This study of 48 children with congenital blindness who attended mainstream schools focused on the tactile and haptic skills they needed in typical academic and everyday tasks. The results showed that, in general, the children mastered such tactile tasks, but some items posed special problems.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
BlochH., & BertenthalB. I. (1990). Sensory-motor organizations and development in infancy and early childhood.Dordrecht, the Netherlands: Kluwer Academic.
2.
HatwellY. (1978). Form perception and related issues in blind humans. In Held HerschelR., LeibowitzW., & TeuberH. (Eds.), Perception (pp. 489–519). New York: Springer-Verlag.
3.
HatwellY., OrliaguetJ. P., & BroutyG. (1990). Effects of object properties, attentional constraints and manual exploratory procedures on haptic perceptual organization: A developmental study. In BlochH., & BertenthalB. I. (Eds.), Sensory motor organizations and development in infancy and early childhood (pp. 315–335). New York: Kluwer Academic.
4.
HatwellY., StreriA., & GentazE. (2003). Touching for knowing: Cognitive psychology of haptic manual perception.Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
5.
HellerM. A. (1984). Active and passive touch: The influence of exploration time on form recognition. Journal of General Psychology, 110, 243–249.
6.
HellerM. A. (1989). Texture perception in sighted and blind observers. Perception and Psychophysics, 45, 49–54.
7.
HellerM. A. (1991). Haptic perception in blind people. In HellerM. A., & SchiffW. (Eds.), The psychology of touch (pp. 239–262). Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
8.
HellerM. A. (2000a). Conclusions: The San Marino discussion. In HellerM. A. (Ed.), Touch, representation and blindness (pp. 183–215). Oxford, England: Oxford University Press.
9.
HellerM. A. (2000b). Introduction: The theoretical context of the dialog. In HellerM. A. (Ed.), Touch, representation and blindness (pp. 1–27). Oxford, England: Oxford University Press.
10.
HellerM. A. (2006). Picture perception and spatial cognition in visually impaired people. In HellerM. A., & BallesterosS. (Eds.), Touch and blindness: Psychology and neuroscience (pp. 49–73). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
11.
HellerM. A., & MeyersD. S. (1983). Active and passive tactual recognition of form. Journal of General Psychology, 108, 225–229.
12.
JanssonG. (2008). Haptics as a substitute for vision. In HershM. A., & JohnsonM. A. (Eds.), Assistive technology for visually impaired and blind people (pp. 135–166). London: Springer.
13.
JanssenN. M., WithagenA. J., & VervloedM. P. J. (2005). Tactual Profile: Reliability and validity of the instrument. In Vision 2005 (International Congress series 1282, pp. 596–600). Amsterdam: Elsevier.
14.
JonesL. A., & LedermanS. J. (2006). Human hand function.New York: Oxford University Press.
15.
KennedyJ. M. (2000). Recognizing outline pictures via touch: Alignment theory. In HellerM. A. (Ed.), Touch, representation and blindness (pp. 67–99). Oxford, England: Oxford University Press.
16.
KennedyJ. M., GabiasP., & NichollsA. (1991). Tactile pictures. In HellerM. A., & SchiffW. (Eds.), The psychology of touch. (pp. 263–299). Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
17.
KennedyJ. M., & JuricevicI. (2006). Form, projection and pictures for the blind. In HellerM. A., & BallesterosS. (Eds.), Touch and blindness: Psychology and neuroscience (pp. 73–95). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
18.
KlatzkyR. L., LedermanS. J., & MetzgerV. A. (1985). Identifying objects by touch: An “expert system.”Perception & Psycho-physics, 37, 299–302.
19.
LedermanS. J., & KlatzkyR. L. (1987). Hand movements: A window into haptic object recognition. Cognitive Psycholgy, 19, 342–368.
20.
LedermanS. J., & KlatzkyR. L. (1996). Action for perception: Manual exploratory movements for haptically processing objects and their features. In WingA., HaggardP., & FlanaganR. (Eds.), Hand and brain: Neurophysiology and psychology of hand movements (pp. 431–446). San Diego, CA: Academic Press.
21.
MarekB. (1999). A blind child in an English language classroom. Network: A Journal for English Language Teacher Education, 2(1), 3–8.
22.
MarekB. (2000, July). Does a stone look the way it feels? Paper presented at the European International Council for the Education of People with Visual Impairment Conference in Krakow, Poland.
23.
McLindenM., & McCallS. (2002). Learning through touch: Supporting children with visual impairment and additional difficulties.London: David Fulton.
24.
MerabetL. B., SwisherJ. D., McMainsS. A., HalkoM. A., AmediA., Pascual-LeoneA., & SomersD. C. (2007). Combined activation and deactivation of the visual cortex during tactile sensory processing. Journal of Neurophysiology, 97, 1633–1641.
25.
MillarS. (1994). Understanding and representing space: Theory and evidence from studies with blind and sighted children.Oxford, England: Clarendon Press.
26.
MillarS. (1997). Reading by touch.London: Routledge.
27.
MillarS. (2006). Processing spatial information from touch and movement: Implications from and for neuroscience. In HellerM. A., & BallesterosS. (Eds.), Touch and blindness: Psychology and neuroscience (pp. 25–48). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
28.
MillarS. (2008). Space and sense.East Sussex, England: Psychology Press.
29.
SchellingerhoutR. (1998). Surface texture as a source of haptic spatial information for blind children. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, Radboud University, Nijmegen, the Netherlands.
30.
SchellingerhoutR., & WithagenA. J. (2002). Tactiel profiel, validatie onderzoek 2001 [Tactual Profile, validation study 2001]. Huizen, the Netherlands: Visio.
31.
WithagenA. J., BaerwaldtI., BlokA. G., EkkensI. E., HamelinkA., & VervloedM. P. J. (2005). Tactual Profile (manual).Kortenhoef, the Netherlands: Xsites BV.
32.
WithagenA. J., & SchellingerhoutR. (2004). Tactual Profile: An assessment procedure for tactual functioning in children and adolescents: Validation of the instrument. In BallesterosS., & HellerM. (Eds.), Touch, blindness and neuroscience (pp. 323–333). Madrid: Uned Press.
33.
WithagenA., VervloedM. P. J., JanssenN. M., KnoorsH., & VerhoevenL. (in press). The Tactual Profile: An assessment procedure for tactual functioning of children who are blind. British Journal of Visual Impairment.
