Visual analysis includes subsets of visual discrimination, visual figure-ground perception, visual closure, visual memory and visualisation. These visual skills help differentiate small differences in letters (k/r, m/n), numbers and words, to see and understand the resulting meaning from the words, visualise a story, and be able to see the “bigger picture” without getting lost in the details. Difficulties will show up in spelling, comprehension and in expressing ideas.
Visual analysis skills are the active processes for “locating, selecting, extracting, analysing, recalling and manipulating” relevant information in the visual environment.
Subsets of visual analysis skills (which are necessary in the written language) include:
Visual Discrimination
The ability to recognise likeness and differences. In reading, this skill helps children distinguish between similarly spelled words, such as then/when.
Visual Memory
The ability to remember for immediate recall the characteristics of a given object or form. This skill helps children remember what they read and see by adequately processing information through their short-term memory. Children with poor visual memory may struggle with recall and comprehension. They often subvocalize, or softly whisper to themselves so that they can “hear” the words. They may have difficulty recognising a word even though they had already seen it many times before. They may also take longer copying text because they can only copy a small amount at a time.
Visual Sequential Memory
The ability to remember forms or characters in correct order. This skill is particularly important in spelling and is an essential skill for phonetic decoding of words.
Visual Form Constancy
The ability to mentally manipulate forms and visualise the resulting outcomes. This skill helps children distinguish differences in size, shape, and orientation.
Visual Closure
The ability to visualise a complete image when given incomplete information or a partial picture. This skill helps children read and comprehend quickly; their eyes don’t have to individually process every letter in every word for them to quickly recognise the word by sight.
Visual Figure Ground
The ability to visualise a complete image when given incomplete information or a partial picture. This skill helps children read and comprehend quickly; their eyes don’t have to individually process every letter in every word for them to quickly recognise the word by sight.
What Are Some of the Tests That Can Measure Visual Analysis Skills?
