Will Visualisation
Help You Read?

 

Before you pay out huge fees for long dyslexia training courses, or give up in despair and brand yourself a dyslexic for life, here are some tests to run on yourself to find out if the only block between you and great spelling is technique.

 

Remember: if you can do this, then we are saying you can learn to spell well and improve your memory. There is no risk to you, because if you don't achieve meaningful progress in the first session, there is no charge! That's how confident we are.

 

x Are you using the right visualisation tool for the job?

x Can you visualise at all?

x Are you looking in the right place?

x More about the Freer Mind 60-minute dyslexia cure

 

 

Are you using the right visualisation tool for the job?

A small proportion of dyslexics have visual disturbances which need to be resolved first, and it isn't just those who know that the words and letters move around. Certainly it includes those who struggle to write 'b' or 'd' correctly, but others may also have minor disturbances.

 

To check you aren't in that group, print off this PDF "Does this page make you feel ill?" (looking at it on screen is enough to make anyone feel ill...) and notice how you respond to the full page. If the letters are moving around, or you feel inexplicably queasy, then we can be pretty sure that you are using the wrong tool for the job - you are using 3-D visualisation for a 2-D visualisation job.

 

We train you to separate the two in your mind and pick the right one for reading. It is also very likely to explain your problems with mental organisation: instead of the structured, sequential thinking (2-D) you need in order to sort out your thoughts, your mind is a whirl of movement (3-D).

 

This may sound like a deep concept, but it is surprisingly simple to resolve: your mind is making letters move, so your mind will make them stay still.

 

How many cats?

This is another exercise for those who find that the words and letters move around or shimmer.

 

Imagine a cat a short way in front of you: perhaps 6 feet away on the mantelpiece. How many versions of the cat do you get? Most people have just one, straight on - but some people may have several, from all different perspectives. Fabulous for design, dance and engineering...terrible for reading. The solution is the same as above.

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Can you visualise at all?

Look slightly upwards, a little to the left, as you try some of these exercises - you will probably find that it helps.

(My friend always looks up so far that he is almost falling over backwards. I'm always worried that he will one day.)

  1. Imagine you are walking through your front door, and taking a tour of the house or flat. What colour is the front door? Which way are you turning as you move through? What furniture and ornaments are you passing? Can you recall some of the detail of a favourite picture there?

  2. Walk through the house again, and as you pass some of the furniture, make it jiggle cartoonishly. Will it do it for you?

  3. Imagine your jeans, or sports top, anything you like, mixed up with similar ones belonging to your friends. How would you know which were yours? What details - tears, decorations, style details - would tell you?

  4. If there are 10 similar people in a line up, and one of them is your best friend, would you be able to pick them out?

  5. Look at something on the desk in front of you, notice its detail. Now, in your mind, place that object on the kitchen table, or on top of the television - somewhere else of your choice, the sillier the better. Without looking at it in real life, can you still see the detail of it in its new location?

  6. Here's a very small story: "The red car came sweeping round the corner, raising flurries of leaves in its wake. James, the handsome, dark-haired driver was grinning, his blue-and-yellow striped scarf flying like a banner from his neck. As he shot past us, he waved, and then disappeared of into the distance. " Can you create this as a scene in a film, with full technicolour and action? When you've played it through a couple of times, can you run it backwards to where he is disappearing back around the first corner - with the flying leaves falling back into a pile?

If you can do any of these at all, even if only roughly, then you can visualise, so you do have the ability to spell well, once you know how.

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Are you looking in the right place?

Think of a word to spell, perhaps the name of a type of animal. When you try to recall the spelling, where are you looking?

 

If you are looking to the left, you are probably trying to sound out the word phonically, or using a mnemonic system. These are artificial strategies - good spellers don't use them, or use them only as secondary assistance. Good spellers invariably use visualisation, without being aware of it.

 

If you are looking downwards, I would guess that you have gone straight to your feelings of failure. You will never find the spelling there!

 

If you ask a good speller, they'll always look upwards. If, then, you aren't looking upwards, it's a good bet that you aren't visualising words. We train you in how to visualise the spellings so that they become permanent - there to be read off forwards or backwards at will.

 

If you are looking upwards but are not finding a reliable spelling there, that's okay - you need training in how to create reliable, bomb-proof word-images. Sometimes I myself (Ms Brilliant Speller) discover that I can't spell something because I don't have a decent image in my memory, and I then have to stop and install one properly. Once done it's there forever!

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Are you ready to change your life?

If you would like to change your life by learning how to improve your reading, learning and memory skills, please contact us today!