What Is Visual Processing?

The visual pathway is the most important pathway involved with the acquisition of written language skills; however, when discussing visual processing ability, the actual process of seeing is not the issue. Acquisition of a visual image in the “mind’s eye” is believed to be determined by the level of functioning of the angular gyrus, an area in the left hemisphere of the brain, the hemisphere that serves as the language hemisphere for ninety percent of the human population. The angular gyrus sits on the junction of the temporal lobe and the parietal lobe. It is located directly behind Wernicke’s area (See post, “What Is Auditory Processing?”), the language center of the brain that is responsible for processing sound into understandable words. The level of functioning of the angular gyrus directly impacts the recognition and recall of words. Those students who have a high level of angular gyrus activity have good visual memory. Those who have low levels of angular gyrus activity struggle with reading, spelling, and composition. These students have poor visual imagery and pronounced word recognition difficulty. Those toward the lower end of the spectrum, approximately fifteen to twenty percent of the world’s population, can be described as dyslexic with a specific visual processing difficulty.

Visual processing includes:

• seeing differences between things
• remembering visual details
• filling in missing parts in pictures
• remembering general characteristics
• visual-motor coordination
• visualization and imagination
• organization of a room, desk, binder, etc.

Students with a visual processing deficit often experience most learning difficulty in the areas of reading, spelling, and math because they have trouble visualizing words, letters, symbols, etc.

Visual imagery and word recognition ability have no direct correlation to a student’s intelligence. Cultural icons such as Thomas Edison and Albert Einstein had visual imagery and word recognition skills toward the lowest end of the spectrum. In fact, Thomas Edison and Albert Einstein were both dyslexics.