Why Visual Perceptual Skills are Important for Your Kids
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As homeschool moms, there are so many things we want to teach our kids. Academically, teaching your kids how to read, write, spell, and do math are probably at the top of your list.
You might not give too much thought to it, but there is an awful lot that takes place when our kids are learning and processing new information. It’s more than just being able to memorize letters and numbers; up until about the age of 7, our kids are developing visual perceptual skills that will help prepare them for future learning. And you can set them up for success with activities that strengthen these skills.
What are Visual Perceptual Skills?
Visual perception is not just about how well we see, or what we see. It’s all about how our brains make sense of the information we are seeing.
Our eyes take in information and send it to our brain, which has to interpret what we see. Think about it as the difference between simply seeing sentences on a page versus being able to understand and make sense of the letters and words that have been written.
There are various visual perceptual skills that are important for your child to build in their early years. We use these skills often during the day – you are probably already working on many of them without even knowing it!
Why are Visual Perceptual Skills Important?
In general, these skills are important because they enable our kids to understand the world they live in. They will also set a good foundation on which to build their learning in elementary school, especially in reading, writing, and spelling.
Visual perceptual skills also manifest in other areas of our kids’ lives. Putting together puzzles, learning symmetry, copying down information, cutting out shapes, finding a specific Lego piece out of a huge mess of toys, getting their shoes on the correct feet – these skills play a role.
With good visual perceptual skills, kids will have an easier time identifying letters, words, numbers, and shapes, which will help them grow confident in their learning and enable them to reach their academic potential.
Examples of Visual Perceptual Skills
So what exactly are these skills? There are seven categories of visual perceptual skills. Here is a very brief overview of each one so you are familiar with what they are.
- Visual Discrimination is being able to differentiate between objects (for example, knowing the difference between types of coins, or letters that look the same). Finding similarities and differences, matching, sorting, and activities where you find the thing that doesn’t belong in a group are helpful for strengthening this skill.
- Visual Memory refers to visual information stored in short-term memory (like remembering sight words, facts about a story or picture, or where you left off when you were reading). It’s the ability of our brains to be able to learn and then recall information. Reading comprehension may be something that suffers if your child has trouble with this skill.
- Visual Spatial Relations deals with how the position of an object in space is perceived. Left & right awareness, spatial concepts (under/above, near/far, etc.) and letter reversals are common tasks that require this skill.
- Visual Form Constancy is when you can see an object and recognize it among other objects, even though it might be a different size, color, or turned in a different direction. An example might be the ability to recognize letters even when they appear as different fonts or in a different writing style.
- Visual Figure Ground is the ability to find objects that are surrounded by a busy visual environment or background (think of the “Where’s Waldo” books, or something seemingly as simple as being able to locate the red marker out of a big pile).
- Visual Closure is your brain being able to recognize something that is only party visible because it can fill in the rest of the details.
- Visual Sequential Memory is about remembering a sequence or series of objects. This is important for doing copy work or transferring information, or even something seemingly simple as remembering the order of letters in the alphabet or the order of the planets.
How to Incorporate Visual Perceptual Skills in Your Homeschool
There are a lot of activities and games you can play with your kids to strengthen these skills. Our kids learn so much by playing – and like I mentioned earlier, you are probably already doing a lot of things that are helping your kids with their visual processing.
Here are some of our favorite things to do that will have your kids working on these skills and having fun at the same time:
- Play spot the difference games and Memory Match games.
- Use connect the dots activity sheets.
- Put together all sorts of puzzles with your kids.
- Utilize pattern and sorting blocks (I LOVE this Melissa & Doug Counting Shape Stacker for my toddler – so many ways you can use it!).
- Seek & Find books are great for working on visual figure ground.
- Make shapes and letters out of objects like pipe cleaners or playdough with your kids.
- Put foam letters into a bag and have your kids identify the letter by how it feels.
- Put together Legos or other activity sets by following directions and diagrams.
There are also a lot of great activities and strategies listed on this site that you can use to help your child specifically in your homeschool if you notice them struggling with any visual perceptual skills.
Likewise, printable activities are widely available online that you can use when you want to work on specific skills.
If you happen to suspect that your child has any type of visual processing disorder, don’t hesitate to reach out to a professional to get further support for him or her on what you can be doing in your homeschool to best support your child.
Preview the Visual Perception Activity Pack
I have a fun activity pack available in my shop that is filled with 12 different activities that help build on your child’s visual perception skills, including:
- Direction Activity
- Color Key Activity
- Match the Shadows
- Find the Odd One Out
- Find and Color
- Find 5 Differences
- Matching Activity
- Symmetry Activity
- Jigsaw Puzzle
- Tracing Activity
- Counting Activity
- Complete the Pattern
Take a peek at all of the pages that are included in this printable pack:
Grab Yours Printable Pack Today
You can begin to give your kids a good foundation in their visual perceptual skills before they even begin to read (and it will make reading and other learning activities easier in the long run!).
You can use this printable pack both for kids whose fine motor skills are developed a little bit (they will need to trace and draw lines and circles for some of the activities); you can also easily modify the activities to where they don’t have to write on the paper, but can still be working on the skill. Download it once and use it again and again!
Visual Perception Activity Pack
I hope this post explained a bit more about what visual perceptual skills are and why it is important to incorporate learning activities that strengthen them. Enjoy this printable and have fun using some of the other games and activities mentioned with your kids!
Drop a comment below: what types of activities do you like to do to work on visual perceptual skills?
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