A STUDY ON PLAY AND MOVEMEWNT AREA OF CONGENITALLY BLIND INFANTS IN HOME.

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to clarify the change of play and movement area of congenitally blind infants in their home acompanied with the improvement of their locomotion ability. In first investigation, types of play and play area on 31 congenitally blind infants (aged 7 to 53 months) who had no physically impairment other than blindness were recorded by their parents. These records were classified into 30 categories and a questionaire for comparative study was made. In second investigation, a comparative study of congenitally blind and sighted infants on their playing behavior was performed. The subjects were 11 congenitally blind (aged 12 to 28 months) infants without physical nor mental impairments and 11 sighted infants aged 7 to 24 months. The results showed that there were difference between blind and sighed infants in the occurence rate of play. Some play were seen in the blind infant only who had high locomotion ability, although they were seen in the sighted infants who had low locomotion ability. It was shown that there were several kinds of play only seen in blind infants but not in sighted ones.