Video: Figure-ground perception

﻿Hi, I'm really looking forward to our lesson today. I hope you are too. Before we get started, this is just a little reminder. We're here to support any approaches you might already be using and any work you might have already been set. We know that this lesson is going to be going out to so many different children and families. So if you're not sure about anything or have any questions, then please do contact your usual therapy team. Have you ever noticed that sometimes it's really easy for you to find one specific item and other times you just can't find the one thing that you're supposed to be looking for? Sometimes it's quite simple to go into her room, look around, find an object. And other times it's really hard. Okay? We're going to be learning about finding hidden objects amongst loads of others and why this is such an important skill. What is figure ground perception? Well, it's a fancy way of saying how we're able to filter out things that we don't need to focus on to find something specific. So if you're looking at your plate and you're eating some peas and carrots, you are able to just find the peas when you don't want to eat the carrots, 'cause you maybe want to leave them behind. Okay? It helps us to ignore all that extra stuff in the background and just look at the one thing that we want. This is so that we can pick out the detail on something specific and not get distracted by everything around it. We use this when we're reading, say to focus on one word at a time, or when we're looking for our favourite toy in a messy room, or to find our favourite pencil in a pencil case. For today, you're going to need a tray, a box or bottle, or even a little tub. You can get some dry rice or beans to pour into the tray and make sure that you've asked an adult if it's okay for you to do this. Then you're going to find some small toys or objects like coins, shells, or marbles, and some hidden picture games from books or the internet. Ask an adult to help you find these. Restart once you're done. Our first activity is called treasure hunt. So you're going to find big, a plastic bottle or a tray, and you're going to fill it with loads of dry rice or beans or anything, spare that an adult has said that you can use. Okay? Then you're going to ask an adult to hide several small objects inside and they could be little toys, marbles, coins, or anything else, really small. And you're then going to dig through the rice and the beans to find all the small toys. Remember if the toys are really small, it's going to be really challenging. And if there're lots of toys, it's going to be more challenging. See if you can find them without using your hands to dig. So simply shift the container, shake it a little bit here a little bit there, but please be careful not to make a mess 'cause otherwise you're going to have to clean it up. Pause the video to try the treasure hunt. Next is one of my favourite games, which is called I-spy. And you can play this with your activity partner or an adult. So they can describe something that they see in the room and you have to look around and see if you can find it. So for instance, if they say "I spy something green and round", you might see that they mean a tennis ball or it might be a green apple. If you're playing with a partner, take it in turns. You can make it tougher by asking them to give you shorter descriptions, such as it's green, or it's round. You could also try finding as many things that you can match to that description. So green and round could be a tennis ball. It could be a green Apple. It could be a green lime. Okay? Okay, I spy with my little eye something silver. Oh look, the silver bit in the fireplace. I spy something black and furry. It's the new puppy, Buddy. I spy something light purple. Well, there's something purple on Buddy's neck, but it's not a light purple. It could be this blanket, could be light purple. I spy a blue house. This is tricky. Ah, look up there in the picture. There's a blue house, and there's a blue house as well. They've just got, it looks slightly different and a picture of a boy. Let's see. There's a picture over there of a boy. Pause the video to give I-spy a ago. Next let's look at some hidden pictures. Okay. And you can find lots of games on sheets or books, or you can ask an adult to help you find some on the internet. These are the games where you have to find one thing amongst a very busy picture. So if you've ever seen games like Where's Wally?, this is a really good example of that. Look at the picture, try and find the thing that you're asked to hunt for. On the next page is an example. Well I'm going to ask you to find the red lady bird. Have an adult give you other things to hunt for in the picture. See if you can do more complicated pictures. If you really want to have a bigger challenge. Can you find the red lady bird? So there's something red. Oh no, that's the chimney. Um, look look look. There's something red. It's a fire engine, it's not to lady bird. Um, there's something. No, that was her dress. Let's keep looking. Can you see the red lady bird I'm circling over there? He was super good at hiding. Look at this picture. Can you see the red heart? I found it. What about the grey smiley face? Yeah, you're right. And what about the dark orange star? Well done, you found it too. Pause the video, to try the hidden picture games. So you can make these games easier or harder by using bigger toys or less rice and beans, if you're finding it really tricky. You can have an adult give you some little clues and you can also have them give you some really long descriptions. If you're finding it really hard to find a specific item. And there are loads of hidden pictures available. So look for easy ones to practise with at first, if you need to. Remember do the best you can. Don't worry about what other people are doing. Practise, practise, practise. Have fun. I can't wait to see how well you get on finding hidden items. And remember if you'd like to ask a parent to carer to share your work on Instagram, Facebook, or Twitter, tagging @OakNational and #LearnwithOak Bye.

Worksheet: Figure-ground perception

Completed: Figure-ground perception

This lesson focuses on the ability to see an object as separate from its surroundings and focus on it. Enhancing this skill will help with reading and scanning an environment for particular objects.

Figure-ground perception

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