Factors influencing the use of nonacoustic aids (such as visual displays and tactile devices) with the hearing impaired are reviewed. The benefits of tactile devices in improving speech reading/lipreading and speech are pointed out. Tactile aids which provide information on rhythm, rate, intensity, and duration of speech increase lipreading and…

Hypnosis was combined with sensory and motor stimulation to remediate reversal problems in five children (6 1/2- 9-years-old). Under hypnosis Ss were given the suggestion that they learn their numbers through feel and then given 1 hour of structured instruction daily for 10 days. Instruction stressed conditioning, vibratory memory, touch memory,…

This study investigated the issue of whether young children understand that the acquisition of certain types of knowledge depends on the modality of sensory experience involved. Sight and touch were the two sensory modalities investigated. A total of 36 children of 3-5 years of age were exposed to pairs of objects that either looked the same and…

An exploratory study using interviews of 150 postpartum patients was conducted to determine their perceptions of the touching they received during labor. Answers to the interview questions were analyzed in terms of overall perceptions, positive experiences, and negative experiences, and selected demographic variables were examined for differences…

Two experiments involving 42 students from the Model Secondary School for the Deaf investigated both the visual and tactile components in the processing of spatial information. Test measures used were the Figures Rotations Test, Group Embedded Figures Test, and Tactile Rotations Test. The study suggested that spatial reasoning is a determining…

Participant observation and author introspection were used to collect data in this study of nonverbal communication among Italian Americans in three large American cities. Discussion is given to kinesics (gestures and signs), haptics (touch), proxemics (interiors of homes, exteriors of homes, and spatial arrangements at a wedding dinner), and…

The tactile-kinesthetic approach to spelling provides a practical teaching device for use with both disabled learners and moderately poor spellers who need to learn a technical or professional vocabulary. This multisensory approach to learning teaches to the student's strengths and places emphasis on finger contact, muscle movement, saying and…

Whether maternal touching of the infant while speaking to him or her about a stranger facilitates or interferes with social referencing is investigated in this study. Thirty-three 10-month-olds received positive or neutral nonverbal messages when their mothers spoke to them about a stranger. Infants whose mothers did not touch them while speaking…

Two studies examined the effects of handedness on braille learning. Experiment 1 featured 64 sighted undergraduates at North Carolina State University, all of whom were right-handed and had no experience with braille. Results revealed that females outperformed males, but that, contrary to expectation, no significant effects of handedness were…

This paper presents background information, an introductory statement of theoretical positions, and brief abstracts of research papers from a symposium on the functional specialization of cerebral hemispheres in infants and children. According to one view of the development of cerebral specialization, the two hemispheres are initially…

In teaching students how to write, the utilitarian aspect does not need to be ignored, but--more important--the imaginative, expressive aspect should be emphasized. Since all writing depends on the full resources of the imagination, students need to be taught how to recreate or vivify people, objects, scenes, and feelings. A process which helps…

To examine intra- and interhemispheric communication or the transfer of information within and between the cerebral hemispheres, 32 right-handed learning disabled children aged 8-10 years, 11-13 years, and 14-16 years were presented a tactile discrimination task. Fabrics of the same or different texture were presented to the same hand (uncrossed…

The development of children's capacity to induce spatial relations between locations in a space was investigated in this study. The sample consisted of 60 children, 20 in each of three age groups: 3-4, 5-6, and 7-8 years of age. The children were trained to move one hand from a home base to each of three target positions. The positions were…

A study was initiated with 60 blind children (kindergarten through grade 2) in order to validate the order of a sequence of tactual discrimination tasks leading to the use of braille and the Optacon. Ss were tested with tasks designed for the readiness level (discrimination of large solid geometric shapes, flat puzzle pieces, embossed dot…

This paper reports an exploratory investigation of motor patterns characteristic of maternal gameplaying behavior conducted with forty-eight 4-, 6- and 8-month-old infants and their mothers. Videotapes of 6-minute laboratory mother-infant play sessions were segmented into maternal games which were categorized according to the type and complexity…