In this month’s Thoughts from a Therapist blog,  Anna Willis looks at how reducing visual load and organising spaces can help individuals who struggle with a lot of visual input. 

Back to normality! Packing up all the Christmas decorations here always feels like it should be a bit sad, but I secretly love it. I love Christmas but equally I love packing it all away again! It feels as if there’s breathing space back in the house again, less visual load and more space. Reducing visual load is something I’ve been discussing a fair amount recently with schools but it’s equally applicable to our homes.

If you are someone who struggles with a lot of visual input or have a child who does, it isn’t always obvious to spot in the same way as noise sensitivity. It can be hard to pick up on why a certain environment just doesn’t feel great from a visual perspective, but by bringing in organisation and minimising things on display, it can really help to reduce the visual load.

In schools, I recommend taking down any displays around the whiteboards and aiming for around 20% - 50% of wall space to be blank. As a side note, there’s evidence (e.g. Van den Bogerd et al 2020[1]) that shows introducing nature, even if it’s fake, helps to promote feelings of wellbeing. So you can always swap in some artificial plants to help boost the mood!

The ability to organise environments however, doesn’t come naturally to everyone. Praxis issues can be in part responsible for this – having the idea (ideation) of how to organise spaces and where to put things, then physically getting it organised can be overwhelming. Whenever I see a particularly cluttered or busy classroom or home, I do bear this in mind. Organising can be hard! So even though we may feel better in uncluttered, well-organised spaces, actioning it may not come easily.

Creating labels and spaces for items to go helps. Sometimes, adding in words can create more demand, so using symbols or visuals where possible is ideal.

I wish you all a happy 2025, full of organised spaces and reduced visual load!

Anna

Thoughts From a Therapist is a regular series written by Advanced SI Practitioner Anna Willis about something that piqued her professional interest or inspired her in some way over the last month. Anna, an occupational therapist and owner of Active Play Therapies.