Visual Perceptual Disabilities

The words visual perceptual disability can be very misleading. It implies there is something wrong with a person’s eyesight; their visual acuity. With learning disabilities, visual perceptual difficulties means that a child’s vision may be fine but they can’t make sense of what they see. Their brains make an error in processing the information which the eye takes in. An image gets inputted by a child. A child with this type of learning disability then struggles to recognize, organize, interpret, and/or remember the visual images it has just looked at. This presents a monumental challenge to learning since their difficulty extends to the whole spectrum including letters, words, math symbols, diagrams, maps, graphs, and charts. Often it is not until a child enters school that visual perceptual problems are detected. That is due to the all encompassing nature of visual perception. School problems in this area interfere with progress in every subject.

So how do Visual Perceptual Difficulties manifest in children? After an image enters the eye, the brain’s visual perception capabilities tell the child what it means. It connects the image to something the child has seen before and gives it meaning. Something round that rolls is probably a ball. Visual perception skills also include the ability to tell similar images a part (p and q or words like skate and stake), or to separate important details from a background of information (taking the vowels out of the word), or to recognize the same symbol being used in different ways (Z is a Z no matter what color, shape, or size it is and no matter what word it’s used in). Confusing saw with was is a frequent mistake made by people with this disability because they lack the sequencing skill needed to perceive the difference. What may seem simple to the average student, copying a sequence of numbers or letters correctly from the board becomes a monumental task no matter how short the list. This alone contributes to the slow pace with which these children learn their numbers and letters and almost guarantees papers wrought with reversals and omissions. The tragedy of their struggle gets compounded when their work is judged as careless by shaming teachers or parents who have not benefited from informing themselves on what their child might be dealing with or how he or she can be helped.

Due to research and education, we know so much more about learning disabilities today. This means a child can have a gifted IQ but he or she may also have a learning disability which means learning how they learn best will be of utmost importance for them to succeed in their educational and social environment. The future is as bright for children with learning disabilities as it is for children without as long as they get the proper diagnosis and intervention they need to effectively learn how to learn. One way to do that is to gain the clearest picture possible of the particular deficit your child may have. Here are some additional characteristics you might see if your child is struggling with a Visual Perception Disability.

People with Visual Perception Disabilities may demonstrate the following:

- Difficulty with visual memory and visualization.

- Usually rather slow to begin reading (helps them to sound out as they go along).

- Difficulty retaining spelling rules and unusually spelled words. (they spell phonetically)

- Copying from the blackboard or any source for that matter is wrought with mistakes. The image is forgotten between taking it in and transposing it.

- Difficulty checking their on work due to problems retaining correct image.

- Difficulty problem solving due to problems visualizing scenarios in their mind.

- Difficulty visualizing the end result thereby becoming stuck in the middle of tasks.

- Tendency toward concrete thinking.

- Difficulty with spatial relationships such as distance, size, shape and how things fit together to form a whole.

- Difficulty estimating passage of time.

- Difficulty with a sense of direction.

- They sometimes appear to others “self-absorbed” or “out to lunch”.

- Difficulty being socially aware. They miss interpersonal cues and are usually the last to know how someone is feeling. Also fail to pick up on what is and isn’t “cool”.

- These children need the most support in elementary school when the need to understand, manipulate and build on visual symbols is most important.