120 hr. TEFL Course Module 3- Reading (Pt. 6 Visual Discrimination)

Module 3: Reading

3.2.2 Visual discrimination

Visual discrimination refers to an individual’s ability to distinguish between letters, shapes, numbers, and objects. While both are important, visual discrimination is much more impactful on an individual’s ability to read than auditory discrimination. Auditory discrimination affects an individual’s ability to sound out words, but visual discrimination affects an individual’s ability to recognize which letters he or she is seeing. While it can be difficult to identify when a student has a visual discrimination deficiency because it can mask itself as just typical difficulties that students might have reading a new language, here are some signs that you can look for:

• The student has trouble identifying letters and learning the alphabet. The difficulty will be in recognizing the letters rather than being unable to remember what they are called.
• Difficulty telling the difference between similar letters (e.g., b and d), similar numbers (e.g., 6 and 9), and/or similar shapes (e.g., circles and ovals).

• Difficulty differentiating between words that have similar beginnings or endings.

Visual discrimination issues, just like auditory discrimination issues, can be overcome, but reading is much more difficult for people with visual discrimination disorders. Here are some potential classroom exercises that you can use to help students who struggle with visual discrimination disorders or deficiencies.

• Using visuals that are bright and colorful to help students work on distinguishing between clear shapes and colors.
• Using digital tools such as a laptop or tablet that can help make working on visual discrimination fun for the students.
• Make learning about visual discrimination fun by using games or puzzles that require the student to differentiate shapes or letters.