Car Academy: Perception

Perception is more than seeing. It is mixing the stimuli with existing concepts to see things that are only partially there. This is what enables you to see the letter “E” to the right, or to understand a conversation over a bad phone connection. Being good at this helps to pick up on subliminal clues that eventually become part of important concepts about motivation, emotions, and actions of others – a skill whose importance can not be overestimated.

How do you train this in the car academy?

Here is the game I suggest: “What else do you see?” All you need for this is a magazine, newspaper etc. with a photo or illustration. Pick a picture. Let your child describe what she sees. Ask for more and more detail. Once the major items have been described, prod your child to give you details of parts of what can be seen (if there is a car, mention the tires for example). Go on to describe all the parts of everything that can be seen. Once she can not find more parts, move on for parts that are not visible in the picture, but that are implied. For example, say there is an engine, because cars have engines. When you do this, call out that you see do not see this, but you imply it, for example: “I do not see an engine, but cars have engines. I believe there is an engine in this picture.” and so on. Once you are done with this, and if there are persons in the picture, go on to infer their intentions. Note that this is inferred similarly to the invisible engine and the car.

Have fun!