VIDBE-Q Volume 64 Issue 4
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can also be active and exploratory or "haptic" in nature; as when children
reach to explore a texture, a toy, or manipulate an item to discover how it
works. Traditionally, developmental assessments have posited that a lack
of vision can have a detrimental effect on haptic development (Ochiatia &
Huertes, 1993; Reynell, 1978), but more recent studies have questioned
this assumption. McLinden (2012) found in a current literature review that:
While the precise role of vision in early haptic development has not
yet been fully ascertained, there is evidence that its function is not
as a substitute for haptic perception, but rather serves as a guide
or "mediator" of haptic perceptual activities (p. 132).
Other past research indicates that young children with visual
impairment display similar characteristics in the development of tactual
discrimination as infants with sight (D'Anguilli, Kennedy, & Heller, 1998;
Schellingerhout, Smitsman, & van Galen, 1997). Studies in tactual
discrimination that used cerebral functional imagery indicate that the haptic
learning system develops along similar pathways as the visual system
(Gentaz & Badan, 2003; Sera & Millett, 2011), and a recent magnetic
resonance imaging (MRI) study confirms that early onset blindness leads to
changes in brain functioning that supports compensatory development in
tactile processing (Bauer et al., 2017).
