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!