Suggestions to Extend Non-Verbal Reasoning Skills

 Non-verbal reasoning skills include understanding, remembering, and making visual sequences, interpreting the meaning of and relationships between the visual presentations or pictures. Some things you could do to support children’s growth in non-verbal abilities include:

• Construct, draw, or create visual representations of content
• Take picture notes as well as word notes for content
• Pre-read the visuals in a chapter
• Create a mind-map of content
• Use metaphors to make connections between content
• Analyze paintings, sculpture, music, dance
• Experiment with different mediums to create art projects
• Build with Legos or K’Nex
• Do puzzles, create puzzles
• Identify similarities and differences between shapes in the world around you
• Create complicated color patterns and tessellations
• Draw objects from unusual perspectives
• Practice elaboration: How many details can you add?
• Create a new picture by changing a picture already made
• Create a larger picture by adding to a picture already made
• Combine two pictures into one new picture
• Practice showing emotion, movement, humor in drawing
• Practice drawing symmetry
• Ask “How does (a concept) look, sound, taste, smell, feel?”
• Use guided imagery/visualization
• Practice activities in How To Think Like Leonardo da Vinci by Gelb
• Participate in such programs as Georgia State Saturday School and Camp Invention
• Field trips to science museums, art museums, nature centers
​• Learn more at http://www.visualspatial.org/