Improving Digit Span - Need ideas!

Brainbuilder is a computer progam that can be used to increase digit span

Increasing digit span is directly dependent on the visualizing numbers. First I would use Visualizing and Verbalizing by Lindamood-Bell and then their On Cloud Nine for visualizing numbers. A person can have good visualizing for language but weak visualizing of numbers. These programs are really great and are very easy to present. You can buy the books from Gander publishing and present to the child without training. I was trained on both and would recommend it, but not necessary. The books cost around $40 each.

Shay,

Maybe this explains why I have a devil of a time remembering numbers but can remember most anything else!!!

Beth

Numbers are not my strength either! I just re-read your post about Brainbuilder in response to one of my earlier posts. Thanks for explaining it. It sounds like it may be helpful.

Oooooh LMB books!!!! :-) Now that I may actually be able to afford. Thanks for sharing this information!

My son has excellent visualizing of building pieces and game boards (chess, checkers, Othello), but lacks with language and numbers. Also, poor short-term memory.

Somehow, I’m going to have to teach him how to “use” his memory.

I agree that Brainbuilder etc may work but I would try the Lindamood-Bell programs, first. Some of the kids that have low digit span also have problems with visualizing language. I have remediated kids with all combinations. Strong auditory memory, low visual memory; strong auditory memory and after remediation in decoding, strong visual memory, (like in the old definition of dyslexia: severe reading disability, only in decoding with high visualizing math skills, like my own daughter). These two programs are also used with some ADD kids. These kids may not be able to see the whole picture when reading or observing projects. These are the ones that can’t remember directions because they can’t visualize what they hear and in what sequence. I also use this in class after I have remediated the decoding skills. Older kids that have had low reading skills all their life, after remediation, really don’t know what is important in either a story or more importantly, content area. My kids in Grafton Schools taught me that. After they were reading at about a fourth or fifth grade level, (from a first or second), I put them in content books from Kids In Between, and told them that the questions after each chapter were concerning the bold words. The kids looked at me with a strange look on their faces and one raised his hand and asked, ” What is a bold word?” After that, I never took anything for granted after remediation. I think that poor visualization is one of the biggest problems in not only math but also language itself. I blame this on two things: 1. We have taken grammar out of the school and most elementary ed kids don’t know that adjectives and adverbs, let alone prep phrases, don’t even exist. These parts of speech result in the pictures in our mind. Concerning visualizing numbers, we don’t expect the kids to remember the multiplication tables, just give them a calculator. My kids, in eleventh grade, can’t even add or subtract without one. This is a real problem and Lindamood-Bell’s programs are very effective and fun. Visualizing vocabulary is another great comprehension tool. I do a lot of work on comprehension skills in HS.

I remember discovering that my students had no idea that italics mean to stress that word — just telling them “say those words louder” helped (especially for those who were still figuring out how to “listen” as they read silently).

I agree it’s best to tackle more than the “digit span.” I mean, you can practice remembering numbers by just watching for license plates and visualizing them forwards and backwards… gee, you’ll do better on a digit span test but will it help you anywhere else in life besides being a witness to hit & runs?

When I had a crush on my math teacher I endeavored to memorize more and more of the digits of pi. I found myself hearing the numbers as pitches and/or seeing them as notes up and down a scale. Makes me wonder about what other subtle positive side effects those few years of piano lessons had.

My own digit span is limited, and I tend frequently to reverse. When I was seriously ill with pneumonia and complications my digit span dropped so low I couldn’t recite back phone numbers from Information and had to be sure to have pen in hand every time I went to the phone, and boy, was it frustrating. That’s a three-four grouped digit span, pretty low. I also have an Honours degree in math and am very good at arithmetic (the two don’t always go together).

I remember numbers by reciting them verbally in a rhythm, including for a joke pi to 25 places. I visualize a whiteboard to compute, but remember verbally. I discovered a very odd thing calling information in Quebec; I have to recite the numbers back in French, as I don’t translate them or visualize them, but they are there in French.

My daughter claims that she does not visualize at all, period. She went through a period of very weak eyesight as a child (high fevers and retinal damage) and although some healing occurred and she is compensated to almost normal vision, she simply didn’t learn to use visualization as a tool. She remembers everything, including advanced math, verbally. She memorized pi to twenty-five places as a preschooler because she heard me doing it to be silly — people make such fun of math majors — and it was a cute party trick. She decided being a physics major was not for her and went into linguistics and anthropology, but she had enough math and science that the physics was an option if she had wanted to do it. With no visualization at all.

From what I hear V/V sounds like a wonderful program and I wish I’d been able to use something like it with my daughter. I’m not saying that lack of visualization is desirable. But there are other ways to compensate at times.

I’m not certain it’s visualization. I know there’s a memory and word retrival problem. Also, he cannot always recall events that have occurred, names and also the names of objects. According to the school’s testing he has an above average IQ and scores very well on their (although he’s failing in school).

What I’d really like to find is the best way to teach him how to use and build his memory. Perhaps Digit Span is not the answer, but maybe there’s something else?

I think the problem is more than reading. Difficulty in reading is the byproduct of his inability to use his mind. And sadly, this is a kid who tries. He wants to learn and is very frustrated with his poor memory. I just wish I could find something that might help.

I’ll share with you what I learned from being on program with NACD. They have a very different philosophy than any organization that I have found. (I’m not advocating they are right or wrong - just what I learned from them).

They REALLY stress building up your digit span (this is one of the most important things you can do from their perspective). Almost ALL their LD kids have very low digit spans in either auditory, visual or both. As part of their evaluation, they also will check to see if the person is a strong visualizer or a conceptualizer. Ideally, you should be balanced. But their observation is that many LD people are very strong/very weak in one or the other. If you are lopsided, they will want you first to build your base digit span to a level 6(they also take into consideration your age) - then they will start adding programs that will either help you to better visualize or better conceptualize.

Brainbuilder alone will help increase your digit span. But it does not increase working memory. As part of our program, we did Brainbuilder 15min 2x per day. Then we also ‘sequenced’ many things into the day (5min. 4x per day). Making up short stories - a sequence of 3 events, then 4, then 5 etc. Treasure hunts (find 3, 4, 5 etc) items. Repeating sequences of items etc.

We saw direct acedemic improvement from using Brainbuilder(went from a level 3 to a ‘weak’ 7 in about 9 months- but it was a very painful 9 months!). From a visualizing perspective, my dd can visualize/image something if she is given a picture clue of some sort. What she couldn’t do, is visualize something if it was presented auditorily to her. PACE seems to have really improved this. (She also learned that repeating back to herself, helped ‘stick’ it into memory).

Hi Dee,
Thanks for sharing that. I think a good combination of things is probably worth trying to see what does work best in the long run.

Right now I’m testing him daily on digit span. My daughter wanted to be tested too (she has an excellent memory and a pretty good digit span). What was interesting is that she automatically knew to repeat the numbers to herself (making it easier to have a larger digit span). I don’t know if my son would have guessed this on his own, but since he realized she was doing this, he is now repeating it to himself too. Sometimes I think part of it is just learning “how” to use one’s brain. Some people just know how to make better use of it.

I’m also trying Verbal Intelligence. Have you ever tried this with your daughter?

I think you are on to something here. I was doing a visual memory exercise with my son and asked him to go through systematically and tell me about everything in the picture. Then he had to remember things. I have noticed now that he tells himself verbally what he has seen while he never used to. He would just look at a picture. Like your child, my son seems to be able to remember more using this tactic.

Beth

Laura, What you are describing is just what Visualizing and Verbalizing does. It increases comprehension. Two main groups of people that use V/V strategies are pre-law and pre-med students. They have to have high levels of comprehension in order to get in to law and med programs. These are easy and fun programs to use and I think that your son would benefit. This is not a reading program and if your son can’t remember things, it may very well be a visualizing problem. Laura wrote:
>
> I’m not certain it’s visualization. I know there’s a memory
> and word retrival problem. Also, he cannot always recall
> events that have occurred, names and also the names of
> objects. According to the school’s testing he has an above
> average IQ and scores very well on their (although he’s
> failing in school).
>
> What I’d really like to find is the best way to teach him how
> to use and build his memory. Perhaps Digit Span is not the
> answer, but maybe there’s something else?
>
> I think the problem is more than reading. Difficulty in
> reading is the byproduct of his inability to use his mind.
> And sadly, this is a kid who tries. He wants to learn and is
> very frustrated with his poor memory. I just wish I could
> find something that might help.

I’m not familiar with that program? Is this the same as Language Wise? I loaned my Language Wise book to a teacher and never got it back. I need to order a new one - that’s on our agenda for next year!

My dd needs help in increasing her Verbal IQ (she has a 30 pt split between verbal and performance).

Hi Dea,
Yes it’s language wise!

Since I’m relatively new to this, is there such a thing as letter span? Perhaps my expectations are too high and I’m being unrealistic. But I decided to try something new with my son. Since we’re working on digit span, I thought I’d try helping my son possibly learn some of the more difficult words on his weekly spelling test (these are the words which he is excused from having to spell) by trying a “letter span” game. I try to make this as non-stressful as possible. It’s suppose to be more “for fun” and I’ve let him know that it’s not a problem if he can’t get them. But the way I tried it is this….

I told him the word (“valleys” was one of the words). Then I told him the letters (and I blocked them together - like you’d do with a phone number - in an attempt to make it easier to remember). We worked on a word numerous times. I repeated the name, the letters and even after numerous tries. He cannot repeat the spelling. He can do it, if I break the word in half. But he cannot remember a string of letters this long. He can spell phonetic words about 4 letters long and can spell compound words. But for some reason he cannot remember the spelling of longer words. I’m a little worried about this. He does have his letter sounds well.

I’m not sure if this is language, visual or a word retrival problem.

Hi Laura,

I just came back from a LMB conference in Anaheim, and I took a class there on their “Symbol Imagery” test. This is exactly what you are talking about, the ability to hold a string of letters in memory. The test has 50 points possible, and though national norms are not yet available, there are some “suggested” grade level scores and average ranges.

It was an interesting class on the test, and the research about how this supports reading and spelling was also impressive. However, I did not find the case studies about how the SI program (it’s called Seeing Stars) that LMB offers at their clinics very convincing in their remediation of this program. I plan to use the SI test, however, to see if there are other ways to impact this ability, as I’m sure there probably is a connection with the ability to spell, especially longer non-phonetic words, which there certainly are plenty of in the English language!

It’s possible also that there is a connection with the ability known as “Rapid Automatic Naming. Has your son had the RAN test, or the CTOPP? The LMB people thought the Symbol Imagery Test was much more highly correlated than Rapid Naming with spelling problems, but I’m not convinced of that personally, though it may affect reading more. Anyway, it’s an interesting question, thanks for posting!

Sharon
www.angelfire.com/on2/thepuzzle

people don’t generally remember strings of letters longer than a syllable — and if it’s a long syllable, they chunk it down further (str-e-tch). In my experience, it’s learning to chunk the words that really helps the reading and spelling (it’s a key part of lots of reaidng programs and it’s pretty funny to listen to picky teachers discuss the finer points of exactly where to break a word apart… IMHO, teach it in one of the many ways that does make sense but do that consistently and you’ll be okay).

The key to valley is hearing the “val” syllable and remembering those three letters, and the”ley” syllable and learning those. Those of us who come by this spelling stuff naturally intuitively recognize that — hey, the end of a *noun* with the “eee” sound is usually -ey (monkey, turkey, chimney, money). Amazing what happens when you *tell* a kid who didn’t realize that, and practice looking for the pattern.

KNowing your “chunk size” can be very powerful. Sure, work on building it — but in the meantime, learn the chunks three or four letters at a time. (Actually, practicing at three and then sneaking in those longer syllables like “tion” probably would stretch that memory out.)