If your children are having a hard time writing letters correctly, focusing on tasks, or how to spell, then they may have underlying visual perception problems. Occupational therapist Mrs Neetu Solanki, from Indirapuram, Ghaziabad, Uttar Pradesh, India. talks about what this means and how you can help your child learn more effectively.
Does this sound like your child?
- Have poor handwriting with messy spaces and even size and slope
- Confusion between similar letters like ‘b’ and ‘d’
- Has difficulty focusing on one task and flits from one activity to another
- Difficulty remembering sight words
- Putting letters in the right order and struggling with spelling
- Uses strange punctuation in writing
- Makes clumsy movements and frequently bumps into things
- Loses their place when reading or writing
If yes then your child might have dealing with vision loss
Visual perception is more than just vision.
It’s about how your children use visual clues to recognise, differentiate, remember and understand what they see
It’s closely tied to how your child’s body moves and influences tasks like walking, writing, using scissors, and solving puzzles.
How to know if your child has visual perception problems?
When an Occupational Therapist does the test on your child’s visual perception, they will have your child go through seven different subtests. Each of these tests focuses on various aspects of visual learning.
The very common area is Visual Memory.
Visual memory gives the ability to recall/remember an object once it’s removed from sight.
Why are Visual Memory skills important?
Everyone in the world uses the power of Visual Memory, even you and your child.
Visual Memory also helps in remembering information like PINs, Household addresses, and Phone numbers.
Your child uses the power of visual memory to learn the basics of number and letter formations. For example, the letters “b” and “d” look very much the same and visual memory helps your child to remember the difference between each of the letters.
Some signs of children with Visual Memory problems
- Difficulty in following the simple steps
- Difficulty in remembering pictures/items once they are removed from view.
- Problems in learning letters, words and numbers
- Having difficulties in reading words from left to right on a page
How can you help?
An Occupational Therapist may be able to help you to improve your visual perception, which will make a big difference in learning.
Doing Individual Occupational Therapy has lots of fun and can include, puzzles, games and exercises.
Percept Rehabilitation Center by (Dr. Neetu Solanki) has helped hundreds of children to improve their visual perception skills.
For more information about Occupational Therapy for children and how it can help your child. Feel free to get in touch. Phone: 088604 60038