Visual Processing/Perception Deficits

Let us guess…nobody can figure out what exactly the problem is: Your child just cannot seem to grasp the concepts involved in his or her academic tasks.  School is a struggle and a challenge; you and your child dread doing school work at home on a daily basis. You’ve talked to their teacher, doctor, and maybe even gone so far as to have an evaluation by a speech or occupational therapist. But they all said, “Your child seems to be functioning within the average range…there isn’t really anything we can do…your child is being lazy”.  Yet somehow your child just doesn’t seem to be able to grasp the concepts of learning. You’ve done all you can do! 

 

Your child could have visual perception deficits that have been overlooked.

 

The act of visual perception is comprised of various fine motor and hand-eye correlation skills that process visual information in order to make sense of what is seen.

 

These are some of the major indicators of visual perception disorder: 

v  Handwriting is messy.

v  The speed of writing is slow.

v  Some of the required information is written and then the child gives up.

v  Numbers and letters are reversed. 

There are 3 key elements of visual perception development that play a major role in reading, writing, and functioning in school.

• Visual discrimination is the most commonly used skill and develops at a very early age. This is simply the ability to notice similarities and differences between objects.  Sounds simple, however this skill is not always as polished as it should be or COULD be.  Red flags of visual discrimination are:

v  “b” and “d” look alike. 

v  Circles and ovals are both round. 

v  The subtle difference in length of graphic information is difficult to detect.

v  There are gaps of whole words or lines when reading.

v  Random words are inserted when reading text. 

v  Inability to discriminate what line is being read or hold the place on the paper. 

• Visual memory is the next skill to develop.  It is simply the ability to see something, and recall it.  This becomes critical when writing is involved, especially when one is writing without a model in front of them.  If there is a deficit in the ability to hold an accurate picture of what the letter “q” actually looks like, one is never going to be able to write the word “quack” even though they know “u-a-c and k”.
• Visual sequential memory is a more advanced version of visual memory.  This is simply the ability to recall multiple things in their proper order.  Someone with a visual sequential memory deficit often can read the word “quack”, tell you what each letter is and write the word beautifully if you spell it for them letter by letter.  Sometimes they can even write a short word like “quack” if their pencil is ready to go and they quickly write it immediately after hearing it.  However, the person lacks the ability to spell it back accurately or write it down using the correct letters in the correct order after a short period of time.  Severe cases are often to blame for difficulty copying notes from the board.  The inability to hold the information one reads from the board long enough to write it down on your paper can sometimes be attributed to a lack of visual sequential memory. 

 

The Therapy Group is here to help you help your child by using programs that assist in increasing neurological potential which results in increased visual perception skill development.. 

 

Let us help you possibly identify a problem area that has been overlooked!

Neurological deficits and dyslexia

Two commonly held beliefs about dyslexia are that children with it are prone to seeing letters or words backward, and that the problem is linked to intelligence. Both beliefs are incorrect. The problem is a linguistic (of language and the processing of language) one, not a visual one. And dyslexia in no way stems from any lack of intelligence. People with severe dyslexia can be brilliant.

The effects of dyslexia, in fact, vary from person to person. The only shared trait among people with dyslexia is that they read at levels significantly lower than typical for people of their age.

A child with dyslexia will struggle with age appropriate reading, cognitively processing information heard or read and recalling/retrieving information learned.

If we understand that the effects of dyslexia are caused by processing errors in the brain or faulty wiring, it follows that we can eliminate or vastly improve those effects by addressing the problems neurologically.

The past 5-10 years have seen an explosion in research focusing on the relationship of cognitive functioning, processing of information and the neuro-plasticity of the brain. Scientists and neurologists have determined that the brain possesses the ability to “re-wire” around damaged or non-functioning areas and to build new neuro-pathways to improve performance.

A neurologically based program designed to strengthen the brain’s ability to process, store and correctly retrieve information would be the first intervention recommended by The Therapy Group.

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