Visual Perceptual and Visual Motor Skills
Visual Perceptual Skills
Visual perceptual skills help children obtain and organize visual information from the environment and interpret what they see. Visual perceptual skills play an important role in reading and handwriting. They are important for copying, sizing, spacing, and orienting letters and words correctly.
Visual Motor Skills
Visual motor integration is the coordination of visual perceptual skills and fine motor control. It allows us to use our eyes and hands in together a coordinated manner to perform tasks such as copying letters or numbers, forming shapes, copying patterns, etc.
Look for Highlights' "Hidden Pictures Puzzle Town" on the app store.
Supporting the Visual System at Home
Ocular Motor Skills
The muscles of the eyes work together to allow us to track a moving object, or move our eyes from near to far, or far to near.
Eye Can Learn Fixation Exercises (help eye muscles learn to hold a steady gaze)
Eye Can Learn Tracking Exercises (help eye muscles move smoothly in vertical, horizontal, and diagonal directions)
Eye Can Learn Saccades Exercises (help eye muscles jump from side to side efficiently)
**These eye exercises are not meant to replace vision therapy, which is a medical treatment prescribed by developmental optometrists.**
Perceptual Skills
Form Constancy – the ability to identify a form even if it is different in size, orientation, color, or texture.
Figure Ground – the ability to distinguish a form from the surrounding background.
Spatial Relations/Position in Space – the ability to understand the position of objects in relation to each other and to one’s self.
Visual Discrimination – the ability to perceive the differences and similarities in forms.
Visual Closure – the ability to identify a form even though part of it is not visible.
Visual Memory – the ability to remember what one sees.
Explore Eye Can Learn Activities for Visual Perceptual Skills
Online Puzzles (from 6-247 Pieces)
Visual Motor Integration
Coordinating the hands, feet, and body movements with what the eyes perceive.
Throw and catch: Start with a large playground sized ball at a distance of 3 feet. Gradually increase the distance between you and your child, and then move on to using a smaller ball.
Beanbag Toss: Throw beanbags at a target placed flat on the floor. To make it more challenging, make the target smaller or further away.
Balloon toss: Take turns with your child to bat it with your hands, trying to prevent the balloon from hitting the ground.
String beads to make necklaces or bracelets
Dot-to-dots and mazes
Practice drawing simple lines and shapes.
Toys and Games that build Visual Motor and Perceptual Skills
Sneaky Snacky Squirrel
Pop the Pig
Pop up Pirate
Magna Doodle
Pictionary
Connect 4
Tic Tac Toe
Checkers
Chess
Card games (old maid, go fish, etc.)
Memory
Dominoes
Boggle
Lincoln Logs
Battleship
Topple
Operation
Jenga
Cooties
Trouble
Tricky Fingers
Ants in the Pants
Kerplunk
Lite Brite
Legos
K’nex
Perfection
Pick Up Sticks
Barrel of Monkeys
