How to Help My Child Better Process Visual Information

Processing visual information is a fundamental skill that directly influences our children’s academic success and overall development. This cognitive ability not only allows for reading, writing, and solving mathematical problems but also helps navigate our modern world saturated with images and visual stimuli. Understanding how visual processing works and how we can support it in our children is essential to give them the best chances of success.

Understanding Visual Information Processing

Visual processing goes far beyond the simple ability to “see well.” It is a complex process by which the brain interprets, organizes, and makes sense of the information captured by the eyes. This process involves several distinct skills: visual discrimination (distinguishing differences and similarities), visual memory (remembering what has been seen), visuospatial perception (understanding positions and spatial relationships), and eye-hand coordination.

When a child has difficulties with visual processing, it can manifest in various ways: confusion between similar letters (b and d, p and q), difficulty copying from the board, problems with spatial organization on a sheet, or slowness in visual search tasks. Recognizing these signs early allows us to intervene effectively.

The Importance of Routine in Learning

Establishing a daily routine can greatly contribute to our child’s learning, particularly regarding the development of visual skills. A predictable structure helps reduce anxiety and promotes concentration, two essential elements when our child needs to process complex visual information.

By integrating dedicated moments for study, play, and creative activities, we provide our child with a stable framework that facilitates learning. The brain functions better when it can anticipate and prepare for upcoming tasks. For example, dedicating fifteen minutes each day to visual exercises at the same time allows our child’s brain to naturally get into the right mindset for this type of activity.

We can also include specific rituals that stimulate visual processing, such as reading together before bed while following the words with a finger, doing review exercises each morning using colorful visual aids, or creating a daily moment dedicated to building games that develop spatial perception. These habits not only strengthen their cognitive skills but also create precious memories and positive associations with learning.

Benefits of a Learning Routine

• Reduction of Learning-Related Anxiety: Predictability decreases stress and allows the child to fully mobilize their cognitive resources.
• Improvement of Concentration and Productivity: Regular exercise moments create mental habits that facilitate engagement.
• Strengthening of Organizational Skills: Routine helps the child structure their time and workspace.
• Creation of a Conducive Learning Environment: A stable and predictable environment optimizes the conditions for acquiring skills.
• Establishment of Positive Emotional Links with Learning: Rituals create enjoyable moments associated with skill development.

Creating an Optimal Visual Environment

The environment in which our child operates plays a crucial role in developing their visual processing abilities. A cluttered or chaotic space can overwhelm their visual system and make learning difficult. In contrast, a well-organized and visually clear environment facilitates concentration and information processing.

We can optimize our child’s workspace by ensuring adequate lighting, preferably natural or with white light that does not strain the eyes. The organization of the desk should be clear, with visible and logical storage of supplies. Walls can host useful visual aids like an illustrated alphabet, a visual calendar, or colorful mind maps, but without excess to avoid distraction.

Color can also become our ally: using color codes to organize notebooks, folders, and different subjects helps the child create effective visual landmarks. For example, red for mathematics, blue for French, green for science. This visual categorization strengthens memory and facilitates organization.

Fun Activities to Stimulate Visual Processing

Learning through play is a particularly effective method for developing our child’s visual skills. Puzzles, for example, are excellent for working on visual discrimination, shape perception, and spatial problem-solving. We can start with simple puzzles and gradually increase the complexity according to our child’s progress.

Visual memory games, such as Memory or “Find and Seek” games, develop the ability to memorize and locate visual information. Apps like COCO THINKS and COCO MOVES, developed by DYNSEO, offer fun and progressive exercises specifically designed to stimulate these skills in children, especially those with learning difficulties.

Drawing and coloring activities should not be overlooked: they strengthen eye-hand coordination, precision of movement, and perception of details. We can offer number coloring, drawings to reproduce, or symmetry activities that are particularly beneficial for visual processing.

Building games like LEGO or blocks develop spatial perception and visuomotor planning extraordinarily well. Following a construction plan requires the child to analyze complex visual information, understand spatial relationships, and coordinate their movements accordingly.

Involving the Child in Their Learning

Involving our child in the learning process is essential to stimulate their motivation, especially when it comes to developing skills that may seem abstract to them, such as visual processing. By allowing them to choose their training activities or their preferred methods, we promote their autonomy and engagement.

For example, if our child is passionate about animals, we can encourage them to undertake a project that combines their passion with the development of their visual skills: creating a commented photo album, drawing animals while observing images, or creating visual classification cards of species. This personalized approach makes learning more engaging and relevant.

By letting them explore their interests while subtly integrating visual processing exercises, we help them develop a natural curiosity and a love for learning. The child does not perceive these activities as “exercises” but as fun projects related to their passions.

Strategies to Involve the Child

• Encourage Choices in Activities: Offer several options for visual exercises and let the child choose the one that attracts them the most.
• Discuss Topics That Interest Them: Integrate their interests into visual processing exercises to maintain their motivation.
• Create Activities Related to Their Passions: Use what they love (dinosaurs, sports, music) as support for visual exercises.
• Encourage Learning Through Play: Turn exercises into fun challenges rather than school tasks.
• Involve the Child in Planning: Let them participate in choosing the time and duration of visual stimulation activities.

Specific Exercises to Improve Visual Processing

Beyond games, we can integrate targeted exercises into our daily routine that specifically strengthen the different components of visual processing. For visual discrimination, exercises that identify differences between two similar images are very effective. We can create our own activities by slightly modifying drawings or using specialized books.

To develop visual memory, the “Kim” game is excellent: arrange several objects, let the child observe them for a few seconds, remove one, and ask which one is missing. We can gradually increase the number of objects and reduce the observation time to increase difficulty.

Visual tracking exercises, such as following a moving object without moving the head or tracing a labyrinth path with the eyes and then with the finger, strengthen visual coordination and attention. These skills are essential for fluent reading.

For visuospatial perception, activities that reproduce patterns are particularly useful: reproducing a construction with blocks, drawing a geometric figure while respecting proportions, or organizing objects according to a given model. These exercises may seem simple but they form the foundation of many school learnings.

The Importance of Shared Reading

Shared reading is a special moment to develop our child’s visual processing skills. When we read together, we can draw their attention to different visual aspects of the text: the shape of letters, their orientation, the spaces between words, the punctuation that visually structures the text.

Following the text with a finger during reading helps the child coordinate eye movement with progression in the text. This technique, far from being infantilizing, actually strengthens reading fluency and helps children who tend to “skip” words or lines.

We can also choose books with varied visual characteristics: some with large detailed illustrations that develop observation, others with special fonts that facilitate reading, or even books with flaps and textures that add a tactile dimension enhancing the visual experience.

Valuing Efforts and Achievements

It is important to value our child’s efforts in developing their visual skills, even if they do not always lead to immediate perfect results. Visual processing is a skill that develops gradually, and every small progress deserves to be celebrated.

By celebrating their successes, big or small, we reinforce their self-confidence and motivation to persevere. A simple word of encouragement when they manage to complete a difficult puzzle, a small reward when they succeed in a visual discrimination exercise, or simply our enthusiastic attention can make all the difference in their perception of their own abilities.

We can also help them reflect on their difficulties by showing them that these are learning opportunities and not failures. If a visual memory exercise seems too difficult, we can analyze together what the problem is and adjust the difficulty. This metacognitive approach helps them understand their own functioning and develop adaptation strategies.

By adopting this positive approach, we cultivate a growth mindset that will benefit them throughout their life. The child understands that their skills are not fixed but can develop with effort and practice.

Methods to Value the Child

• Praise Efforts, Not Just Results: Recognize the perseverance and concentration put into visual exercises.
• Create a Success Chart: Visualize progress with a reward system or motivating stickers.
• Encourage Discussions About Difficulties: Transform mistakes into learning opportunities and constructive reflection.
• Organize Celebration Moments: Mark important milestones in the development of visual skills.
• Use Positive Affirmations: Reinforce confidence with phrases like “You are really progressing in your observation exercises” or “I see that you are getting better at orienting yourself in space.”

Adapting Educational Materials

To facilitate the processing of visual information, we can adapt the learning materials used at home. Using highlighters to emphasize important information helps the child focus their visual attention on the essentials. Color codes to differentiate types of information create effective visual landmarks.

Mind maps and diagrams are particularly suitable tools for children with visual processing difficulties. These supports organize information spatially and visually, thus facilitating understanding and memorization. We can encourage our child to create their own mind maps, which doubly strengthens their skills: creating visual supports and processing information.

Spacing and airing out texts also facilitate reading. If our child needs to read a dense text, we can reformat it with wider line spacing, generous margins, and clearly separated paragraphs. These simple adjustments reduce the cognitive load associated with visual processing and allow the child to focus on comprehension.

Collaboration with Professionals

If we observe persistent difficulties despite our efforts, it may be beneficial to consult specialized professionals. An orthoptist can assess visual processing abilities and propose specific rehabilitation exercises. An occupational therapist can work on visuomotor coordination and spatial organization.

Teachers are also valuable partners in this process. Sharing our observations and strategies with them ensures consistency between home and school. They can also adapt their teaching and offer accommodations in class if necessary.

Collaboration with these professionals does not mean we cannot help our child at home. On the contrary, our role remains fundamental: we are the ones who know our child best, who can practice daily, and who create the essential positive emotional environment for their development.

Conclusion

Helping our child better process visual information is a gradual process that requires patience, creativity, and perseverance. By combining a structuring routine, adapted fun activities, an optimized environment, and a valuing attitude, we create the ideal conditions for developing these essential skills.

Every child progresses at their own pace, and it is important to respect this pace while maintaining regular and caring stimulation. Progress may sometimes seem slow, but it is real and lasting when it is part of a coherent and positive approach.

Let us not forget that visual processing is just one component among others in our child’s development. Our love, support, and confidence in their abilities remain the most precious ingredients for their success. By accompanying them with patience and celebrating every progress, we offer them much more than skills: we instill the conviction that they can grow, learn, and overcome the challenges they encounter.