visual spatial processing?

[Michelle T]

DS is in the middle of a lengthy LD evaluation process, and it is very clear so far that he has pretty bad visual spatial processing problems. We will be finishing testing this week, and going over the full report with the psychologist, but I'd love to hear some options for improving visual spatial processing. Money is tight, are there any activities or programs that can be done at home to help in this area?

Michelle T

[Laurie4b]

My ds has some visual spatial processing issues, but they don't fit a particular box well. We will be starting vision therapy soon, so I'll let you know what they do there.

 

Any skill improves through practice, so just keeping your eyes open for practice opportunities is helpful. You will probably find that you've actually avoided some with this child. Here's a list:

 

puzzles, being your "guide" in going to the mall or large dept. store, word finds, hidden pictures, mazes, Tangrams, the card game "concentration," the game "Rush Hour," chess or checkers, various video games, complicated coloring (like from Dover Design books), art (drawing, sculpting), dancing or martial arts (where the whole body is in space and where it's going next and where it has just been), etc. Highlights magazine has 2-3 visual processing exercises in each issue. Practice is more often found in games than in academic books. There's a site online with some, but it's on our other computer.

 

What I am trying to find out is if there is a hierarchy of what you start when. Our OT says she has seen a chart somewhere of that, but she had been approaching it with an activity here or an activity there. Again, I'll let you know what I learn from VT, too.

[Claire]

If the OT eval shows a visual-motor integration problem, you really want to work intensively on correcting that before doing a lot of skill-building activities. Also, you might want to get a developmental vision eval, as visual efficiency deficits are sometimes associated with visual spatial problems.

 

Try to find out *specifically* what the areas of weakness are with visual spatial processing. There is a lot of variation in what the phrase covers.

 

Critical Thinking Press has a couple of workbooks on visual perceptual skills. Here is a link to the first book in the two-book series. I also like Rush Hour for how it works on visual spatial reasoning skills. However, it really is important to get any motor problems and/or visual problems addressed first before trying to improve skills.

[Rod Everson]

Hi,

 

Here's one definition of visual spatial processing difficulty: "The ability to perceive the location of objects in relationship to other objects is a critical skill in reading, math and handwriting, where a child must be able to recognise the different symbols, perceive their direction, tell the difference between similar shapes and determine where these are located in relationship to each other. Individuals who have difficulty with spatial relationships may seem unusually clumsy or accident prone may have difficulty reading or may refuse to read, or may have poor handwriting (dysgraphia)."

 

Now, in line with what Claire said, if a child has poor binocular vision skills, they often will have no depth perception (or very poor depth perception) because to perceive depth, both eyes must be working together by fixating on the same spot at the same time.

 

No depth perception would make it difficult to "perceive the location of objects in relationship to other objects..." Poor depth perception would also make it difficult to "tell the difference between similar shapes and determine where these are located in relationship to each other. And finally, poor depth perception would make a person "unusually clumsy or accident prone" because they would not be able to tell how far away various objects are (including the floor, steps, ridges on a path, etc.)

 

In other words, poor binocular vision skills would, almost certainly, result in poor visual spatial processing, at least under the above definition. And, as Claire said, until the underlying binocular vision skills are developed (either by maturity or via vision therapy, or in rare instances by the use of prism lenses) all the practice in the world at perceptual activities will not develop the targeted skill. This is why it is so important to get the order of remediation correct. Doing it in the wrong order risks wasting time and money, could discourage the child even further and, if time and money run out, might never resolve the underlying vision skills problem.

 

A big part of the problem is that many of the professionals assessing these visual spatial processing difficulties, and other similar issues, often do not even consider recommending a visit to a developmental optometrist to see if there are underlying vision skills problems present. That is why it is so important for parents to take matters into their own hands, investigate vision therapy, and decide for themselves whether they should at least schedule an appointment with a developmental optometrist in an effort to get a diagnosis of any deficiency in their child's vision skills.

 

Rod Everson

OnTrack Reading