Definition:
Visual information processing is the ability to recognize, interpret, understand and recall what is seen and be able to integrate that with other sensory information and past experience in order to act on the environment appropriately and with predictable result.

When untreated, visual information processing problems can interfere with visual performance, the ability to sustain visual attention and the ability to comprehend and manipulate visual information. The following areas of visual performance can be evaluated to identify or rule out underlying problems.

Accommodation:
This is the ability to focus by controlling the shape of the lens inside the eye, adjusting appropriately so that objects can be seen clearly at various distances. An accommodative dysfunction is a sensorimotor anomaly of the visual system in the child or young adult under age 40, characterized by: poor focusing accuracy; reduced focusing flexibility; inability to sustain clear focus; or focusing spasm (the inability to relax focus.) An individual with poor accommodative control will experience unstable vision with possible blurring; difficulty shifting focus from one distance to another; pain in or around the eyes; headaches; poor concentration; distractibility; fatigue or distance blur after near work.

Ocular Motility:
By ocular motility we mean eye movement control. Ocular motor dysfunction is a sensorimotor anomaly of eye movement control characterized by an inability to perform accurate and effective eye movement patterns. An individual with poor ocular motor control will have difficulty moving both eyes smoothly and accurately from object to object (such as word to word) as well as tracking moving objects. This can cause loss of place; repetition and/or omission of words or lines of print while reading; transpositions with reading or copying; poor visual attention and distractibility; fatigue; motion sickness; and inaccurate eye-hand coordination.

Binocularity:
Binocular vision is the ability to align both eyes accurately on an object and combine the visual images from each eye into a single perception with depth. A binocular vision dysfunction is a sensorimotor anomaly characterized by the inability to efficiently, accurately and comfortably sustain eye teaming. An individual with poor binocularity will experience unstable vision with possible doubling; blurring; light sensitivity; headache; dizziness; motion sickness; fatigue; poor depth perception; discomfort around eyes; poor eye-hand coordination; decreased concentration and distractibility.

Visual Discrimination:
An individual with a visual discrimination weakness is not able to match and/or distinguish similarities and differences in words, letters, pictures, objects, etc. Difficulties may be experienced in reading, writing and spelling.

Visual Figure Ground:
An individual with figure ground weakness will have difficulty picking out and focusing attention on a specific object, or detail of an object from surrounding objects, for example, identifying a particular word in a paragraph. He may seem inattentive and unable to keep place in reading and number work. He will be easily distracted. Difficulties may be experienced in drawing a straight line between boundaries, in finishing a letter when writing, and in finding objects such as a screwdriver in a tool box.

Visual Closure:
An individual with poor visual closure has difficulty mentally "filling in" partially complete visual information, for example, visualizing the missing parts of a poorly photocopied page of print or pictures, or recognizing an object when it is partially hidden by other objects in front of it.

Visual Form Constancy:
Form constancy may be defined as the accurate recognition and interpretation of an object in spite of its being seen in various orientations (rotated, flipped over, etc.). An individual with adequate perceptual constancy will recognize an object, word, letter, or number no matter how it is presented (such as a letter or number even if it appears in a different type face, a word if it is printed in all capital letters, or a number in an unfamiliar context.)

An individual with poorly developed visual form constancy is not only likely to feel anxious about the general unreliability of her visual world, but may also experience difficulties in academic learning. Although she may learn to recognize a number, letter, or word when she sees it in a particular script or context, she may be quite unable to recognize the same symbol when it is presented in a different manner. Such an individual is constantly deceived by her senses. A word she knows well in one form, color, size, type of writing or in conjunction with certain other words may appear new to her when presented in another form, color, size, or context. For a child with such a weakness, learning to read or to work with symbols is very difficult.

Visual Memory:
An individual with visual memory problems may have difficulty remembering the alphabet, learning basic math facts, reading and spelling sight words (words unable to be spelled phonetically - i.e. would, boar, laugh, two/too).

Body Image / General Visual-motor Control:
Body image refers to the individual's concept of his physical body parts and is important in the development of self-concept. General movement control involves the functioning of the large muscles and the child's awareness of body parts and their operations.

The frustrations resulting from a poorly developed body image or inadequate movement control may precipitate a wide range of problem behaviors. Some behaviors which might be directly related to these problems are:

Poor ability to maintain a steady normally erect position while sitting, standing, or walking.
A tendency to run into or bump into objects.
General clumsiness; a lack of smooth movement and/or timing.
Inaccurate estimation of body size in relation to other people, spaces or to inanimate objects.
Under or over reaching for objects.
Difficulty with imitative movements.
Left / Right Concepts:
Laterality is the knowledge of right and left on one's own body. Directionality is the understanding of how to project that knowledge of right and left onto other people and objects in space.

Position in space may be defined as the accurate interpretation of an object as being behind, before, above, below, to the right or left. Difficulties in consistently perceiving the proper position of an object in relation to oneself is likely to also cause confusion of "b" and "d"; "3" and "E"; "p" and "q"; or "on" and "no"; "24" and "42". This can make it difficult for one to learn to read, write, spell and do arithmetic.

Visual Spatial Relationships:
The perception of spatial relationships is the ability to perceive the position of two or more objects in relation to oneself and in relation to each other. One who has difficulty perceiving spatial relationships could have trouble with sequential tasks. He may find it difficult to put letters in the proper sequence while reading or spelling. For example, he might read the word "string" as "stiring" or spell it "sitnrg." He may be unable to remember the sequence of processes involved in solving problems.

Visual Sequential Memory:
A visual sequential memory deficit can be defined as the inability to correctly remember symbols, and/or sequences of symbols previously seen. Such a deficit can frequently cause difficulty identifying words which have similar sequences, leading to confusion. The individual who does not read well is frequently the one who cannot visualize events in sequence. She may word-call, but visual sequential memory problems may hinder her comprehension.

Visual Speed:
The speed with which one can localize, attend, perceive and remember visual information is important in completing and processing visual tasks. If visual acquisition is too slow and insufficient visual information collected, tasks cannot be successfully completed and comprehension may suffer.

Visual Perceptual Speed:
This is the ability to perform visual analysis and discrimination tasks within an age appropriate time frame.

Visual-auditory Integration:
This is the ability to process and match visual spatial information with auditory temporal information. Adequate visual auditory integration is necessary for meaningful interpretation of punctuation clues in reading.

Visual-motor Integration:
This is the ability to accurately analyze and interpret visually presented information and plan appropriate motor action. Adequate visual-motor integration is necessary to copy movement patterns and images through drawing or handwriting.

Visual Conservation Logic:
The ability to think logically in order to analyze what has occurred is important so that the individual is not dependent only upon how things look (to not be fooled by what you see.)