Question: What is a “mental image”? Answer: A “mental image” implies the ability of a person to generate images of objects and events. The image can include perceptions of oneself engaging in specific activities or behavior. These images can be mediated through a number of different modalities including, visual, tactile, kinesthetic, olfactory, and auditory cues (Ryba,Selby & Brown, n.d.).
Question: What is a “mental image”?
Answer: A “mental image” implies the ability of a person to generate images of objects and events. The image can include perceptions of oneself engaging in specific activities or behavior. These images can be mediated through a number of different modalities including, visual, tactile, kinesthetic, olfactory, and auditory cues (Ryba,Selby & Brown, n.d.).
Question: Can students with disabilities make “mental images”? Answer: Yes.
Question: How can my students benefit from activities that improve and
enhance the ability to make mental images?
Answer: Students with moderate to significant disabilities can use mental
imagery to improve comprehension skills and skill retention.
Following are ideas for improving mental imagery.
1. First, model “talking about” what you see in pictures.
2. Give words to pictures.
3. Use pictures with concrete items that elicit emotion.
4. Provide experiences to the students such as field trips, community- based instruction and classroom based sensory experiences that are tied to emotion and concrete words. Take pictures of the experiences. Show the pictures of the experiences and discuss them. Ask the students to remember the “pictures in their mind”, have them retell the stories (experiences).
5. Read stories and then have the students “cut and paste” and put together a scene from the story. Discuss the story in detail using concrete words.
6. Take video of students performing a task. Review the clips repeatedly with students and provide help with learning, improving or completing their talk about the event.
7. Take pictures of the students participating in activities and place them in a PowerPoint show to use as a teaching tool.
References
Ryba, K., Selby, L. & Brown, R. (2004). Down Syndrome online: Developing mental imagery using a digital cam- era: A study of adult vocational training, 9(1), 1-11.
