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Portrait of a Learner 4-8

Systems Change

Visual Processing

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Visual Processing is what happens when we take the input that comes through our Vision and use cognitive processes to understand what we see. Visual Processing skills help students recognize and order visual information, allowing them to read, to correctly copy and solve problems, and represent and work with diagrams, drawings, and shapes. Learners with dyslexia or dyscalculia may demonstrate differences with their Visual Processing of words and numbers, which may stem from difficulties with Phonological Awareness, and can disrupt the process of visual Attention.

Main Ideas

Difficulties with Visual Processing can occur even when a student has good Vision. Visual Processing affects learning and development in multiple ways:

  • Visual Discrimination is the ability to identify different visual stimuli. This allows students to distinguish different letters, numbers and symbols and to differentiate objects from their background.
  • Visual Sequencing is the ability to determine the order of images, words, letters, numbers, or symbols.
  • Visual Motor Integration is the ability of the eyes and body to work together in a coordinated manner, which relies on both visual spatial discrimination and motor skills. Visual Motor Integration skills are associated with increased academic performance, likely because Visual Motor Integration underlies skills like reading and writing that are crucial for acquiring Core Academic Literacies.
  • Visual Spatial Processing, is the ability to recognize the relation of objects in space to one another and to oneself. These Spatial Skills are important for determining the arrangement of letters, numbers, and symbols on a page and for mentally manipulating and making inferences about shapes and objects. These skills support executive functioning, and are key to developing Core Academic Literacies including science, technology, engineering, math, and the arts.

Notably, research has shown that some students may be thought to have developmental dyscalculia (DD) in early childhood, but do not meet the criteria by third grade. It is thought that this specific deficit at an early learning stage may disrupt the acquisition of later skills, which can account for mathematical learning difficulties (MLD) at this stage and the associated Visual Processing challenges are instead related to delayed executive function skill development, as seen in ADHD, rather than differences in development of mechanisms for processing numerical information often present in true DD.

Educators can play a key role in supporting students who struggle with Visual Processing. For example, educators can present lessons in multiple modalities, provide feedback both visually and verbally, and can encourage students to take breaks if they feel overwhelmed by the need to process visual input.

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