What is Visual Processing and How Does it Affect School Performance?

Visual Perception- The ability to organize and interpret the information that is seen with one’s eyes and to give it meaning.

These information processing skills include:

Form Discrimination- The ability to pick out similarities and differences in size, shape, pattern, position and color such as being able to tell the lowercase “e” from a “c” or an “r” from an “m”. Form discrimination, also, affects the ability to recognize similar words or letters.

Spatial Relations- The ability to judge the relative position of one object to another and the internal awareness of the two sides of the body. Spatial relations also assists us with the orientation of objects such as letters or numbers, helps us to organize a page of print or with lining up mathematics problems.

Visual Form Constancy- The ability to manipulate visual figures and recognize them even when they are in a different orientation or format such as recognizing the same letters formed from different fonts. Form Constancy, also, affects the ability to recognize similar words or letters.

Visual Closure- The ability to identify or recognize a symbol or object without seeing all of the object or details, such as knowing the whole word without having to look at each of the letters every time you see it, or recognizing the object when it is partially hidden from view.

Visual Tracking and Scanning Skills- These are the eye movements that help us to maintain inspection of the words on a page, regardless of head or body posture. During the act of reading a child must be able to perform good scanning movements in order to follow along on a line of print and to proceed from one line of print to another without losing his place. Eye tracking also helps a child during copying tasks, as in copying from the blackboard.

Activities to Improve Visual Perceptual Skills

-Dot to Dot pictures

-Color by number pictures

-Bead projects that follow a pattern

-Lego or K’nex projects while following a pattern

-Put together model cars, ships or planes while following a pattern

-Crossword puzzles

-Cryptograms

-Word scrambles

-Word searches

-Find the Difference puzzles

-Follow a map to find something

-Matching socks

-Matching gameS

-Reproduce block or peg patternS

-Hidden picture puzzles (Where’s Waldo, Highlights, I Spy)

Games to Improve Visual Perceptual Skills

-Battle ship

-Sequence

-Perfection

-Memory games

-Rummikub

-Mastermind

-Connect Four

I-Pad Apps to Improve Visual Perceptual Skills

-Mosaicly

-Flow Pipe

-Letter Tracking

-MemBlock

-Matrix Match

-My Mosaic

-Match Game

Activities to Improve Visual Tracking

-Play Ping Pong, or even better, watch others play ping pong by standing on the long side of the table and watch the ball go back and forth across the table. Remember to keep your head stationary.

-Choose a developmentally appropriate book and then read only the first and last word on each line of print. Continue down the page and time your child. Try to beat your last speed score.

-Go to the website Eye Can Learn and do their visual tracking eye exercises.

-With an Online Metronome or swinging pendulum, watch the pendulum swing side to side while keeping your head stationary.

-Use a laser pointer or flashlight on a wall and watch the lighted item move back and forth across the wall.

-Choose a developmentally appropriate book and scan left to right on the page, identifying and circling all of a specific letter.

-Play an online version of Online tennis or ping pong, making sure to keep your eyes on the ball.