What are visual perceptual skills?
Visual perceptual skills are the eyes’ abilities to identify and understand what is seen. There are 7 abilities that make up the skills: discrimination, figure-ground, form constancy, spatial relations, closure, memory, and sequential memory. All 7 are utilized on a daily basis during all routines and activities.
Visual discrimination: The ability to distinguish the similarities or differences between images and objects whether in color, size, shape, texture, pattern, etc. This skills is utilized for activities, such as matching. An example of when it is used in everyday life is when an individual is driving and stops on the brake because they see the traffic light change from green to red.
Figure-ground: The ability to identify specific images or objects regardless of the background. This skill is utilized for activities, such as I Spy. An example of when it is used in everyday life is if an individual was looking for their keys in a junk drawer.
Form constancy: The ability to understand that an image or object is still the same image or object, regardless of its change in color, size (bigger, smaller), or orientation. This skill is utilized for activities, such as sorting. An example of how it is used in everyday life is as a teacher is reading papers typed in different fonts.
Visual Spatial Relations: The ability to understand how and where an object is in comparison to oneself or another object. This skills is utilized for activities, such as obstacle courses. An example of what it is used for in everyday life is to move around the environment safely.
Visual closure: The ability to complete an image or object even if parts are missing. This skill is utilized for activities, such as puzzles and connect-the-dots worksheets. An example of what an individual uses it for in everyday daily life is recognizing a friend from their side profile.
Visual memory: The ability to remember an image object an individual has seen. This skill is utilized for activities, such as memory. An example of why it’s important in everyday life is during school to copy a sentence from the board in the classroom.
Sequential memory: The ability to not only remember images or objects, but also remember their order. This skill is utilized for activities, such as playing a board game. an example of how it is used in everyday life is when and individual is memorizing the directions to drive to work or remembering the instructions for a recipe.
