Visual Discrimination

Oct 1, 2014

Visual Discrimination activities are often overlooked in our busy teaching and learning programs but they are a valuable part of a child's journey in reading.

I like to use these as fast finisher activities as well as in reading groups in the early weeks of school.

Today, you can try one of our printable visual discrimination activities for free!

It has a mixture of pictures and lower case letters with an Autumn twist!

Here are some more resources from our Visual Discrimination collection:

Pair Up

Let's look at the activity cards in 'Pair Up' below. Students have to find 2 pictures that are the same on each card.

Give your student a card. Tell them to look at the star on the left - this is the 'starting star' - and this is where you want them to look every time they do one of these activities (and when they read a book)!

Tell them to point to the first picture. Tell them not to look at anything else, just the first picture. Tell them to say the name of this picture. Tell them to look at the picture closely and really observe it. Then move on, picture by picture, across the card. One at a time, pointing and saying. Once at the end, tell them to return to the first picture again, and this time, to 'sweep' their eyes across the card and find the two that match. They can then 'clip' them (or circle them if on a worksheet).

This slow and deliberate routine of working across the card will help your students reading.

I have also found that it helps my students in the early weeks of school, develop systematic thinking, and follow my instructions. It helps some of my 'busy' workers to slow down, and learn to follow a process to complete a task.

I have challenged more-able students in this style of activity by extending them a little. After saying the name of each picture, they can go back and say the beginning sound of each picture - or even write them down on a piece of paper or find a letter tile to match each picture.