Examined the movement characteristics of 41 meningomyelocele children through administration of 13 items from the Southern California Sensory Integration Test. Three factors of movement ability emerged: one describing a pattern representing both constructional and gestural apraxia; the second indicative of bilateral coordination; and the third…

A study of 358 fine arts students at three large universities indicated that 23 percent experienced synesthesia in a spontaneous and consistent manner, and 49 percent reported no such experience. Results of comparative analysis are consistent with anecdotal reports that synesthetes are often successful in artistic fields, and possess high degrees…

This column describes activities for use with students having visual impairments, focusing on various types of calendars, including a sensory calendar and voice calendars produced by the Voxcom tape recorder (which uses magnetically striped cards to record and play brief messages). (DB)

Visual learning enhances cognitive understanding of abstract concepts. Perception of such ideas as causality is enriched by visual examples. Perceiving should not be separated from thinking. (SK)

In an administration of the Sensory Integration and Praxis Tests and Metropolitan Achievement Tests to 30 children with no learning, behavioral, or developmental problems, correlations showed no relationship between sensory integration and achievement test scores. The findings support use of sensory integration tests as indicators of sensory and…

This study aimed at supporting the specificity of learning hypothesis, when aiming was based on internal cues, as directing the hand toward a "self-defined" target location. Participants practiced modest (20 trials) or intensive (720 trials) training with visual and proprioceptive information or proprioceptive information only. Pretests and…

A holistic approach to pragmatic ability and disability is outlined which takes account both of the behaviour of individuals involved in the communicative process, and also of the underlying factors which contribute to such behaviour. Rather than being seen as resulting directly from a dysfunction in some kind of discrete pragmatic "module" or…

Sensory functioning has long been considered crucial in the life of people with autistic spectrum disorders (ASD) (Gillberg, C., & Coleman, M. (1992). "The Biology of Autistic Syndromes" (2nd ed.). London: Mac Keith press.) However, much of the research is methodologically flawed and based on child populations and adults' retrospective accounts (O…

Attentional requirements for the spontaneous integration of stimulus and response features were analyzed. In line with previous findings, carrying out a prepared response to the onset of a stimulus created bindings between the response and the features of that stimulus, thereby impairing subsequent performance on mismatching stimulus-response…

This article presents an example of two boys who have received a list of diagnoses including Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), autism, Asperger's syndrome, Oppositional Defiant Disorder (ODD), and clinical depression. Both boys received a variety of interventions ranging from behavior modification plans to counseling and medication,…

A substantial number of school age children suffer from difficulties in integrating sensory input in an adaptive manner (termed sensory integration dysfunction--SID). These students are at high risk for emotional, social, and educational problems. This article defines SID, describes typical behaviors of children with SID, and presents guidelines…

The standard approach guiding research on the relationship between categories and causality views categories as reflecting causal relations in the world. We provide evidence that the opposite direction also holds: categories that have been acquired in previous learning contexts may influence subsequent causal learning. In three experiments we show…

The research and literature on how to handle biting has remained consistent over the last 20 years. Most publications and seasoned professionals focus on intervention and tell us to attend to the child who was bitten, reinforce the idea of "using our words" with the biter, and be consistent in the use of separation, redirection, and…

As human beings, we can interact with our environment through the sense of touch, which helps us to build an understanding of objects and events. The implications of touch for cognition are recognized by many educators who advocate the use of "hands-on" instruction. But is it possible to know something more completely by touching it? Does touch…

Case reports and sensory inventories suggest that autism involves sensory processing anomalies. Behavioral tests indicate impaired motion and normal form perception in autism. The present study used first-person accounts to investigate perceptual anomalies and related subjective to psychophysical measures. Nine high-functioning children with…