Academic Essay: Visual Perception

Visual perception is the ability to see, organize, and interpret one’s environment and surroundings through the light that enters our eyes. (McLeod, 2007) Research shows that 80% of the data we take comes through the eyes, 80% of visual processing is in charge of what we see and 20% is in charge of where and how we see, and 75-90% of classroom learning relies upon vision. (Kranowitz, 2005) Good visual perceptual skills are significant for many every day skills such as reading, writing, completing puzzles, cutting, drawing, finishing math problems, dressing, finding your sock on the bedroom floor as well as numerous other skills. (Kids sense, 2017)

The main purpose of this research assignment is to explore about visual perception, the importance of developing visual perception at foundation phase level as well as discussing two of the visual perception aspects namely, visual discrimination and visual memory in relation to mathematics.

I mainly focused on conducting the field search by doing various research via the internet as well as making use of different libraries to gather more information on my topic.

The importance of developing visual perception at the foundation phase level.

According to Clutten (2009), “perspectives of visual perception are the facilitating functions and skills that a learner requires for the acquisition of basic literacy and numeracy proficiency”. Within the South African context, she identified nine aspects of visual perception namely: visual discrimination, visual memory, visual form constancy, visual-spatial relationships, visual sequential memory, position in space, visual closure, visual analysis and synthesis and visual figure-ground. Undetected visual perceptual difficulties (attempting to sufficiently process visual data) will in general influence the cognitive as well as the social and emotional existences of learners. Therefore early identification within the foundation phase in conjunction with appropriate intervention can limit long term difficulties, for example, the inadequate obtaining of explicit essential education and numeracy capacities avoiding the neural procedures and methodology that encourage automaticity. An inconsistency that creates between the learner’s potential to learn and the learner’s genuine accomplishment level. The improvement of passionate issues that tend to show in the interpersonal relationship of the learner’s life. (Clutten, 2009)

Clutten (2009) suggests that “On the off chance that any visual or visual perceptual difficulties are not identified, or all the more critically taken care of, then an unnecessary measure of pressure is placed on the learner’s central nervous system (CNS). This pressure can trigger different flight-or-fight reactions within learners which are then communicated through their behavior. For instance, such learners may resort to social yields, for example, overcompensating, task avoidance or refusal within classroom circumstances. Viable visual perceptual aspects encourage not only learning but also the scholastic execution and competency of learners”. Inside the South African setting, the Revised National Curriculum Statement (RNCS; 2003:34) complements the significance of distinguishing obstructions to picking up amid the Foundation Phase. However, there exists no standardized test which can be utilized to sufficiently measure particular parts of visual observation in Foundation Phase learners. (Clutten, 2009)

Visual Discrimination

Visual discrimination includes the ability to identify and recognize a figure’s distinctive highlights and subtleties, for example, shape, orientation, shading and size. (Mathematical difficulties related to poor visual perception and memory, n.d.). If we take geometry, a square and a rectangle both have 4 sides, 4 vertices, and 4 right edges. Squares and rectangles are similar but there is one variable that is unique, thus each one is its own shape with a distinguishing characteristic or property. In this case, the length of the sides is unique; hence, visual discrimination enables the child to see the difference. (Clutten, 2009) (Annandale, 2011)

Visual Memory

Visual Memory is the ability to recall visual characteristics of a form or object. A common example with children who have visual memory difficulty is dyscalculia where they frequently experience difficulty understanding numerical quantity. For instance, they find it hard to connect the abstract symbols, such as a number, to the numerical magnitude it represents. They can’t for instance see the connection, for example between 5 fingers and the number 5. These children might also have difficulty memorizing math tables, counting or skip counting in sequence etc. (Visual Memory: Definition, Importance, facts, overcoming deficits, n.d.)

To conclude we can establish that visual perception is vital within our everyday lives especially of that of a Foundation Phase learner.