Educational Series: Sensory Learning
Learning Through the Senses: Visual Learning
Welcome to the first article in our “Learning Through the Senses” series, where we will be exploring how each of the senses play a role in children’s development and learning.
As children grow, their sensory experiences influence how they perceive, interact with, and learn from their environment. The way we perceive things can be categorized based on the type of sensory input that the brain is receiving:
- EXTERNAL SENSORY INPUT: Sight, hearing, touch, taste, smell
- INTERNAL SENSORY INPUT: Proprioception, vestibular, kinesis (movement)
We will be focusing on visual learning in this article: Learning through sight. Vision is often considered the most dominant of all of our senses and is crucial for a child’s ability to read, write, do mathematics and engage with the world around them.
Visual Perception
Visual perception is the way in which the brain interprets what we see through our eyes. A child with well-developed visual perception can navigate the world clearly and with confidence, while a child with underdeveloped visual perception might struggle to interpret visual inputs properly, which could lead to some learning challenges.
Categories of Visual Perception
1. Visual Discrimination
The ability to see similarities and differences between objects, shapes, colours, words, letters & numbers.
- Find matching shoes and socks
- Picture books: Pointing out similarities/differences and finding hidden pictures
- Sorting buttons & pegs
- Matching games like “snap”
- Copying pegboard, copy cards
- Puzzles, Logi shapes, and Lego building
2. Visual Closure
The ability to recognise the completion of a picture even if pieces are missing. This is vital for recognizing letters and words that may not be perfectly formed.
- Match pairs of kitchen items (knife & fork, pot & lid).
- Incomplete pictures: Create drawings with missing parts and discuss them.
- Peephole pictures: Reveal only a portion of a picture and ask the child to identify it.
3. Foreground and Background Discrimination
Focusing on one object in a busy visual environment.
- Specific block retrieval from a mixed pile (e.g., "Give me only the red square").
- Identify a specific toy placed on a "busy" piece of patterned material.
- Mazes, puzzles, and joining dots.
4. Visual Sequencing
The ability to arrange items in a logical order.
- Dressing: putting on socks before shoes.
- Threading beads in a sequence.
- Arranging sequencing cards to tell and re-tell stories.
5. Visual Seriation
Arranging objects in a particular order, such as smallest to largest.
- Stacking blocks to compare heights (tall, taller, tallest).
- Using ordinal language: first, second, third; few, more, most.
6. Part/Whole Relationships
The ability to break an item into parts and put them back together.
- Cut a slice of toast into halves or quarters and have the child reassemble it.
- Construction toys and puzzles.
7. Visual-Spatial Awareness
Understanding where objects are relative to oneself.
- Spatial commands: Stand behind/in front of the chair.
- Body awareness: Put hands behind back, on knees, or up in the air.
8. Visual Tracking
Following a moving object with the eyes, crucial for reading.
- Watching torn paper or bubbles float down.
- Following a laser pointer or torch light on a wall.
- Balloon toss and cup shuffle games.
9. Visual Memory and Recall
The ability to remember what has been seen (shape, colour, sequence).
- The Tray Game: View 3 objects for a few seconds, cover them, and recall.
- Identifying supermarket logos or road signs to begin reading word shapes.
Visual Learning Through Play
- Mobiles: Improves visual tracking and spatial awareness.
- Coloured Ice Cubes: Teaches colour mixing and change over time.
- Creative Water Bottles: Observing movement of glitter and objects.
- Cellophane: Looking at the world through different coloured filters.
Conclusion
Visual learning is a powerful tool in children’s education. By understanding and supporting the development of visual perception early on, we can create learning environments that help to shape their reading and writing skills later in life.
References:
- De Jager, M., & Victor, L. (2013). Play Learn Know: A Child is a Work in Progress. Metz Press.
- Maree, D., & Ford, M. Oorbrug met ‘n glimlag. Smile Education.
- Du Plessis, L. (2014). Raising happy children. Metz Press
- Senor, L., & Hopkins, K. (1998). Growing up with a smile.
- Atkinson, J., & Braddick, O. (2011). Visual Development. Oxford University Press.
- Gavril, L., Roșan, A., & Szamosközi, Ș. (2021). The role of visual-spatial attention in reading development: A meta-analysis. Cognitive Neuropsychology, 38(6), 387-407.
