Symbolic play in congenitally blind children

Characteristics of peer play in children with visual impairments

BACKGROUND

Although many studies report children with vision impairments (VIs) experience play difficulties compared to sighted peers, large variation is present within the population of children with VIs.

AIMS

The present study investigated peer play variation in 70 elementary school-aged children with VIs (M age = 8;11 years, SD = 2.25) and associations with specific child characteristics in sub-groups of participants. Also, it was examined how play materials with supportive auditory cues affected social play in children with varying cooperative play skills.

METHODS AND PROCEDURES

Play behavior was coded while participants used play materials with and without auditory cues and parents filled in questionnaires about child characteristics. Data were analyzed using binomial logistic regression analyses.

OUTCOMES AND RESULTS

Although the profoundness of the VI was not associated to cooperative or symbolic play, age, language ability and gender did predict the demonstration of these play behaviors. Furthermore, auditory cues were particularly facilitative of social play in children with VIs with low cooperative play capabilities.

CONCLUSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS

In sum, this emphasizes that child characteristics other than the VI can play a significant role during peer play and interaction, and that individual variation should be considered when providing peer play support.

The use of augmented toys to facilitate play in school-aged children with visual impairments

BACKGROUND

Children with visual impairments (VIs) face challenges in social play activities, which limits their opportunities to practice social skills.

AIMS

We investigated whether augmented toys were effective to facilitate play in 52 children with VIs who attended special schools for students with visual impairments and blindness.

METHODS AND PROCEDURES

52 children with VIs (mean age: 9.22 years, SD = 2.07) played three times with both an augmented and a non-augmented toy. A Playmobil® knight's castle was augmented with Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technology, such that each play figure produced audio feedback during play. The RFID-technology could be activated and deactivated. Social and cognitive aspects of play were coded from video and data were analyzed using multilevel logistics.

OUTCOMES AND RESULTS

Children showed less disengagement and more parallel play, but less cooperative play when they used the augmented versus the non-augmented castle. This pattern persisted after repeated play sessions with both toys.

CONCLUSIONS

The addition of sounds to physical toys increased shared attention between children with VIs during the exploration of play materials, yet it interfered with social interaction during peer play.

Communicative Mediation by Adults in the Construction of Symbolic Uses by Infants

Adult semiotic mediation in the origin and evolution of the first symbolic uses of objects by infants in contexts of triadic interactions was investigated. Six infant-parent dyads interacting together with ten objects were observed longitudinally from 9 to 15 months of age, with an interval of three months between each observation. The communicative mediators used by adults, in the form of demonstrations and ostensive gestures, decrease as infants grow up. The orchestration of these semiotic mediators also decreases and the functions of the demonstrations change. At the beginning, the adults use them merely to demonstrate the symbolic uses of object, but later they use them to evaluate, complete or correct the symbolic uses by the infants. The semiotic mediators are first used to guide the child at the level of attention and later at the level of cultural practices of symbolic uses of objects. These changes in communicative mediators and their functions reveal the educational role of adults through adjustment in communication, always in tune with the infant's knowledge and performance.

Imaginary Companions of Blind, Deaf, and Typically Developing School Children

Having an imaginary companion (IC) during childhood is associated with developmental advantages. ICs also appear to persist and may serve as a coping mechanism for at-risk children. Few studies have examined imagination in blind and deaf children, two groups who may struggle with peer relationships and loneliness. This study explores the presence of ICs in a sample of 12 blind, 13 deaf, and 26 typically developing, ethnically diverse 8- to 12-year-old children. It examines teacher- and child-reports of competence potentially associated with having an IC. Results indicate that 54% of the children reported a current or prior IC, and those children engaged in more pretend play and fantasy than children without ICs. Deaf children reported the highest rates, and blind children the lowest rates, of ICs. The data suggest that having an IC may be associated with social and emotional benefits for deaf and blind children.

The coherence of autism

There is a growing body of opinion that we should view autism as fractionable into different, largely independent sets of clinical features. The alternative view is that autism is a coherent syndrome in which principal features of the disorder stand in intimate developmental relationship with each other. Studies of congenitally blind children offer support for the latter position and suggest that a source of coherence in autism is restriction in certain forms of perceptually dependent social experience.

Attentional processes in young children with congenital visual impairment

The study investigated attentional processes of 32 preschool children with congenital visual impairment (VI). Children with profound visual impairment (PVI) and severe visual impairment (SVI) were compared to a group of typically developing sighted children in their ability to respond to adult directed attention in terms of establishing, maintaining, and shifting attention on toys. The measures of children's sensory-motor understanding (SMU) and language ability were obtained using the Reynell-Zinkin scales of mental development. The videorecordings of these play-based assessments were coded for three categories of behavioural responses (Establish, Maintain, and Shift). The three groups were matched on verbal comprehension (VC), but differed significantly in their SMU and their chronological age. The groups of children with PVI and SVI were found to be comparable in their ability to establish and maintain attention on objects. Despite a relatively good performance overall both groups scored significantly lower on those skills than children who were sighted. However, with regards to attention shifting, children with PVI showed significantly lower performance than both the children with SVI and the sighted children who were similar on this component. Ability to maintain and shift attention was significantly related to the cognitive ability of children with PVI; however the poorer attentional responses were not confined only to the children with low IQ. The results are discussed in relation to the role of vision, cognitive ability and executive function in attentional processes in children with congenital VI.