Part V: Sequential Memory

Hope all is well in the Vision Therapy world!

Last week I was in Fort Worth, Texas, for a COVD seminar. It was a great experience to interact with other therapists. I will expand more on my experience in the next couple of posts.

Today's blog is going to be about Sequential Memory. There are two types of Sequential Memory we work on here: Auditory and Visual Sequencing. Auditory Sequential and Visual Sequential Memory skills are the ability to remember things heard and seen in sequence.  

Students that have trouble with both Sequential Memories experience difficulty copying from the board, learning to read, remembering what they have read, and being able to complete a task in the order they were given.

If there is difficulties with both, can you imagine how hard school can be? As you can imagine saying 91 + 1 or 19 + 1 or spelling “t-a-r” instead of “r-a-t” or reading “dog” instead of “god” could completely change the meaning of a situation.

Sequential Memory is very important perceptual skill in our everyday life. If you would like some steps to help improve both skills, email me at: vt@rdeye.com.  

 

Part IV: Form Constancy

How many activities from last weeks blog did you incorporate into your child's day? I used a lot during my therapy sessions with my patients!

This week is about Form Constancy, which is the ability to mentally turn and rotate objects in our minds and picture what they would look like. This skill helps us distinguish differences in size, shape, and orientation. When a child has poor form-constancy you will notice they frequently reverse letters and numbers.

Some great exercises to improve Form Constancy can be found:

       1. Eye Can Learn - A great website that has games for each perceptual skill. But limit computer use!

       2. Again, from Mrs. Pratt's Classroom, she has listed great activities to improve Form Constancy.

  

And I have some for you too!

Visual Form Constancy Activities

• Cut out various sizes and colors of shapes. Hold up one and have the child point to the ones that are the same.
• Have the child locate a variety of geometrical shapes in a room (clock is a circle).
• Practice sorting, naming, and classifying various shapes and objects.
• Moving into and out of named shapes drawn on the ground with sidewalk chalk.
• Identifying shapes, letters, or pictures, drawn on the back with a finger.
• Recognizing shapes and forms in pictures (magazines, books).
• Filling in or coloring shapes/forms.
• Copying shapes or forms using pegboard, parquetry, or block designs.
• Making shapes with toothpicks, straws, pipe cleaners.

These are all great activities that are easy and fun. My favorites are making shapes with pipe cleaners and locating shapes in a room. Try them out and have fun!