Visual Memory

Occupational therapy

﻿- 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. Today we're going to find out a little bit more about how vision and how it links to our memory. It's called our visual memory, and it's that skill that allows you to remember something you've seen, and recall the properties of that thing that you've seen. Okay? What is visual memory? Well, it's what allows us to remember what we've just seen, okay? It's really important for learning. We have to be able to remember what we see and be able to hold onto that information for the future. Things have to be able to stay in our short-term memory before they can be stored in our long-term memory. So you can remember my face first in your short-term memory before it's stored in your long-term memory. So if six weeks from now, you saw my face, you'd go hey, I know her. And that would be because it started off in your short-term memory. What is visual memory? So it helps us to remember where we left our pencil, where our clothes are, what it is that we're copying down from the board, and lots of other things. Sometimes adults forget that they've left their glasses on their heads and they go, "Where are my glasses?" And actually, it's on their heads. It also helps us to remember what something is like based on how it looks. For example, if you see a fluffy object, you'll remember, that'll probably feel soft. Now can you remember what number, shape and letter were on the previous slide? Can you? Let's see if you're right. There they are. Did you guess correctly? Excellent. Okay, for this lesson, we're going to need assorted objects for someone else to hide, several pictures, and a matching cards game. Restart once you've got all the items together. For our first activity, we're going to look at picture detail. So find a picture in a book or a magazine and look at it with an adult or your activity partner and spend some time discussing what you see. When you are ready, have your activity partner or the adult cover up the picture or turn it over so you can't see it anymore. And then have them ask you questions about the picture to see what detail you can remember. You can make this much harder by having them ask more complicated questions. You could also give yourself a short amount of time to look at the picture. Okay? So if I were to be doing this picture with my activity partner, I would say okay, we have two adults. We have three children. The little girl is wearing a pink top and she's got little purple hair ties. There are two boys. One is leaning on the table. The table is white. And let's see, what else can we see? One of the adults is wearing a watch, okay? And you could do something like that. And then when the picture is gone, I could say to you what colour were the little girl's hair ties, okay? Or I could say how many adults were in the picture? Now you pause the video to try to give the picture detail game a go. Next, we can use our visual memory for games such as what's missing? So put several random objects on a table in front of you or tray. Have a look at these to try and remember what you see. Once you're ready, have an adult cover these up. You could also just close your eyes or look away instead. Okay? What's gonna happen is the adult's gonna take away one of the objects, but you won't know which one. When you look at them again, you're going to go mhm, I think I know which one. And you can make this trickier by having more objects or having them take more objects away. So look at this picture carefully. What's missing? Did you guess that it was the smiley face and the word hi? Well done. Look at this picture carefully. When I'm looking at pictures, I will often say the items I'm seeing in my head so that it can really remember it. So I might go red star, white cloud, purple face. Pink diamond, cool dog, blue upside down triangle. Okay? What's missing? That's a little bit trickier. I think oh, I think there was a dog in the picture. What else can you remember? Excellent. Oh my goodness, it's getting more complicated now. Look at the number of pictures we have there. So look very carefully. Take as long as you need. 10 seconds, 15 seconds. Try and remember those pictures. Okay. What is missing? There are four items missing. I think there was another star. Can you help me out? What else is missing? Yeah, well done. Okay, so pause that video to try what's missing. Restart once you've finished. For our next activity, we're going to need our matching cards memory game. So you're going to find the matching pairs, then turn them face down so you can only see the backs of the cards. Then you're going to mix them up all randomly on the table. You're going to pick up two to turn over and see if they match. If they do, they can stay facing up. If they don't, turn them back over, and you keep going, turning over only two at a time until you found all the matching pairs, okay? You can make this easier by having just say three pairs or four pairs, and by having them in rows because if you were to just jumble them up and put them all randomly, that will make it harder for you. Okay? Pause the video to try the matching pairs game. Don't forget to have fun. Okay, to make that easier, you can use simpler pictures at first if you're finding that you're struggling a little bit to remember them. You could also ask the adult or your activity partner to give you clues. You can use fewer objects or toys that are very familiar to you. Remember, what I was doing was saying the items I could see 'cause that would help me to remember. If you don't have a memory matching pairs game, you could use playing cards. So instead of finding the same picture, you might have to find the same number. Remember, do the best you can. Practise, practise, practise. Have loads of fun. And if you'd like to, please ask your parent or carer to share your work on Instagram, Facebook or Twitter, tagging @OakNational and #LearnwithOak. See you next time.

Visual Memory

Visual Memory

These resources will be removed by the end of the Spring Term 2026.

Lesson slides

Lesson details

Key learning points

Equipment

Licence

Lesson video

Worksheet