If the issue is anxiety, meditation might help. Doesn’t need to be anything fancy, just a simple mental countdown with deep breathing or something like that should suffice.
I’ve struggled with picking relevant info, too. At her age, if asked about a topic, I would just say what seemed most interesting to me about it, which usually sounded like a non-sequitur to everyone else. Since then I’ve practiced summarizing. Got it down to two-three sentences. It just takes practice.
Hey, Memory techniques can be used for structure. If she can orient herself in space — know where she is in a room, understand the layout of her environment — then she can use tools like Memory Palaces or Songlines. You can for example memorize the TOC of a topic to have it ready when needed. That can provide a gross structure to orient oneself in a topic.
Also, if you don’t want her to take too many notes, you could look into the research on primary orality by Lynne Kelley, and maybe read her book Memory Craft. The broader topic there is about knowledge systems in cultures that hadn’t developed written language yet—they had to store vast amounts of information using different techniques. So, huge volumes of knowledge, clearly structured and encoded in a way the brain naturally likes.
But all of this isn’t ideal if she’s already deep in exam preparation. You need some time to get used to these techniques, so just keep that in mind.
Hi Liz,
This might seem silly but you might want to invest in an encyclopedia for her, a physical encyclopedia in braille, so that she can also learn information which is laid out in a larger format.
Also, work with her in having her improve her general understanding of a topic.
Remember that the foundation of a topic is needed first and then you can go upwards.
Try doing checkers and chess with her too as this will help the information retention with kinetic movements.
Stefos
Hello, I’m blind and on the autism spectrum, would it be ok to message you with some things that have helped? All the best, Lina
@LizJ - I would recommend that you do plenty of investigation into “mind palaces,” and related ideas, like loci and their placement. By using more, different, extended palaces one can segregate information into separate “vessels.” I this way, one doesn’t have to scan vast tracts of information to come up with narror ranges of information. Each is in its own “palace.” The palaces themselves can be placed in neighborhoods (my own angle on organization) that are related in some way.
Have you asked ChatGPT for suggestions? It can give good advice for neuroscience based learning strategies if you identity the problem thoroughly. It may help her come up with ways to organize or chunk the material so she doesn’t get cognitive overload. Just a thought.