| Highly Gifted Visual-Spatial Learners* | Students with ADD and ADHD** |
| use visual aids and visual imagery | need visual illustrations, spatial strategies; color added to search-attentional tasks improved the performance of ADHD students |
| use manipulative materials to allow hands-on experience | need tactile or kinesthetic resources; students benefit from being allowed to write in their books, highlighting important information and details |
| have students discover their own methods of problem-solving | strategies must involve active participation by the students, interaction with peers, and choices that tap into the students' learning styles and strengths |
| find out what students have already mastered before teaching them | strategies should relate to prior experience or knowledge to current learning |
| emphasize creativity, imagination, new insights, and new approaches | strategies must be interesting, relevant, motivating, and multisensory in nature |
| group gifted visual-spatial learners together for instruction | prefer to work with a small group of peers |
| allow students to construct, draw or otherwise create visual representations of concepts | strategies to use after the reading is finished include using graphic organizers as visualizing strategies; the use of story mapping enhances comprehension; grouping 3-5 students to work on story maps allows low-achieving students to be placed in roles of academic value while being exposed to the skills of higher level readers |
*Silverman, Linda K. (1995). Effective techniques for teaching highly gifted visual-spatial learners. RIE, accessed October 22, 2002 in the ERIC database, ED418535.
**Ostoits, Jean. (1999). Reading
strategies for students with ADD and ADHD in the inclusive classroom.
Preventing School Failure, 43(3), 129.
Preferred Learning Styles of Ethnic Groups
| Ewing | African Americans | kinesthetic |
| Chinese Americans | visual | |
| Mexican Americans | see & do rather than listen | |
| Hickson | African, Asian, Hispanic Americans, White | kinesthetic most popular, visual & audio = least |
| More | Native American | visual-spatial, global |
| Park | Armenian American | visual |
| Korean American | visual | |
| Mexican American | visual, groups | |
| girls across all groups | kinesthetic |
Ewing, Norma J. (1992, March). A comparative study of the learning style preferences among gifted African-American, Mexican-American, and American born Chinese middle grade students. Roeper Review, 14 (3), 120.
Hickson, Joyce, Arthur J. Land and Grace Aikman. (1994). Learning style differences in middle school pupils from four ethnic backgrounds. School Psychology International, 15, 349.
More, Arthur J. (1990). Learning styles of Native Americans and Asians. Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Psychology Association (98th Boston, Ma, August 13, 1990). RIE, accessed October 22, 2002 in the ERIC database, ED330535.
Park, Clara C. Learning style preferences
of Korean, Mexican, Armenian-American, and Anglo students in secondary
schools. NASSP Bulletin, 81 (n585), 103.