Five first-hand Web page accounts of unusual sensory perceptual experiences written by persons with high-functioning autism were selected for qualitative analysis. Four core categories emerged: turbulent sensory perceptual experiences; coping mechanisms; enjoyable sensory perceptual experiences; and awareness of being different, suggesting they…

This article explores research on the use of touch with people with mental retardation and learning disabilities for the purpose of developing a staff training package. The review indicates the therapeutic role of touch and its use in behavior management and discusses the need for increasing staff awareness of the practice with this group of…

Eight profoundly hearing-impaired children, aged 5-11, received tactual word recognition training with tactual speech perception aids. Following training, subjects were tested on trained words and new words. Performance was significantly better on both sets of words when words were presented with a combined condition of tactual aid and aided…

This study compared the performance on perspective-taking tasks of 8 congenitally blind children (mean age 13.5 years), using either haptic exploration or a vibrotactile prosthetic device, with the performance of 4 children having low vision using their limited visual abilities. The vibrotactile device improved perspective-taking performance…

Performance of congenitally blind children and blindfolded children was compared on tasks requiring spatial reasoning and shape recognition. Blind subjects performed at least as well as blindfolded subjects on simple two-dimensional tactual processing tasks, but less well on more complex tasks requiring them to store, compare, and label objects.…

This article reviews recent research on perception of tangible pictures in sighted and blind people. Haptic picture naming accuracy is dependent upon familiarity and access to semantic memory, just as in visual recognition. Performance is high when haptic picture recognition tasks do not depend upon semantic memory. Viewpoint matters for the ease…

This article describes the work of a group of professionals in the United Kingdom known as the VIEW Braille Literacy Committee, committed to the development of teaching braille. Members meet each school term and have had the support of the Royal National Institute of the Blind (RNIB) in realizing numerous projects aimed at improving access to…

A follow-up account of a mother's attempts to provide her blind daughter, now aged six, with knowledge of the physical world through the manipulation of three-dimensional objects and two-dimensional tactile representations. The case is made for the value of pictures to the development of children's understanding in general; and for the child who…

This study extended the limited research on the utility of tactile prompts and examined the effects of a treatment package on implementation of a token economy by instructional assistants in a classroom for students with disabilities. During baseline, we measured how accurately the assistants implemented a classroom token economy based on the…

For the dyslexic and others with similar problems, a revision of the sequence of modalities known as VAKT (for visual, auditory, kinesthetic, tactile) might achieve more effective and more rapid remediation. The new sequence is designated as TAK/v. The subordination of the visual modality is based on the recent identification of visual processing…

This review of literature on the topic of learning style opens with a history of the development of theories on information processing habits which represent the learner's typical modes of perceiving, thinking, remembering, and problem solving. A discussion is included on writings about the sense modalities used in learning--visual, aural,…

A U.S. Air Force study was designed to develop instruction based on the supplantation theory, in which tasks are performed (supplanted) for individuals who are unable to perform them due to their cognitive style. The study examined the effects of linear and multiple imagery in presenting a task requiring visual comparison and location to…

A U.S. Air Force study was designed to investigate simultaneously four cognitive styles--field dependence-independence, reflectivity-impulsivity, leveling-sharpening, and visual-haptics. A sample of 206 undergraduate volunteers at the University of Oklahoma were tested with the Successive Perceptual Test I (SPT-I), the Hidden Figures Test (HFT),…

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…

A guide used by inservice teachers and agency caseworkers in three 2-week summer institutions (1973) for teaching visually handicapped children and adults how to read with the Optacon, a portable optical-to-tactile-converter, is presented. The institutes are said to have been of a two-year special education pilot project to demonstrate usefulness…