- Claire Murphy, MOT, OTR/L
There's More to Vision than Sight
What is visual memory?
Vision is made up of more components than just acuity - how well a person can see close up and far away. When a person looks out a window, the whole picture is processed in the brain, in order for the person to place meaning on what they are seeing. There are eight components of visual processing: visual memory, visual attention, visual discrimination, form constancy, visual closure, figure-ground, spatial-perception, and visual imagery.
Visual memory - how accurately a person will remember what they see and be able to recall what they have seen previously
How do you know if your child is having difficulty with visual memory?

Your child may demonstrate difficulties with:
Remembering letters and numbers
Copying from a board
Remembering sight words
Completing reading comprehension worksheets
Remembering what was read
Reproducing figures from memory
Letter reversals
Spelling
How can you help?


Play games - I Spy, Spot It, Concentration, Memory
Give your child a picture to draw and then have them draw the picture a second time
from memory
Place a series of objects (the number will vary by age and level of difficulty) onto a table, have your child look at the objects. Have you child close their eyes, then:
Remove 1 or 2 objects and have your child label which objects are missing
Replace 1 or 2 objects and have your child label which ones are new
Add 1 or 2 objects and have your child label which ones were added
Cover all of the objects and have them label as many as they can remember
Ask your child questions about their day. What did they eat at lunch? What did they see at recess? What did you do with your brother/sister today?
Copying from memory! Pictures, shapes, words, patterns
Write letters, numbers, and shapes with their eyes closed.
