Family Learning Center

   

    

by Dr. Pamela Cooper, M.A., MBA, PhD.

(pamela3068@icloud.com)

Visual Processing, or Perceptual Processing Disorder refers to a hindered ability to make sense of information taken in through the eyes. This is different from problems involving sight or sharpness of vision. Difficulties with Visual Processing affect how visual information is interpreted or processed by the brain.

Visual Processing Disorders

Visual Processing/Perception is the brain’s ability to receive, interpret, and act upon visual stimuli.

By Dr. Pamela Cooper, M.A., MBA, Ph.D.

Visual Processing Disorders

by Dr. Pamela Cooper, M.A., M.B.A., Ph.D.

Visual Processing Disorders (VPD) occur when the brain has trouble making sense of the visual input it receives. VPD’s are distinct from visual impairment, there is no blindness or issue with the functioning of the eyes. A child may have 20/20 vision, pass a sight test but still be unable to distinguish between two objects, copy from one location to another, read, or make sense of the symbols on a page. Visual Processing Disorders often co-present with a specific learning difficulty and can have a negative impact on a child’s self-esteem, confidence, and performance at school.

Visual Processing Difficulties can manifest in different ways; no two children face the same visual processing challenges. Children may experience difficulties judging distances, others may struggle with the ability to assess color, size, or orientation and another may see the words on a page in motion.

Visual Processing Disorders and visual coordination can be problematic, and a child might easily become lost and disorientated or struggle with fine and gross motor skills. While not classified as an IDEA Learning Disability, visual processing disorders can be mistaken for dyspraxia, dysgraphia, ADHD, and dyslexia.

Visual learning statistics show that visual learners make up 65% of learning groups; meaning that two out of three children prefer to study using visual materials in the form of pictures, graphs, charts, and illustrations. Most information students learn in a typical classroom is received through the eyes. Visual Processing Disorders become obvious when they begin to struggle with focusing and/or become easily distracted by too much input in their field of vision. Visual Processing Disorders can severely impact abilities and self-esteem in physical education, art, music, sports, reading, math, and writing. Shapes and symbols may be confused because of their orientation or the underlying whole/part relationships. For example, a child may focus only on the individual letters that make up a word or alternatively see only the word itself and not its component parts. Example, (S) (A) (W), instead of seeing the full word, (SAW). They may find themselves re-reading the same sentence many times or getting lost on the page (tracking difficulties). Visual Processing Disorder is not phonemic based as with a dyslexia phonemic awareness deficit.

Visual Processing Disorders can affect life skills, as remembering iPhone numbers or following directions. It is important to identify visual processing issues as early as possible and ensure a correct diagnosis to ensure appropriate strategies and accommodations to ensure student success.

Spatial difficulty

Spatial difficulty is defined as difficulty processing the location of objects and symbols in relation to each other. Symptoms of spatial difficulties may include directionality issues, such as reversing and confusing letters and numbers with similar shapes, impacting reading and math skill performance. Example, a student is given a card with the number (1) and a second card with the number (2) and asked to add the numbers together. One student with Spatial difficulties might say (12) while the second student without spatial relationships struggles would say, (3).

Visual discrimination

Students who struggle with Visual Discrimination find it difficult to identify an object from an image, to distinguish between objects of an assorted color, size, shape, and positioning. Lowercase letters may be harder for a child who struggles with visual discrimination, dyslexia or dysgraphia to read and write. There is a Visual Processing complexity with writing lower-case letters vs. capital letters. Signs of Visual Discrimination issues include:

• Confusion of letters and numbers
• Difficulty finding information during open book quizzes.
• Losing their place while reading aloud
• Trouble enjoying activities like puzzles or reading.
• Trouble recognizing differences and details.

Visual agnosia

A child who struggles with visual discrimination may also have trouble recognizing and naming objects and symbols consistently. This can be problematic in math and reading lessons and is often helped by taking a multi-sensory approach to learning.

Visual Closure

When a child is unable to see 100% of an object, the brain typically fills in the missing bits using prior knowledge. However, for children with Visual Closure Visual Processing difficulty, the object may remain unidentifiable and cause comprehension issues and confusion. Generating a mental image for use in mnemonics can be difficult. Signs of Visual Closure struggles include:

• Slow reading fluency
• Needs extra time to sound out words they already learned.
• Trouble putting together jigsaw puzzles.
• Trouble finding an item if part of it is hidden.
• Trouble pulling the correct book or paper from a stack.
• Trouble with games that require guessing an item based on a close-up photo.

Visual Motor Integration

Visual Motor Integration is the ability to interpret visual information and respond with a motor action. When Visual Processing Disorders affect motor skills, it can make it hard for a child to participate in sports because hand eye coordination is often lacking. Signs of visual motor integration issues include:

• Reduced hand-eye coordination
• Dislikes sports
• Difficulty copying from the board.
• Difficulty staying within the lines when coloring.
• Messy handwriting

Visual Form Discrimination

Visual Form Discrimination is the visual details that signal whole and part relationships that can be problematic for a child with a Visual Processing Disorder. For example, fitting together a puzzle can be tricky when the child may not recognize how pieces are related to each other. Visual form constancy refers to the ability to mentally turn or rotate objects, as well as resize a shape, to fit an image. This allows the child to recognize shapes or letters and words, no matter their orientation. An example, when you see the letter ‘A,’ it is always the letter ‘A’ whether in a word, bigger text, or different font. Signs of Form Constancy issues include:

• Difficulty finding missing items quickly, even if they are in plain sight.
• Difficulty recognizing objects when placed in a new location.
• Difficulty recognizing familiar places or objects in photographs.
• Trouble judging distances and heights.
• Trouble reading unusual fonts.

Visual Sequential Memory

Visual Sequential Memoryis the ability to remember and recall a sequence of objects and/or events in the correct order. Signs of visual sequential memory issues include:

• Difficulty remembering forms (including orientation, size, shape, and color) or characters in the correct order.
• Difficulty spelling – misses, adds, or jumbles letters within words.
• Often whispers or talks while writing.
• Trouble recognizing and remembering patterns.

Visual Memory

Visual Memory is the ability to recall visual information over time and to accurately recall a sequence of shapes or objects in the correct order, these skills are important for spelling and writing. Visual Memory difficulties lead to poor spelling, poor recall of information, difficulty with remembering a sequence of directions, poor reading comprehension and difficulty with writing. Signs of Visual Memory struggles include:

• Spelling difficulties
• Difficulty recognizing numbers or letters.
• Difficulty copying information from the board or a book.
• Difficulty with sight words
• Reduced math skills
• Poor reading comprehension

Visual Figure Ground

Visual Figure Ground is the ability to find and pick out valuable information in a visually busy background, such as picking out numbers in a word problem. Difficulty can also lead to poor planning/organization.

• Slow reading speed
• Trouble concentrating on books with small print and/or with l words on a page.
• Trouble copying notes from the board.
• Trouble picking out details in words or images.
• Trouble scanning for information contained in written materials.

Dyslexia, dysgraphia, dyspraxia, and ADHD

Visual Processing Disorders can mimic dyslexia, dysgraphia, dyspraxia and ADHD. Because literacy skills are impacted, reading can be hard, and letters may be perceived in reverse position. These are also common issues in dyslexia (although they have a different cause).

A child with spatial and visual motor integration issues may find it hard to write by hand. School assignments can be overly messy, and letters and words oddly spaced. This is also a trademark symptom of dysgraphia and is seen in dyspraxia due to the difficulty of holding a writing instrument. The tendency of children with ADHD is to write impulsively can mean they are prone to submitting messy work.

Children with Visual Processing Disorders may be clumsy and frequently bump into objects in the same way as children who struggle with dyspraxia. Watching a video and then switching mediums to complete a worksheet may be hard for them and they can easily become frustrated or tune out, as with cases of ADHD.

Students may miss information presented on bulletin boards. They can also easily lose their place on a page and have a tough time copying text into their notes, as with dysgraphia. They may not see signage and important warnings, which consequently causes them to get in trouble at school.

Like specific learning difficulties, visual processing disorders do not just cause problems with perception, but rather extend to all areas of a student’s life. They impact academic and emotional development and if left un-diagnosed, can contribute to a negative attitude towards school and learning. Children can be embarrassed or become easily frustrated in class. There may also be feelings of low self-worth and a lack of confidence in the classroom.

The key take away is to learn more about Visual Processing Disorders, how it impacts each individual child and ways to help students to understand and progress toward increased self-esteem and success.

Classroom accommodations

There are treatments for Visual Processing Disorders, but it is also important to implement a set of classroom accommodations to prevent children from falling behind. Because no two students will have the same set of symptoms, each approach should be customized for the individual child.

1. Repeat information in different modalities. Valuable information such as task instructions should always be delivered in more than one modality. Teachers might want to say the instructions aloud, demonstrate them and provide a handout. This is good practice in general as it will ensure students with different learning styles and preferences are all given an equal opportunity to prepare for the lesson.
2. Provide thickly lined or dotted paper for writing. This can be made easier when handwriting is required. It is also helpful for students who struggle with dysgraphia and dyspraxia.
3. Set tasks that require multi-sensory feedback. Consider both the modality in which a task is delivered and that in which responses are given and incorporate auditory feedback when possible.
4. Make use of tablets and other screens that can be enlarged. Zooming in on an image or piece of text can help reduce visual noise and make it easier for a child to focus during reading.
5. Teach them how to touch-type on a computer. Using the muscles in the hand and fingers to type is often an easier way for students to write because they do not need to visually scan the keyboard for keys. It is also helpful when handwriting is painful or difficult.
6. Encourage using an object to guide the eyes during reading. Help guide the eyes with a finger, a ruler or any other object that allows students to keep their place on a page and avoid getting lost during reading.
7. Practice reading books with large print. Larger print books may make it easier to process letters, which can have a positive impact on reading comprehension. 
8. Give students a break. Include activities that do not require students to use their eyes. Processing visual input all day can be exhausting so plan lessons that require children to use other senses, such as their ears or sense of touch. Keep in mind that motor skills and hand-eye-coordination can be implicated in physical tasks.
9. Set them up with a note-taking friend. Paying attention to a lesson and writing at the same time can be difficult. Pair students up with a note-taking friend so they can concentrate on learning instead of struggling to record information. Learn more about helping students take better notes.

Classroom Accommodations for Visual Processing Issues

When students have difficulty processing visual information, it can get in the way of learning. What accommodations can teachers use in the classroom to help students with visual processing issues? Here’s a look at some strategies and tools.

• Classroom materials and routines
• Post visual schedules, but also say them out loud.
• Describe visual presentations aloud and/or provide narration.
• Build in time to summarize the important information from each lesson.
• Provide uncluttered handouts with few or no nonessential images.
• Use a reading guide strip or a blank index card to block out other lines of text while reading.
• Provide a highlighter to use to highlight information while reading.
• Provide a slant board (or three-ring binder) to bring work closer to student’s visual field.
• Use audiobooks or text-to-speech software.
• Provide wide-ruled paper and darken or highlight lines and margins to help form letters in the right space.
• Provide graph paper (or lined paper to be used sideways) to help line up math problems.
• Provide a note-taker or a copy of class notes.
• Have loop scissors available to make it easier to control cutting and following a line.
• Provide colored glue sticks to use on white paper.
• Create a border for areas to color or glue.

• Giving instructions
• Say directions and assignments out loud.
• Clearly space words and problems on a page.
• Write directions in a different color from the rest of an assignment (or highlight them).
• Include simple diagrams or images to help clarify written directions.
• Use highlighting or sticky-note flags to draw attention to important information on worksheets.
• Allow time for the student to ask questions about directions.
• Completing tests and assignments
• Allow oral reporting instead of written responses.
• Allow the student to submit answers on a separate sheet of paper rather than on fitting them into small spaces.
• Reduce visual distractions by folding a test or using blank pieces of paper to cover up part of the page.
• Provide extended time on tests.
• Provide a quiet room for tests if needed.