Visual Perception Skills

What is visual perception?

Visual perception is about the brain making sense out of what the eyes see. This includes recognising, interpreting and organising the information that we process through our vision. As you can probably tell, visual perception skills are super important for school-based tasks such as reading, writing, drawing and using scissors (not to mention life in general!).
 
Read on to discover more about what visual perception entails…

(NB: click on the image on the left to watch a vid for more info on visual perception)

What does visual perception involve?

While visual perception mostly involves the eyes this skillset also relates to:

How do I know if my child is having difficulty with their visual perception?

Your child may be experiencing visual perception difficulties if they find these tasks tricky:

  • Completing jigsaw puzzles
  • Copying block designs
  • Telling the difference between shapes, pictures or letters
  • Reading and spelling
  • Copying information in written form (e.g. from the blackboard or a workbook)

The visual perception skill subsets

Let’s get into the thick of it! Visual perception can be divided into the following seven broad categories or subsets:

  • Scanning and tracking – moving the eyes to follow and focus on an object
  • Discrimination – recognising the differences and similarities between objects
  • Memory – storing and recalling information (e.g. characteristics) from previously viewed things
  • Figure ground – finding an object when it’s hidden or surrounded by other objects
  • Closure – identifying objects, letters or shapes that are incomplete
  • Spatial awareness – recognising the position of objects (such as next to, above, below)
  • Motor integration – coordinating hand and eye movements by combining sight, perception and movement skills

You may find that little miss or mister has strong abilities in some of the above subsets and needs to hone others. However, they all contribute to the development of junior’s visual perception skills so it’s important they’re all given attention.

Find out more about visual perception skills

Visit the visual scanning and tracking, discrimination, memory, figure ground, closure, spatial awareness and motor integration pages to find out more about the seven visual perception skill subsets, including how to spot if your child might be having difficulties with any of them.

Don’t forget that becoming a PlayBiz member gives you access to a comprehensive library of activities that will help you help your whippersnapper develop their crucial foundation skills!

This includes 2-minute Play-a-Short videos that give you and junior a fun and entertaining ‘therapist style’ demonstration of how to develop specific visual perception skills through playful activities such as ‘I Spy’ and ‘Spot the Difference’. Not only will your tot have fun, but they’ll be developing their sight skills too!

There are also the 10-minute Play-a-Long videos that combine several foundation skills for optimum effect. Picture a fun and educational TV program like PlaySchool crossed with an occupational therapy session that’s chock full of  strategies to help develop your little one’s essential foundation skills.


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Combined Videos

Combining several foundation skills, our PlayBiz Play-a-Long videos run for 10 minutes or so. We’ve carefully ordered the activities so they enable your youngster to have an optimal learning experience and develop the skills they’ll need for school by joining in the ‘teachable moments’. Picture a fun and educational TV program like PlaySchool crossed with an occupational therapy session that’s chock full of strategies. Ready, steady, learn! Please note: The Play-a-Long videos don’t need to be viewed in any particular order.