Visual-spatial thinking is the ability to make sense of what one perceives through body and sensory experiences.
~ Harry Wachs
Our program is informed by principles of education that address the individual’s leaning profile based on their academic knowledge, their visual spatial foundations for learning, and the emotional and environmental background that supports the student’s ability to find learning meaningful.
- Some children with learning differences may behave well enough at school, but create conflict with peers on the playground and siblings at home.
- They may have tantrums or become oppositional.
- Others may resist adult direction, or become rule-bound and inflexible. They may memorize their way through the school day.
- Children who find learning at school stressful may experience anxiety that can get in the way of their ability to be calm and flexible at home.
- Teachers may believe the child is lazy, oppositional, inattentive, or hyperactive.
Our approach is based on constructivist learning theory. We offer students the following:
- Problem solving challenges and the time they need to experience ‘aha’ moments in order to find solutions.
- Scaffolding as needed in order to support the student’s capacity to sustain thinking while also experiencing uncertainty before they have arrived at the answer.
- Utilize social/emotional approaches based on the work of social learning theorists to construct learning that is relevant and important to the student.
Our intention is to support the student’s understanding of self as they develop and grow within the myriad of social systems that they and their family belong to.
Program goals
The goal of our program is to support each student’s experience of what it means to be a learner within the context of their classroom, their family, and their community. Our program supports student capacities to achieve the following outcomes by optimizing each student’s ability to maintain interest and develop understanding of the tasks at hand:
- Students become more competent as they figure out what they know and what questions to ask in order to solve the problems at hand.
- They develop problem solving skills with visual spatial tasks, integrating details within the big picture, figure versus ground, and spatial relationships between their bodies and objects around them.
- These experiences inform visual memory through understanding of concrete relationships that support abstract reasoning, all key to the development of success and self-confidence as learners.
We find that learners bring variability to their learning, sometimes finding learning easy and at other times finding learning a struggle. Our client-centered approach allows us to adapt the level of complexity of the task, slow down or accelerate according to what the student brings to their learning.
“A child requires progressively more complex joint activity with one or more adults who have an irrational emotional relationship with the child. Somebody’s got to be crazy about that kid. That’s number one. First, last, and always.”
~Uri Bronfenbrener (Developmental psychologist, helped form the Head Start program)