Visual discrimination is an important skill for little ones and something that you should be teaching your students. The good news is that you probably do it every day without even thinking about it! This post is all about the importance of visual discrimination and some activities you can do with preschoolers to practice this skill.

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What is visual discrimination? 

Visual discrimination is the ability to see the differences between things. This comes up often in early childhood when children are looking at written symbols (like numbers and letters) and looking at the differences to quickly identify them.  Working on these skills is a great way to build pre-reading skills with preschoolers.

Why is visual discrimination important? 

Visual discrimination is important because it helps little ones pay attention to details and see differences in symbols like letters and numbers. Being able to correctly (and quickly) identify and understand letters and numbers helps with academic skills like reading, writing, and math.

Visual Discrimination Activities 

Here are a few easy activities you can do right now with your preschoolers to build their visual discrimination skills. 

Matching Games

Matching Games are perfect for practicing this skill! I recommend starting with a memory matching game that has pictures.  You can make your own memory game by printing out pictures of your family (or another important picture) and laminating them with a personal laminator. 

The concept of these matching games is simple and little ones will just turn over cards and match the pictures. Starting with pictures will help your little one understand vocabulary words like same and different plus develop visual discrimination skills. These games help little ones to feel successful and can be used to build vocabulary too. 

You can also purchase pre-made memory games too in almost any theme.  This is a great one featuring different people of the world. Here are a few other great options:

You can also check out this free, printable Shark Memory Game. Memory games also improve spatial awareness,  attention, concentration, focus and allows children to practice problem-solving skills. 

Letter Name Match

If your little ones are working on recognizing the letters in their name this is a great activity! Write one letter of your child’s name on a post-it note, then do it again. Children will simply match the letters in their names. You can also give this game an extra touch of fun by hiding the post-it notes around the room. This also makes a great small group activity for preschoolers in the classroom! 

Puzzles

Puzzles are another great activity for building these skills with preschoolers. When working puzzles, students have to look at different pieces and pay attention to the visual details to determine where pieces will go.

Visual Discrimination Clip Cards

When your students are ready, you can also practice visual discrimination with letters and numbers. This is a great way to introduce letters and numbers to students in a non-intimidating way! Students will look at each letter or number and simply find the one that matches. 

These Visual Discrimination Cards are perfect for preschoolers and they are fun to use in stations throughout the year to coordinate with different themes. Students will use a wooden clothespin to pin the matching letter. Students can also name the letters if they are able. Using clothespins is also great practice for fine motor skills too! 

These visual discrimination clip cards can easily be laminated and used in stations again and again. Also, these cards are so simple so you won’t be having to constantly explain directions to your students! Plus, they are working on these important skills. Win, win!

More Preschool Learning Activities: 

​Environmental Print in the Preschool Classroom
Getting Started with Writing Workshop in Preschool
How to Make Meaningful Class Books for Preschoolers

I hope these activities help your students to practice their visual discrimination skills!