Visual Perception - what is it?

Visual perception is the term used to describe the way in which the brain processes visual information. There can be differences in the way that visual information is perceived, processed, organised and understood.  This is different from the idea of 20/20 vision and being long sighted or short sighted.

We assume that when we show someone information visually on an interactive white board or a page in a book or a poster that they are seeing what we are seeing.  We also assume that they will be able to readily pick out the information that they need from a visual source. For many children and adults this is not the case.

Good visual perception is important for all aspects of life. We need the ability to process visual information to make sense of the world around us. We need to be able to understand shapes, colours and distance. We use visual perception to develop our understanding of everyday concepts.  For example: to know what a cup is, we need to see many cups and remember what are the key features that make a cup, as not all cups are the same.  This understanding and visual memory will help us see that while a jug is similar to a cup it is not the same. We can mentally compare and realise that a jug has a lip for pouring that a cup does not.

Good visual perception is vital to learn to read and write. We need to distinguish letters and spaces between words. We need to remember spellings and organise words on a page.  Visual perception should be one of the first things that is checked if a child is having difficulty learning to read or write.

It is not always easy to identify children who have difficulties with visual perception.  Children usually don't realise that what they see is not what others see. It is also very hard to verbalise what we see or explain exactly what the problem is.

Some of signs to look out for are:

- difficulty remembering visually presented information
- difficulty with the order of letters and objects
- difficulty picking objects out from a busy background
- difficulty organising themselves or materials in space
- they may not realise that an object orientated differently is actually the same
- they may not notice big or small differences
- they may appear clumsy

Visual perception is complex and is made up of a number of skills. 

• Visual memory
• visual sequential memory 
• visual closure
• visual discrimination
• visual form constancy
• visual figure ground
• visual motor intergration

Children do not usually have weaknesses in all these areas,  a weakness in just 1 or 2 of them can cause significant difficulties both at school and in every day life.

www.eyecanlearn.com is a very useful website for parents that explains both visual efficiency and visual perception clearly.

If you have any concerns use should consult a behavioral optometrist who can test these areas using standardised tests. Check these websites to find a suitably qualified professional  http://www.babo.co.uk or https://www.covd.org

Over the next couple of weeks I will explain some of these areas in more detail and some strategies that can be used to help.

Have Non Verbal Learning Disorders been forgotten?

Does your child have excellent verbal skills ? Learns facts easily? Asks lots of questions?

But misunderstands social situations, takes things literally, is reluctant to explore things for themselves or is clumsy?

These could be signs of Non Verbal Learning Disorder.  Many people have not heard of this difficulty.  As its name suggests it is a difficulty with understanding and processing information that is presented visually rather than verbally.  Typically there is a big discrepancy between verbal skills which are age appropriate or even advanced and their visual perceptual skills.

The difficulty affects a number of areas including social skills as the child (or adult) can not read facial expressions or body language. They may misunderstand social situations leading to friendship issues particularly as they get older.  They may 'talk at' people and may want to share facts they are interested in but not notice when the other person has lost interest. For this reason it can easily be confused with Asperger's syndrome.

While the child can seem very knowledgeable or even precocious when they are speaking, they may miss the subtleties of language.  They may take things very literally and not understand sarcasm or figurative language.  This can then affect their reading comprehension as they may focus on the factual detail and miss the bigger picture and a character's feelings and motives.  It can also be mistaken for language disorders, like social pragmatic communication disorder.

 Motor and visual spatial skills are affected making the child seem clumsy and uncoordinated.  Their handwriting and drawings will be messy.  Their lack of focus and careless work can lead to a diagnosis of ADHD.

At the heart of Non Verbal Learning Disorder is the difficulty in noticing and understanding patterns, particularly visual patterns.  They can also have difficulties with abstract reasoning, maths concepts and organisational skills.  It is like having the building blocks but not being able to put them together to make a building.  Children can have good decoding and spelling skills, have difficulties with reading comprehension.  They may be able to learn maths facts and some methods by rote but not understand maths concepts or be able to solve problems. Verbally they can seem very able to but this is not translated into their school work.  This can be puzzling for both teachers and parents and frustrating for the child.

While Non Verbal Learning Disorder is not longer listed in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorder (DSM-5), there is still a lot information available about this difficulty. Prior the changes diagnosis, as a lot of work had been done to raise awareness of Non Verbal Learning Disorders as a Specific Learning Difficulty.  As an Inclusion Coordinator, I recognise many of the signs in the children I work with and still consider it to be important in understanding and supporting children effectively.

With all this confusion why bother labeling?
Understanding what is really causing the difficulties a child is experiencing both helps the child understand themselves and will unlock the right interventions. Interventions for children with ADHD or Asperger's syndrome may not be effective in helping children with Non Verbal Learning Disorder.
For more information look at
https://childmind.org/search/?fwp_term=nonverbal%20learning%20disorder
and
https://www.understood.org/en/learning-attention-issues/child-learning-disabilities/nonverbal-learning-disabilities/

Parents and teachers need to focus on clear communication.  Patterns and connections between concepts need to be taught explicitly, children need to be told the main idea or concept directly. Adults need to verbalise what is represented visually to help the child to make sense of the visual material. Talking through the steps needed to solve a problem can help children know how to approach a problem solving task.  Support needs to be given for transitions between activities or for new situations.  Social skills groups and interventions which help the children to understand and practice social skills in a safe environment are important.  They need adult support to analyse situations and understand what is really happening and how they misunderstood or misread the situation.  Occupational therapy can also be beneficial in addressing the visual spatial difficulties, poor motor skills.

As a parent of a child with Nonverbal Learning Disorder, Rondalyn Varney Whitney has written an excellent book documenting the journey she took in understanding her son and gives practical advice to support parents and teachers.