Visual Perception

  • What are visual perceptual skills?

    Visual perceptual skills involve the brain’s ability to interpret and organize information that is seen and give it meaning. This is an important skill that we use every day, for example when finding socks in the drawer, tying shoes, and distinguishing the difference between similar items. Visual perception is an important foundational skill needed in the academic environment as visual perceptual skills are involved in reading, writing, cutting, drawing, puzzles, body awareness, and more. If a child has difficulty with visual perception they may struggle with everyday tasks impacting their independence and daily functioning.

  • Why are visual perceptual skills important?

    Visual perceptual skills help us make sense of our world and build relationships and meaning to what is being seen. Visual perceptual skills are important for academic skills including reading and writing, as well as self care skills such as assigning shoes to the right feet. Additionally, visual perceptual skills play a role in learning about personal space which may impact social skills as it relates to identifying one’s body in relationship to others.

  • What are some signs of difficulty with visual perceptual skills?

    -Letter and number reversals (or confusing similar looking letters/numbers - W & M, b & d)

    -Increased time to recognize familiar words/signage

    -Difficulty distinguishing between similar shapes such as a circle and oval

    -Displays fatigue/confusion when looking at busy visuals

    -Difficulty identifying objects when it is only partly shown

    -Often loses place when reading or writing

    -Demonstrates difficulty to find items in a room

How can occupational therapy help with visual perceptual skills?

Occupational therapists work with clients to improve visual perceptual skills through specific and engaging interventions such as hidden imagery games, navigating an obstacle course, and imitating designs from a visual model. Occupational therapists are also able to design child specific strategies and educate parents and teachers on how to carry these strategies over into relevant contexts for utmost success. For example, an occupational therapist may provide strategies for improving classroom success by recommending visual cues (e.g. color coded lined paper to help improve line adherence during handwriting tasks, or reduced visual stimuli worksheets to help improve successful participation). Occupational therapists strive to set children up for success by providing them with the necessary strategies, resources and skills.

Visual perceptual skills can be broken down into the following categories:

  • Visual Memory – allows a person to store and later recall learned visual information (e.g. recalling what the number “1” looks like when writing numbers)

  • Visual Sequencing –  involves a person’s ability to remember visual details in the correct sequence which is important for reading and spelling

  • Visual Form Constancy – the visual skill that allows a person to recognize an object even within different environments, when it has different characteristics or from different angles. (e.g. a small star and a medium star are the same shape)

  • Visual Figure Ground – allows a person to focus and find an object within a competing background (e.g. finding a gray sock on gray carpeting)

  • Visual Spatial Relations – includes a person’s ability to process the visual environment in relation to themselves or other objects (e.g. which car is closer to me?)

  • Visual Closure – allows a person to perceive and identify an object, picture, or word even when part of it is hidden (e.g. ability to determine if it is your car or not when it is partially hidden by an object)

  • Visual Discrimination –  seeing subtle differences between objects/pictures and paying attention to those differentiating details (e.g. seeing the difference between letters “b” and “d”)