Do You See What I Am Saying? Changing Education: Recognizing the Role of Visual Perception in Reading Development

Abstract

Researchers, educators, and parents have struggled to understand why some learn to read with ease while others face hardship. This review chronicles early theories of reading development, presents emerging research that explores additional factors that are believed to influence reading skill, and then suggests an agenda for future research to inform instructional methods in reading education. A thorough search of the literature was conducted to present perspectives on reading development that highlight critical yet overlooked factors that contribute to reading mastery. The research was compiled, reviewed, and presented in this article to elucidate the findings. Emerging research has identified several areas in which visual perception is essential to reading skills development. Researchers found that visual memory predicts word recognition. Inter-letter spacing and increased spacing between words have been found to improve reading speed. Visual attention is associated with reading accuracy. It is incumbent upon researchers and educators to better understand all the components of reading, so we may help students achieve their reading outcomes. Arguably, the conceptualization of reading assessment and reading intervention should be broadened by considering additional component skills that may impede reading success. Research highlights the importance of visual perception in recognizing letters and words. However, the role of visual perception in reading development has been mostly overlooked in language-based educational curricula. Visual perception should be explored further through research and practice to support students who struggle with reading and do not respond to traditional language-based reading instruction.

Received: 26 November 2024 | Revised: 12 February 2025 | Accepted: 14 May 2025

Conflicts of Interest

The author declares that she has no conflicts of interest to this work.

Data Availability Statement

Data sharing is not applicable to this article as no new data were created or analyzed in this study.

Author Contribution Statement

Ellen Modlin: Conceptualization, Methodology, Formal analysis, Investigation, Resources, Writing - original draft, Writing - review & editing.