Visual tracking and perception are important for many daily activities such as reading, gross motor skills such as playing catch, writing, board games and more. Poor visual skills also impact attention. If a child is unable to process visual input correctly they may become frustrated and shut down when trying to complete task or will be unable to attend to task. Poor visual processing skills are often times linked to ADD/ADHD symptoms. Many times parents will report that visual acuity is good, which is what there optometrist told them. What many parents don’t understand is that visual acuity and perception are two different things. Visual acuity is the ability to see clearly and sharply visual perception is how we process and interpret what we see for a functional outcome (“Visual Perception”, 2013).
Many families come to occupational therapy for concerns with poor reading skills, dyslexia concerns, poor attention, behaviors and poor coordination. Vision is a basic sense that we all rely on daily to complete just about any task we do. We need to be able to visually track, accurately localize and focus on an object, and use binocular vision to be able to read, write and move around and participate within our environment. As an occupational therapist we are trained in the basics of vision and can work with a child on these skills, although it is also recommended to consult with a vision therapist.
Megan is a 9 year-old girl that I have been working with for 7 months. When I first started working with Megan she had very poor reading skills as well as poor gross motor coordination, handwriting and poor attention to task. Megan has been working on various visual exercises, such as left/right discrimination, visual memory skills, tracking, and her ability to better quickly locate and focus in on an object. As she has been practicing to improve these skills in the clinic and at home with her parents she has shown very nice improvements in her ability to read, write and her gross motor skills such as catching a ball. Megan has improved her reading skills since starting OT from Kindergarten level to 2nd grade level! When playing games with her peers now she can better attend to the game, increased ability to read her own cards, and improved her ability move and sequence piece when playing board games. Megan’s demonstrated better visual spatial awareness, which has helped increase her gross motor skills. Her visual processing skills have played an important roll in improving her overall skills to help her better participate in many activities and improve her self confidence.
Visual perception. (2013, April 10). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia.
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