1995 Fiscal Year Final Research Report Summary
Longitudinal study of orientation and mobility skills in blind children
| Project/Area Number |
05451015
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| Research Category |
Grant-in-Aid for General Scientific Research (B)
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| Allocation Type | Single-year Grants |
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| Research Field |
実験系心理学
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| Research Institution | University of Tsukuba |
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Principal Investigator |
NAKATA Hideo Institute of Special Education, University of Tsukuba Associate professor, 心身障害学校, 助教授 (80133023)
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| Project Period (FY) |
1993 – 1995
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| Keywords | Orientation and mobility / Blind children / Long cane skill / Haptic perception / Braille reading training / Postural biofeedback training / Spatial ability / Nonvisual motor control systems |
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| Research Abstract |
The purpose of this study was to investigate longitudinally orientation and mobility skills in blind children attending school for the blind. Theconcept of orientation and mobility includes the development of gross motor movements, environmental awareness, conceptual skills, sensory training, and pre-cane travel skills. The experiment 1 was done to clarify the effect of long cane skill training at standing position. It was found that performance of fifteen congenitally blind children improved as the training continued. The experiment 2 was performed to determine whether or not congenitally blind children were able to control postural sway under auditory feedback and to examine the effect of such training in congenitally blind children. The results suggested that postural biofeedback training was effective for the assessment of postural control in congenitally blind children. Hand movements during haptically objects exploration were analyzed in the experiment 3. The results showed that totally blind children used the same exploratory procedures as the previous study classified, especially contour following, lateral motion and enclosure. Scanning strategy of object properties with a long cane was also examined on size and texture discrimination tasks in the experiment 4. It was found that blind subjects used different scanning strategies on both tasks. Finally, the effect of Braille reading training on the reading rate was investigated in the experiment 5. The 30 training sessions were done for a year. The reading rate of blind children improved as the training advanced.
In conclusion, this study suggests that the blind subjects would acquire spatial ability and nonvisual motor control systems through training.
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Research Products
(10 results)
