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Cindy Chuan is a registered Occupational Therapist practising in Sydney Australia.  She has two young children who are a constant source of inspiration and learning.  Cindy loves working creatively to help children to reach their potential, finding opportunities in everyday living and making learning fun.

Cindy is the author of the Occupational Therapy blog Your Kids OT 

Read more articles from Your Kids OT at https://www.yourkidsot.com/blog

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6. Ipad/Tablet apps -

• Vision Training 1 - This is a great app that has a variety of options to work on visual pursuits/visual tracking skills - follow arrows, upper case letters, lower case letters, in a variety of patterns (I prefer left to right as this is the pattern needed for reading and writing) and use your finger to touch the lit up item.  It also keeps track of your most recent highest score.
• ABC touch - Pop balloons in alphabetical order that are mixed up on the screen.
  
• Dexteria Jr.- 3 activity options "Squish the Squash" and "Pinch the Pepper" are great for ocular motor and visual-motor skills.

7. Games - I love games to work on ocular motor skills in a fun way! My favorites are Elefun (great for visual tracking skills to follow paper butterflies out of an elephant trunk and into your net) and Spot it (finding the same picture on two cards great for visual scanning skills).  Also beading activities and tweezer games help with working on visual fixations.

8. Worksheets - Mazes, dot to dots and word searches are great activities for working on visual motor and ocular motor skills.  There are many free printable worksheets available in these areas.

Accommodations - Accommodations are supports that help your child to complete a task more easily with use of adaptive strategies.  If your student has trouble with copying information from the board, offer copying from near point instead and use a marker item to hold place when copying (ie. eraser, paper clip, tongue depressor).  When reading, you can have your child use their finger or index card to help with keeping place.

I hope this information has been helpful and that you have found some new activity ideas for ocular motor development. :)

By Kim Heyer (OTR/L)

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Cutting, laminating, photo copying, lesson planning .... do you do your preparation in the school holidays?

Teachers and OTs (or an other therapists for that matter)... we have a problem!

We never quite "switch off"!

We are always looking or listening out for a great idea that we can implement with the kids we see.  Even on holidays...  I notice ramps and think about access,  I notice toys in shops and think how I could use that or I watch kids play and guess how old they are! Yep, I have a problem!

Last year we were quarantined at home during one school holidays due to illness (gastro from memory).  To make the most of this time, I made these scissor skills busy boxes! I knew that they would come in handy once the illness had passed and I was back at work!  These boxes are perfect for home, preschool or in an OT tool kit!

Yes they take  a little while to set up but they are worth it!

I sourced theseplastic boxes years ago from IKEA Australia and love that they have little compartments which can be adjusted in size.  They also have a lid making them ideal to move around from place to place!

I set up two types of boxes but you could use a combination of craft and cutting strips.  The cutting strips were made from scrapbooking paper.  This is a little thicker than normal writing paper and easier for little hands to hold and to cut (as it doesn't flop around as much and require too much stability with the non-dominant hand).

In the cutting strip box, I wanted to have a range of developmental stages including shorter strips, thicker lines, thinner lines, curves, straight lines, corners and more!  Read more about developmental stages over at MamaOT.   If you are making this box for home, you may want to consider where your child is at developmentally before starting! 

A craft box is a great way to encourage those who are just starting out with scissors! Present a range of things to cut such as straws, crepe paper, wrapping paper, tissue paper, wool, ribbon, twine, tinsel, etc! Encourage your child's creativity with some glue to stick down all the things they cut!

These scissor skills busy boxes will appeal to your child if they already interested in cutting or they love experimenting with craft supplies!

However, there are some children who are just...not..interested...in...cutting! These are the kids who are  referred to OTs because of poor fine motor skills, poor hand strength and poor postural control.  Sometimes these children have difficulty with cutting because they have not yet established a hand preference or have poor bilateral coordination (see here for more information).

Here are some tips for using the scissor skills busy boxes!

• Consider your child's stage of development. Provide cutting lines which are age-appropriate or just beyond what they can currently manage.
  
• Choose appropriate scissors for your child.  There are a wide range of scissors available! Consider your child's hand size and ability.  Some scissors provide additional help (such as the spring-loaded preschool scissors below).  There are also specific left-handed scissors available.
• Help your child to NOTICE the cutting line. Use wool, wikki stix, play dough or pipe cleaners to cover the cutting line.  Then take off the material and have your child trace the line with their finger. Help your child to be follow the visual motor cues of the line (even when it turns or curves). I love using glitter to go over the cutting line (and letting the glitter dry).  This provides a "bumpy path" for cutting and further sensory feedback for those who need it. (Read more about using glitter in therapy here).
• Emphasize "turning points".  Use stickers, stamps or even holes to help emphasize when scissors need to turn to stay "on the line".
• Stick it down!  Whether your child is cutting out lines or craft material, turn this into something tangible for your child.  Help them to make a crooked road, cages for zoo animals, design a city or some other fabulous work of art.  Giving your child's scissor skill practice a purpose will be more rewarding for your child than just cutting out various lines for the sake of up-skilling their scissor skills. This will also encourage imagination and play!
• Be on hand to help. You could use these "busy boxes" to keep your child entertain themselves happily snipping and cutting.  If your child is not so keen or is just starting out, be on hand to help.  Your child may need help to open and close the scissors.  They may need help to stabilise the item being cut.  They may need help to use both hand simultaneously. They may need help to turn the page.  They may need help to keep going and persevere with something they find difficult.

Please tell me that I'm not the only one who has trouble "switching off"! Perhaps this is a subconscious reason I started this blog, so that I could record ideas and observations!

Have you got a "busy box" for scissor skill practice? What have you included in your box?

Imagine an 11 year old girl attending an evening class at a local school with her friend.  They wanted to learn how to type so voluntarily enrolled in a "word processor" course!

Gosh that was a life time ago and certainly ages me! Have you even heard of a "word processor"? 

Keyboarding and proficient touch typing is an essential skill for the 21st century. I don't believe that it will completely make handwriting obsolete, however I would be living in a cave if I didn't acknowldege how important keyboarding and typing skills are to a student's every learning. 

Learning to use a keyboard and to type isn't easy! It is a false assumption that children with handwriting difficulties will learn to type easily.  It will certainly help these children in the long run, however, it is important to be remember that children with motor and planning difficulties (eg, bilateral coordination, eye-hand coordination, motor planning, visual perceptual and fine motor difficulties) in handwriting will also have these difficulties when initially learning to use a keyboard to type.  Accomodations for these difficulties may need to be considered when teaching keyboarding and typing skills.

How do YOU type?
Hands up if you are a "2 finger" typer? Do you use your two index fingers to stab at the keyboard?  Whilst there are a lot of proficient "2 finger" typers out there, I think it is important to teach kids proper finger positioning when learning how to use the keyboard! 

If you have a keyboard in front of you, look down at it for a moment.  What do you see? 

• letters, numbers, symbols
• whole words
• a series of rows
• diagonal colums and straight columns of keys
• function keys
• a track pad or a mouse nearby
• keys split into different sections
• lights
• white on black, black on white, something else?

​
Did you notice what I asked you to do? Looking up at a screen then looking down at the keyboard.  Did you easily find your place back up on the screen to read my suggestions? For children with visual perceptual difficulties this is one of the main issues they may have difficulty with as they look up and down and up again.   They may also have to move their hands completely off the keyboard so they can see the keys.  One of the main benefits of touch typing is eliminating this need to look up and down so often. 

Here is a look at the various aspects of visual perceptual skills required with keyboarding and typing. 

Eye-Hand Coordination
Eye –hand coordination is the ability to coordinate eye movement with hand movements and includes the ability to process visual information to guide hand function.  In keyboarding and typing, eye- hand coordination is needed to required to press the required keys. Beginner typists will need to look for each key to be typed, look up at the screen to make sure what is typed is accurate, look down again and so on.  

As touch typing develops, the eye can rest on the screen and monitor what appears rather than how the hand moves.  The fingers are less reliant on "sight" of letters on keys and can move more automatically. 

Children may also need to watch their hand guide a mouse or track ball, with constant looking up at the screen and down at their hand as they work out the visual-spatial differences of moving something on a horizontal plane and how this can affect a cursor on the vertical plane.

Visual Discrimination and Form Constancy
Visual Discrimination is the ability to classify objects or shapes based on visual information such as colour, form, pattern, size or position. Form Constancy is the ability to identify an object, shape, letter, number, symbol when it is presented in a different way (eg. larger, smaller, rotated, italics, bold, different font, sideways, upside down, different colour). 

In keyboarding, and typing, children need to be aware that letters are produced in capital and lower case form.  Most keyboards come with capital letter keys.  Children need to grasp the concept of lower case letters being produced on the screen when capital letters are pressed on the keyboard.  

Some children will have difficulty reading certain fonts on the screen which they may be unfamiliar with.  Some letters look quite different in different fonts (eg. a, g, k).   Some children may also have difficulty with words written in italics and they may  have difficulty with distinguishing letters because of their size on screen.  

​Recommendations and Accomodations for Visual Perceptual Difficulties

1. Use stickers on the keyboard.  There are many stickers on the market to help children to learn to type.  Some of the features that stickers can help with include lower case to cover capital letters, both lower and capital letters on the one sticker, color coding so that the same finger strikes a certain colour.  I purchased my keyboard stickers fromBright Star Kids.  You may also find similar stickers on Amazon.   You may also like to buy two sets of stickers so that you can place the "home key" stickers on your child's fingers. 
2. Change the computer font to reflect a familar handwriting font that your child is familiar with.  In NSW public schools the most common font is NSW Foundation Writing.  
3. Teach proper finger positioning and touch typing. This will mean that over time, your child will not need to look at their hands when typing and they can concentrate their visual attention to the screen and what is being produced.
4. Change the mouse or cursor options on the screen.   On a PC, this may be done through the control panel.   You may want to experiment with options such choosing a scheme with a large cursor (for easier visibility).  I also recommend selecting the "Show location of pointer when I press CTRL key".   This is helpful for those children who have trouble locating their cursor/pointer on the screen within the confusing information that may be presented on the screen.   Other options include downloading animated pointers.   The cursor blink rate may also be changed so that it provides the appropriate visual prompt for your child so that it is not too fast to be noticed. 
5. Provide a vertical easel document holder so that your child can see work to be copied in the same plane as it will be produced on screen.  Some of these holders also include a highlighting line guide to help keep track of where your child is up to on the document to be copied.  You may purchase these from Amazon. ​

Position in Space or Visual Spatial Relationships. 
Position in Space or spatial relationships involves the ability to process information about oneself in relation with their environment in space, orientation and position.  It may involved the ability to understand directional language concepts such as up/down, next to, left/right, over/under, etc.

As mentioned previously, as typing and keyboarding skills develop there is less reliance on visual guidance to find the right keys on the keyboard.  Over time touch typers can understand where their fingers are "in space" and in relationship with other keys to be struck without looking.  This is also true for the use of the mouse and trackball. 

Figure-Ground and Visual Memory
Figure-Ground is the ability to see an object or form when presented in a complex background.  Visual memory is the ability to remember and recall objects, shapes, symbols or movements in short term memory.  Visual memory requires visualization of what to remember. 

In keyboarding and typing skills, both figure-ground and visual memory skills are required to learn the layout of the keyboard.  They are needed to have a map (ie. visualization) of the keyboard in one's mind so that that finding the keys becomes automatic.  Difficulties with figure-ground and and visual-memory may lead to more reliance on the visual skills of looking and scanning (ie. hunting) for the correct keys on the keyboard.  This will slow down the typist and can often be observed with "2 finger typists". 

Both figure-ground and visual memory skills are also needed to enable a child to maintain their place on the screen when looking down and then up again to keep track of what they are writing on the screen.  This is further complicated if the child is copying text to type onto the scren as they are looking at the stimulus, looking at the screen, looking back at the stimulus, looking at the screen, looking a their hands and so forth. 

Locating the cursor/pointer may also be difficult for children who have difficulty with figure ground skills. The pointer may look like a large capital "I" when typing text and be confused with the print on screen.  
​

Well I'm please to tell you that that 11 year old girl who learnt to touch type on a word processor can now type approximately 70 words per minute.  I use this on a daily basis as an OT and for this blog!  

BUT I also pre-wrote most of this article on paper first with scribbes here and there when I edited the order of my work and brainstormed what I wanted to cover!

​So don't throw the pen and paper away just yet! 

This article is part of the "Functional Skills for Kids Series by Pediatric Occupational Therapists and Physical Therapist". This is the last  month of the 12 month series so do go back and check out any months you might have missed!  You will find all the childhood functions HERE.  Read all Your Kids OT’s monthly posts HERE

Find more information about “keyboarding and typing”, read what other Occupational and Physical Therapists participating in the “Functional Skills for Kids series” have written: 

When is My Child Ready to Learn to Keyboard? | Miss Jaime, O.T.
Fine Motor Skills and Typing  | Therapy Fun Zone
How to Implement a Keyboarding Club | Sugar Aunts
10 Keyboarding Modifications to Help Kids Type Better | Mama OT
Activities to Help Children Learn to Type | Growing Hands-On Kids
Assistive Technology for Kids Who Struggle With Handwriting  |  The Inspired Treehouse
Work Station, Positioning and Keyboarding Skills| Your Therapy Source
Visual Perceptual Considerations When Typing  | Your Kids OT

BUT WAIT THERE IS MORE!

Have you enjoyed this 12 month series about Functional Skills for Kids?  It has been an honour to work along side these amazing therapy bloggers.  You can stay in touch with our whole team by joining us on FACEBOOK.  Join THE FUNCTIONAL SKILLS FOR KIDS GROUP PAGE to be find out about the books we will producing based our this series and much more! 

​Disclosure: Affiliate links are included in this article to promote products that I recommend.   Your Kids  OT is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Your Kids OT.  Reviews and endorsements of products will only be made based on my expertise and personal opinion; and deemed worthy of such endorsement. The opinions shared in sponsored content will always be my own and not that of the advertising company or brand.

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Rainbow "coloured" rice is a great addition to a "sensory bin"! There are heaps of tutorials on-line to teach you how to colour rice.  I used a really simple method ... I added a cup of rice to a plastic container and a few drops of food colouring.  I shook the container until all the rice was covered with food colouring, then lay the rice out on baking paper to dry.  Our rice took less than 24 hours to dry (drying time will depend on the weather and the amount of food colouring used).   You may notice we have a few lentils in our rice mix (already mixed in when we used the rice in a sensory bin).   I didn't bother with vinegar or alcohol and did not have a problem with the colour transferring onto our hands.  I found that my cheap supermarket food colouring worked better than may gel colours as this was more "blobby". 

Combining our coloured rice with some small items, we made a beautiful "I spy" bottle! ​I took a photo of our treasures and laminated a print out before  Mr 6 enjoyed pouring the rice into a funnel  and hiding the treasures.  Once filled, I sealed the lid and attached the laminated page with a dry-erase marker.  Super-easy craft! 

Watch our fun video to see how we made the I spy bottle - You Tube Link!

We made this "I spy" bottle to use as a travel toy.  It is a fun way to work on visual memory and visual discrimination skills. I'm looking forward to trying it out with my OT kids this term.

For younger children, you may choose a clear plastic bottle rather than glass.  For older kids you could choose very small similar items to place in your bottle ...  you can make this really difficult! 

When we have finished with this bottle, I can pour the contents out into a sensory bin for further play! It will make a great treasure hunt to explore with busy fingers as well.

Have you made an "I spy" bottle? What is your favourite thing to hide?

​

​Cindy is a registered Occupational Therapist practising in Sydney Australia.  She has two young children who are a constant source of inspiration and learning.  Cindy loves working creatively to help children to reach their potential, finding opportunities in everyday living and making learning fun. Cindy is the author of the Occupational Therapy blog Your Kids OT.

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We love paper plane making! Making planes seems to appeal to both boys and girls and wide range of ages.  Just take out some paper at a weekend BBQ and you will have the big kids (ie. adults) involved in who can design and create the plane that can fly the furthest! 

You may have read my post two years ago about paper planes where I showed you how to make the "acrobatic" plane. Read it HERE if you missed it! 

Paper plane making is really a wonderful way to work on fine motor manipulation, visual planning and sequencing skills.  I use paper planes in therapy sessions to work on these things as well as using it as a writing prompt. You may prompt your kids with "Where is the plane going?", "Who is on the plane?", "What type of plane is this and what does it carry?", "What will the plane need to fly?".  "What can the people do on the plane during the flight?" or "What can the pilot see during the flight?"

​This time I have step by step instructions for you to make TWO more super planes! Find the instructions below and download your FREE COPY of the instructions as aPDF file HERE. 

I hope these planes bring you and your kids hours of entertainment! Let me know if you try them out! 
​

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​Handwriting is a complex skill. Handwriting involves the ability to form letters with consistent letter size, proportions and spacing, so that others can read words and sentences.  Producing legible handwriting requires complex visual perceptual skills as well as an integration of motor skills with these visual perceptual skills. A deficiency in visual-motor integration may be evident when observing poor quality handwriting (Volman, van Schendel, & Jongmans, 2006).

Visual perception is the process where the brain extracts and organises information, giving meaning to what we see.  Visual-motor integration is the degree to which visual perception and finger-hand movements are well coordinated (Beery & Beery, 2010). There are many components of visual processing which work together to assign meaning to what we see and include eye-hand coordination, figure ground, visual discrimination, form constancy, visual memory and visual-sequential memory.

Eye –hand coordination is the ability to coordinate eye movement with hand movements and includes the ability to process visual information to guide hand function.  When children are learning to control a pencil for handwriting, they will rely on visual information as they look at their hand and what the pencil is producing as they write.

The ability to copy a vertical line, circle, horizontal line, right oblique line, square, left oblique line and an oblique cross have been recognised by therapists as an indication of a child’s readiness to integrate visual-motor skills to begin handwriting instruction.  Beery & Beery (2010) recommend that formal pencil-paper instruction is postponed until a child can easily execute an oblique cross as it requires crossing the midline, which is the source of many reversal problems.  They also suggest that transfer of improved visual-motor skills does not automatically transfer to academic tasks and teaching letters, words and sentences are still required.

Typically children are encouraged to control their pencils and practise eye-hand coordination with tracing various lines, then shapes and then letters.  These lines may include bold dotted lines, faded dotted lines, bold unbroken lines, faded unbroken lines to trace on.  Children may also be provided with paths, roads or outlines to draw between to produce lines, shapes or letters.  Therapist may support children with eye-hand difficulties by contrasting the path to be drawn or by emphasizing the boundary line (eg. with a raised surface).

Eye-hand coordination of fine and gross motor tasks may also be encouraged prior to handwriting instruction.  This may emphasize large movements before moving to small movements. Children may be encouraged to develop eye-hand coordination of larger tools before using small tools for more accurate control (eg. crayon rock before ordinary crayon).  
 
Visual Discrimination is the ability to classify objects or shapes based on visual information such as colour, form, pattern, size or position. In handwriting, children need to be aware of common characteristics as well as subtle differences which distinguish letters and words.  Children need to identify letters as well as the sequential order of letters to recognize words for reading, writing and spelling.  Difficulties with visual discrimination may be seen with letter reversals or lack of attention to detail in letter formation.
​
For example. When writing “n”, if the initial line is drawn too long it appears as “h” or if the up and over section is too short it appears as “r”. When writing “a”, if the line is produced too long and below the circle it appears as “q”, if the line is produced too long and above the circle it appears as “d”, if the line is too long above and below the circle it is unrecognizable, if the line is too long and placed to the left and below of the circle it appears as “p” or if it is placed to the left and above the circle it appears as “b”.

 Visual discrimination in handwriting may also be seen with confusions with the use of lower and upper case letters. Children need to be able to firstly identify letters regardless of lower or upper case formation (ie. classification) and then use these appropriately (eg. Capital letters used at the beginning of a sentence).

Children with visual discrimination difficulties may require additional strategies to classify letters.  Providing a multi-sensory approach to learning (eg. use of pipe-cleaners, playdough, rice, shaving foam, etc) may assist with kinaesthetic learning and muscle memory.  

Position in Space or spatial relationships involves the ability to process information about oneself in relation with their environment in space, orientation and position.  It may involved the ability to understand directional language concepts such as up/down, next to, left/right, over/under, etc.  In handwriting, difficulties with spatial relationships may also affect letter formation as described in visual discrimination as children have difficulty relating the position of lines in relation to other parts of a letter.  Children may also demonstrate difficulty with writing on a line, adequate spacing between letters or words.  They may have difficulty ruling up a page and maintaining writing on the left hand side of the page with the beginning of each line.

Children with difficulties with spatial relationships require a range of intervention strategies to assist with this visual perceptual difficulty.  This may include gross motor activities and postural control activities to encourage body awareness as well as shape positioning games such as Tangrams and felt shapes.  They may also benefit from copying patterns made with blocks, LEGO models and beads before attempting to copy patterns on paper. Further strategies may include use of speciality writing paper (eg. coloured lines), grid paper, highlighting the writing line, placing a ruler on the writing line and the use of a “spacer” between words.

Figure-Ground is the ability to see an object or form when presented in a complex background.  In handwriting, this is needed when copying information from a source (eg. the whiteboard) and keeping track of where you are up to.  Children with figure-ground difficulties may begin writing on a line and then after looking up do not know where they should write the next letter on their page. They may also miss important information or segments of a letter or a word when writing.

Extra cues may be needed for children with figure-ground difficulties such as providing information on a piece of paper rather than a board, a square drawn around a word or phrase to be copied or a ruler to highlight the writing line.  They may also benefit from scanning exercises.

Visual Closure is the ability to process visual information when the object or word is partially hidden. In handwriting, this may affect letter formation and spelling words.  Visual closure in letter formation is closely related to visual discrimination described earlier.  Children may also demonstrate incomplete letter formation which affects handwriting legibility and neatness.  Activities recommended in the visual discrimination section are relevant for those with visual closure difficulties.

Form Constancy is the ability to identify an object, shape, letter, number, symbol when it is presented in a different way (eg. larger, smaller, rotated, italics, bold, different font, sideways, upside down, different colour).  In handwriting this may result in not realising when they are having difficulty with letter formation as they may interpret their formation as accurate. For example they may see the visual closure examples above and may consider the forms to be constant (form constancy) and are unable to identify the discriminating features (visual discrimination).   Children who have difficulty with form constancy may also have difficulty transitioning from printing to cursive writing.

Children who experience with difficulty with form constancy may benefit from consistent use of the same writing font in the classroom, presentation of information at the same orientation that it is expected to be reproduced (eg. flat on the table when writing at the table or vertical when writing on a whiteboard).  Teaching letters and words using a multi-sensory approach can help children to become more aware of the properties of shapes and letters needed for handwriting.

Visual memory is the ability to remember and recall objects, shapes, symbols or movements in short term memory.  Visual memory requires visualization of what to remember.  This may affect a child’s ability to recognize and name shapes, letters and words. They may have difficulty remember what these “look like” without a visual prompt. For example, children may be able to copy the letters of the alphabet when it is on a desk strip, however if you randomly ask them to write various letters of the alphabet they may not recall what it looks like.  They may also have difficulty remembering all the letters of a word to copy and need to “look up” to copy each letter even with familiar words.

Children with visual memory difficulties benefit from playing memory card games and chunking small amounts of information at a time for writing (eg. word on a flash cards rather than a whole sheet). They may require visual aids for longer than other students (eg. use of desk strips of the alphabet).  These children also benefit from multi-sensory learning especially incorporating the use of verbal cues associated with motor movements (eg. tall straight line down, up and over to draw an “h” can be creating walking on a chalk line, creating this with a skipping rope, tracing in shaving cream, writing on a whiteboard, using a ribbon to draw in the sky and using finger to write on someone’s back). 

Visual sequential memory is the ability to remember and recall a sequence of objects, shapes, symbols or movements in a particular order. In handwriting, this may affect letter formation with more frequent letter reversals as children have difficulty remembering the order for letter formation as well as the spatial position of the next line. This may also affect a child’s ability to write words which may have similar letters (eg. on, no, one) or a sequence of words to make a sentence.

Children with visual sequential memory difficulties benefit from pairing verbal cues with motor skills as described in visual memory.  Children may read and repeat letters for writing words, or read and repeat phrases and sentences for extended writing.  These verbal cues may need to be said “aloud” before the child learns to internalise this and “says it in their heads”.  Simple sequential memory games using physical props such as beads, blocks, pom poms may precede games using letters, numbers, shapes and words. These may be presented in increasingly large numbers and covered to be reproduced with shorter time frames over time as skills develop.

Occupational Therapists use a variety of assessment tools to identify visual perceptual and visual-motor integration difficulties.  If your child is experiencing difficulties with these aspects of handwriting contact a registered Occupational Therapist for a comprehensive assessment. 

This post is part of “Functional Skills for Kids: 12 month series by Paediatric Occupational and Physical Therapists”.  You can read all of the childhood functionsHERE.  Read all Your Kids OT’s monthly posts HERE.

The information in this article may now be found in THE HANDWRITING BOOK! The Handwriting Book breaks down the functional skill of handwriting into developmental areas. These include developmental progression of pre-writing strokes, fine motor skills, gross motor development, sensory considerations, and visual perceptual skills.  Read more about THE HANDWRITING BOOK HERE (an e-book which you can download instantly)!

References:
Beery, K. E., Buktenica, N. A., & Beery, N. A. (2010). The Beery-Buktenica developmental test of visual-motor integration: Administration, scoring, and teaching manual (6th ed.). Minneapolis, MN: NSC Pearson. 
​Volman, M. J. M., van Schendel, B., & Jongmans, M. J. (2006). Handwriting difficulties in primary school children: A search for underlying mechanisms. American Journal of Occupational Therapy, 60(4), 451-460. 

It has been three months since I released my "Visual Perception Reference Sheet". This article contains information from the reference sheet and looks at the aspect of visual perception called "figure ground", every day examples of where it is needed and potential areas of difficulty as well as strategies to assist.

Figure Ground
The ability to see an object or form when presented in a complex background with a lot of visual information at one time.

Everyday examples where visual perception is needed and potential areas of difficulty.

• Sorting shapes and completing puzzles.
• Finding matching socks in a laundry pile.
• Finding specific information on a whiteboard or word wall.
• Finding words on a page or in a dictionary.
• Ability to copy information from a source and keep track of where you are up to.
• Reading each word or sentence without losing place.

​

Strategies to assist.

• Hidden picture books (eg. I spy, Where’s Wally, etc).
• Sorting similar items from a pile (eg. sorting pasta shapes, cutlery, socks, etc).
• Minimise clutter or categorise information to help find information (eg. nouns on word wall on a yellow background, simple worksheets with no extra decoration).
• Provide extra cues such as a “post-it” note to bookmark each letter category in the dictionary.
• Provide information to be copied from a piece of paper rather than a board.
• Practise scanning worksheets or books to find relevant information (eg. word search puzzle).
• Provide a “window” to highlight the word or sentence that requires attention during reading.

​

Do you have an everyday example of Figure Ground? What is your favourite strategy to assist those having difficulty?
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If you have been following Your Kids OT for a while, you will know that I love printables.  I love creating them, finding them and using them! 

I've been focusing on visual perception over the last few weeks with the launch of my visual perception reference sheet! One of the ways that I support kids I see with working on their visual perception skills is through the use of printables. I make the clinical decision to use printables based on individual children who I see and will integrate the use with other therapeutic activities. 

I love these visual  perception printables from Your Therapy Source.  Each picture below will take you to each resource with free sample pages. (Note that Your Therapy Source operates in $US). 

Also check out the amazing and comprehensive Visual Motor Collection which includes 18 different resources created by Your Therapy Source!
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There are also more great resources here:

• Freebie Friday#4:Visual Motor Skills
• Your Kids OT shop: visual perception​

Have you got some favourite visual perception printables? 

Make sure you check back to the blog soon as I have some great ideas for getting the most from using your printables (using them mulitple times)!  You couldsubscribe here to make sure you don't miss an article!

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When reading and applying the strategies in this reference sheet, please keep in mind the following:

• Visual perception is just one aspect an occupational therapist may assess and address when working with a child.   Visual perception is not usually addressed by an occupational therapist in isolation. For example, a child's difficulty with cutting out a shape may be due to difficulties with eye/hand coordination, bilateral coordination, hand strength, manual dexterity, etc.
  
• Strategies suggested in the reference sheet include ideas to assist with skill development (eg. copy block patterns) as well as compensatory strategies (eg. provide grid paper to assist with letter size).
• Visual Motor Integration is the ability to make sense of visual information and then use it appropriately when performing a motor task.  It may involve one or more of the components of visual perception. Many of the activities listed in the reference sheet require a motor component and therefore an integration of vision and motor skills.  
• This reference sheet will suit children age 6 years and older, however there may be some application to younger children as well.

To give you a "taste" of what is in the reference sheet, here is the first component of visual perception that I write about.  
 
Eye-hand coordination
The coordinated control of eye movement with hand movement.  This includes the ability to process visual information to guide hand function.

 Everyday examples where visual perception is needed and potential areas of difficulty.

• ·   Driving a toy car on a road mat.
• ·   Throwing and catching a ball or beanbag.
• ·   Hitting a ball with a bat.
• ·   Knitting or sewing.
• ·   Using a computer “mouse” or “track pad”.
• ·   Drawing precise straight or curved lines within a visual boundary.
• ·   Cutting out a shape.
  

Strategies to assist.

• Hand over hand physical assistance to guide coordinated movement.
  
• Practicing large (gross) movements control (eg. use a larger bat and ball or cut larger shapes) before moving to smaller movements and smaller tools.
  
• Outline boundaries where appropriate (eg. highlight around area for colouring).
  
• Provide multi-sensory approach so that the child is not reliant only on visual information (eg. verbal cues).
  

Visual perception is the process where the brain extracts and organises information, giving meaning to what we see.  I am pleased to share with you a new reference sheet that I have been slowly working on for the last 12 months. This is a valuable resource especially for OTs and teachers!  I wish I had a copy when I first started out as an OT!

It was a great honour to have some of my fellow therapy bloggers review and edit this reference sheet!  Special thanks to Lyn (lynaot), Becca (OT mommy) and Jaime (Miss Jaime OT)!  

The visual perception reference sheet contains definitions for eight components of visual perception, forty-five every day examples where visual perception is needed and potential areas of difficulty as well as forty-five strategies to assist with visual perception. 

Over the coming months I will be sharing information about each component area (bite size chunks so it is not too overwhelming).  However, if you would like all the information now then please purchase the reference sheet for yourself from the Your Kids OT Shop!

There are lots of great resources that I am looking forward to sharing with you in the coming weeks to help your child/ren with their visual perceptual skills including a brand new app that has been recently launched.

Purchase your copy of the visual perception reference sheet from the Your Kids OT shop or if you prefer you may also purchase this from Teachers Pay Teachers!  Let me know what you think!

STOP PRESS: Are you following Your Kids OT on Facebook?  I'm giving away 20 copies of this reference sheet on Monday 17th (Sydney time)! Be quick!

Thank you for your ongoing support!

Also available at our TPT store!

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