Giftedness doesn't always come in the same package.
Sometimes people have "Upside-Down Brilliance"
"Upside-down Brilliance" is the name given by Linda Silverman to Visual-Spatial Learners. This is another kind of intelligence or giftedness, and one that is often unrecognized. If the description below fits you or your children, check out the Visual Spatial link on the left side of the page to find out more.
How to Spot a Spatial
Betty Maxwell, M.A.
Just for fun, here are some clues to help you recognize those picture thinkers lurking in your environment. Certainly not all traits listed will fit any one visual-spatial learner. Some clues may surprise you!
Picture thinkers may: be lost in space...seethe with impatience (a picture is worth a thousand words and is grasped instantly; everything else is slow motion) ...have terrible handwriting...have a wild imagination...hate timed tests, especially Mad Math Minutes...do math in the head and hate to write any of it out...have the right answers but not be able to show any steps (what steps?)...get math concepts but be poor with math facts and calculation...be good with maps, directions...draw or doodle while you talk... talk engagingly but write meagerly...know what’s on the floors above and below them... know how to get anywhere they’ve been once...ask many questions...be absent-minded, lose everything...be The Mess!...take forever to finish what they’re supposed to do...know material but do poorly on detail-oriented tests...agonize over multiple choice questions; they’re all right in a way...have strong emotions...be able to recite whole movie plots but not summarize...the main idea is a foreign concept...have original ideas, be inventive... may work backwards or start in the middle of a task... have poor phonemic awareness... guess at many words...be better with sight words...be forever late with projects...astound you with flashes of brilliance...think uniquely...search for words and gesture a lot...be rotten spellers...daydream...be computer wizards...be oh! so sensitive...have sudden enthusiasms...be artists, musicians, actors, inventors, , engineers, surgeons, architects, stage directors, physicists, computer programmers, pilots, wealthy entrepreneurs ---or their children!
This information is from the Visual Spatial website.
