Summer Learning with Learnigo #3: Supporting Fine Motor and Pre-Writing Skills
July 3, 2024
Learnigo Product Feature: Visual Perception
Learnigo's Visual Perception Program
Visual perception in occupational therapy is defined as a child’s ability to make sense of and interpret what they see (Stanton, 1968).
Key aspects of visual perception critical for children’s development and learning include:
- Figure and background perception
- Constancy perception
- Perception of object placement in space
- Visual-motor coordination
- Spatial relationship perception (Frostig & Horne, 1972)
The Learnigo Visual Perception program was created to target each of these foundational skills. As we know, visual perception impacts reading, writing, mathematics, organization, attention, problem solving and social communication. By supporting visual perception, we can help children succeed throughout school and beyond.
Symptoms of Visual Perception Difficulties
Visual perception plays a crucial role in a child’s educational development. However, symptoms of visual perception disorder or visual perceptual dysfunction can manifest in different ways. Here are some examples of visual perception disorder:
- Difficulty with Visual Discrimination: Difficulty distinguishing between similar-looking letters, shapes, or objects.
- Poor Visual Memory: Forgetting what has just been seen, difficulty recognizing familiar objects or people, or difficulty recalling the sequence of visual information.
- Spatial Awareness Issues: Difficulty understanding spatial relationships, such as determining distance, direction, or orientation.
- Visual Motor Integration Problems: Difficulty coordinating visual information with motor skills, leading to poor handwriting, drawing, or other fine motor tasks.
- Figure-Ground Discrimination Challenges: Difficulty distinguishing an object from its background, which may result in difficulty finding objects in a cluttered environment.
💡Tips to improve visual perception
Supporting your child or student’s visual perception skills can be fun and engaging. Try the following tips:
- Puzzle Games: Play puzzle games that require visual discrimination, spatial awareness, and problem-solving skills. Jigsaw puzzles, block puzzles, and shape-sorting toys are excellent options.
- Visual Scanning Activities: Practice visual scanning activities, such as searching for specific items in a busy scene or completing find-the-hidden-object puzzles. This helps improve attention to detail and visual search skills.
- Visual Memory Games: Play memory games such as matching cards or “I Spy,” to improve visual memory and recall abilities.
- Drawing and Coloring: Engage in drawing, coloring, and tracing activities to develop fine motor skills and spatial awareness. Provide different materials like crayons, markers, and chalk to explore different textures and colors.
- Visual Tracking Exercises: Practice visual tracking exercises,, such as following a moving object with their eyes or tracing lines and shapes. This helps improve eye coordination and tracking skills.
- Outdoor Exploration: Go on nature walks or outdoor adventures to observe and explore surroundings. Encourage the child to notice different shapes, colors, textures, and patterns in the environment (Erhardt et al.,2005).
The Learnigo Visual Perception Program 👓
The program, which draws from the Marianne Frostig Developmental Test of Visual Perception, comprises over 600 interactive exercises, vivid illustrations, and instructions suitable for different age groups.. By embedding learning into meaningful activities and games, many children find it easier to understand and remember concepts. This understanding forms the foundation of the program.
The program offers multiple opportunities to practice and refiner visual perception skills, from visual-motor coordination, symmetry, and figure-ground perception. The activities are designed to target skills while keeping children engaged, making learning a fun and rewarding experience.
In addition, there is a set of more than 150 printable worksheets for additional practice and/or homework. The Visual Perception is not a program that requires all the exercises in each section to be done consecutively. It is designed to be flexible so that the teacher/therapist can select the type, order, level of difficulty, and amount of tasks to be completed.
Below are some examples of activities from the Learnigo Visual Perception program:
Finding online resources for improving children’s visual perception skills can be challenging. That’s why we’re excited about our comprehensive Visual Perception program, featuring over 600 interactive screens packed with engaging games, puzzles, matching activities, and more.
With the flexibility to access these materials anytime and anywhere, whether in a 1:1 session or group setting, our program offers unparalleled convenience. Imagine seamlessly integrating this digital tool with hands-on activities to create dynamic learning experiences. Plus, we provide accompanying worksheets for additional practice opportunities. Our all-in-one digital program covers a wide range of visual perceptual skills tailored to the school-age population, making it the ultimate resource for educators and therapists alike. Get ready for an innovative approach to enhancing visual perception skills—all in one convenient package!
Try the free demo of the Visual Perception program here.
We’d love to hear from you! Let us know what you like (or where we can improve) at feedback@learnigo.com.
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References
Frostig, Marianne, and David Horne. Advanced Pictures and Patterns. Follet Publishing Co., 1972.
Erhardt, R. P., & Duckman, R. H. (2005). Visual-perceptual-motor dysfunction: Effects on eye-hand coordination and skill development. In: M. Gentile (Ed.), Functional visual behavior in children: An occupational therapy guide to evaluation and treatment options (2nd ed., pp. 171–229). Bethesda, MD: The American Occupational Therapy Association.
Stanton, D. E. B. (1968, March). Visual Perception: An Overview. American Journal of Occupational Therapy, 22(2), 82-85.
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