Visual Perception Disability
Visual Perception Disability: Children might have difficulty with subtle differences in position or in relationships. A child might reverse letters like “s” for “e” or “E” for “3” or reverse words like “saw” for “was.” He or she might confuse “d” and “b” and “p’ and “q.” A “3” might be rotated to look like an “in.” This confusion with spatial positioning might show up in written work, copying designs, or in doing tasks in which the eyes have to cue the hands as to what to do (i.e., visual motor tasks).
Types of visual perceptual problems are for example, when reading a page the child might skip words or jump lines. If a desk or table is cluttered he or she might have difficulty focusing on the appropriate task. Some children have trouble with depth perception and judging distances. The child might bump into things or fall off a chair. He or she might knock over a glass or container because the distance is misjudged and the hand gets there too soon. A final form of visual perceptual disabilities relates to doing tasks such as eye and hand coordination, like catching a ball, doing a puzzle, or using a hammer. The child will have difficulty with catching, hitting, kicking a ball or jumping rope.
Your child may have difficulty in organizing the position and shape of what he or she sees. Input may be perceived with letters reversed or rotated: An e might look like a 9; and E might look like a W, or a 3, or an M. The child may confuse similar looking letters because of these rotations or reversals: d, b, p, g, and q, may be confused with any one of the others. The word was might be perceived as saw, or dog as god.
This confusion with position of input shows up almost immediately when the child begins to read, to write, or to copy letters or designs.
Another child might have a "figure-ground" problem, that is difficulty in focusing on the significant figure instead of all the other visual inputs in the background. This occurs in real-life situations as well as in looking at printed matter or electronic images. For example, the child is told to pass the salt shaker but has difficulty finding it among the many dishes and platters. Reading requires focusing on specific letters or groups of letters, then tracking from left to right, line after line. Children with this disability may have reading problems. They jump over words or skip lines.
Judging distance is another visual perceptual task which can go awry. Your child may misjudge depth, bumping into things, falling off a chair, or knocking over a drink because the hand reaches too far for it. What you take for habitual carelessness or poor eyesight may in fact be just this sort of perceptual error.
There are other types of visual perceptual problems. While playing in an open field or gym, your child may become confused and disoriented because of trouble organizing his or her position in space. Or the child may have difficulty in understanding left and right, or up and down.
One very common type of visual perceptual disability is related to doing things when the eyes have to tell the hands or legs what to do. When such information is unreliable, activities like catching a ball, jumping rope, doing puzzles, or using a hammer and nails become difficult or impossible. To catch a ball, the eyes must focus on the ball (figure-ground), the brain must perceive the correct position and path of the ball (depth perception) and tell the various parts of the body exactly where to move and when, and then the body must obey. A child who misperceives distance or speed, or whose brain misdirects the body, may miss the ball completely.
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