What you need to know about visual perception

"Visual perception" is a fundamental learning ability for children and an indispensable part of daily life. Many students with dyslexia have visual perceptual difficulties, which affect their reading and writing abilities. Visual Perception refers to observing with the eyes, then having the brain receive, recognize, and analyze the shape, color, size, spatial orientation, etc., of objects, enabling us to identify external objects and respond appropriately. Visual perception includes many elements, such as Visual Attention, Visual Memory, Figure-Ground perception, Spatial relationship, Object/Form Constancy, Visual Closure, Visual Discrimination, Visual Motor Speed, Visual Motor Integration, and Visual Analysis.

The Importance of Visual Perception

"Visual perception" is a fundamental learning ability for children and an indispensable part of daily life. Many students with dyslexia have visual perceptual difficulties, which affect their reading and writing abilities. Visual Perception refers to observing with the eyes, then having the brain receive, recognize, and analyze the shape, color, size, spatial orientation, etc., of objects, enabling us to identify external objects and respond appropriately. Visual perception includes many elements, such as Visual Attention, Visual Memory, Figure-Ground perception, Spatial relationship, Object/Form Constancy, Visual Closure, Visual Discrimination, Visual Motor Speed, Visual Motor Integration, and Visual Analysis.

Perhaps you are not entirely clear about the meaning of each item, only knowing that your child may have visual perceptual difficulties, such as often miscopying words, adding/omitting strokes, slow writing speed, skipping lines or words when reading, weak concentration, etc. The best approach, of course, is to seek assistance from professionals such as a registered occupational therapist to understand your child's problems and training approach in detail. From my experience in parenting and work, I often use fun and educational spatial thinking games, allowing children to first replicate a pattern from a card and then think about how to solve the problem and find the answer. In addition to training visual attention, this also cultivates imitation skills, observation ability, fine motor practice, spatial orientation recognition, logical reasoning, and patience.

1) Pegboard game (allows children to replicate patterns from cards; practices two-finger pincer grasp, bilateral coordination, hand-eye coordination, finger dexterity, and visual-spatial positioning)
2) Hero Rescues the Beauty/Warrior Rescues the Royalty (allows children to build block structures according to pictures; learn problem-solving and flexible thinking)
3) IQ Car (allows children to find the exit in a complex parking lot with many cars, learning sequence and thinking speed)
4) Taking pictures (allows children to learn visual attention, focus, spatial awareness, distance perception, etc.)

Factors to Consider Before Buying Toys

Of course, several factors need to be considered before buying toys: Do I have similar toys at home? Can my finances allow me to purchase them? Do I have space to store these toys? Are these toys safe and practical? Does my child enjoy playing with them? Does my child need to practice these toy skills? Due to the reasons above, sometimes I can't find toys that I like, and instead, I make some eco-friendly games to meet the training needs. The endless possibilities of games lie in the creativity of parents and children. Stepping outside the planned framework requires flexible thinking.