Why are perceptual skills important

A child who has problems with visual memory will have difficulty remembering facts about the picture. Visual closure. Visual closure is the ability to fill in the missing details into an incomplete shape.

This requires abstract problem solving. A good example of this is working on puzzles; being able to put a picture together in your mind and to piece it together correctly. This also will cause a problem with writing and spelling. With spelling, a child with visual closure deficits won't know the ends of the word or the middle of the word. For writing, a child with visual closure deficits will not be able to know if a word is complete.

Visual figure ground. This is the ability to perceive a form and find it hidden in a conglomerated ground of matter. For example, asking a child to find the blue crayon in their pencil box. Visual figure ground is being able to filter out all the other crayons to look for that blue crayon. The adult equivalent of using visual figure ground skills would be when we are rummaging through our junk drawer to find something we need.

Hidden picture activities are useful for children to work on their visual figure ground skills e. Some examples of activities to encourage visual perceptual include:. Paper mazes and marble mazes.

Connect the dot activities. Hidden pictures. Copying pictures or forms. You can start with various simple shapes, just copying, and then interlock shapes together on paper and have them copy that as well. Wooden blocks. Matching and sorting. Sensory activities: Use bendable things such as pipe cleaners to form letters and shapes because feeling a shape can help them visualize the shape.

Construction-type activities such as Duplo, Lego or other building blocks. Flash cards with a correct letter on one side and an incorrectly formed letter on the other side. Have the child try to draw the letter correctly, then turn over the card to see if it is right. Have them write in sand or with finger paint to make it more fun. Word search puzzles that require you to look for a series of letter.

Why should I seek therapy if I notice difficulties with visual perception in my child? Therapeutic intervention to help a child with visual perception difficulties is important to: Improve ability in and persistence with visual tasks. Help the child to complete self care tasks, such as putting shoes on the right feet.

Avoid the child becoming disengaged in an academic environment due to difficulties completing visual activities e. Avoid frustrations experienced by parents, teachers and children when a child is struggling to remain engaged in academic activities. Help maintain and develop a positive sense of well being. If left untreated what can difficulties with visual perception lead to? When children have difficulties with visual perception, they might also have difficulties with: Anxiety and stress in a variety of situations leading to difficulty reaching their academic potential.

Difficulties completing busy work sheets or following visual instructions. Difficulties accessing the curriculum because unable to attend to the appropriate visual information. Difficulties dressing independently and managing other self care tasks independently. Difficulties completing exams due to difficulty blocking out unimportant visual information.

Poor self esteem when a child compares their abilities with their peers. Poor handwriting skills. What type of therapy is recommended for visual perception difficulties? Concerned about Visual Perception? Call us today to change worry into wonderful. Request a Callback. This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged. Contact Us. I consent to Kid Sense Child Development collecting my details through this form.

A child with delayed visual perceptual skills often has trouble interacting with their environment. Visual perceptual dysfunction causes the child to struggle with age-appropriate fine motor, gross motor, academic, and self-care tasks. Visual Memory - remembering visual information about a single item or a sequence of items after the item has been removed.

Memory games. Simon game. Copy patterns with beads, pegs, blocks, etc. Spot It games.