by Biloxi Von Lutz

Created on: July 08, 2010

Visual perceptual skills are vital to almost every aspect of life, and you're never too old to hone these skills. Visual perceptual skills are those that allow us to see the world around us; recognize objects and patterns, group things together, etc. Basically, anything that requires visual acuity to process information intelligently.

There are many online computer games that provide the opportunity for an individual to test or hone their visual perceptual skills. Children can improve these skills the most, but they are applicable for all ages. Here are a few of the better ones:

The Eyeballing Game
This game is really more like a test. It measures you on your ability to create shapes, find the center of circles, find points of convergence in intersecting lines, and create right triangles among other things. It's excellent at helping you determine what areas you need to concentrate on improving and in which areas of perception you excel.

Flip the Cards
This is slightly different than your standard game of memory. You're given a group of eight cards and you're given a pair to match up. The cards are flashed briefly and then turned face-down. You must try to spot the correct pair and then select them. The game gets tougher as you go on and there are several achievements to unlock. This game is excellent for increasing your eye-speed and recognition as well as your visual recognition.

Hungry Blocks
Hungry Blocks is neat little game. You are a small yellow block and you're job is to eat blocks smaller than you while avoiding blocks larger than you. It requires fast reflexes, excellent hand-eye coordination, and spatial awareness to select the right size blocks to eat without running into the larger blocks.

Tetris
There are tons of different versions of the classic game of Tetris online or for download. A simple Google search will turn up more than you could ever want. This game is probably one of the best ever created for improving your visual skills and hand-eye coordination. Just in case you've been living under a rock for the last couple of decades, Tetris gives you a bunch of different shapes which drop down from the top of the screen. You can rotate them and place them on the bottom of the screen, trying to make lines across the screen. You're scored based on the number of lines you make at a time. 

These are just few of the online computer games that are available to improve visual perceptual skills. With a little patience and regular play, you should notice an improvement in your or your children's perceptual and hand-eye coordination skills. 

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