From Timberdoodle: Critical Thinking Co's Visual Perceptual Skill Building

Timberdoodle carries a variety of toys, games, and educational materials. Timberdoodle offered some options for reviewers and I chose a skill building book from Critical Thinking Press that focuses on an area where Li'l Bit needs practice: visual perception. I am familiar with Critical Thinking Press; I've purchased several products from them.

Note: The cover pictured here differs from the cover of the book I received.

After I chose the visual perception book, we went to see our "autism" consultant, who, without my input, screened Li'l Bit for some visual tracking issues. The consultant and I had the same instinct - we need to devote some time to this area.

I really like this book. I am certified in Basic Level 1 of Feuerstein Instrumental Enrichment, and, while Visual Perceptual Skill Building is not FIE, there are similarities, and I can use my training along with this book. For $24.99, a parent can have a worktext that he/she can use at home with a child (without signing up for an expensive, out-of-pocket expense class, travel time etc). The activities are child-friendly; the pages are laid out well and are not over-crowded (in my opinion), which reduces performance and completion anxiety.

The recommended age range is 7-9; I would add that parents of older children who are developmental delayed may benefit from the activities in this book.

Visual Perceptual Skill Building Book 2

covers

Visual Motor Integration

Visual Discrimination

Visual Closure

Visual Figure Ground

VisualForm Constancy

Visual Memory

Visual Sequential Memory

Visual Spatial Relationships

The "problem" with this book at my house is that Li'l Bit needs help with it (a guided participation and/or FIE/mediated learning experience type help) yet she prefers to try the pages without my help, so she takes the book and sneaks off with it to try on her own. She got quite a few pages correct; but I found some errors in the work she did on her own. The fact that she enjoys trying to do the pages on her own is a positive thing. The negative is that I keep having to track it down! I was able to sit down with her and scaffold the process of what she missed and how to get to the correct answer. I want to give her the tools to get to the correct answer, the process, instead of giving her the answer. There's quite a bit of thinking involved, step-by-step strategies, within the different skills, despite the fact that this is a workbook about visual perception. Visual Perceptual Skill Building is a solid resource for the younger (or developmentally delayed) child who needs to join a guide/teacher. Having my daughter show me how she obtained her answer is one strategy we use. Walking my daughter through the process is another.

Here's another one she did without me.
We have an opportunity for another learning experience, because this one is incorrect. I'm not concerned that she got it wrong, because the error gives me a new opportunity.

I continue to be impressed with both Timberdoodle and Critical Thinking Company. This workbook is a big help for our needs and I recommend it to others who desire to work on strengthening areas of visual perception.

As a member of Timberdoodle's Blogger Review Team I received a free copy of this book in exchange for a frank and unbiased review.