Tips for Improving Visual Perception Activities to improve recognition and discrimination of shapes, letters, numbers and words: 1. Complete exploring games getting students to describe things in their environment. This can be done indoors or outside, as the child learns shapes and letters ask them to find these in signs or objects inside and outside. 2. Matching and sorting games using objects of different sizes, shape and colour and then progress to letter, numbers and words. Vary the size and style of print to reinforce discrimination and consistency in their skill development. Try dominoes and card games. 3. Place plastic shapes/letters in a cloth bag and ask the student to identify the letter without looking, once the student names the letter have them remove it from the bag and see if they are correct. 4. Find-a-words 5. “I Spy” games – looking for different objects or words, e.g. circles: wheels, sun, clock 6. Construction games that involve copying from a picture or an already made design. 7. Jig-saw puzzles- take a colour photocopy of the completed puzzle to assist the student when doing the puzzle, alternatively only remove a few pieces to begin with and slowly increase number of pieces that the student has to work with 8. Circle word games- ask the student to circle all the words they can find in a magazine or newspaper beginning with a certain letter, or containing a certain blend Strategies Encourage all students to scan all areas of article or picture, teach them to do this line by line or in a sequence (left to right) Teaching of cognitive cues to assist with recognition of the correct formation of letters/numbers, e.g., bouncing letters (h m n r p k b), straight letters (w t I f j l x v), magic ‘c’ letters (start with a ‘c’ shape - a c e d o s g q). Get students to trace over shapes/ letters with a finger as reinforcement using tactile feedback/cues. Education and Therapy Service Occupational Therapy SBH Queensland, Ph: 3844 4600 Activities to improve memory of shapes, letters, numbers and words: 1. Use multisensory teaching techniques, including: Letter tiles, Wikki Stix, or playdough/clay to make words Drawing shapes or writing letters and words in different mediums, such as shaving foam, finger paint, rice, goo/slime, on sandpaper, whiteboard, chalk board or chalk on pavement Make the shapes of letters and words with their fingers or bodies Use manipulatives such as blocks and counters for addition/subtraction maths, items of food to cut up for fractions and percentages, tokens for probability, actual notes and coins for money, etc. 2. Show a number of objects for a short period of time and then hidden from view. The student has to name the objects. Slowly begin to add more objects to increase difficulty of the task. 3. Copy drawings, posters, patterns made on pegboards or made with Lego or blocks. 4. Use cards with words written on them, e.g., flash cards or current spelling words. Show these to the students and give them a set of duplicate cards in which the child has to find the same word. Strategies: Tracing over shapes, letters and numbers with fingers to reinforce correct direction of movement that will be used when writing Use of an alphabet desk sticker to provide a visual aid and also correct directional movement when writing. Use ‘cheat sheets’ to help with remembering math concepts, including the symbols and the associated words (e.g. + plus, add, sum…). Use highlighters to indentify key information in a body of text. The main points can then be summarized into a mind map to help with planning a response. Education and Therapy Service Occupational Therapy SBH Queensland, Ph: 3844 4600 .