Deaf and Hearing Children's Performance on a Tactual Perception Battery

Abstract

A battery of tactual sensitivity tests was administered to 300 deaf and hearing children and adolescents. The tests included vibrotactile and two-point sensitivity on several areas of the hand, gap-detection using two stimulation techniques, roughness discrimination, pattern discrimination, and cross-modal object identification. Measures included sensory thresholds, correct discrimination, errors, and in some cases, response latencies. Deaf youngsters were more sensitive than their hearing counterparts with vibrotactile and two-point measures. On most remaining tasks, deaf and hearing Ss' performance accuracies did not differ, although hearing Ss performed faster on all timed tasks. Improvements with age were evident with both speed and accuracy measures for several tasks. Results were discussed as to deaf/hearing differences, and reading achievement scores, active versus passive touch, developmental changes, and relations among the tactual tasks and measures of the battery. The findings strongly suggested that different measures of tactual sensitivity tap quite different sensory and perceptual abilities.