What Is Visual Discrimination?

Visual discrimination refers to the ability to differentiate one object from another. In a readiness test, for example, the child may be asked to find the rabbit with one ear in a row of rabbits with two ears. When asked to distinguish visually between the letters m and n, the child must perceive the number of humps in each letter. The skill of matching identical pictures, designs, shapes, letters, and words is another visual discrimination task. Objects may be discriminated by color, foreground-background, shape, pattern, size, position, or dimensionality.

The ability to discriminate letters and words visually becomes essential in learning to read. Deficits in visual discrimination are a common cause of reading problems.

Edublox offers cognitive training programs, aimed at the development of the skills foundational to reading, spelling, writing and math. Foundational skills include visual discrimination of color, foreground-background, form, size, and position in space.