VISUAL SKILLS are needed for:

Information Gathering:

  • Sensing – seeing
  • Retrieving – memory skills

Basic Understanding:

  • Organising gathered information
  • Forming concepts
  • Linking ideas together

The effects of poor Visual Sequential Memory skills on classroom performance may include:

  • difficulties in sequencing patterns/colours/story pictures/letters/spelling patterns
  • difficulties with any reading and spelling task

Activities to develop visual skills include:

  • Encourage visualisation using diagrams, mind maps etc
  • Use visual cues to make the days, events and timetables predictable and meaningful
  • Scan-focus-label all visual inputs
  • Jigsaw completion
  • Sequencing activities such as threading beads in a given order, completing a pattern
  • Spot the Difference
  • What is the same? What is different? E.g. look at 2 items such as 2 cuddly toys. What is the same about them? (4 legs, furry coats, 2 ears etc) What is different? (colour, length of tails etc.). Make a list.
  • Finding items hidden in a picture
  • Sequence a story from simple pictures
  • Kim’s Game

AUDITORY SKILLS

Information Gathering:

•Sensing – hearing

•Retrieving – memory skills

Basic Understanding:

•Organising gathered information

•Forming concepts

•Linking ideas together

Children need to be taught good listening skills

The effects of poor Auditory Sequential Memoryon classroom performance may include:

  • difficulties with remembering a series of instructions if only given orally; if there are too many, pupils are likely to forget them all /or confuse them as memory goes into overload
  • difficulties with recalling details of lesson content if delivery is auditory only
  • difficulties listening to and understanding/following stories
  • possibly some difficulties with listening to information and then ‘manipulating’ it in their head to reproduce it in a different format e.g. written
  • a tendency to ‘turn off’ listening
  • some difficulties with reading comprehension/recall
  • some difficulties with sequencing sounds particularly in spelling longer words
  • some difficulties with sequencing a piece of writing
  • difficulties with sequencing the alphabet, days of the week, months of the year, numbers etc

Activities to develop auditory/listening skills include:

  • There are some good Key Stage 1Listening Skills materials which can be done in a small group. Children have a picture and crayons. Starts with scan-focus-label to ensure they all know the names of items in the picture (e.g. umbrella, stripes, boots, raincoat) then the adult reads e.g. ‘colour the stripes on the umbrella blue’.
  • Sit back to back with peer/adult, one says word/words/sentence – other repeats it
  • Games such as ‘I went to the shop and I bought…..’
  • Close eyes and listen to a sound. What is it? (drum, car, triangle etc)
  • Ask children to say back to adult what an instruction is
  • Tell very short story, children listen and tell back in our words