Games and Activities to Build Visual Processing Skills
Visual processing skills are crucial for interpreting, analyzing, and understanding the visual information that bombards us daily. These skills involve the brain’s ability to perceive, process, and make sense of visual stimuli, which is essential for tasks ranging from reading and learning to navigation and problem-solving.
There are actually several sub-categories of visual processing skills and knowing where your child’s specific weaknesses are can help you pick activities to target those areas. While games are helpful for building many cognitive skills, if the skill weakness is impacting their reading, math, or performance in school, a more targeted approach may be necessary. Learn more about brain training here >>
Games and Activities that Build Visual Processing Skills:
Whether your child struggles to keep their eyes on the right part of a page while reading, can’t follow a map to save their lives, or struggles to find their socks in a pile of laundry, here are some games that help build visual processing skills:
Spot It:
This is a great high-speed game for any age that forces you to look at a couple cards to find what you have that is the same. This is great for visual memory, discrimination, and more.
Where’s Waldo:
Being able to look at an overloading amount of information and focus on one specific thing is a critical visual processing skill. Where’s Waldo is a great (fun) way to practice this!
Tic-Tac-Toe:
This is a simple game but it uses more skills than you might think! Being able to look at the grid and interpret where the best next move would be takes reasoning, visual processing, working memory, and attention skills (among others).
Take it to the next level: instead of playing on paper, play from memory! Assign each square in the grid a number and call out your spot. This builds visual memory skills along with other essential cognitive skills.
Matching Games:
Even simple memory matching games help build the skills your brain needs to visually process the world and remember where things are.
Puzzles and Mazes:
The benefits of puzzles and mazes go far beyond just visual processing, but they’re a great way to target this skill, too! In addition to needing to visually manipulate, plan, and analyze, these activities force you to also build executive functioning skills (like planning, pivoting when something doesn’t work, and working memory).
How-to-Draw Books and Visual Arts:
If you have a kid who loves art, encourage that! Drawing, painting, sculpting, and other forms of visual arts all encourage visual processing skills. Following directions in “how-to-draw” books is also great for strengthening their ability to spot differences, analyze what they see, and reproduce something accurately!
