Perception refers to the way we process information received through our senses; eyes, ears, skin, muscles, tendons and joints. They are important part of the Life Skills curriculum at Foundation Phase.
PERCEPTUAL MOTOR SKILLS
These skills will involve processing information through the eyes, skin, muscles ligaments and joints. It covers the gross and fine motor skills of:
Visual motor coordination
The ability to coordinate vision with the movements of the body.
Hand-eye coordination
Refers to the ability of the hands and eyes working together when performing a movement.
Eye-foot coordination
Refers to the ability of the feet and eyes working together when performing a movement.
Laterality
Showing an awareness of each side of the body.
Dominance
Preferring to use one hand or side of the body.
Crossing the midline
Being able to work across the vertical / horizontal lines of the body.
Eye-movement control
The ability to follow and object with the eyes while not moving the head/body, e.g reading from left to right.
VISUAL PERCEPTION
This relates to the processing and interpretation of information received through the eyes. It covers the skills of:
Spatial relations
Refers to perception of the position of objects in space.
Visual discrimination
Refers to the ability to differentiate one object from another.
Visual memory
Refers to the ability to remember what the eyes have seen.
Figure ground discrimination
Refers to the ability to distinguish an object from the background rounding it.
Visual closure
The Learner should be able to identify an object, despite the fact that the total stimulus is not presented.
Object recognition
Refers to the ability to recognise the nature of objects when viewing them. Perceptual consistency (also known as object permanency or form constancy) The ability to perceive objects possessing invariant properties.
AUDITORY PERCEPTION
This relates to the processing and interpretation of information received through the ears. It covers the skills of:
Auditory discrimination
Refers to the ability to recognise a difference between phoneme sounds and to identify words that are the same and different.
Auditory memory
Refers to the ability to store and recall what one has heard.
Auditory sequencing
Refers to the ability to member the order of items given orally in a sequential list.
Auditory blending (also known as auditory closure)
The ability to blend single phonic elements or phonemes into a complete word.