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Print Catalog |
Learning Abilities Books CatalogVisual Memory and Perception,
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Fiction (includes Visual Impairment) Visual/Auditory/LD
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by Addie Cusimano
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With our emphasis on multimodalilty learning, sometimes we don't pay enough attention to visual learning. Although other modalities are important, about 80% of learning takes place visually.
People who have visual memory deficiencies, especially in the area of visual sequential memory for words, need to be taught to develop this skill. Yet, in the interest of "right reading strategies" we have not met the needs of students in the teaching of this essential skill. Achieve: A Visual Memory Program was designed to fill that gap. This highly effective program teaches visual memory of words for reading, writing, and spelling. Children do not have to be readers to begin this program. Pre-schoolers and kindergarten children who can name and print the letters of the alphabet can begin visual memory development for words at the first level. Teach phonics including common word parts, syllabication, and sight vocabulay. Help stroke patients and others with brain injuries to redevelop the brain to recognize and remember vocabulary. The program uses carefully chosen words in a controlled fashion to make sure that there is an overlapping which insures students will make good gains in sequential memory of words. Achieve: A Visual Memory Program is a wonderful teaching tool for doctors of optometry who offer vision therapy to children with visual tracking and visual memory weaknesses. Use with individuals, small groups, or classrooms. Detailed instructions included. Order Now!
Achieve Levels I, II, III, IV
Achieve Levels I & II
Achieve Levels III & IV
Achieve Levels V & VI |
Visual Discrimination by Addie Cusimano
There is a real need for ready-made developmentally presented teaching material that can be used to teach visual discrimination particularly for the most commonly misperceived words such as was, saw, this, that, where, there. Other publications often teach discrimination between abstract figures, colors, size, etc. Although that is important, research shows that this training often does not transfer over into recognizing similarities and differences in words. As the expression goes, "If you want to learn to ride a horse, climb into the saddle." Be sure to read my lesson about similarities-differences training. This is based on my master's thesis. Addie Cusimano is a reading specialist with many years of experience. She designed Visual Discrimination: Noting Differences in Frequently Misperceived Words basing its structure on her success with students in her school. It is presented in a step by step fashion using techniques that are tremendously effective in helping students to focus on the differences between these commonly confused similar words. The book also helps with left-right eye-movement, a skill that is essential for the development of good visual discrimination of words. Notice my lesson plan which uses an effective strategy for remembering right and left. Included in the workbook is an explanation of the program and detailed directions so that the teacher or parent who uses this material will clearly understand the purpose and procedure. It is important to review this section. |
for the Development of Auditory Listening, Processing, and Recall of Numbers, Letters, and Words by Addie Cusimano About the Author
You suspect that something is wrong. You get the report from the psychologist or other diagnostician. The popular Test of Auditory Perceptual Skills indicates auditory problems. Of course, you need to have an audiologist rule out the possiblities of sensory-neural or conductive hearing loss including ear wax build-up. There is no physical problem. What is a parent or teacher to do? Now get help from an inexpensive workbook, the Auditory Sequential Memory Instructional Workbook: for the Development of Auditory Listening, Processing and Recall of Numbers, Letters, and Words. It includes a reproducible record sheet and a sample record sheet with the teacher's markings on it.
I have used this technique for a number of years with students at my school and with students I tutor. The results are amazing! They find it much easier to learn number facts, remember lists of words for social studies and science, and recall the sequential order of letters when learning to spell words.
In school, much information is presented in context but a sizable portion is not. Students must develop the skill of being able to attend, listen, and recall information presented in a series so that it can be applied to the learning of such skills as mathematical number facts, the spelling of words, and the recall of lists of words for social studies and science. It has also been determined that within the area of the brain which processes information in isolation or sequential order, each aspect (numbers, letters, and words) is specific to itself. Therefore, a student who has mastered the skill of number memory might not have developed the skill of remembering letters and words, or visa versa. For this reason, it is essential to consider the development of all three areas (numbers, letters and words) separately. Remediation must be done by starting at the level that is comfortable for the student, and then gradually increasing, in a developmental fashion, the amount of information to which the student can attend and recall. While the use of diagnostic tests is the best way to determine if a student has an auditory sequential memory weakness, there are other signs that can indicate a weakness in this area [a possible need for testing]. For example, ... if the teacher has to spell the word slowly, letter by letter, or two letters at a time because the student is unable to attend and hold a longer series of letters in his mind; this is a clear indication that the student needs to expand his auditory sequential memory of letters. Help develop skills of attending, listening, and recalling a series of numbers, letters, and words thus improving memorization of number facts, equations, lists of words for any subject, and the sequential order of letters for spelling. Auditory Sequential Memory Instructional Workbook: for the Development of Auditory Listening, Processing, and Recall of Numbers, Letters, and Words |
by Addie Cusimano About the Author
The author wrote this book to present her research which offers tremendous improvement in the reading and learning levels of all students. Table of Contents Book Description (Taken From Back Cover of Book) ...For years educators, in search of the right reading approach for all children, have switched from a sight approach, to a phonetic approach, to linguistic, to whole language, and now, also to an integrated approach. Yet, none have proved to be completely effective. ...Addie Cusimano's program has been used with consistent success at a private learning center that she operated for many years. ... She discusses many overlooked facets of learning, thinking, writing, studying, and reading skills development. She offers solutions which have been long sought after by professionals and parents. Her preface is that learning disabled students can and should be cured at an elementary level, and that the best reading approach is one that would incorporate many more facets of learning than are presently taught. Ms. Cusimano's book, based on her many years of experience and success with the diagnosis and remediation of students with learning disabilities, offers a refreshing and assured method for the solution of America's academic woes. Learning Disabilities: There is a Cure |
Questions have been asked about preschoolers who need help with auditory and visual memory. Educational Therapist, Addie Cusimano, points out that her book, The Auditory Sequential Memory Instructional Workbook, can be used with pre-schoolers. There is a diagnostic test called the Test of Auditory-Perceptual Skills by Morrison F. Gardner that actually begins with children age 4.0. This test includes subtests for auditory sequential memory that begin with two numbers and two words. The average 5.4 year old is able to recall a series of three numbers and three words. Mrs. Cusimano's workbook can easily be adapted to help pre-schoolers advance auditory sequential memory of letters, numbers, and words. She recommends beginning visual memory teaching using the workbook sold by Academic Therapy Publications titled Symbol Discrimination and Sequencing. It was designed originally to teach visual memory of symbols, pictures, letters and numbers. Mrs. Cusimano suggests that the instructor have the child look at the series at the top of the page for five seconds, then cover it up and ask the child to find the same sequence below. It begins with two items and gradually works up to five items in sequential order. After the child has reached a three letter span in this workbook, he or she should be ready for Achieve: A Visual Memory Program Level I & then II. Students can be taught to develop visual recall of words even before they can actually read. They are developing recall of letters in sequential order and then spelling and finally, with the teacher, reading the words. Pre-schoolers who recognize and can write letters love Achieve I & II! |
Addie Cusimano is an educational therapist who has been active in the field of education for more than thirty years. She received a B. S. degree in education with psychology as a concentration. She also earned a M.S. degree in education with reading as a concentration. She holds New York State and Pennsylvania classroom teacher and reading specialist certifications. She has taken supplementary graduate courses in the field of learning disabilities and has done extensive independent research and clinical studies in this field. Ms. Cusimano has worked as a classroom teacher and reading specialist for New York State public school systems. She was director, diagnostician and clinician of a private learning center in New York State for close to twenty years. The center specialized in working with learning disabled students but also offered programs for slow learners, average students and an advanced program for gifted children.
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Used with permission from the author's website. "Memory is a facet of learning that may be thought of as the ability of sensory storage systems to hold perceived events…Without memory it is inconceivable that learning could take place." (Bangs 1968 p.32) Visual memory involves the ability to store and retrieve previously experienced visual sensations and perceptions when the stimulus that originally evoked them is no longer present. That is, the student must be capable of making a vivid visual image in his mind of the stimulus (word) and once the stimulus (word) is removed to be able to revisualize or recall this image without help. Various researchers have estimated that as much as 80% of all learning takes place through the eye (Ferrald & Schamber 1973) with visual memory existing as a crucial aspect of learning. Children who have not developed their visual memory skills cannot readily reproduce a sequence of visual stimuli. They frequently experience difficulty in remembering or recognizing words previously taught and revisualizing how words look or the letter sequence of words for reading and spelling. They may know the letters in words but cannot remember their order, or they may know the initial letters and configuration of the words without perceiving the details (the subsequent letters) of the words. As a result, these students fail to develop a good sight vocabulary and frequently experience serious writing and spelling difficulties. In her work with students Cusimano observed that many students with visual memory problems did not really look at words. She discovered that these students needed to improve their inspection of letters in words in order to be adequately prepared for the process of developing visual memory of words. Researchers have revealed that in our short term memory we can hold only about six units of information. They have also concluded that the more related to each other the bits of information are, the more likely they are to be retained as a single unit of information (Hittleman 1979). For example, the letters y,a,p,p,h will be retained as five separate units of information, while the rearrangement of these letters into meaningful units, or syllables (hap py) will cause them to be retained as two related units making up a meaningful whole. Cusimano discovered that students with poorly developed visual memory were unable to visually analyze words into their constituent sound units (to break words down into syllables) or to recognize the visual syllabic patterns in words. They were not looking at words in terms of common word parts or syllables. As a result, a word like spark would be viewed as s p a r k and not grouped into the common word parts of sp ark. She found that these students were attempting to take in multisyllable words as a whole unit or as single letter units, failing to break words down into meaningful retainable unit lengths. Thus, a multisyllabic word like interesting would be viewed as the single letter units i n t e r e s t i n g instead of in ter est ing. Basing her work on this observation, Cusimano spent three years in the designing of a program to develop visual memory of words that would force students to attend to the details of words and teach them how to view words in terms of common word parts and syllables. The culmination of her efforts resulted in the program, Achieve: A Visual Memory Program, which has been used and evaluated for more than sixteen years with hundreds of students in grades 1-12 with astounding results. It has been determined that the average child going through the first four levels has made a 60% gain in visual recall of words. Order Now! Achieve Levels I, II, III, IV
Achieve Levels I & II
Achieve Levels III & IV
Achieve Levels V & VI Bangs, Tina E., Language and Learning Disorders of the Pre-Academic Child. New York, Meredith Corporation, 1968. Order 1982 edition from Amazon.com or BN.com. Farrald, Robert R., Shamber, Richard G., A Diagnostic and Prescriptive Technique: A Mainstream Approach to Identification, Assessment and Amelioration of Learning Disabilities. Sioux Falls, South Dakota, Adapt Press 1973. Not at Amazon.com or BN.com. Frierson, Edward C., Barbe, Walter B., Educating Children with Learning Disabilities. New York, Meredith Corporation, 1967. Not at Amazon.com or BN.com. Hittleman, Daniel R., Developmental Reading: A Psycholinguistic Perspective. Chicago, Rand Mc Nally College Publishing Company 1978. Order from Amazon.com or BN.com, Lerner, Janet W., Children with Learning Disabilities. Boston, Houghton Mifflin Company 1971. I highly recommend the recent revision of this book which I used as a textbook. Order Learning Disabilities: Theories, Diagnosis and Teaching Strategies from Amazon.com or BN.com. |
