REEZA AWOODUN Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder at TechEdology. Reeza’s passion is making it easy for users with neuro differences or cognitive challenges to use visual thinking techniques to retain information, develop higher order thinking skills and be able to write with more confidence. He draws upon 24 years working within the assistive technology and edtech space. reeza.awoodun@techedology.com
RUBY PETTIFER , Associate Publisher at TechEdology. Ruby has worked in assistive technology and edtech since 2020 and in her role at TechEdology, leads the development of our flagship visual thinking software, Inspira - tion. Ruby champions simplicity of use and accessibility, and ensures the software enhances thinking skills and has pedagogical benefits. ruby.pettifer@techedology.com
CHALLENGES FOR NEURODIVERSE LEARNERS… Research with our neurodiverse users discussing the chal- lenges presented by their diagnosis has identified the following needs that can affect the ability for higher order thinking:
RETAINING INFORMATION They struggle to remember key facts, as the information isn't communicated in an optimal format to be processed and re- tained into their long-term memory. COMMUNICATING IN WRITING Writing is a complex task with multiple stages - pre-writing, drafting, editing and reviewing. For coherent writing, you have to remember what you've written and what you intend to write. Simultaneously, formatting requirements, vocabulary, spelling, grammar and referencing can all add extra pressure to cognitive load. Neuro-typcial learners can struggle with this, let alone stu- dents with neuro differences! WHAT ARE VISUAL THINKING STRATEGIES? We describe Visual Thinking Strategies as: “A method of combining visual cues such as symbols, images and colour, with verbal cues such as keywords and phrases; to organize information, identify relationships and generate new insight.” It is a graphical way of processing information and tasks; breaking them down into its parts, in a creative non-linear for- mat. Often these visual outputs are referred to as graphic or- ganizers, using proven techniques that have been popularized over time: mind maps, concept maps, flow charts, tree diagrams, Venn diagrams and more. POPULAR VISUAL THINKING STRATEGIES There are so many visual techniques, but we will focus on three of the most popular ones in education - mind maps, con- cept maps and outlines.
• Short-term memory and processing • Information retention and revision • Focus and concentration • Organizing and structuring ideas • Managing tasks • Motivation
How do these needs impact their learning?
IDEA GENERATION Most tasks require an element of idea generation to kick things off. Complex tasks such as academic writing can trigger cognitive overload, overwhelming the learner's ability to think clearly, often described as the "blank page syndrome". They may be swamped with lots of unstructured ideas, and so struggle to capture this coherently verbally or in a linear text format. ORGANIZING IDEAS Users commonly describe not being able to visualize how ideas relate to one another in their mind's eye. Therefore they cannot form a mental picture of how ideas should be organized. This impacts the learner's ability to plan and organize their thinking and work, leading to a chaotic-looking output. UNDERSTANDING CONCEPTS The format of information presented to the learner can be unsuited to how they best comprehend and synthesize complex topics, so they are unable to mentally process the ideas, identify how multiple concepts relate to one another and combine this with prior knowledge.
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