Quick & Easy Visual Discrimination Cards

Visual discrimination is a child's ability to identify differences in visual images, and it is imperative to learning to read, write, and do just about anything across the curriculum.  A great way to help youngsters practice this important skill is by encouraging them to find matching images within a group of similar images.  Inspired by an idea I found at 3dinosaurs.com (you can see the original post here), I made two sets of visual discrimination cards (quite the catchy name, eh?) for L and I to play with.

First I took a sheet of sturdy card stock and cut it in half. Each of these halves would be the large card for each game.  Then I quartered a second sheet of card stock to serve as my smaller card.

I made a set of three smaller cards to go with each larger card. I put only three or four stickers on each of the smaller cards.  The idea is to point to one of the stickers on the smaller card, then encourage L to find the same sticker on the bigger card.  Limiting the number of stickers on the smaller cards makes it more likely that L will be successful in finding the match on the bigger card without frustration.

I covered all of the cards with contact paper, just for the sheer hope that this will help them last a while.  For our purposes, this will be an adult-led activity, but for older kids this could easily be done independently and is still a great way to practice visual discrimination.

This entire process took me a little over half an hour and will be an excellent addition to our busy bags. I also plan to make a set using pictures of our family!