Your ability to visualize—to see— information greatly enhances comprehension
Anyone who has watched a teenager take driver’s ed can empathize—even if that teen isn’t your own. The angst, the “omg, not my car!”. That’s one of the beauties of driver’s ed: the teen learns on someone else’s car. As is my teen. Yesterday, when he came home from school, I was pleased that was the case.
“How was school?” I asked.
“Good.” (Don’t you just love those informative one-word answers?)
“How was driver’s ed?” I persisted.
Pause. Then finally, “It was okay.”
The story. Now, as any parent worth their salt knows, when there is a pause, there is trouble.
“What happened?” I asked matter-of-factly, cutting right to the core.
My son just looked at me with wary eyes. I could see that he was measuring his words in his mind, struggling to decide just what to say.
“The car broke down.” He ventured in a slightly hesitating voice.
Now I knew immediately that this was just the title of the story, that there was much more to hear. The question remained though: could I coax that story out of him? Worth a try. I had a feeling this was going to be good.