5 Free Ways to Improve Visual Processing for Weak Readers

Visual processing is an important cognitive skill for students to master. It assists with the encoding of information into the brain, and it helps students make sense of the learning content. This skill often needs to be developed and exercised, and there are many engaging activities that can help.
What is Visual Processing?
Visual processing is a cognitive skill that allows us to process, interpret and find meaning from visual images. In other words, it is how we make sense of what we see.

Why is Visual Processing Important?
Visual processing is vital because it plays a key role in learning visual information from our environment. It is a fundamental skill for reading, math, and spelling.

What Are the Different Types of Visual Processing?
Visual processing involves a number of cognitive processing skills:
  1. Visual Construction Skills: organizing and manually manipulating spatial information to make a design. 
  2. Visual Processing Speed: processing visual information at a certain pace or speed. 
  3. Visual Scanning: looking at and absorbing all parts of a visual field or text document. 
  4. Visual-Spatial Skills: manipulating 2-dimensional and 3-dimensional figures in one's mind. 
  5. Visual-Spatial Reasoning: perceiving the spatial relationships between objects. 
  6. Visual Memory: remembering what is seen. 
  7. Visual Motor Integration: translating visual perception into a motor response. 
  8. Visual Synthesis: uniting visual information into a coherent whole. 
  9. Visual Sequencing: determining or remembering the order of symbols, words, or objects. 
  10. Visual Closure: making sense of visual information when some of the images are missing. 
  11. Visual Reasoning: finding meaning and making sense out of visual information.
5 Free Ways to Improve Visual Processing for Weak Readers:
  1. Help students improve and strengthen their visual tracking skills so they can read in a fast and fluid manner. Click here to learn some free strategies. 
  2. Exercise and improve visual processing skills by playing key games. Click here to get a comprehensive list of games. 
  3. Go to Eye Can Learn and do eye exercises to strengthen tracking, visual discrimination visual memory, visual sequencing, visual-spatial skills, visual closure, and more... 
  4. Use text to voice Apps like Voice Dream Reader that highlight the words while it reads the text aloud. This helps with both visual and auditory processing as well as sound/symbol association. You can also use their "Pac Man mode" that erases the words as they are read aloud. This helps the brain to process without getting visually overloaded. 
  5. Read out loud to yourself or someone else. This helps the eyes and brain to work in sync.
What are Some Ready Made Materials that Strengthen Visual Processing?

Following Directions Primary:
Following Directions Primary offers fun activities that develop visual processing, listening skills, linguistic abilities and the core cognitive skills needed for reading. The 49-page download offers coloring and process of elimination activities. Cute animals and aliens as well as numbers, letters, shapes, and arrows are used in these enjoyable brain breaks. If you are interested in learning more about this publication and would like to download FREE ACTIVITIES CLICK HERE.

Reversing Reversals Primary:
Reversing Reversals Primary strengthens the foundational cognitive skills needed for reading and math. It also develops visual processing and perception such as reversals that impacts students with dyslexia. This publication is available as a download, and it offers 72 pages of activities as well as a game. If you would like to learn more about this publication and also get FREE ACTIVITIES CLICK HERE.

I hope you found this helpful. If you know of other sites, materials or games that you find benefit visual processing, please share them below.

Cheers, 
Dr. Erica Warren, Learning Specialist & Educational Therapist
Dr. Erica Warren is the author, illustrator, and publisher of multisensory educational materials at Good Sensory Learning. She is also the director of Learning to Learn and Learning Specialist Courses.

· Blog www.learningspecialistmaterials.blogspot.com
· YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/warrenerica1
· Podcast: https://godyslexia.com/
Newsletter Sign-up: https://app.convertkit.com/landing_pages/69400

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