That's the Way I Think: Dyslexia, Dyspraxia, ADHD and Dyscalculia Explained by David Grant

Author:David Grant
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Tags: Special Education, Education, Sociology & Social Policy, Politics & IR, General
ISBN: 9781317296706
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 2017-01-19T22:00:00+00:00

Chapter 5

Visualisation and

synaesthesia

It was late afternoon and the shadows were lengthening.

Mary quickly hurried across the courtyard outside the British Museum, paused briefly to look up at the imposing pillars framing the main door, and stepped inside.

She turned right and went into the King’s Library.

She has always wanted to see the Domesday Book.

However, as soon as she entered the library the first book she saw on open display took her breath away. It was massive, and was open at a full-page painting of a bird of paradise. The yellow and red feathers appeared to glow with the light of the South Pacific.

As you were reading about Mary above, how did you experience what you were reading? Was it as if you heard the words being spoken in your head, or did you experience some or all of the paragraph visually – as a series of images or like a movie? If you are someone who visualises what you are reading, it may seem strange to ask these questions. However, in a study which asked students about their individual experiences when reading, at least a third said they did not experience any images (Grant, 2009). (Note. I am also someone who is a non-visualiser.) Of those who did experience a mental picture

Visualisation and synaesthesia 83

of what they were reading, the quality of visual imagery reported varied from poor to being in full colour and high definition, with about one third reporting good- or excellent-quality visualisation.

This degree of variation was not unexpected, for well over a hundred years ago, in 1880, Sir Francis Galton asked a range of individuals quite detailed questions about their ability to recall ‘some definite object –

suppose it is your breakfast table as you sat down this morning – and carefully consider the picture that rises before your mind’s eye’. To his amazement he found that whereas most ‘men of science’ said ‘mental imagery was unknown to them’, many ordinary men and women

‘declared they habitually saw mental imagery, and that it was perfectly distinct to them and full of colour’.

When I have asked individuals with a range of specific learning differences (dyslexia, dyspraxia and ADHD) to read the short passage above about Mary, the experiences they reported have varied greatly.

Whereas some found it quite difficult to read and could remember very little of what they had just read, a few experienced what they were reading as if watching a movie playing in their mind. For example, Alex, who is dyslexic, described Mary as being aged 23–24, with long dark hair, and wearing a black dress that fell below her knees. As she entered the library there was ‘a crown above the door’. He put the time of year as being ‘late autumn’. Alex pointed out he has to ‘see’ what he is reading in order to understand the content and meaning.

Rob, who is both dyslexic and dyspraxic, described Mary as being in her mid-twenties, with black hair, and

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Visualisation and synaesthesia

wearing a blue dress underneath a furry coat. He described the bird of paradise as being ‘like a peacock, but red’.

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