Vision is the dominant means of perceiving the external world; it enables us to monitor what is happening in the environment outside our bodies. Visual perception is the process of extracting and organising information from the environment and the ability to interpret and use what is seen.
There are links between visual perception and thinking skills and in some children these need to be specifically trained. An immaturity in any of the visual perceptual components will inevitably lead to inefficiency in laying down visual images and can be the source of difficulties with many aspects of education. The aim of our perception therapy is to enable the child to develop the necessary skills to an acceptable level for the particular child, so that the learning process will no longer be inhibited. The child is thus more likely to develop balanced learning skills.
There are 7 main components that make up visual perception and these can be assessed from the age of 4.
- Discrimination The ability to detect features of stimuli for recognition, matching and categorisation.
- Figure-Ground - The ability to see an object or objects as distinct from other objects or from the background.
- Form Constancy - The ability to recognise forms and objects as the same in various environments, positions and sizes.
- Closure - The ability to identify forms or objects from incomplete presentations enabling one to quickly recognise shapes by
mentally completing the image.
- Memory - The ability to recall what has been seen.
- Sequential-Memory - The ability to perceive and understand logical visual sequences.
- Spatial-Relations - The determination of the spatial relationship of figures and objects to oneself or other forms and objects.
higher level of spatial perception includes an awareness of an object's position, including the direction in which it is turned and its relationship to the observer, an awareness of how far away something is and a determination of location of objects and route to the location as well as an ability for visual imagery. In addition it is necessary for a child to be agile at reasoning their way through these three areas: position in space, depth perception and topographical orientation.
Visual perception dysfunction can influence a child's self-care, work and leisure performance. It will affect the child's ability to use tools and relate materials to one another and they may have difficulties with cutting, colouring, block construction, puzzles etc. The effects are numerous and can influence subjects such as reading, spelling, handwriting, maths and comprehension.
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