Visual Perceptual Disorder

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by Eileen Bailey
Tuesday, July 13, 2010

Visual perceptual disorder refers to difficulties with interpreting and processing information taken in through the eyes. This is not to be confused with vision problems such as near-sightedness, far-sightedness, problems with focus or problems with sharpness of vision. It is when a person is unable, or finds it difficult, to process, interpret, and recognize images they have seen.

To better understand how visual perceptual disorders impair a child's learning, think about how we interpret visual information. When we look at an object, the image is sent to our brain. We instantly see the color, the shape; we search our memory to compare it to other objects we have seen. If we find a memory, we give the object a name and meaning. For example, if we see a red ball, we automatically know what it is because we have seen balls before, we know they are round, spheres; we use this information to interpret and categorize the object.

When we look at an object we have never seen before, we still search through our memories to help us determine what the object might be. If it is square, we compare it to other square objects we have seen before to help us in figuring out the item. We look at the shape, the texture, the color and more to help us decipher what we have seen. Our visual perception also helps us distinguish similar objects from one another. In children with visual perceptual disorders, this process is impaired.

Children with this type of learning disability often have a difficult time learning to read.

• Letters that are similar, such as "p" and "q" might be confused.  Similar words, such as "sleep" and "steep" are difficult to distinguish.
  

• There may be a problem in recognizing the same letter in different contexts, such as capital vs. lower case or large and small print. Children may recognize an "s" in one word, but not recognize it in another word.

• Sequencing letters together is difficult. A child may not be able to copy letters strung together because of the difficulty of seeing each letter as separate or may be lacking in sequencing skills. Letters are often reversed or omitted entirely.

Some problems in math include:

• Spatial recognition is important in math and this is difficult for the child with visual perception difficulties.

• They may have trouble distinguishing the operation signs from the numbers, seeing them instead as all one object.

• They may have trouble with putting numerals together to form other numbers, such as putting a "2" and a "3" together to form "23."

Understanding math involves understanding the spacing and the order in between numbers, exactly where children with visual perceptional disorder have problems.

Additional Problem Areas

Visual Discrimination

Visual discrimination is the ability to separate an object from the background or surrounding environment. It is the ability to recognize individual characteristics of an object, such as color, size, shape, texture, pattern, position. This is important in looking at maps, charts, and pictures.