Monday, March 13, 2006

Resources for Auditory Learners

Some of these materials would have driven me crazy as a child, because I'm a very visual learner and a poor auditory learner, but my two oldest children are auditory learners and #2 (a 10 year old boy) in particular seems to strongly benefit from audio materials - especially true since he has difficulty focusing on independent reading for a long period of time (most likely Asperger's Syndrome, though he hasn't been formally tested). We've been using audio books for a long time since they have responded so well to them, but have found additional materials recently that may be of interest to others:

The Phonetic Zoo: A Self-Teaching Spelling Program (Institute for Excellence in Writing)
Linguistic Development Through Poetry Memorization (Institute for Excellence in Writing)
Lyrical Life Science and Lyrical Earth Science (Lyrical Learning)
Power Glide Language Programs (Power Glide)
Lingua Angelica (Memoria Press)
Music Masters CDs
Classical Kids Series
Perpetua's Choice, Enemy Brothers and other audio dramas from Northern Rain Studios
Narnia Audio Dramas
Blackstone Audio Books (I don't like all the narrators that much, but no one else in the family seems to be bothered by this - and they offer a 50% discount to homeschoolers!)
Recorded Books Inc. (these are pricier, we only own one, but we've enjoyed a number of them from the library - I tend to like their narrators better than the Blackstone ones)

Some of our favorite audio books:

101 Dalmatians by Dodie Smith
Caddie Woodlawn by Carol Ryrie Brink
The Railway Children by E. Nesbit
Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis

I haven't tried this one yet, but I know that MacBeth Derham likes audible.com She also has a lot of recommendations for individual audio books on her website.

5 comments:

love2learnmom said...

A friend of mine called and asked me to add the following, which she has found very helpful for her auditory learners: Grammar Songs from Audio Memory and Schoolhouse Rock to the list. Thanks Patricia. :)

Nancy C. Brown said...

This list is a great resource. I have an audio learner, too, and am always searching for good things for her to listen to. Thanks.

Nancy C. Brown said...

Sorry, I'd been working on the GKC site, and forgot to log out as GKC!

love2learnmom said...

That's okay, I feel so important getting comments from GKC himself! :)

Dr. Thursday said...

I thought perhaps he meant Frances... you know that GKC spoke on the BBC: "it was only in the last few years of his life that Gilbert became first interested in the invention and presently one of the broadcasters most in request by the B.B.C." [Ward, Gilbert Keith Chesterton 629]

BUT! he had to have someone there in the booth with him "to talk to" - so Frances or his secretary Dorothy Collins, or both would sit with him, and he spoke to her/them. Collins recalls: "In spite of his success he was always very nervous beforehand and he would not undertake the series each year without a promise that his wife or I or both of us should sit in the studio with him. He liked it best that way and talked direct to us, which gave his talks the intimate character which the public so much enjoyed." [Pierce, Wisdom and Innocence 419]

Maybe Frances WAS an audio learner...