10+ Visual Perception Activities for Kids

As a mother, it is highly significant to share my accumulated knowledge with the world- one of them being great visual perception. 👩🏻‍🏫

Your kid must become aware of all of your senses; this way, they can begin to understand and develop a relationship with the environment around them. This can be done through fun games, songs, and art projects. 

Learning more about our senses and what they do for us is always early and early in life. 

Read on to learn more about Visual Perception. 👁️‍🗨️

Fact Time 🔎

Did you know that every day when we look out at the world around us, our brain takes thousands of bits of information being processed into one cohesive image? Scientists and researchers continue to learn more about how Vision works every day.

What is Visual perception?

Visual perception is the ability to understand what we see and what we are seeing. Visual perception is sometimes described as our first sense to come in contact with the environment that surrounds us. 👁️👁️

Our eyes’ ability to adjust light, color, and movement helps us see everything around us.

It is essential to develop all five senses to have a good life. 

Our five senses are sight, hearing, smell, touch, and taste. Each sense channel information through a specific part of our brain called the thalamus. The thalamus 🧠 receives input from all of our senses and relays information to other parts of the brain that manage activities such as thinking, attention, Memory, and emotion.

What happens when we see something?

This is very important, and I can only move ahead with explaining this to you. 🤜🏻🤛🏻

When we see something, our brain begins to gather information using one of our five senses (sight). The retina is the colored layer at the back of our eye. 

Our retina contains light-sensitive cells that receive visual signals and convert them into electrical pulses. The electrical pulses go through a cable (optic nerve) to the visual processing center in our brain. →🧠

The visual processing center interprets all this information and sends it back through an optic nerve fiber to one or more areas of the brain for further interpretation. 

The optic nerve fiber relays this information as electrical messages, which are sent as coded messages from one end to another end of it, so it can be able to deliver them at a normal speed. This way, the information is sent to the visual processing center and vice versa. 🧠⚡️

Why is Visual Perception Activites Important?

Before I move on to the activities related to visual perception, let me tell you why they are so important for your munchkins. ⤵️

• Visual perception activities are essential because they can help increase eye-hand coordination making learning to read, write and use computers easier.
•  Visual perception activities can also help develop self-esteem because of the improvement in Vision and the ability to see better.
•  Visual perception activities can also help improve color recognition, focus, and attention span.

Types of Visual Perception Skills

Understanding the types of visual perception skills is also crucial.⚡️

I believe that without understanding this, you cannot select the right activities for the kids. 🖖🏻

So, let’s dive deep into this before passing information to our brains with the activities!⤵️

1. Visual Clues – the brain can notice tiny differences, such as the distance of an object from you, what an object looks like (red/green dots), and how far a light is from us.
2.  Visual Searching – our brain can ‘search’ for something in a familiar environment, for example, “Where are you?” This involves using Vision to locate something that we know is out there. We look for things such as toys or others in the room when trying to find them.
3.  Visual Color Matching – this requires our brain’s ability to recognize what color an object is (all things have six different colors), e.g., red cars, green cars, and so on.
4.  Visual Tracking – our ability to follow a moving object using both eyes (the images are not in perfect alignment, but the brain makes up the difference). e.g., watching a rabbit running through grass or an airplane flying across the sky. 👁️👁️→ 🛫
5.  Visual Memory – our ability to remember what something looks like, e.g., we remember what our school looks like.
6.  Visual Discrimination of Movement – our ability to recognize when something is moving and how fast it is moving (even though this can be trickier for adults than for children due to aging).
7.  Visual Speed – our ability to see how fast something moves, e.g., we can recognize a car going past as it overtakes us.
8.  Visual Closure – the brain’s ability to see that there are only a limited number of possibilities for something (e.g., “Which finger I’m holding up” or “What did that sign say?”).
9.  Visual Spatial Relationships – our brain’s ability to create mental images of visible spaces by filling in spaces between things, e.g., a house and its surrounding gardens
10.  Visual Discrimination – our ability to differentiate between items, e.g., a plant and a table.
11.  Visual Direction – our ability to determine where something is by predicting the visual Direction of an object based on another object’s Direction of movement or position. e.g., “Which box do I need to put it in?” (our brain will remember which one is on the left or right of the other for access purposes).
12.  Visual Form Constancy – our brain’s ability to perceive an image as stable and unchanging despite changes in size, position, or appearance, e.g., when we are in a train, the trees and houses outside the window remain the same, but as we move past them.

Well, well!! 😌

I know that is a little too scientific, but as a mother, I can only encourage you to participate in activities if I understand their logic! 🤞

I am a concerned mommy, see?!

Visual perception activities for kids

Now, I can finally disclose the activities that have worked wonderfully for my son and will indeed work for my daughter!

Let’s go! ⤵️

Visual perception activities can be done inside or outside. They can also be done with eyes open or closed, no vision needed (i.e., blindfolded), and they can be done in various ways depending upon the child’s needs.

The following is a list of different types of vision activities that parents can do with their children to help them learn about the function of their eyes:

What color is it? Color matching

This game is fun for your little ones to play on a table, desk, or floor. Cover a piece of paper with dots of different colors. 

Have them look at the object and see how many dots they can find in a row or column.

My son enjoyed this! ✅

What shape is it? Shape matching

Have your little one draw a shape on the floor. Cover up half the body with an object and then ask them what Form they see on their side. 

If they need more clarification, show them the other side and ask them again to convince you they’re right!

What is it doing? Movement matching

This game is like our first exercise. Place an object on the table or floor, cover it with a piece of paper, and show your child the movement underneath. 

Let them guess what it is doing until they uncover the object.

What did it say? Semantic memory matching

With this game, your little one must remember what you said. Tell her out loud that you will ask her a question in five seconds. 

Cover up your eyes while counting down and ask her what you said when you withdrew your hands from your eyes.

Sounds fun. 😉

What’s missing? Visual closure matching 

This exercise is similar to our second activity, except it’s not a shape but an absence of a body (the thing we are looking for). 

Ask your child to look around the room for what is missing before you uncover it. Allow him to investigate the room in search of the missing item.

What did it do? Visual memory matching

Let your little one repeat after you and say something that happened in their day as you cover their eyes. Then remove your hands and ask them what they remember happening when you covered up your eyes. 

You can add visual memory matching to other experiences, such as watching a cartoon or playing a game on an iPad (AVOID TOO MUCH SCREEN TIME, though), and it will help them identify when they have experienced these things. 

Sometimes children need to practice responding to emotional situations.

Facts, Facts, and Facts!! 🔎

• Preschool children can pick out letters and numbers from a group of objects 3/4 times more often than adults. 
•  By age 7, children remember what they see on T.V.; by age 10, children can match pictures and words (semantic memory matching) and place the details of an event or incident (visual memory matching). 

Some Useful Tips from the Mommy

By now, you know that none of my blogs passes by without personal advice.

These useful tips are what you will thank me for! ⤵️

Make your kid wear sunglasses that block U.V. rays – Young children are more likely to go outside in the sun, and their eye protection should be prioritized to avoid any risk of damage.

Hats – Bigger hats shade the eyes better than smaller ones and have a more significant effect on blocking light. So, try to get them used to wearing hats/caps. 

Inspect your child’s eyes regularly – Many kids have eye problems they never know they have because they can’t see them.

If your child has a problem that impacts how their eyes work, go to the optometrist. 

If anything is wrong (e.g., retinal detachment), your child should get help from the beginning of the problems so that their Vision won’t worsen over time.

Consult with your child’s ophthalmologist 👩🏼‍⚕️ – if your child has a vision problem, like a cataract or blurriness, that is interfering with their life, then it’s time to get it checked out and treated.

P.S.- Consult the ophthalmologist even when your kid doesn’t complain; crosschecking is never harmful. 

When to consult a doctor for your child regarding eye problems 🩺

• Color Blindness – if your child is having trouble matching or seeing colors, you should contact your doctor. Sometimes this is a symptom of another condition, and getting it checked out is best.
•  Double Vision – sometimes, kids have problems with their binocular Vision and see double or moving images when they look at something. This happens because their eyes are out of alignment and can be fixed with glasses or a patch over one eye, among other things.
•  Eye Pain – if your child’s eyes hurt, water regularly, react to certain lights, or have other symptoms, you need to talk to the doctor to rule out any potential problems that could affect them (e.g., a disease, infection).
•  Hazy or Blurry Vision – cloudy eyes can be caused by several things, such as the pink eye (conjunctivitis), allergies, or infections. If your child is having difficulty seeing objects well or seeing, it’s time to get it checked out by the doctor.
•  Headaches – if your child has headaches lasting more than three days and affecting one eye, it’s best to bring them in to ensure there isn’t an underlying issue (e.g., detached retina). Headaches that worsen with eye movement can also be a symptom of optic nerve hypoplasia that might require treatment with steroids and other medication.

Summing Up

Phew! 😮‍💨That was quite some knowledge, huh?! 

Visual perception activities are essential. They give us insight into how the world and our eyes work together. We use most of the information we gather through our eyes every day without even realizing it. 

Visual perception is an integral part of our lives and will continue to be as we develop, learn, and grow old. Our child’s visual development must be excellent to access and understand information quickly.

I hope I helped you decode visual perception along with the top activities! Have a great day ahead! Toodles! 👋🏼

Frequently asked questions

1. Can children younger than three years old do visual perception activities?

Yes. It is much easier for children that young to learn and understand. Children understand their environment from birth and begin to be curious about it (and everything in it). You have to adjust the nature of activities, shapes, and images used and when you do them.

2. What types of things can my child recognize with visual perception training?

Your child will be able to recognize more things every day, such as numbers, symbols on buildings and signs, animals, letters on buildings and signs, cars, and people… Visual perception exercises help your child recognize these things faster and recall what they have seen in the past too.

3. What about when my child grows up and has to recognize things for the first time? Will visual perception training help them?

Yes. Your child will be able to recognize things shown to them before with greater ease. As they grow, the number of things they can identify with their eyes will increase, but so will their ability to pick out letters, numbers, and shapes without fail.

4. What if my child is struggling in school?

The earlier you begin working with and stimulating your child’s visual perception skills, the better off they will be later in life and at school.