Deficits in Visual Analysis and Synthesis

In order to read fluently the child must be able to recognize words as units, each having a separate entity or a configuration. Within each word, the child must recognize each letter and its relation to the others in the word. The child with a difficulty in visual analysis would be unable to find a given letter in the alphabet, a smaller word in a larger word, a word in a sentence, a sentence in a paragraph, etc., primarily because of the array of competing visual stimuli and the child’s difficulty in breaking the stimuli down into component parts. In other words, the foreground-background disturbance interferes with the child’s ability to succeed in the task. Visual synthesis requires putting the pieces together to compose a whole. Sometimes a few pieces may be missing. Nonetheless, if enough stimulus is present to provide the needed clues to the missing parts, the child should be able to guess the word. The child with difficulties in visual synthesis is unable to do so. In other words, the child is unable to use partial information to make a correct guess. Further, failure to perceive words as entities results in attention to single or isolated letters rather than words. Such a child also has problems putting two small words together to form compound words, to put syllables together to make a word, to unscramble letters to make a word, and/or to unscramble words to make a sentence.

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