This will help him develop his visual perception for reading. You might be wondering what visual perception is. Well, it really is how our brain interprets what our eyes see. We develop our visual perception by interacting with our world; by checking what is happening around us and by
actively thinking about what we see.
That is why games are an important way to develop visual perception. When children have fun, they are more focussed on what they are doing and they will happily spend extra effort. The extra effort and attention help your child register and reinforce the new learning.
When you create your Spot-the-Difference, make sure you use a combination of differences. Leave some parts out; turn parts of the picture around; add extra bits in; change parts from coloured-in to empty; alter the shape or size of some parts of the picture. This way, you are training your child’s visual perception to notice the many subtle differences that we see when we compare letters.
Yes, letters are just squiggles on a page. Many look fairly similar to each other but have very different sounds and the words they make will be quite different.
Just think of the two words: “hat” and “bat”: the difference between the ‘b’ and ‘h’is small; but you are unlikely to wear a bat on your head or hit a ball with a hat! The visual perception of the small piece missing in an ‘h’ to change it from a ‘b’ is very important. Your child can practice and develop this perception (sometimes called “part-whole” perception) easily on Spot-the-Difference games.
Look at an ‘a’ and a ‘g’. if you turn ‘a’ upside-down, it resembles a ‘g’. In many fonts ‘p’ is just the reverse of ‘q’; and we all know how difficult it is for our children to remember their ‘b’ and ‘d’ !
Above, I have made two games from clip-art. I have given you two more in my MORE pages. Have fun with these and then make some of your own. Your child will delight in trying to find the differences that you created and develop his visual perception. It’s a bit like a 2D “hide-and-seek”: you “hide” changes you made and he has to “seek” them.
Have fun together!
SHARON STANSFIELD