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The nonverbal system we use, deals with the way we perceive and process information.
Perception is our ability to discriminate between essential and non-essential visual details. It also includes spatial skills, hand eye coordination visual problem solving.
 As you take in non-verbal information, your brain works hard to make sense of it.
Acquiring these skills is similar to acquiring language skills. As we use them, we create file folders. The more we use them the better we are at accessing these folders.
The one big difference is many of these skills work in the background. Nonetheless they can have a huge impact on learning potential.
To explain the details and relationships between perception, processing and learning would involve an extensive study of psychology and learning systems. My goal here is to simplify the problems and offer suggestions.
Perceptual Organization Difficulties
A child who presents with Perceptual organization difficulties will have difficulty with spatial relationships. This is the child who:
- crams all his letters onto one side of the page
- can not find the center of the page to put a title
- has difficulty organizing immediate surroundings
- can not copy a pattern or shape
- difficulty with hand eye coordination
- has difficulty figuring out how to attack a problem
What does this have to do with learning?
- try doing math and lining up all those columns and rows when you have very poor spatial skills. Even if you know your numbers and facts, it won’t be legible
- try reading your work over when it is so crammed and messy that the words all run together
- try catching or hitting a ball
- try doing any type of puzzle
For these children impaired perception limits their ability to demonstrate their knowledge.
It is not that they don’t know the answer, it is that they are struggling with the written aspect of the work. Try some other ways such as:
- doing activities orally
- using a computer
- computer programs designed to concept map, diagram and produce flow charts can be a great assistance it makes work neat and reduces the writing involved. INSPIRATION is one such program that is highly recommended
- allow them to talk through a problem before they start
- give them templates to trace or follow for written work. These should show them where to put titles, dates, and answers
- use wide ruled paper. Do not tell them to write on every other line
- teach them to write rather than print
It must be noted that every child goes through a period of learning how to space things out on a page and line up their numbers. That is normal.
A child who has perception difficulties will struggle extensively with this. It is essential that you find ways to allow them to succeed.
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