Peek and Seek: Visual Discrimination App for Young Children

This post is written in partnership with Play Odyssey and Academic’s Choice. Though I received a free download of the app and was compensated for my time, opinions are 100% my own.

Peek and Seek is an app designed for young children to develop visual discrimination skills. As parents, most of us spend time thinking (worrying) about our children learning their alphabet, how to write their name, how to read, how to make friends, etc. Most of us probably haven’t stopped to consider how to help our child develop visual discrimination skills – and many of us might not be quite certain what that even means. (And if that’s you – you’re not alone!)

So, just what is visual discrimination? Visual discrimination is the ability to recognize similarities and differences between shapes, size, colors, objects and patterns. Visual discrimination is a narrow, but vital set of skills. (These skills are foundational for literacy skills!) Peek and Seek addresses these skills by using different no-pressure activities within the app, each covering a different set of visual skills.

Peek and Seek was created by Play Odyssey – a developer responsible for several other apps geared towards early childhood, such as Fine Motor Fundamentals and Snap and Fit Junior. What I love is that these apps are created and developed by people with young children AND their parents in mind. The digital world can be a scary place to let your child loose -but parents can feel confident and safe allowing their child to learn, play, and explore within the Peek and Seek app. (Bonuses for me – NO in-app purchases or advertising!)

Every aspect of Peek and Seek was carefully constructed and designed. As we were experiencing the app, I kept thinking how much I liked the color palate. It’s visually interesting, unique, and beautiful. (I absolutely LOVE the design and look of it!) But, what makes it even better is that the colors were intentionally chosen so that children with color perception issues could still interact with and utilize the app. How cool is that?!

Another great feature is that children do not need to be able to read to use the app. Verbal directions are given before each task/challenge. (Bonus – helps develop listening skills too!)

Some of the skills include distinguishing between an object and the background, form constancy (recognizing that an object stays the same even when it is a different size, color, in a different background etc.), and visual closure (knowing that an object is still an object even if only partially visible.) We use these skills ALL the time in daily life – but again, have probably never stopped to think about helping our children develop these vital visual perception/discrimination skills.