Your child uses visual perception skills to make sense of what they see. This is essential for school skills like writing, reading and math. It’s also good for life skills like reading maps and signs, taking part in crafts or hobbies and finding items in a busy space.
Whether your child has a visual processing disorder or not, it’s always good to work on these important set of skills. Some examples of how your child may use visual perception in their daily life are:
- Matching shapes
- Recognizing numbers and letters
- Finding a toy in an untidy cupboard
- Recognizing a face
- Reading a road sign
Here are some visual perception skills activities that can help enhance these essential skills.
1. Play Catch
Spending just 15 minutes outdoors with your child in the yard playing catch will provide them with the opportunity to strengthen their depth perception skills.
2. Create an Obstacle Course
You can help your child develop space coordination and perception by setting up an obstacle course where they can go under, over and through objects.
3. Use Markers
Here’s a good indoor activity for when it’s raining out. Take the markers and line them up side by side. With some of them, position them with their caps in one direction and the rest pointing in the other direction. Let your child name or point to the colors pointing in the wrong direction as they work on visual discrimination.
4. Make a Mini-Golf Course
Using several practice golf balls set a makeshift course up in your yard. This helps encourage your child to not just focus on the ball, but to also adjust their eyes for various distances.
5. Take a Hike
Taking a walk outdoors in fantastic and allows you to explore nature with your child as you point out things that are near and far.
The best way for your child to develop their visual perceptual skills is by playing outdoors (or indoors). Expose your child to easy, hands-on activities and once they master visual perceptual concepts, only then should you introduce worksheets. Talk with their pediatric occupational therapist for ideas to work these vital skills.