Understanding visual perception in school-aged children and its impact on occupational performance
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Citation
Abstract
Children with deficits in visual perception can present with impairments that impact their independence as a student in the classroom. As part of an occupational therapy evaluation in a school-based setting, standardized assessments are used to evaluate a child’s visual perceptual skills. A comprehensive literature search showed that standardized assessments alone do not show a functional presentation of a child’s whole performance, and additional measures are needed to connect impairments of visual processing with function (Brown et al., 2011; Howe et al., 2017; Schmetz et al., 2018; Sullivan et al., 2018).
Having a comprehensive understanding of a child’s functional skills in visual perception will assist the occupational therapy practitioner in supporting them to be a full participant within the classroom. Understanding Visual Perception in School-Aged Children and Its Impact on Occupational Performance is a training program designed to educate the occupational therapy practitioner on providing a comprehensive assessment of visual perceptual skills with children in a school-based setting. This program is grounded in practice theories, informed by the current literature, and has a program evaluation plan. The theories that guide this program include Person Environment Occupation Model (Law et al., 1996), and Adult Learning Theory (Knowles et al., 2015).