Thinking in pictures.

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Wow - doesn't everyone think in pictures? I thought that was normal. Seriously.

Actually, I believe it *is* normal, just no longer as common as in the past.

I do not know Hebrew, but I have been told it is a pictoral language ... and I think pictures were used for visual communication long before written words.

That's true - looking at the past, man has used drawing as a means of communication for thousands of years and more.

I have always used visual memory - I even do a 'mental walk thru the grocery store' when I make my shopping list. My list is written according to the path I take thru the store. I problem solve by visually mapping out the issue and looking for all possibilities so that I am prepared for whatever might happen.

This is the strange thing tho - I can meet people and not remember their name 10 minutes later - or worse - not recognize them if I run into them later. It's really embarrassing because I think it hurts their feelings - as if they're not important enough to be remembered. But once I know who they are - I can recall entire conversations.

I use the several interactive websites (suitable for k-4) for my son who has also said, unpromted, that he "thinks in pictures". Actually this was what he said specifically - I wrote it down because I thought it was such a fascinating glimpse into how his mind works. This is what he said one night as he was lying in bed - one thing right after another - no real gaps in between these thoughts:

What reacts to make you wake up?
How do your ears work?
How do your eyes see?
Are your eyes connected to your brain to send the pictures there? Is that how our memories work? Is that why I see in pictures?
I just burped and it sounded like an orca whale.
What is the definition of the word definition?
Why do they call it a grand finale? Is it because it’s the end of an alley?
Where was God born?
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Yup. It's a busy place around here.

Anyhow, here are two great visual websites for homeschooling 'picture thinkers': http://nlvm.usu.edu/en/nav/grade_g_1.html - for maths
http://www.starfall.com/n/level-a/learn ... play.htm?f - for reading

From what I understand, japanese is related to current chinese which is related to OLD chinese and OLD chinese was pictoral, meaning that the symbol for house looked like a house, a snake looked like a snake, etc.... But I never heard hebrew was like that.

With me, visual isn't really like I see something in front of me, usually, but I CAN browse a store in my mind, drive a street, etc... so I always wonder what people mean, Apparently FEW have REAL photographic memories. MY memory, for example, can tell me effectively what a sign on a street says, but I don't actually READ it. SOME, and apparently VERY few, have SUCH great and precise memories that they can draw perfect pictures, even from the center out.

NOW, to those that have no audio memory, HOW do you know how to pronounce a word you just heard?

WOW, I am the SAME way!

WOW!

Well, I remember what I see and hear. I guess my visual memory has always been like I needed glasses, but my audio memory used to be PERFECT for quite a while.

I DO have a a kind of memory that is almost native and, luckily, it helps augment the failings of my other memories.

leejosepho & Caitlin - thanks for the ideas/sites!

I have been working with the same half-dozen people for nearly three years, and I still occasionally get a name wrong or even cannot recall one at all ... but here is the strange thing for me: I do not have that problem when all of us are together in one spot!

I think that might have something to do with relational (point-of-reference) thinking.

For years, my Aspie son has explained that he has multiple TVs in his head. For me, it has always been about pictures ...

In terms of learning, it appears to me that NTs seem to learn a subject by memorizing a few definitions, rules or logical series. More information means a new definition, or new rule. They can prove what they have learned by reguritating back what they have learn.

I cannot learn that way. I start with a picture of what I think the subject should look like. When I learn about the subject, new information that is consistent with my picture is ignored (because I already knew it) and new information that is inconsistent with my picture causes the picture to change. I can retain a lot of information this way and I immediately know the answer to questions on the subject by looking at my picture. I sound like a a blithering idiot, however, when I try to put that answer into words. The translation from an abstract picture to coherently structured string of sentences seldom takes the form of memorized definitions, rule or logical series that NTs are expecting.

I can't even imagine what it's like to NOT think in pictures!

Though my audio memory is excellent and my brain sometimes turns into a random shuffle MP3 Player.

I guess I think in pictures...at least I do when I am reading books, and remembering the past...

I can see KoKo and Yum Yum in my mind when I read "the cat who books".

I always did ok in math, but can not draw. When I attempting to draw the picture in my head, it NEVER came out right. Then I would get frustrated and angry. (Why won't this picture come out the way I want it too! Errrrrrr!)

I think in pictures, whole scene depicting pictures, fragments of pictures, and pictures of the written word as someone is speaking...usually in Times New Roman font.

You mentioned how much trouble it can be to get through a conversation with that kind of thinking, well it gets interesting, excpecially when I pair the wrong picture to the word spoken. It can be confusing.
This is how it works....
A person tells me about walking the dog
I picture a sidewalk, a park, a red leash..a hairy dog...her walking in extersize gear
She tells me her dog found a litter of abandoned kittens
I picture a house, a dark sky, a ditch, a bunch of little skinny starving kittens, the dog with his big snout in their face scencing fear and alerting his master.
She tells me she took them home
I see her with a box of kittens on the table...she is hand feeding them

Words that people say in my mind are connected to images based on my own experience however it gets difficult when I am talking to someone about something in which I have no experience with whatsoever
usually the images are incomplete and confusing and because clear images are not there telling a story...I am uttery confused and the stress of not finding the picture to match the words wears me out and before long my mind just draws a blank page in which all I hear is the person's voice sounding like the teacher on charlie brown.....woank woank woank woop w*k woank.
So my mind just shuts down.

So the more experiences I have, the more I understand what people are talking about. But I always get a C or D in class on a subject which I have no previous knowlege base. I overcome that by auditing classes in subjects that I know nothing about, so when I take the class for credit, I have some experience with it and I am not drawing a blank and failing class.

I didn't realize I thought in pictures until I was tested at school for an IEP and the teacher told me that I am an extremely visual learner. He said that I must have been doing it since I was little because I could process things pretty fast. For people that think with pictures I think it's just second nature. Every thought I think has a picture and some of the pictures only make sense to me. I can remember my mum reading to me at night when I was younger and I always had a good sense of what was happening in the story because of the pictures in my head. Thinking in pictures isn't as difficult as it sounds, but it does have it's downsides. For example, it's really hard for me to focus during lectures because it's just someone talking at you about a boring subject without using any visuals and it's not captivating like a story.

I think in words, but to an extreme degree. I once asked my brother how he saw characters when he reads books, he told me he sees the character in his head. He's 110% NT. I don't know what I am, but I think in words. For example, when I call up a picture of my best friend in my head, I can't "see" her face. However, if I focus on a detail, I "hear" the adjective being said, for example, if I focus on her eyes, my mind will say, "green". I almost never recall actual pictures of things, and I never imagine my own pictures. This is really odd when reading books, I don't see anything for most characters, I don't hear their names either. I just know the word, and associate any adjectives that have been given with the word, but I don't add my own information, or process the adjectives into images, they stay as words.

I remember when I was four or five, I'd narrate my own actions in my head. But that might just have been me, I loved the show "Zoom" and they'd narrate what they were doing.

I have trouble processing directions given verbally, but I can repeat them word for word at times, they just have no meaning, I'm simply parroting a string of words. I understand written directions much better.

There's other kids that have a difficult time thinking in pictures, which causes problems with memory recall, reading comprehension, etc.

We are doing the Visualizing and Verbalizing program by Nanci Bell. I really like the program, I'd recommend it if your kiddo needs help building visualizing skill. It helped me improve my own visualizing too!