Visual Notetaking and Learning Disabilities

Note taking! It’s important. And for years it was only working for one student at my house. My older child, now in college, is the master of organization. His notebooks were filled with perfect penmanship and lined up in a tidy row, his lab books were filled with structured, ordered details, and his class notes were items of wonder. But for my younger child, well. Notes, along with everything else that required structured organization, were not working out.

The cracks in my younger son’s ability to follow lectures and take notes first showed in middle school and only grew as his classes became more difficult and complex. He has dysgraphia, a disability of written expression, as well as auditory processing disorder, which keeps him from being able to take in a large amount of verbal information. The more complex things get, the more he misses. This combination of writing and auditory disabilities made following lectures and taking notes impossible for him. His papers weren’t wrong — they were blank.

My son isn’t the only kid out there struggling with note taking. The research does show that all kids get better at note taking over time. But the difference between learning disabled and typical students is stark.

For more typical learners, note taking starts out as a struggle; middle school students, on average, record about a quarter (24%) of the information presented to them, and that rises to about half (46%) when teachers emphasize the importance of a specific point. But by college, they usually have note taking figured out. College-level typical learners capture about half (56%) of important information, rising to three-quarters (77%) when the instructor emphasizes a point.

In other words, throughout their educational careers, learning disabled students take notes that are much less useful than their typically learning counterparts’ notes.

A common accommodation in college is having a fellow student provide copies of their own notes, but this accommodation’s usefulness  is limited by that student’s note taking  ability, and, as one parent explained, whether the note provider actually shows up for the class. Also, when students aren’t taking notes themselves, they move from being active learners, involved in the material, to passive learners. Research shows that active learning increases recall and understanding.

I knew that note taking was an important skill that I needed to teach to my child, but it led to constant arguing. We would watch a video and I would tell him to take written notes, but he kept drawing pictures. I kept telling him no. He was in high school and he couldn’t take any notes, follow any lectures, or recall anything. Finally I begged his occupational therapist for help. “Let him draw,” she said. She sent me a link to a website called Sketchnote Army. Still unconvinced, I asked his speech therapist. She told me that research supports drawing for comprehension. We decided to test it for recall, too.

Since my son has auditory processing disorder, his SLP read aloud Plato’s “Allegory of the Cave” and instructed my son step by step on taking visual notes. A week later she asked him the main points of the reading. He remembered nothing. Then he looked at his visual notes, remembered everything, and was able to explain the main points of the reading. Since then,  his SLP has incorporated visual note taking into his weekly sessions to improve his auditory processing.

I was convinced. I bought the Sketchnote Handbook.

The first half of the book was not made for children, but can be used by a parent, therapist, or teacher for coaching. Later on, there are exercises for hands-on instruction. I found that going very slowly through the features of Sketchnoting has worked beyond my expectations. We started with the concept of fonts and word sizes, dividers, and containers. His first attempt at using Sketchnoting in a classroom setting was a huge success. Not only were his notes clear and organized, his teacher reported increased engagement and involvement. A week later we started on icons. He incorporated them into his next lecture and was able to explain the main points of the talk.

His OT has started working on writing speed exercises and has been teaching him how to change his hand and arm position from artwork to sketching. (OTs work on the physical aspects of writing.) We also discussed the need for him to move from simple icons to concepts, from drawing a truck to the concept of transportation to the concept of transportation and the global economy. I will be joining a future OT session so I can better teach my son notetaking skills.

We have a long way to go, but we have moved from blank paper to organized information, improved recall, and increased engagement in just two months. All my son’s lined notebooks have been replaced with sketchbooks and he is no longer resistant to learning from lectures. He has started working on Sketchnotes and reading with his special education teacher; this is taking longer, but for the first time, I have faith that  it will come.

He  has two and a half years left before college, but I think he has time to get Sketchnoting to the level he’ll need in college courses. I will keep you posted! Expect an update in a few months.