Visual perception is the ability to make sense of what is seen. Typical children and adults easily recognize that a square has four sharp corners or that a square turned on its side is a diamond. Visual perception can be separated into several skill areas. Some of these are:

Children with difficulties within this skill area do not automatically pick up the visual details like you or I. They do not make good “drawers” and typically do not like puzzles, mazes, dot to dots, etc. These types of activities require that the child take in lots of visual information, organize it, and then complete the activity as intended. All of this is hard and, thus, not fun for a child with visual perceptual difficulties.

Children with deficits in this skill area may have trouble finding specific information on a page, difficulty remembering sight words, or may omit words as they read. A typical child might automatically know how to complete various types of worksheets received at school but a child with this type of deficit may not automatically understand the organization of the worksheets. Copying information accurately may be a chore for these students as well.

It is important to point out that visual tracking is necessary for overall visual perceptual development as well as visual motor competency. If a child can not track from left to right smoothly, the child will have a very difficult time reading, copying from the board, etc. Therefore, toys that facilitate tracking skills, for the young or the school aged child will be placed under this “visual” toy area.

Visual perceptual skills can be addressed formally within occupational therapy sessions or through vision therapy. But, parents can also enhance development within this skill area through play with toys that promote these skills. Toys that are intended to be educational are a great place to start but there are many other toys that will serve the same purpose. Look through the visual perception toy section of this website for “the right toy."