| Visual attention is one of the four brain pillars that we | | | | from the boat to the water or from the water to the |
| all use to support our ability to understand the world | | | | sky. You can develop your child’s zoom lens, by |
| around us. The brain relies on these four pillars – | | | | having them locate images hidden in pictures. |
| visual attention, visual memory, auditory attention, and | | | | The Visual Discriminator |
| auditory memory – to help us connect our sense | | | | The brain’s visual discriminator compares and |
| organs to the brain so that we can manage our | | | | contrasts what it sees. The discriminator allows the |
| everyday lives. | | | | brain to distinguish between objects by identifying |
| Many children that are labeled autistic are actually | | | | characteristics that are similar and characteristics that |
| Visual thinkers, or what we call Maverick Minds. | | | | are different. For example, dogs and cats have many |
| Mavericks use the visual processing pathway as their | | | | traits in common but they are distinguished by a few |
| first language. When they are able to use visual | | | | distinct identifiers. To develop the discriminator, you |
| attention in harmony with the brain’s verbal | | | | show your child an image and ask your child to find the |
| counterparts, then they can develop the receptive | | | | same image in a different picture. |
| andexpressive language abilities needed to listen, | | | | The Visual Scanner |
| speak, read, and write. | | | | The visual scanner is the brain’s search engine. It |
| Visual attention can be tightly formatted by training | | | | allows the brain to scan a set of data quickly to locate |
| three sets of skills. You can teach your autistic child to | | | | key information. |
| pay attention by helping them master these skills in a | | | | When you train the three components of visual |
| fun, failure-free learning sanctuary. The components of | | | | attention you gain support for auditory attention. You |
| visual attention are: the zoom lens, the visual | | | | will want to use fun exercises and rewards to teach |
| discriminator and the scanner. | | | | your child to pay attention. To effectively build the |
| The zoom lens | | | | visual attention system you will also need to reduce |
| The visual zoom lens allows the brain to concentrate, | | | | verbal input. The visual and auditory systems should |
| focus, and change focus. It helps the brain make sense | | | | not be competing for your child's attention. When doing |
| of what would otherwise be an incoherent jumble of | | | | the exercises with your child, you will want to minimize |
| visual input. When you look at a picture of a sailboat in | | | | your talking. As a result, your child will be able to isolate |
| the water beneath a sunny sky, you use the zoom | | | | the visual attention system and begin to load visual |
| lens to distinguish the boat from the water and the sky. | | | | memory. The more you talk, the more you reduce |
| Without thinking about it, you can change your focus | | | | visual memory capacity. |