What is it?
Visual Processing Deficit/Disorder is a learning disability that as is stated in its name deals with the visual aspect. Just like Auditory Processing Deficit with your brain linked with your ears to help you understand things, your brain is linked to what you see visually. In those without the disability, your brain and vision work together in understanding what is being shown. Words, shapes, numbers, and whatever else goes hand in hand in learning while growing up.
With those who deal with this disability, learning simple things can become harder as their eyes might change letters, or they can’t recognize shapes. Learning can be a lot harder for those dealing with this disability.
There is more than one visual disorder as well.
Different Visual Disorders- What are they?
There are actually 8 different types that fall under Visual Disorder. 8 possibilities for a child to grow with, to struggle with, cope with, and overcome. These 8 are:
- Visual discrimination issues: The child has difficulty seeing the difference between two similar-looking letters, shapes or objects. They tend to get confused between such alphabets (like d and b or p and q). There may also be difficulty faced in being able to distinguish between triangle and square shapes.
- Visual figure-ground discriminating issues: A child with this kind of disorder is unable to isolate a shape or character from its background. They may be unable to discriminate between the background and the foreground or focus area and as such, may have trouble locating a specific piece of information on a page. For e.g., solving jigsaw puzzles becomes a difficult task.
- Visual sequencing issues: In this case, there is difficulty in recognizing the order of symbols, words or images. The child may struggle to write answers on a separate sheet or will end up skipping lines while reading.
- Visual-motor processing issues: Children with this subtype of the disorder have issues coordinating the movement of those parts of the body that rely on getting a signal from the eyes. For e.g., they may find it difficult to walk around without bumping into things often.
- Long or short-term visual memory issues: This causes trouble in recalling what they have seen soon after they see it. Sometimes this might manifest as not being able to recall or even recognize objects/words they have just seen. An indication of this can be found in the child’s struggles with memory games.They may not recall a set of objects shown to them immediately after it has been removed from sight.
- Visuo-spatial issues: This entails difficulty in telling where an object is in space. The child will not be able to discern – whether on paper or by speech – how far an object is from them and how far two objects are from each another. There may also be issues in reading time from an analog clock and reading maps.
- Visual closure issues: If only parts of an object are visible and a child has difficulty identifying what the object is, they may be experiencing visual closure issues. For instance, if asked to identify a drawing of a face that has incomplete features, the child may not be able to identify it. This issue may extend to problems in identification of a physical object as well, for e.g., identifying a dog if its hind legs are hidden may be difficult to do.
- Letter and symbol reversal issues: Here, similar-looking letters and numbers are confused and used interchangeably. Such issues could lead to the child being diagnosed with dyslexia, dyscalculia, or dysgraphia.
Visual Processing Disorder (whiteswanfoundation.org)
I know it’s a mouthful for each of these, but it is best to have all of the information, especially if you wonder if your child is dealing with something like this. It is nothing to fear, but having all of the facts can help you talk to your doctors about it. And also, if your child, or you, have been diagnosed with one of these, you can help them, and yourself, understand and how to find ways to cope with it so you can prosper in life, not just sit there and give up. Giving up is never an option.
The link I posted above has a lot of great information. Be sure to read through it. It tells you what to look for, what children and adults deal with on a daily basis, and more references of other websites to check out. The more information you have, the better prepared you are when dealing with this disability.
Do not be afraid of it, though. Yes, it can make life and learning more difficult, but if you understand what each type of the disability is, then you have the upper hand.
Don’t Give Up
Life can be difficult, but that doesn’t mean you can’t fight and work hard to obtain your goals. This is just a set back and doesn’t run your life. You run your life, and with support, you can and will overcome this disability.
Just know that sometimes, not always, but sometimes, VPD and APD can go hand in hand with one another. But again, you can’t let these disabilities stop you from achieving your goals in life, whatever they may be. Don’t be your disability. Be you with a disability, or disabilities, that you can overcome. It will be a daily challenge, but you are strong and can overcome it.
Do not be ashamed of having this or other disabilities, either. They do not define you as a person. They may be a part of you, but they will never define you. Be strong and embrace who you are, disability and all.
Don’t do this
As I’ve stated in my other blog post, if you do not have a disability, then do not treat those with one, or several, with hate. They, we, are human too. We are just different and deal with the world differently. Learn about our disabilities, grow in what you have learned, become a better human being, and accept us. We just want to live our lives the best we can, disabilities and all.
We share the same Earth, so why not treat us the way you’d want to be treated. Why act like a bully and shame us or treat us differently? Stop! Think! Treat everyone like a human and with respect even if they are different!
Auditory Processing Deficit
I will link my other blog so you can read about APD as well.
Very informative!