Perception games can aid various aspects of perception, including visual, auditory, and sensory skills. They can be educational and help develop cognitive skills in children, while also preserving brain function in adults. Some games aim to correct perception problems in individuals with disabilities through fun exercises.
The term “perception games” can be broadly applied to any type of game that aids some aspect of a person’s perception. Games can be group, paper or electronic. Some focus on visual perception, while others focus on sensory or auditory perception. Specialized games for individuals with learning or behavioral disabilities tend to focus on social perception and self-awareness. In almost all cases, the “games” are actually exercises disguised as fun activities, such that learning becomes second nature over time.
There are many types of perception. While most games target visual skills, auditory and sensory perception are also important parts. Most often, games of perception aimed at sounds and touch are designed for both very young, often pre-verbal children and people with disabilities.
Many of the most popular perception games are marketed to the general public as a means to sharpen acuity and increase brain power. Activities in this category often focus on visual perception and include logic puzzles, word and letter recognition, and pattern identification. They often come in the form of flash cards or electronic games, many of which can be played online or on handheld game consoles. Most are considered educational.
Educational games are often designed to help children develop key visual perception skills. As children grow older, their brains tend to look for patterns and do quick deductive calculations. Perception games with children are often lauded as a good way to jump-start their cognitive skills and prepare them for more spatial reasoning and math-based success later in life.
Maintaining perception is often as important as developing perception, and games exist for this purpose as well. Most are designed with the idea that participation will help people lose the reasoning skills they have built up over a lifetime. Perception tasks that keep participants on their toes by drawing connections, matching sets, or finding patterns are often thought to help preserve brain function, if not counteract deterioration altogether. For this reason, perception games tend to be popular not only among the elderly, but also among middle-aged adults who fear aging.
Auditory perception games usually require participants to match sounds to pictures or to group similar sounds together. The goal is to help players develop and sharpen their ability to distinguish sounds, as well as to anticipate certain noises. Similarly, sensory perception games focus on tactile skills, often challenging participants to identify things they can touch, but not see. Games in all categories are designed to sharpen mental acuity in a certain area.
Another category of perception games exist not to sharpen or preserve skills, but rather to correct real or suspected problems with perception. Individuals with learning or developmental disabilities often struggle with most perceptions of the world, both in terms of social norms and concrete truths. Games aimed at this group of people often focus on finding fun ways to develop perception, usually in one-on-one settings or in small groups. Most are based on a reward or incentive structure that encourages correct answers and attention to detail.
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