Service

Visual Information Processing Assessment

Seeing clearly and understanding what you're looking at are two different things, and for some children, that's exactly where the gap is. A Visual Information Processing Assessment looks at how well your child's brain interprets, organises, and uses the visual information their eyes are sending it: everything downstream of a standard vision check. It's the same territory touched on in the Comprehensive Children's Vision Assessment page. This page goes into more detail on what's actually tested.

A child deeply focused reading a book

What's assessed

1Ocular Motor

How the eyes move and track: the physical mechanics of moving accurately from one point to another.

2Visual Motor

How well what's seen is translated into movement, such as copying from the board or writing within the lines.

3Visual Analysis

How visual information is recognised and interpreted once it's been seen, noticing detail and telling similar shapes or letters apart.

4Visual Spatial

Understanding position, direction, and orientation: left from right, up from down, where things sit relative to one another.

5Visual Auditory

How well visual and auditory information are integrated, matching what's seen with what's heard, useful for reading aloud and following along in class.

6Visual Memory

Recalling visual information accurately after it's no longer in view: remembering a word, a shape, or a sequence.

Common questions

What age is this assessment for?

There's no single fixed age. It depends on what's being asked and what's already been noticed. If you're not sure whether it's the right time for your child, get in touch and we can talk it through before booking anything.

What does it actually test?

It looks at how your child's visual system processes information, beyond how clearly they can see. Things like visual memory, spatial awareness, and how visual and auditory information are integrated. See the skills list above for the full picture.

How is this different from a standard eye test?

A standard eye test checks whether your child can see clearly at distance and up close. A Visual Information Processing Assessment goes further, into how the brain uses what the eyes are seeing. That matters for reading, writing, and classroom learning, even when eyesight itself tests as normal.

Related

Ready for a Visual Information Processing assessment?

Book online any time, or send a quick question first if you're not sure yet.