visual discrimination – KiDOTI

Matching Pictures to Shadows

admin — Thu, 02 Apr 2020 16:19:10 +0000

Different colors are telling clues when trying to distinguish between similar objects. The following worksheets will challenge your child’s visual discrimination skills by asking him to match a full-color picture to its all-black shadow.

Matching Shadows Beginners (1)

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Matching Shadows Beginners (2)

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Matching Shadows Intermediate (1)

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Matching Shadows Intermediate (2)

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Matching Shadows Intermediate (3)

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Matching Shadows Advanced (1)

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Matching Shadows Advanced (2)

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Matching Shadows Advanced (5)

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Matching Shadows Advanced (3)

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Matching Shadows Advanced (4)

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Importance of matching pictures to shadows

Matching pictures to shadows gives children the opportunity to notice a specific element of a picture – namely the outline. Often children (and adults!) notice the color of objects or drawings and use that to identify details. In these worksheets, your child will be forced to scrutinize the shape of each picture to find it’s match. This skill will be useful when he is learning to identify letters, numbers, and shapes, since formation, and not color, will be the distinguishing feature.

Tips for using these visual discrimination (matching pictures to shadows) worksheets

These visual discrimination worksheets are arranged in the same pattern for all of the skill levels, with the colored picture in the left-hand column and the shadow in the right-hand column. The level of difficulty increases as more (and smaller) pictures are placed on each page.

To help your child focus on the shape of the colorful picture, you may wish to cover the other pictures on the left side of the page. With only one picture exposed, he may have an easier time identifying its shape and finding its match. Direct your child to look at the colored picture and then look at the top picture in the right-hand column. If it matches, he can draw the line connecting the two pictures. If it does not match, remind him to look back at the colored illustration before glancing at the next picture in the shadow column. Looking back at the colored picture each time reinforces its shape.

I recommend making two copies of these worksheets to create a second, fun activity. After printing the second copy, cut out each colored picture on the page. Ask your child to cover each shadow with the appropriate matching picture. If he is correct, he may paste the cut picture over the shadow, covering it completely.

Extra activities to supplement these visual discrimination (matching pictures to shadows) worksheets

Ask your child to name 2 friends that have brown hair. Then ask him to name 2 friends with blond hair. This game will encourage him to pay closer attention to others’ identifying characteristics.
Flashlights make the “I Spy” game more exciting. Allow your child to use his flashlight to illuminate the room as he looks around for the “spied” item.
Instead of offering your child 1 kind of cereal in the morning, mix together 3 or 4 different types into one bowl so each bite has different shapes and colors.
Empty egg cartons are great for matching activities. Place one small item in each hole in the top row of the carton and have your child put identical items into the corresponding hole in the bottom row.
Use an eye dropper to drop colored water onto white paper towels. It’s a fun way to reinforce color names and discover how two colors mix together to form a third color.

Identifying Letters

admin — Tue, 31 Mar 2020 15:59:24 +0000

The first step in letter awareness is learning to identify letters from the variety of other characters that typically appear on a page, including numbers, symbols and punctuation. This skill requires strong visual discrimination skills, since many letters look alike and many letters resemble other symbols such as $, &, and @. Children must also learn that letters can be written in either upper case or lower case and in a variety of fonts. The following worksheets will help your child practice identifying letters in many different styles from a variety of other non-letter characters.

Learning to identify letters is important

When a young child first sees letters on a sign or in a book, these are simply random configurations of lines and curves. He must learn to differentiate symbols and shapes from a variety of styles of letters that he will see. This learning is accomplished through practice and exposure to letters and is an important first step when learning to read.

Tips for using these identifying letters worksheets

The three beginning level worksheets can help you assess your child’s knowledge of letters. Let him know that only one figure on each line is a letter. Ask him to point to each letter that he sees. As he points to a letter, ask him to name it or name it for him if he is not yet able to to do that. If he incorrectly points to a shape or number, tell him the name of the shape or number and ask him to try again to find a letter.

The intermediate level worksheets are more challenging, with the addition of punctuation marks and lowercase letters. Direct your child to move his pointer finger slowly across each line, from the left side of the page to the right, stopping at each letter, symbol or mark. Again, ask your child to name the letters as he points to them. If this level is somewhat difficult for your child, you may tell him to first find symbols or marks that do not look like letters and cross those out. Clues such as “a triangle and a square are not letters” can be helpful. If your child needs a lot of direction with this page, point out the letters for him and then come back to this worksheet at a later time.

Children who can name the letters of the alphabet are ready to tackle the advanced identifying letters worksheets. These can be challenging because the letters are also shown in a stylized font. Suggest that your child move his finger slowly across each row as he decides which marks are letters. It may be easier for him to identify the letters if he first crosses out any symbol that he knows is not a letter. Then, he can return to the top of the worksheet and carefully look at the symbols that were not crossed out. If the stylized letters are too challenging for your child, try identifying them by name (lowercase e or uppercase R, for example) and then ask him to find that letter on the page.

Extra activities to supplement these identifying letters worksheets

Use shaving cream to write letters on a bathtub wall during bath time. Cleanup is super easy and kids love playing games in the bath.
When walking through a shopping mall, pause outside each store and ask your child to count the number of letters or words in each store’s name.
A computer keyboard is a great way for your child to practice letters. Using a large font and encourage your child to type his favorite letters.
Reinforce letter names with letter-shaped cookie cutters. You can make letter-shaped cookies, pancakes or pretend cookies with playdoh.
Suggest a letter and ask your child to say the next letter that comes in the alphabet. With practice, your child will not need to begin with A and go through the alphabet each time.
Explain to your child that letters can be printed in different fonts. Show your child letters from headlines in a popular magazine to illustrate a few examples.
Sitting at the computer with your child, say a word and ask him to type the first letter of that word. Or trade roles and have your child suggest a word while you type.
Explain to your child that every sentence has two parts: letters and punctuation. Letters that form words for us to read and punctuation that tells us when to pause, stop, or change our voice.
Explain to your child that a comma indicates when to take a short pause when you’re reading and that a period tells you when to take a longer pause.
Write one or two uppercase letters on index cards for your child to hold as you walk through a shopping mall. Encourage him to spot that letter on store signs as you shop.

Learning Colors

admin — Tue, 31 Mar 2020 13:12:35 +0000

Colors are all around us. And young children, in particular, are especially adept at searching for and identifying different colors. Since color words are often used to describe the many different things we see in our environment, knowing all of the color words will help your child express himself more clearly.

Identifying Colors (1)

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Identifying Colors (2)

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Identifying Colors (3)

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Matching Colors in Pictures (1)

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Matching Colors in Pictures (2)

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Matching Colors in Pictures (3)

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Matching Colors in Pictures (4)

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Matching Colors in Pictures (5)

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Matching Colors in Pictures (6)

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Grouping pictures or items by color is one of the simplest classification systems available to young children, since color is such an obvious attribute. Identifying colors worksheets will challenge your child to rely on strong visual discrimination skills to group items by major color group.

Also, it is important for young children to learn the proper name for each color. Once they know the name for each color, they can more accurately describe the things they see and they can better understand when others describe things to them. The matching colors worksheets will introduce your child to the name of each color by asking him to match each printed color word with a picture that contains that color.

Tips for using the color worksheets to learn colors

The easiest way for children to learn colors is to begin with one color at a time. Say aloud the name of the color featured on one color worksheet and have your child repeat after you. Each color word is printed in the corresponding color. While some children may discover this on their own, be sure to point it out to your child if he does not initially realize it.

Distinguishing Different Sizes

admin — Tue, 31 Mar 2020 11:51:46 +0000

Young children learn through observation. They love exploring the world around them, observing the nuances of everything they see. Interestingly, many people, things and places share similar characteristic and may differ in only one or two small ways. The following worksheets are designed to help your child develop strong visual discrimination skills and become adept at quickly noticing small differences in images, people, or things.

Distinguishing Different Sizes (1)

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Distinguishing Different Sizes (2)

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Distinguishing Different Sizes (3)

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Distinguishing Different Sizes (4)

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Distinguishing Different Sizes (5)

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Distinguishing Different Sizes (6)

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Distinguishing Different Sizes (7)

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Distinguishing Different Sizes (8)

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Many objects, items, or people may, at first glance, appear very similar. For example, nearly all trees are tall with rough, brown bark and soft, green leaves. However, some trees may have smooth, grayish bark and other trees many have long, pointy pine needles in lieu of leaves. Because of this, an ability to observe these distinguishing characteristics and be able to tell the difference between the many different trees is important.

Tips for using the “Different Sizes” compare and contrast worksheets

Before you introduce the different sizes worksheets to your child, review the terms big, small, medium, biggest and smallest. You might take three very different sized cans or boxes out of your cupboard and ask your child to point to the big one, small one, medium one, etc. Or simply cut a piece of paper into three distinct sizes and question your child to make sure that he understands the vocabulary for this worksheet.

Then, before reading the actual direction, ask your child to point to the small and large picture. (For the intermediate and advanced worksheets, also ask your child to point to the medium sized picture.) If he correctly identifies the sizes and pictures, give your child a pencil and read the directions to him.

If multiple pictures on the page seems distracting for your child, simply fold the page to reveal one set of pictures at a time.

Extra activities to supplement the compare and contrast worksheets

While dining out, have your child look at the table then close his eyes while you remove one or two items from the table. Then have him open his eyes and see if he notices what is different. This activity will help your child notice small differences, as you add and remove minor items from the table, which requires strong visual discrimination skills.

For an easy visual discrimination game, cut many small squares off a single sheet of paper and ask your child to arrange the pieces from smallest to largest. Or, as you put away groceries, give your child 3 or 4 different containers and ask him to put them in order from smallest to largest. Sorting items from smallest to largest requires keen visual discrimination skills as many of the pieces or containers may be very similar in size. You can also give your child a stack of measuring cups and ask him to put them in order on the counter from smallest to biggest.

At dinnertime, fill two glasses with different amounts of water and ask him to pick the one that contains more water. Or, fill two different shaped cups with the same amount of a snack and ask your child which he wants. Then show him how they looked different but actually had the same amount. This is an advanced visual discrimination activity that requires your child to compare not only the height of the item in each container, but also the shape of the different containers.

Identify Identical Picture

admin — Tue, 31 Mar 2020 11:49:16 +0000

Many letters (such as B and P or J and L) appear very similar and only differ in a small way. The following worksheets challenge children to identify images from a collection of very similar (but slightly different) images.

Identifying Identical Pictures (1)

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Identifying Identical Pictures (2)

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Identifying Identical Pictures (3)

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Identifying Identical Pictures (4)

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Identifying Identical Pictures (5)

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Identifying Identical Pictures (6)

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Identifying Identical Pictures (7)

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Identifying Identical Pictures (8)
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Identifying Identical Pictures (9)

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Tips for using the “Identical Pictures” worksheets

To help your child focus on one line at a time, either fold the page or cover part of the page with a plain sheet of paper. This will help his eyes track across the page from left to right.

Before using a pencil, direct your child to use his finger to point to the the matching picture in each row. As he points to the matching picture, ask him to tell you some of the characteristics of the picture in the box. For example, he might say that the butterfly has blue wings and a brown body or the king has a crown and a beard. After your child correctly identifies the matching picture and highlights some details in it, let him mark his answer with his pencil.

Extra activities to supplement the “Identifying Identical Pictures” worksheets

Take pictures of your child’s block creations before they are torn down. Later, challenge your child to recreate the structure using the picture to guide him. To create an identical block structure, he will need to observe each distinguishing characteristic in his first creation and copy it exactly. He will also need to compare and contrast his new creation with the original creation in the picture to ensure he replicates it correctly. Stand next to another adult and ask your child to identify 3 similarities and 3 differences between you. Who is taller? Who has longer hair? Do you have the same color hair or eyes? Or, as you walk outside, challenge your child to find two leaves that are the same size or color. Then ask him to find two trees that are the same height. Your child will need to compare and contrast the trees that he sees to find two that are the same height or color or to notice the subtle differences between hair colors.