Visual discrimination is an important skill for learning. It is defined as the capacity to differentiate forms, patterns, hidden shapes, or other pictures from similar items which vary from each other in subtle ways.

This can be such a difficult skill for unique learners, especially those with dyslexia. It's common for these kids to perceive letters or numbers that look alike as the same or different, when in fact, the opposite is true.

For instance, these kids might see the letter "n" as the letter "h". Can you imagine how this can slow down the process of reading? Or, they might see the number "1" as the number "7". There's no way they can get a correct response on a math problem when their visual discrimination "muscles" are weak.

But here's the good news.

Like any skill, visual discrimination can be strengthened with regular practice. Just like running a marathon, it's important to strengthen visual discrimination "muscle" before expecting kids to read, perform math problems, spell words, or write letters correctly.

Following are some fun and easy ways to help your child or student increase visual discrimination skills:

  1. Hidden pictures are a fun way to hone visual discrimination skills. Kids have to search out hidden pictures in a larger picture, which means they have to look for outlines, shapes, and details of the hidden pictures. Highlights Magazine has many wonderful pages of hidden pictures, or you can find workbooks at teachers' stores, Barnes and Noble, or Amazon.
  2. Mazes encourage children to practice visual discrimination skills as the child discerns differences between each bend and twist of the maze. Even better, kids love doing mazes.
  3. If your child is struggling with specific letters or numbers, then you can focus just on those. For instance, if your child or student "sees" the letter "W" as "M", then you can make flash cards and have your child write the letters correctly in sand, shaving cream, or any other gooey substance. The more practice, the better!
  4. Matching, matching, and more matching always helps. You can use marbles, coins, rocks, buttons, or anything else that the student can match. Or there are many workbooks and free activities to help with this.
  5. Sorting is another wonderful way to strengthen your child's visual discrimination skills. You can use the same tangible items listed on number four above and have your child or student sort different colors, shapes, etc.
  6. Puzzles are excellent for strengthening visual memory skills. Some kids will balk about puzzles because they can be difficult, but if you start with large and low number of pieces and slowly build up, then it helps a lot.

When my son was in fifth grade and struggling with dyslexia, ADD, and an auditory processing disorder, I had him do the above activities on a daily basis, and it helped so much! I included all of the above exercises (and more) into his daily routine, and he didn't crab a bit.

He thought he was having fun!

And...learning should be fun!!

(P.S. I'm aware the title says "five ways" instead of six, but WordPress is blocking me from editing it! Sorry about that.)

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