Abstract:

Development of visual perception is considered to be a basic prerequisite for successful reading and writing. We often talk about a deficit which needs to be taken into an account in education in a group of pupils with visual impairment, while optimizing the pupil´s competences in relation to his disability. Whereas in special education there are special pedagogues with knowledge of the issues, in a common school, teachers do not often have experience with these pupils and even the system does not provide their systematic support. Although we often encounter teachers who work with the pupil and try to adapt the learning process, the methods are not always chosen appropriately, and the consequences of visual impairment in relation to pupil´s individuality are not always understood.

The main aim of the research was to compare the level of visual perception of pupils with visual impairment and intact pupils of primary school. That is why we have set the hypothesis: Pupils with visual impairment will achieve worse results in Test of Visual Perceptual Skills than intact pupils.

The pilot research survey was implemented in two primary schools, with the total of 32 young school aged pupils. The first group of 16 respondents were pupils with visual impairment. (These were most commonly combined vision defects: astigmatism, long-sightedness, lazy eye, cross-eye etc.) The second group of 16 respondents were intact pupils of the same age range. The age range of pupils in both groups ranged from 6 years 11 months up to 8 years 11 months.

In connection with previous research surveys we have used a standardized foreign Test of Visual Perceptual Skills (Martin, 2006), which enables to map strong and weak points of visual perception (visual differentiation DIS, visual memory MEM, spatial relationships SPA, space consistency CON, sequential memory SEQ, figure-background FRG, closure of shapes CLO).

From the statistical processing it is clear that there are no statistically significant differences on the level 0,05 between results of pupils with visual impairment and their intact peers. During a closer examination of individual subtests it was found that, while in the areas of visual differentiation and shape consistency there is statistically significant difference in monitored groups of pupils, in areas of visual memory, spatial relationships, sequential memory , figures and background and closure of shapes the statistically significant difference does not exist at monitored groups of pupils.

Therefore, we would like to state that the visual impairment of the pupils studied is most evident in the field of visual distinction and shape consistency. These two areas of visual perception contribute substantially to the success of the process of learning to read and write. In data collection we also have a greater focus, attention and systematicity in dealing with tasks assigned to pupils with visual impairments than with their intact peers. This phenomenon is probably due to the regular and long-term complex orthoptic-pleoptic therapy that pupils have already attended at pre-school age and continue to attend elementary school.

Keywords:

Visual perception, Test of Visual Perceptual Skills, pupil with visual impairment, intact peers, younger school age.