The acquisition of conservation of weight by visually impaired children

Social Cognition in Visually Impaired and Sighted Children

This study tested two alternative hypotheses by comparing spatial role taking, social role taking, and referential communication in congenitally visually impaired and sighted children, aged 7-9. The first hypothesis suggests that visually impaired children need not differ from sighted children in cognitive social functioning if they have had significant verbal interaction with others. The second hypothesis suggests that visually impaired children perform social cognitive tasks less adequately than do sighted children because their opportunities to participate in games are restricted. The findings of the study support the first hypothesis with one significant difference: visually impaired children said more than did sighted children in their initial descriptions of abstract forms.

Development of Piagetian Reasoning in Congenitally Blind Children

Reports two phases of a research study that, through use of Piagetian reasoning assessments, provided evidence of significant delays in the cognitive development of congenitally blind subjects in comparison to development in sighted subjects. Following this finding, an attempt was made to ameloriate these deficits through a training program that provided reasoning activities geared to the needs of individual congenitally blind subjects. The results indicated that after provision of developmentally appropriate experiences in reasoning, the performance of the blind subjects was equivalent to that of the sighted subjects.

Verbal competence and some other factors in the development of Piagetian concepts in blind children

This paper discusses the relationship between Piagetian concepts and some other areas of devel opment, particularly language development. The correlation co-efficients between blind children's performance on two groups of Piagetian tasks and language competence have been computed. The most significant correlations were those between Piagetian concepts and relational vocabu lary. It is argued that this points to a much more specific relationship between language and thinking than is usually assumed, supporting the belief that Piagetian concepts might be consid ered as relational concepts.

Inferential functioning in visually impaired children

The current study explores the inferential abilities of visually impaired children in a task presented in two formats, manipulative and verbal. The results showed that in the group of visually impaired children, just as with children with normal sight, there was a wide range of inference types. It was found that the visually impaired children perform slightly better in the use of inductive and relational inferences in the verbal format, while in the manipulative format children with normal sight perform better. These results suggest that in inferential functioning of young children, and especially visually impaired children, the format of the task influences performance more than the child's visual ability.

Nominal Realism in Congenitally Blind Children

To add to our understanding of language and cognition in congenitally blind children, the notion of nominal realism was probed. Subjects responded to questions regarding the origin of object names and whether these names could be changed. Inquiry also focused on whether the children assigned animistic qualities to the objects. Results of the investigation indicated that nominal realism, as an attribute of preoperational thought, remains a characteristic of blind children's thinking longer than it does for sighted children. This finding is related to the limitations blindness is thought to impose on children's interactions with objects, and the general delay in (Piagetian) cognitive development observed among congenitally blind youngsters. These results underscore the need for providing appropriate cognitive and linguistic experiences for young blind children.

Visual impairment, verbal humor, and conservation

Through a cerebral hemispheric specialization model, I speculated that the reported discrepancy between visually impaired children's competency in language development and lags in cognition may be explained by the use of visual-spatial measurements of cognition. The performance of 51 visually impaired and 51 sighted children, ages 7 to 15 years, on a task of joke comprehension and conservation of weight scores was analyzed. I hypothesized that the ability to comprehend verbal humor would reflect the function of the left hemisphere of the brain and the ability to perform a Piagetian visual-spatial task would reflect the function of the right hemisphere. The findings indicate that although age and IQ contributed significantly to predicting joke comprehension, the ability to conserve did not have a unique contribution. In conclusion, I suggest that the cerebral hemispheric specialization model be considered when investigating language and cognition of visually impaired children.

Relationships among different stages of Piagetian tasks and spatial relations in adolescents

High school students aged 15 through 19 years (N = 116) were administered three Piagetian type tasks (conservation of weight, paper and pencil tests of concrete-operational reasoning and formal-operational reasoning) and a measure of spatial relations (the Revised Minnesota Paper Form Board Test). While a path analysis showed there were logically expected relationships among the tasks, neither sex differences nor age differences were found on any of the measures.

Cross-cultural investigation of conservation of weight in Zambian adolescents and young adults

The effect of cross-cultural factors in the acquisition of conservation of weight in adolescents and young adults was assessed. No significant differences were found between 25 Zambian female subjects and two control groups of U. S. high school (n = 52) and university female subjects (n = 34).

Piaget's Theory and the Visually Handicapped Learner

Research based on the writings of Piaget indicates that the cognitive functioning of the visually impaired child is slower to develop than that of his sighted counterpart. In addition, there may be a developmental gap between the operative and figurative aspects of his thought as well as difficulties in image formation. The author reviews current literature and presents basic educational tenets based upon interpretations of Piaget's work and research findings. She emphasizes the blind child's need of direct physical experiences with concrete objects and verbal interaction with both adults and members of his peer group to learn about the world around him.