At what age does our eagerness to listen and learn prevail over visual stimulation in our surroundings? I wonder.
In certain instances a great speaker can really hold my interest. But in most cases, I am still the visual learner, taking in as much or more from my eyes than my ears. I've worked (and continue to work) on this, by retaining interesting bits of talk radio, for example, and have improved over time, but still visual stimulation seems to dominate my auditory capabilities. Is that just a part of being "me"? I believe so. In truth, I hold fast to this and proudly carry it in silent tribute to my father in his absence.
Volunteering in my daughter's kindergarten classroom really brought this forward in my mind. "... Only glue one side of your black rectangle to make a door ..." the teacher explained, all the while my eyes absorbed construction-paper skeletons, or wondered about the little boy wringing his hands. Um, oh what is she saying now? It's a bright stimulating environment, created this way to engage the children. It works. Perhaps too well at times.
Add a camera to the mix and takes more attention from the words. Part of my job this day was to take pictures for the class memory book and I'm sure my doing so only interfered with the lesson in "following instructions."
Taking a picture of someone is like looking inside them; it's completely personal. Kids know this intuitively. Some couldn't wait for me to direct my lens their way, while others were clearly uncomfortable not knowing me at all. At times I made sure to shoot from my hip so they wouldn't feel me seeing them.
As my glance made my way 'round to my daughter's table, I noticed she was a step ahead of some, following each direction to the letter. She has a long attention span for projects and could work on them independently for (literally) hours. She listened, she heard, she learned and applied. Hmmm ... a visual and audible learner ... didn't know that before. Well, on second thought, she does retain nearly every word of the car radio. I just hadn't put it all together.
Evidently it's not a matter of age then, but maybe something in the way we're wired. I'm so glad she has this dual-learning advantage. That will take her far. As for me? ... where was I going with this ... Um, I was distracted by some new pictures from the weekend.