What is Visual Perception?

Visual perceptual skills involve taking in visual information from the eye and how the brain makes sense of what the eyes see. This skill can impact all areas of everyday life. In children they may impact school skills such as handwriting, cutting, copying information from a board, reading, and math problems. They can also affect self-care skills such as clothing orientation, completing fasteners, cooking, and eating. They may also affect a child’s ability to engage in certain areas of play such as completing puzzles, playing board games, memory games, and block pattern construction.

There are a few types of visual perception including visual attention, visual figure-ground, visual memory, visual discrimination, visual spatial, visual form constancy, and visual closure. Please see below a description of each type:

Visual Attention: Focusing on visual information
Visual Figure-Ground: Distinguishing an object against a background
Visual Memory: Remembering what was seen including letters, words, or patterns
Visual Discrimination: Distinguishing similarities and differences between visual information
Visual Spatial: Orientation and placement of objects in relation to each other
Visual Form Constancy: Recognition of the same object even when it has been turned in different directions or
Visual Closure: Recognition of an object or image when a part of the image is missing

Problems if your child is having a problem with visual perception:

Reversing letters of “b,d, p, q” and differentiating between them
Challenges with directional terms of in, out, under, below, next to, up, and down
Remembering left and right
Losing their place while writing or reading
Challenges with sequencing of remembering the ABCs in order
May appear disorganized