In this article we will talk about perceptual reasoning and its impact on our everyday life.
We will explain you why this ability is so important and how we can improve perceptual reasoning in children, but first we will try to define it.
Definitions and Importance of Perceptual Reasoning
There are many definitions of perceptual reasoning. We can say that it is our ability to understand and to use the information that we have gained using our senses. Actually, it is a component of our intelligence that helps us store information that we have gained from the environment.
Perceptual reasoning includes different reasoning skills, such as our visual perception or non-verbal reasoning. It is known that visual perception is one of the most important aspects of our perceptual reasoning.
Children whose perceptual reasoning skills are not developed enough will have problems with most activities that involve vision and recognizing things. For example, children who have low perceptual reasoning will have problems with learning and writing reverse letters.
Perceptual reasoning is very important in our everyday life. There are many activities where we are using the skills of perceptual reasoning. For example, we need perceptual reasoning skills to solve problems or to classify objects that we see in front of us.
When children are growing, perceptual reasoning is becoming more and more important. Children should have good skills of perceptual reasoning in order to have success in school.
Perceptual reasoning skills are especially important in mathematics and similar subjects, so they must be developed. Now we will show you how you can improve perceptual reasoning of your child.
How To Improve Perceptual Reasoning in Children?
Matching. The best way to increase the abilities of your child to recognize visual information is to practice matching games. There are many ways how you can practice matching with your child.
First you can try with matching colors. It means that you can simply ask your child to find all white things in the room, for example.
Also, your child may practice to match sizes and shapes. An interesting game is also matching pictures with suitable words. You can also ask your child to find an item that begins with a certain letter.
It is also recommended that your child plays memory games because they will develop not only matching, but also memory skills of your child. Your child can play these games using cards with symbols. In these games the child will have to pair two cards that are matching each other.
Identify the Difference. There are a lot of activities that may help children to develop the skill of identifying differences. It is very important for children to learn where a certain item belongs. This is one of the most important parts of perceptual reasoning.
You can give your child two pictures that are almost the same, but there are some small differences between them. You can find these pictures in magazines.
One more way to practice this skill with your child is to ask him to find the object that does not belong to the group. For example, you can give your child following items: milk, cheese, yogurt and a pencil. Of course, your child will determine a pencil as an object that doesn’t belong to the group. Later you can find some more difficult examples.
Visual Memory. It is very important for your child to develop a visual memory. First you need to show your child a certain picture and then to cover a part of this picture. Ask your child to describe what he/she has seen. Later you can ask your child to describe an image in detail and also compare the image with some other images.
Left and Right Orientation. This orientation is very important part of visual perception. First you need to explain children a difference between right and left. Ask your child to take something in his left hand or to identify a certain direction.
Puzzles. Puzzles are a great way for your child to practice the skills of visual perception. They will need to rotate pictures and to match shapes. It is considered that these skills are essential for good marks in mathematics.
Depth Perception. This type of perception is also very important for children. It is also one more segment of perceptual reasoning. For example, you can put several items in a box and ask from your child to take the items that are on the top of the box.
Skills in Mathematics. Mathematical skills are also a very important part in perceptual reasoning. Children can start practicing these skills by matching the items that are related to numbers. For example, four apples, three rabbits…
Teach Children To Concentrate. It is very important that children learn how to concentrate. They should learn to concentrate on a particular idea or on a certain task. You should help your child develop concentration skills. It is important to minimize any distraction, such as television, noise, other people…
Logical Thinking. It is also very important to stimulate the skills of logical thinking in your child. Logical thinking is also a part of perceptual reasoning. For example, you can ask the child what is going to happen next and also why it is going to happen. It is important to ask children to answer more than “yes” or “no” to your questions.
Summary
As you have seen in this article, a perceptual reasoning is a part of our overall intelligence. It is the ability that plays the most important role in the school success of your child, but also in many other segments of life.
We have also explained you how to improve perceptual reasoning in children. As we have mentioned above, you can use different games and other activities that will be interesting to children.
Have in mind that boring activities and exercises will not give good results because children will not be interested in learning them. Your child should practice perceptual reasoning and you should make this process interesting enough to motivate the child to learn more and more.
