT of history of the author's work rather than just a theory and examples. I don't really care when and who with that she discovered all of this stuff. The writing style itself was not to my taste--very dense, and I would have also liked to see more in the way of practical advice for how to handle a VSL. But for the most part, I got a lot out of this book. It can be a little hard to find...don't forget about your library. I got it as an interlibrary loan. :)

[Michelle Guffey · Rating 3 out of 5]

This one has lots of great info, and a very good outlook on why some people are just different in the way they communicate and learn. She proposes that most people who do well in school, and teachers, are all auditory and sequential in the way they learn, and those who are smart but just don't fit into the traditional school mold are visual-spatial. They don't get step by step stuff, only ideas in big pictures. Artists, musicians, people good at puzzles, engineers, lego maniacs. I may have one of these in the family, so this book gives lots of good ideas for identifying, and nurturing. But I have to say I didn't like how it was organized and written. I think me and the author are opposites-which kind of gave me an aha moment for why it is so hard for me to communicate with some people. I recommend this book for anyone who feels like they just don't fit in. Or have children that way.

[Liz · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fabulous book describing the characteristics of visual-spatial learners and how to help them. These are the kids who are awesome with Legos, can remember every place you visited in the last 5 years and can sometimes have difficulty with phonics. Some suggestions are to allow them to jump around within learning (the easy stuff seems hard, but the hard stuff seems easy to them) and to use lots of visuals to help them remember (painting a picture of the word in their brains so they can recite it forward and backward). Excellent reading for the parent or teacher of a visual-spatial learner.

[Linda · Rating 5 out of 5]

Upside Down Brilliance is full of encouragement and practical advice for parents and teachers who support a twice-exceptional (also known as "2e") kid. The author provides many "light bulb" examples to illustrate why some kids can be gifted in difficult subjects and yet struggle with basic skills. I was enlightened to realize that not everyone thinks in words (auditory-sequential learner); many brilliant people think in pictures (visual-spatial learner). I encourage all who love an insatiable big-picture learner, creative artist, or outside-the-box thinker to read this book.

[Sarah · Rating 5 out of 5]

Who knew I was a visual-based learner? If you have a child or relationship with someone that isn't responding to your verbal requests, knows things but can't trace back why they know it, wild imagination, (there are so many more things to list), I recommend seeing if they are a visual-based learner. Their right-hemisphere may be the dominate part of their brain and therefore respond to learning in a different way than the typical school book approach.

[Vicki · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love how this book goes into detail about all the avenues that were explored and the information that came out of those investigations, rather than just giving us results and tables to categorize people. I feel I am getting a richer understanding and LOTS to think about.

AND I love how this book takes the effort to emphasize that we are not just VS *or* AS. It's not even a continuum; it's a spatial distribution!

[Heather · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book really gave me so much insight to the way my mind works as well as the way I suspect that my husband & children's minds work as well. It definitely made me understand some of the whys as to why some things seem to be so much more difficult for me, etc. It was nice to shed some light on things...

[Jehnie · Rating 4 out of 5]

The perfect book for any parent who has a "quirky" child who has been deemed a behavior problem in school because he would rather talk, move around, or draw pictures rather than memorize math facts or write a story.

My only negative is that the book focuses largely on identification. I would have appreciated more concrete suggestions for successful experiences.

[Janet Ashley · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was out of print and I had to pay nearly $100 for an edition. It was worth every penny. It describes my brilliant yet challenging daughter and helped me to understand her brain. and thus be more patient with her. I figured a therapy session or two would have cost just as much anyway and this felt like a therapist was sitting down explaining my daughter's strengths and weaknesses to me.

[Carmen]

this book unraveled a lot of mysteries for me. Now I know why some people cannot understand something when I am explaining it and why I cannot understand some people. I was always amazed that there are actually people who never get lost, even though I have some like that in my own family.

[Kirsti Call · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book describes James perfectly. . .he is definitely a visual/spatial learner. I found the book informative and interesting and definitely worth reading, yet I felt like she could have cut out about 100 pages and done better. . .

[Diane · Rating 5 out of 5]

Linda Silverman is wonderful! THis book gave me new insights and was one of the factors that led to our new book" Bright Not Broken about twice-exceptional kids Who They Are-Why-They Are Stuck- How to Help Them. Thank you Linda for making it all so clear!

[Laurie · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm seriously contemplating "losing" my library copy of this, just so I can own this book!! It's that good. It also talks about introverts/extroverts, AD/HD, plus a ton of other stuff. If you don't understand your kid, or if you know he's different than other kids, this is a must read!

[Michelle · Rating 4 out of 5]

For teachers, parents, psychologists and all visual-spatial learners. Chapters 8 and 9 are particularly important for those wondering if the child they love, teach, assess, and advocate for the twice-exceptional.

[Lp]

I really hate having to read books like this but it's helpful so far.

[Beth · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great for learning all you want to know about visual-spacial learners

[Jim]

Just started reading.

[Lisa · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love books that help me see how thinking differently then other people really doesn't diminish brilliance, and maybe it even enhances it!

[Andini · Rating 4 out of 5]

A lot of stories of kids or adult living as right brain learner, some solutions but not much help.

[R.c. · Rating 5 out of 5]

Filled with AHAA moments,if you have any of these people in your family. Could literally be a life saving book if your child is gifted or an extreme visual learner.

[Jill Baird · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book helped me understand Ethan so much more. It helped me understand the way he processes information. Recommend it for everyone. It even helped me understand some things about Dan.

[Davina · Rating 5 out of 5]

Awesome books for parents of visual spatial kids or who are visual spatial themselves. This book helped me understand my children and myself in a whole new way.

[Jess · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great book with lots of insight for parents of visual-spatial kids.