Verbal vs. Visual Thinkers - Angela Gonzales, MD

Dr. Angela Gonzales, Dyslexia and ADD specialist, shares advice on the difference between verbal thinkers and visual thinkers and how parents can help their child depending on their learning style.

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[virginiahernandez]

Finally! Someone who makes sense and understands children

[jesseleeward]

I am a verbal thinker but I am an animator and a visual artist. A lot of my students are visual thinkers.

Art history is a good way to bridge the gap. Understanding the connection between words and visual images. And using your verbal thinking to empathize with what students are trying to articulate.

Sometimes I have to turn my verbal thinking off, or talk myself through the process of solving visual problems.

There is, in animation, a definate
refined concept -crude style
Or
Refined style- crude concept
Dichotomy.

[reeju]

Thank you. I've been ridiculed by a supervisor whose said something is wrong with me, even that I ramble my words. I always knew that I see everything I'm pictures in my mind, but feel I can't describe them accurately verbally.

[MichaelJE]

I came here because I was trying to explain how I was visualizing in my head how to crochet a klein bottle hat, starting with a normal beanie, and did not expect a video about ADD/ADHD (which I have) at all.
Thank you for the mind-blown epiphany!

[TheLostGirl]

I have visual aphantasia, so I can't think in pictures. At all. I'm mentally blind.

But I think in abstract concepts, ideas, create connections between them at lightning speed.

And these tend to come up in single words or "feelings" and impressions and even impulsive bursts of creativity to see if a concept works.

And I definitely have ADHD.

I can mentally create sounds, physical sensations, smells and tastes.

But no visual imagery.

So there's a bit of an issue here claiming that ADHD people are visual thinkers if I have access to virtually everything but visual thoughts.

[jadeorchid]

school tends to make everyone a verbal thinker could not do it worst grades in verbal i am a visual thinker and sometimes have felt out of sorts because i felt different great video!

[marcelacranz]

I love your explanation it is short and clear. Thank you for understanding different types of children.

[lolly]

This is all new to me. Thought I was just not getting it this is how I think. I had to do two spatial reasoning tests in school. I really enjoyed manipulating the 2D boxes into 3D and selecting the right one it was fun. My mum was called into the guidance counselor and turned out I was in the top 5% score in the country and we're guiding me towards architecture, engineering or dentistry. I just said I wanted to be a marine scientist and we left. Didn't really know what it meant but that makes sense now

[nouanni]

I think I'm a verbal thinker but I can also think visually if I want to, it's just not as easy for me and I have to concentrate more

[ArtsyMegz_On_Etsy]

If I see pictures and videos in my head, but hear some audio within some of the videos, then does that mean that I border on being a verbal thinker? I mostly just hear audio in videos of things that already happened, and am repeating an entire memory in my head. But I struggle to predict FUTURE interactions, due to autism. The reason why we autistic people often don't talk much is because of the fact that we can't predict someone's reaction to whatever we want to say, and it kind of paralyzes me and gives me social phobia when I can't predict whether someone will give me a pleasant response, or give me an angry response. I think that this would stall a lot of people. Since I don't understand why people say or do certain things (e.g. I can't figure out why someone would want to engage in small talk with a stranger, when you are just looking at the same grocery shelf for 10 or 20 seconds). I therefore find people unpredictable, but yet, they think that I'M the weirdo. I have now come to understand that me and typical everyday people see each other as weird; unless they are autistic (then I generally understand their thinking quite well). But anyways, lol . . . yeah, I seem to be a visual thinker.

[triplec]

Wait who says that adhd add children are all visual thinkers? I am diagnosed but I largely think verbally and test high in IQ on spatial ability.

[zzdogger]

I don't think visual vs. verbal thinking is so tied to creativity or ADHD in this way (though creativity and ADHD could be linked).
I say this because my thinking is 100% verbal; that is my 'primary' train of thought takes the form of complete sentences, exactly like I would say them if I were talking to myself aloud or rambling. Always. If I'm not talking out loud the speech has just gone inside.

I am also, my far and large, the most creative person I know and, as far as I know, have ADHD. Despite my thoughts taking the forms of speech I have no problem visualizing things. For example, 3D printing is one of my (many many) hobbies and I oftentimes think about some weird contraption/idea, visualize how it needs to work, the shapes of each component, where/how/if they need to connect, what kind of extra hardware I might need vs. what I have handy vs. what else can I use as an improvised spring/pin/etc, meanwhile simultaneously I have my never-ending internal monologue where I'm essentially talking to myself about all of the above. I come up with a rough draft of my idea before I even start making sketches by visualizing a way I could build it and 'talking' out problems/challenges as I run into them in my imagination.


If anyone actually read that let me know if you agree or not; I'm very curious to know if anyone else would describe their thinking this way. From my understanding whether you think in words or in images is separate from your ability to visualize things. The best description of image-thinkers I've heard is that their thoughts take the form of flashes of images instead of internal speech like I described, which I can't even really wrap my head around because in my brain, my thoughts are automatically converted into words.

tl;dr - All of thoughts are in complete sentences, I have ADHD, and I'm very creative.

[milkyway_]

I can’t imagine what visual thinking is, but can’t speak well either.
I guess visual is, when you prefer underlining your homework to see better the important parts?
I can express myself well in writing, but sound unintelligent when I speak. I’m very bad at memorizing for ex. poems, but will remember forever what can be explained logically. I can draw pretty well, but only if a picture is in front of me.

Can somebody break it down what’s the meaning of the way I think? I am always interested how the brain works, and analyzing myself/others. However, I don’t have much experience on how left/right brain works yet.

[Confused_pickles]

What if you don't think visually or verbally

[SaltyPancakesJrThend]

Welp I have ADHD and Im aphantasic, meaning I see nothing in my mind when I think

[xmistaxcashxcoll]

I'm both! Lmao it is both visual!

[georgepantzikis]

This is a very good message but th idea that "visual" thinkers can think up to 40 times faster than "verbal" thinkers is just ridiculous. A visual thinker might be able to tell you the details of a system they have conceptualised visually faster than someone who has to explain the system to themselves every time (though even then 40x seems a bit of a reach), however the fact of the matter is that people don't think like this. Being a verbal thinker doesn't mean you literally have an internal monologue at the speed of spoken language narrating your thoughts. It's a conceptual kind of thing. If the majority of the human population could only think in linguistic sentences, then most people wouldn't be able to rotate a shape in their heads or even imagine a simple picture. I am a verbal thinker and, while not as good at it as a visual thinker, I am perfectly able to conjure an image in my mind's eye.