Visual Perceptual Skills
Curious about visual perceptual skills? Your occupational therapist may use a variety of terms to describe challenges your child may be having with vision. Firstly, it’s important to understand that when discussing vision, the term acuity refers to how well the eyes can see (i.e. whether or not a person needs glasses). Visual perception, however, refers to how the brain sees and interprets the information. Then, after ruling out other visual concerns related to acuity and oculomotor skills, your therapist may conduct a variety of visual perceptual tests.
Visual Perception Skill Assessments
The assessments your OTs have access to here at MOSAIC are: “Test of Visual Perceptual Skills”, “Motor Free Visual Perceptual Test”, and the “Beery VMI”. Some of the assessments test just the eyes and the brain’s interpretation, and some of the assessments test visual perceptual skills in combination with visual motor skills (involvement of the hand). Also, there are a variety of sub categories in most of these assessments:
- Figure ground
- Spatial relations
- Discrimination
- Form constancy
- Visual and sequential memory
- Visual closure
Therefore, all of these terms are skills kids need to be successful with school and everyday functions.
Visual Perceptual Skill Terminology
- Figure ground refers to the eyes’ ability to see a specific item amongst a busy background. (Locating a specific sock in a busy sock drawer)
- Spatial relations refers to the eyes’ ability to understand the position of objects in relation to oneself or in relation to other objects. (Spacing of letters on the paper in relation to the line or in relation to other letters)
- Visual discrimination is the eyes’ ability to tell the difference of main features in an item’s position, shape, form, and color (Telling the difference between capital letters versus lower case letters)
- Form constancy refers to your eyes’ ability to identify an item whether it’s upside down, turned over, a different color, or a different size (Being able to identify letters when looking at a newspaper from the other side of the table)
- Visual memory and sequential memory are the eyes’ ability to look at something for a given time and be able to recognize it and its sequence after a brief lapse in time. (Remembering a family member’s phone number)
- Visual closure is the eyes’ ability to recognize objects or letters when only parts of the item is visible. (Recognizing the item in a dot to dot picture)
How to get Help
Your child could likely have challenges with one or many of these sub categories. All areas of vision greatly impact your success with academics. For example, if you are seeing challenges with reading and writing, first be sure to rule out any visual concerns. Schedule and appointment with an optometrist before seeking further testing for visual perception. An optometrist will gather a baseline on acuity and oculomotor skills. But, if you aren’t sure and need more guidance, schedule a free screen with one of our occupational therapists. They will determine if your concerns warrant a full evaluation or a referral out to a vision specialist! Also, you can check out another MOSAIC blog on visual perception here.